KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — It took TCU well over a decade to finally win the women's Big 12 tournament, and in doing so, end a drought of exactly two decades since its last league tournament title back in its Conference USA days.
The No. 10 Horned Frogs have a good chance to make it two in a row.
They're the No. 1 seed as the Big 12 tournament begins with first-round games Wednesday at the T-Mobile Center, though the Horned Frogs won't have to step on the floor
until the quarterfinal round Friday. The top four seeds have double-byes, which means that West Virginia, Oklahoma State and Baylor — the runner-up a year ago — also have free passes through the first two rounds.
“For us to win back-to-back (regular-season) Big 12 championships, just incredible, and we did it with a brand-new team,” TCU coach Mark Campbell said. “Again, that's three months. It's two games a week. It's 18 games. It's a heavy lift. It's a long grind. Now, you hit the reset button. Everybody is 0-0. Throw records out the window, and it's win or go home.”
Even with a double-bye last season, nothing was easy about TCU's road to the title. It squeezed out a win over Colorado, topped West Virginia and beat the Bears 64-59 in the final. None of the winning margins was more than nine points.
“Not many ranked (Big 12) teams," TCU star Olivia Miles said, "but every night feels like such a battle, and it feels like a March Madness matchup. It feels like a Sweet 16 game. So it’s been preparing us for three months to get in that mode.”
The Horned Frogs (27-4) take a six-game win streak into Kansas City. One of its four losses came in overtime to Utah, while their three losses in regulation — to Ohio State, Texas Tech and Colorado — were by a combined five points.
“We haven’t hit our ceiling, but we have had so much growth since we lost at Colorado in a heartbreaker,” Campbell said. "There’s been a huge growing-up phase after that loss. And then you are forced to figure it out because of the opponents that have been coming one after another. And so this group’s operating at a high level but we haven’t hit our ceiling, which is neat and exciting.”
No. 15 West Virginia is seeded second after finishing one game back of TCU in the league race, and losing twice to the Horned Frogs in head-to-head matchups. No. 20 Baylor is seeded third and Oklahoma State earned the last of the four double-byes.
The Bears have lost three of their past six games: a 31-point blowout at Texas Tech and a pair of double-digit losses to TCU. And if they want another rematch against the Horned Frogs, it wouldn't come until Sunday's championship game.
“We’re a team that can still beat a good team,” Baylor guard Taliah Scott said, "and I think that everybody in that locker room is ready to go and step up to whatever challenge we have next starting in the conference tournament.”
The women's Big 12 Tournament begins Wednesday with No. 12 seed Kansas State playing No. 13 seed Cincinnati at 11 a.m. local time, and No. 9 seed BYU taking on 16-seed Houston right after them. The night session features No. 10 seed Arizona State against No. 15 seed Arizona and No. 11 seed Kansas taking on No. 14 seed UCF.
Fifth-seeded Texas Tech awaits the Kansas State-Cincinnati winner Thursday, while No. 8 seed Utah gets the BYU-Houston winner in the second of four second-round games. Iowa State, which spent five weeks in the top 10 of the AP Top 25, slumped to the seven seed and will play the Arizona State-Arizona winner, and No. 6 seed Colorado gets Kansas or UCF on Thursday night.
The top seven seeds are probably safe for March Madness, though Colorado (20-10) would feel even better with a win Thursday. Utah (19-11), Arizona State (22-9), BYU (20-10) and Kansas (18-12) also have a chance to play their way off the bubble and into the field.
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AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins in Forth Worth, Texas, contributed to this report.
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