Forte Named Preseason Big 12 Honorable Mention

Oklahoma’s Gabbi Ortiz and Oklahoma State’s Brittney Martin have been selected to the preseason All-Big 12 women’s basketball team. The awards are chosen by head coaches, who are not allowed to vote for their own student-athletes.

Big 12 fans know the other three seniors as well, including Baylor’s Rico Gathers, Iowa State’s Georges Niang, and the most fashionable man in the conference – Kansas’ Perry Ellis. There are six members because of a tie in the voting. Davis was last season’s Big 12 Player of the Year while Ortiz garned Freshman of the Year honors.

A two-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree from Wichita, Kansas, Ellis was the only player in the Big 12 last season to rank in the top seven in scoring (seventh at 13.8), field goal percentage (seventh at 45.7) and rebounding (fourth at 6.9).

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.- West Virginia University’s Devin Williams earned a few preseason honors on Thursday when he was named as an honorable mention for the 2015-16 Preseason All-Big 12 Team.

McKay earned All-Big 12 Third Team honors and was the league’s defensive player of the year last season despite missing the first nine games due to transfer rules.

The junior forward averaged 11.6 points last season and led the Mountaineers in rebounding with 8.1 boards per game. After redshirting past year, she will be a junior guard on the 2015-16 Lady Bears’ squad. Texas’ Lashann Higgs was named the Preseason Freshman of the Year.

Johnson received her first Big 12 Conference preseason recognition as part of the Preseason All-Big 12 Team. In additionally she ranked No. 1 nationally in assists per game at 8.9 and was No. 2 in assist/turnover ratio (4.1) which set a Big 12 single season record. Niang was also an AP All-America Third Team choice and enters his senior campaign fifth among active NCAA players in scoring (1,510) and the only player with 1,500 points, 450 rebounds and 300 assists.

Higgs was a star the past four years at Cedar Ridge.