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Big 12 places five women's teams in coaches' national preseason top-25 poll

The Big 12's Baylor Lady Bears are the near unanimous choice of women's coaches throughout the country as No. 1 in the 2012-13 preseason women's basketball poll

By Chip Rouse
The Baylor Lady Bears are a near unanimous preseason choice as the No. 1 team in the country.
The Baylor Lady Bears are a near unanimous preseason choice as the No. 1 team in the country.
Big 12 Conference

Half of the Big 12 women's basketball teams are ranked in the first USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll of the 2012-13 season, headed by defending national champion Baylor, ranked as the nation's top team coming into the new season.

Besides Baylor, the preseason top-25 poll lists Oklahoma at No. 14, West Virginia 22nd, Oklahoma State 24th and the Kansas Jayhawks at No. 25. Baylor received all 31 first-place votes.

The top-10 in the women's preseason poll consists of Baylor, Connecticut, Duke, Stanford, Maryland, Notre Dame, Kentucky, Penn State, Louisville and Delaware.

The Big 12 women's basketball coaches picked Baylor for the fourth straight year as the preseason favorite to win the conference title. Only in 2009-10 did the Lady Bears not live up to their preseason No. 1 expectation. Nebraska won the league title that year. The Big 12 coaches' preseason selection has won in eight of the 15 years the women's poll has been conducted.

Here is the projected order of finish of the Big 12 women's teams this season, based on the vote of the coaches.

1. Baylor - 81 points, 9 first-place votes

2. Oklahoma - 65

3. West Virginia - 65, 1 first-place vote

4. Kansas - 58

5. Texas - 46

6. Iowa State - 42

7. Oklahoma State - 39

8. Texas Tech - 25

9. Kansas State - 20

10. TCU - 9

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