The Conference has announced the preseason awards and poll for the 2024-25 Big 12 women’s basketball season. League coaches voted on the awards and poll and were not allowed to vote for their own team.
K-State was selected as the favorite in the league’s preseason poll for the first time in program history while Ayoka Lee is the first Wildcat to be named the Conference’s Preseason Player of the Year since a three-year stretch when Nicole Ohlde earned the honors consecutively (2002-03, 2003-04) followed by Kendra Wecker in 2004-05.
The Wildcats collected 26 wins last year for the first time since the 2002-03 season and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Lee is a four-time All-Big 12 First Team selection and the two-time All-America honoree averaged 19.7 points per game and 8.6 rebounds last season.
Baylor’s Aaronette Vonleh and TCU’s Hailey Van Lith were tabbed as the league’s Preseason Co-Newcomers of the Year. It is the sixth consecutive season that BU has had a player collect newcomer honors while Van Lith is TCU’s first newcomer selection.
Vonleh was a Pac-12 All-Conference member for the 2023-2024 season and was named the league’s Co-Most Improved Player during the 2022-23 season. Van Lith is a 2024 Olympics 3X3 bronze medalist and is the only active Division I player who has tallied at least 1,900 career points, 500 rebounds and 350 assists.
Colorado’s Tabitha Betson was chosen as the Big 12 Preseason Freshman of the Year in the Buffaloes’ first year back in the league since the 2010-11 season. The No. 48 ranked player in ESPN’s Top 100 for the class of 2024 is the first CU student-athlete to earn the award since a three-year run of Colorado selections from the 1997-98 season through 1999-2000.
Baylor and K-State have two selections each to the 10-member preseason team while Iowa State’s Audi Crooks, K-State’s Lee and West Virginia’s JJ Quinerly were unanimous honorees.
The 2024-25 season tips off Monday, Nov. 4 with league action set to commence Saturday, Dec. 21 as this year marks the Conference’s first with 16 members. The regular season will be followed by the 2025 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship, which will take place in Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center for the second consecutive season.
The current league members combined to go 8-0 in their first game of the 2024 NCAA Tournament while 15 of the 16 teams finished the 2023-24 season in the top 101 of the NET rankings. Four Big 12 teams are ranked in the top 16 of ESPN’s Women’s Basketball Way-Too-Early Top 25, tied for the most of any league.
2024-25 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll
- K-State (7), 211 points
- Iowa State (6), 209 points
- Baylor (2), 194 points
- TCU, 185 points
- West Virginia (1), 184 points
- Utah, 149 points
- Arizona, 136 points
- Kansas, 128 points
- Colorado, 113 points
- Texas Tech, 84 points
- Oklahoma State, 80 points
- BYU, 59 points
- Cincinnati, 56 points
- UCF, 54 points
- Arizona State, 51 points
- Houston, 27 points
(first-place votes)
2024-25 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Preseason Player of the Year
Ayoka Lee, K-State
2024-25 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Preseason Co-Newcomers of the Year
Aaronette Vonleh, Baylor
Hailey Van Lith, TCU
2024-25 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Preseason Freshman of the Year
Tabitha Betson, Colorado
2024-25 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Preseason All-Big 12 Team
Sarah Andrews, Baylor
Aaronette Vonleh, Baylor
Kaitlin Peterson, UCF
Audi Crooks, Iowa State*
S’Mya Nichols, Kansas
Ayoka Lee, K-State*
Serena Sundell, K-State
Hailey Van Lith, TCU
Gianna Kneepkens, Utah
JJ Quinerly, West Virginia*
*Indicates unanimous selection. Players are sorted alphabetically by school.
