DALLAS Kansas State’s Claire Coggins was named a preseason All-Big 12 Conference honorable mention selection in a vote by the league’s head women’s basketball coaches Tuesday.
A 5-foot-11 junior combination guard/forward from Lee’s Summit, Mo., Coggins is the Wildcats’ top returning scorer averaging 9.5 points and 3.1 rebounds per game a year ago. In her two seasons at K-State, she has made 31 career starts in 57 career games played. Last season, Coggins, the most experienced player on this year’s roster, played in all 32 contests with 24 appearances in the starting five. She turned in the second most steals on the team (40) and has scored in double-digits in 16 career games to date.
Among 2004-05 Big 12 scoring leaders, Coggins ranked 26th (10.1 ppg), ninth in three-point field goal percentage (41.1) and tied for 14th in three-point field goals made (23) in conference games only. She recorded a career-high 25 points at Colorado on Jan. 28, 2005, connecting on a career-high nine of 18 attempts from the floor. Coggins has participated in back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and made her first career NCAA start against Bowling Green in last year’s first round matchup in Seattle. She was honored as the 2003 Gatorade Missouri Basketball Player of the Year while attending Lee’s Summit North High School.
Baylor’s Sophia Young was named Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year, while Kansas’ Shaquina Mosley was chosen Preseason Newcomer of the Year and Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris was tabbed Preseason Freshman of the Year. Young was joined on the Preseason All-Big 12 Team by Nebraska’s Kiera Hardy, Oklahoma’s Leah Rush, Texas’ Tiffany Jackson and Texas Tech’s Erin Grant.
2005-06 BIG 12 CONFERENCE PRESEASON ALL-BIG 12 TEAM
(coaches were not allowed to vote for their own players)
Preseason Player of the Year
Sophia Young, Baylor
Preseason Newcomer of the Year
Shaquina Mosley, Kansas
Preseason Freshman of the Year
Courtney Paris, Oklahoma
Preseason All-Big 12 Team
Sophia Young, Baylor, Kiera Hardy, Nebraska, Leah Rush, Oklahoma, Tiffany Jackson, Texas and Erin Grant, Texas Tech
Honorable Mention (listed alphabetically by school)
Baylor: Abiola Wabara; Iowa State: Lyndsey Medders; Kansas: Crystal Kemp; Kansas State: Claire Coggins; Oklahoma: Courtney Paris; Texas: Nina Norman; Texas A&M: Morenike Atunrase; Texas Tech: Chesley Dabbs, LaToya Davis and Alesha Robertson
