In the second round of Big 12 women’s basketball action, the undefeated teams remained undefeated, one of them rang in the New Year with an incredible midseason recruit and one traditional power completed an epic comeback on the road. Meanwhile, two of the league’s best players are playing a game of “anything you can do I can do better.”
Five teams are undefeated in league action, and five teams don’t have a win through two games, as throughlines are already starting to emerge before the next set of games this weekend.
Audi or Olivia?
At some point I would expect Iowa State’s Audi Crooks and TCU’s Olivia Miles to slow down a bit. But, for now, appreciate the greatness these two players are putting together right now. They’re the leading contenders to be the Big 12 player of the year and it just depends on what you appreciate as a fan.
Crooks is on a world-class heater, and nothing can slow her down right now.
Rachel Galligan, an analyst for the Big 12, noted that Crooks is one of two Division I players since 1999-2000 to score 30 or more points on 60.0% or better shooting in at least five straight games. She’s also had two double-doubles in the last three games, both of which were in conference play.
Meanwhile, Olivia Miles is on her own kind of heater.
Per Galligan, Miles has already set a Big 12 record for most triple-doubles in a season. She now has 10 career double-doubles, something only two other players done — Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.
Both the Cyclones and Horned Frogs are undefeated going into the weekend. We must wait until Feb. 22 for them to play in Fort Worth. I’m not betting both will still be undefeated for that game. But could one of them be? It’s possible.
Baylor Rallies Big Time
Baylor bounced back from its Big 12 opening loss to Texas Tech before Christmas to beat Oklahoma State, 77-68. But that’s burying the headline.
The Bears were down 19 points with 1:31 left in the third quarter. Baylor outscored OSU, 36-8, in the final 11:29 to win, 77-68. What’s more, it happened in Stillwater. Taliah Scott has been a huge boost in the transfer portal for Baylor and she scored 24 points. Jana Van Gytenbeek dropped in four 3-pointers to finish with 17 points.
Van Gytenbeek has emerged as the Bears’ facilitator this season with 6.8 assists. She dished out eight on Wednesday. Her 3-point shooting, her running the point and her health, most notably, will be differentiators for the Bears if they want to make a significant run in March.
Tech’s ‘Seven-Foot’ New Year’s Celebration
Texas Tech improved to 15-0 for the season and 2-0 in Big 12 play with a victory over UCF on New Year’s Eve. She addressed the crowd and told them they were entering the New Year feeling like “we’re seven feet tall.” She wasn’t just being hyperbolic, either.
That’s Stephanie Okechukwu, a center who just signed with the Lady Raiders for the rest of the 2025-26 season, as midseason signings are all the rage now. Once Okechukwu takes the court, she will be the tallest woman to play Division I history. Yep, she’s seven feet tall.
How she fits into what the Lady Raiders will do is unclear. But you can’t coach seven feet tall, as they say. But for a team that is finally getting national respect and is pointed toward ending its NCAA Tournament drought, it can do nothing but help. She still needs to be approved to play now by the NCAA. We know how that goes.
Molly Miller’s Incredible 2025
As we move into the second half of the regular season, Arizona State had a scare from Utah before the Sun Devils escaped The Huntsman Center with a 69-68 win. It was Arizona State’s third win by two points in their last four games. It kept the Sun Devils undefeated for the season and Big 12 action and allowed first-year coach Molly Miller to do this.
This is insane. This includes Miller’s last season at Grand Canyon, where the Lopes won 16 straight regular-season games once the calendar turned to 2025. After that, GCU won three games in the WAC Tournament and clinched an NCAA Tournament berth before losing to Baylor in the first round. She went 15-0 to start her career with Arizona State. So ASU is including the WAC Tournament as the “regular season,” but hey it’s still impressive.
Miller was 34-1 in 2025. But it’s more impressive when you look back at her last regular-season loss. That was on Nov. 18, 2024, against Oregon. She hasn’t coached a loss in a regular season game in more than a year, and she has coached 45 straight regular season wins since that Oregon loss.
