Athlon Sports Picks Kansas State No. 3 In Preseason Poll
Sep 16, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Sept. 16, 2002
MANHATTAN, Kan. - The Kansas State women's basketball team received its second preseason ranking of the 2002-03 season by being ranked No. 3 by Athlon Sports in its Women's Preseason Top 25 Poll in its just released College Basketball edition. In addition, junior Nicole Ohlde and sophomore Kendra Wecker earned preseason All-America honors.
The Wildcats were once again behind No. 1 Duke and No. 2 Tennessee, and are one of four Big 12 teams ranked in the top 25. Here is a look at the others: No. 4 Vanderbilt, No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 6 LSU, No. 7 Stanford, No. 8 Connecticut, No. 9 Georgia, No. 10 Texas, No. 11 North Carolina, No. 12 Tulane, No. 13 Minnesota, No. 14 Arkansas, No. 15 Texas Tech, No. 16 Colorado State, No. 17 Purdue, No. 18 Louisiana Tech, No. 19 Iowa State, No. 20 Cincinnati, No. 21 New Mexico, No. 22 Oregon, No. 23 Houston, No. 24 USC and No. 25 Penn State.
Athlon named Ohlde, an All-American candidate, to its All-America second team and Wecker to its third team. Kansas State was one of only two schools (Tennessee-Gwen Jackson, second team and Kara Larson, third team) to have a pair named to any of the three all-America teams. Ohlde and Wecker were also two of three student-athletes from the Big 12 (Lindsay Wilson, Iowa State). The honors were the second preseason accolades for the pair as Womenscollegehoops.com named Ohlde an honorable mention All-American and Wecker a second team All-America this summer.
Kansas State was ranked No. 3 by SLAM Magazine's earlier this month and prior to that ranking the Wildcats had not been acknowledgement in the preseason by a national organization since K-State was ranked No. 9 in the 1984 Associated Press Women's Preseason Poll.
Head coach Deb Patterson led Kansas State to a 26-8 overall record and a third-place 11-5 Big 12 Conference mark in 2001-02. The Wildcats made their first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance since 1982-83 and closed the campaign ranked 11th by AP and 10th by USAToday/ESPN. K-State returns nine letterwinners from last year's squad and welcomes one freshman to this year's team.
Ohlde, an Associated Press honorable mention All-America and a finalist for ESPN The Magazine Center of the Year in 2001-02, led K-State in scoring (17.9), field goal percentage (.579) and blocks (69). The 6-foot-4 forward teamed with sophomore Laurie Koehn this summer on the gold-medal winning USA Basketball World Championship for Young Women Team.
Also an All-American candidate, Koehn, a 5-foot-8 guard, led the country in three-point field goals (122) and was second in scoring (17.6) for the 'Cats while being named ESPN's Rookie of the Year and third team All-Big 12.
Wecker, K-State's third All-American candidate, was the top freshman in Big 12 games in scoring, rebounding and steals and was in the top five in blocks and assists. She was the first freshman in Big 12 Conference history to be named to the Big 12 All-Tournament team and was named a third team All-Big 12 selection. She averaged 16.4 points and a team-leading 7.8 rebounds.
Following two exhibition games, Kansas State officially kicks off its 2002-03 season when it hosts Ball State at 7 p.m. in Bramlage Coliseum in the first round of WNIT.
