Women’s Basketball Picked to Finish Fifth in Big 12 Preseason Poll

The West Virginia Mountaineers have been picked fifth in the 2020-21 Big 12 Preseason Poll, the league announced Thursday.

For the eight time in the last 10 polls, the Baylor Bears were tabbed as the League’s top team, receiving nine of 10 first-place votes. Baylor has also shared or outright won the Big 12 Championship in 10 consecutive seasons.

The other first-place vote went to the Texas Longhorns, who were second in the poll. Behind Texas are Iowa State and Kansas State in third and fourth place and then the Mountaineers in fifth place.

Rounding out the bottom of the list are Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU and Kansas, in that order.

West Virginia finished the 2019-20 season with a 17-12 record, 7-11 in the Big 12. The Mountaineers lost seven of their final 10 games and would have played Texas in the first round of the Big 12 Championship.

Senior guard Kysre Gondrezick and junior forward Kari Niblack were both named honorable mentions on the All-Big 12 Preseason Team, released Wednesday afternoon.