The Big 12 women’s basketball season started conference play this past weekend, with eight games played all over the country.
It was the first chance we had to see all 16 teams play in a league game and, juxtaposed against the College Football Playoff, it made for a long day of viewing for those of us that follow the conference.
Here are three takeaways from the first weekend of conference action.
And Baby Makes A Conference-Opening Victory
At Big 12 media days in October, I considered asking Oklahoma State coach Jacie Hoyt what her contingency plan was when she delivered her baby. On Saturday we found out.
She coached. Nine days after giving birth to Harlow, Hoyt was on the OSU bench coaching her Cowgirls to a season-opening win over Iowa State. She even brought Harlow to the post-game press conference.
Feats of motherhood aside, Hoyt and the Cowgirls claimed a huge win. In her first year, 2022-23, OSU beat Texas, Baylor twice and Iowa State to help build its resume for the NCAA Tournament.
This team looks more like that team, starting with the fact that it can absolutely destroy teams from the 3-point line. OSU’s top five scorers shoot 38% or better, and four are shooting better than 40%.
Micah Gray connected on six 3-pointers and scored 24 points. Anna Gret Asi is playing the best she’s played at OSU. The rebounding I thought the Cowgirls might miss with Hannah Gusters’ transfer? No worries. The Cowgirls have it covered. They’ll be fun to watch and certainly have a chance to get back to March Madness.
Close Games and Blowouts
I was most interested to see how many close games were played the first weekend. There were just three, all on Saturday. Colorado upset No. 14 West Virginia, 65-60, Arizona defeated BYU, 57-53 and Oklahoma State upended Iowa State, 81-75.
The rest of the games were blowouts, as none of the contests pitted Top 25 teams against each other. The average margin of victory was 24.4 points. That included games I suspected might be close entering the weekend.
I thought Baylor-Kansas would be tight and the Bears won by 20 in Lawrence. Utah clocked Arizona State by scoring 102 points and won by 20.
The Arizona-BYU ending was the most compelling of the weekend. It’s a game BYU is going to kick itself for losing down the line.
UCF Not in Full Yet
Both UCF’s Kaitlin Peterson and Hannah Gusters weren’t in the lineup for Saturday’s opener against TCU.
The good news is that both were out due to an illness (Peterson missed the previous game, too). So with more than a week off for the holiday, both have more than enough time to recover and be ready for the next game.
But after losing by 40 points to TCU (92-52), it was impossible to get a good read on where the Knights are at this point in the season. Peterson and Gusters combine for about 40 points per game. Gusters is their leading rebounder. UCF isn’t winning games without the pair.
Assuming they’re back on New Year’s Day, we should get a better read with the next three games — at West Virginia, home against Arizona and at Colorado. WVU is ranked and both Arizona and Colorado won their openers.
There are critical players to every team in this conference. The loss just underscored how critical Peterson and Gusters are to UCF.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
