TCU women’s basketball has ridden big-named transfers to the last two Big 12 regular season titles. Oklahoma State hopes to walk the same path this year. Meanwhile, the Arizona Wildcats have something to prove.
Arizona was picked to finish 13th in the league in its second season under Becky Burke. The Wildcats had a big transfer class and, according to both ESPN and 247sports, a top 20 freshman recruiting class. The league’s coaches don’t expect either of those things to lift the program out of the bottom
quarter of the standings.
The team finished 15th in the 16-team league last season. If the coaches are right, it would be the first time the program has finished that low in its league in back-to-back seasons since 2016-17 and 2017-18. Arizona finished in a four-way tie with the ninth-best record in the 2016-17 Pac-12 season. It got the 11 seed in the conference tournament. It was 11th both in the standings and the seeding in 2017-18.
The coaches picked Oklahoma State to win the league this year after the Cowgirls brought in a transfer class full of big names. That class is anchored by former Iowa State Cyclones star Audi Crooks, who was chosen the preseason conference player of the year. It is the second straight season Crooks has been chosen for the preseason honor. She lost the postseason honor to former TCU star Olivia Miles last year.
Miles was both the preseason and postseason Newcomer of the Year in 2025-26. This year’s preseason honor went to Florida transfer Liv McGill, who will also suit up for Oklahoma State this season.
TCU’s Jessie-May Hall picked up preseason freshman of the year honors.
TCU finished narrowly behind OSU in the poll. The Cowgirls took first with 215 points and seven first-place votes. The Horned Frogs came in second with 212 points and six first-place votes.
Baylor took two first-place votes and finished third in the poll. West Virginia had the final first-place vote and landed in fourth.
The top half of the league is rounded out by Kansas, Arizona State, BYU, and Colorado. Teams 9-16 consist of Kansas State, Texas Tech, Iowa State, Utah, Arizona, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF.
Arizona did not place any players on the preseason all-conference team for the second straight season. This year’s team consists of McKinna Brackens (ASU), Taliah Scott (Baylor), Delaney Gibb (BYU), Zyanna Walker (Colorado), Jaliya Davis (Kansas), S’Mya Nichols (Kansas), Audi Crooks (OSU), Liv McGill (OSU), Clara Silva (TCU), and Gia Cooke (WVU). Only Scott, Gibb, Nichols, and Crooks were unanimous selections.
Arizona starts its season with an exhibition against NAIA Embry-Riddle (AZ) on Thursday, Oct. 22. That’s the day after Burke and select players will attend media days in Kansas City.
According to Sports Business Journal, the league will also have eight women’s basketball games on CBS Sports Network this season. That brings the total number of women’s games on linear TV to 28.
