Cowgirl Hoops: OSU Picked as Big 12 Favorites, Audi Crooks, Liv Mc Gill Land Preseason Awards

The Cowgirls’ momentum from the offseason has the rest of the league’s coaches fearing OSU.

The Big 12 released its preseason poll and awards on Thursday, and Oklahoma State was picked as this year’s favorites to take home the championship. These are voted on by the league’s coaches who are not allowed to vote for their own team.

And a pair of incoming Cowgirls were also honored with Iowa State transfer Audi Brooks being tabbed as the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year and Florida transfer Liv McGill being named the Big 12 Preseason Newcomer of the Year.

OSU was picked to finish fourth in last year’s preseason poll, and that’s where they landed, winning a tie-breaker over Texas Tech in the league’s final standings.

OSU went 24-10 overall and 12-6 in league play winning four of their last five regular season conference games. The Cowgirls lost to Kansas State in the first round of the Big 12 Championship before making it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

In four years under Jacie Hoyt, the Cowgirls have finished with at least 21 wins three times and have made the NCAA Tournament three times. Last season’s second-round exit to 2-seeded UCLA was a high postseason watermark for the Pokes and something they plan to exceed in 2026-27 after adding some star talent.

That leads us to those individual honors.

Crooks may be a newcomer to Stillwater but she’s been dominating in this league for a while. She was a three-time All-American at Iowa State and earned countless All-Big 12 honors. She led the lead in scoring the last two years and was second as a freshman the year before. Last season she led the NCAA with 820 total points scored. She was also voted Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year last year.

McGill was a consensus top 5 portal transfer this past offseason and an All-American honorable mention for Florida last year. She was an All-SEC first-teamer last season and named to the SEC All-Freshman team the year before that. She was second in the SEC in scoring (22.5 points per game) and fourth in assists (6.3 per game).

The Cowgirls tip off their regular season against Southern on Nov. 2 at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Big 12 Preseason Poll

1. Oklahoma State (7) – 215 points
2. TCU (6) – 212 points
3. Baylor (2) – 199 points
4. West Virginia (1) – 186 points
5. Kansas – 160 points
6. Arizona State – 143 points
7. BYU – 137 points
8. Colorado – 126 points
9. K-State – 121 points
10. Texas Tech – 103 points
11. Iowa State – 78 points
12. Utah – 77 points
13. Arizona – 55 points
14. Cincinnati – 43 points
15. Houston – 38 points
16. UCF – 27 points

Individual Honors

Preseason Player of the Year: Audi Crooks, Oklahoma State

Preseason Newcomer of the Year: Liv McGill, Oklahoma State

Preseason Freshman of the Year: Jessie-May Hall, TCU

All-Big 12 Preseason Team:
McKinna Brackens, Arizona State
Taliah Scott, Baylor
Delaney Gibb, BYU
Zyanna Walker, Colorado
Jaliya Davis, Kansas
S’Mya Nichols, Kansas
Audi Crooks, Oklahoma State
Liv McGill, Oklahoma State
Clara Silva, TCU
Gia Cooke, West Virginia