Welcome to Celeb Shot!

Part of our ethos at No Cap Space WBB is not just helping you learn ball but also putting you on to great writers who know it themselves. It’s been a long time coming but this new series will be a semi-regular fixture on NCS where we tag in journalists from all over the country.

If you’re a writer and have a pitch for us, send it to [email protected] along with your rates and we’ll take it under consideration. So let’s kick it off with Harrison Simeon, one of CU’s most talented up-and-coming reporters, who brings us a dispatch from the wonderfully wild world of Big 12 women’s hoops…

by Harrison Simeon

In 1993, Krista Gerlich missed a free throw.

It was the best moment of her life.

For just moments later, her Texas Tech Lady Raiders won their first national championship. While that game ended over 30 years ago, Gerlich carries Tech wherever she goes and vice versa. Her No. 21 jersey hangs in the rafters, and she assisted the coaching staff to two NCAA Tournaments in 2003 and ‘04.

But those halcyon days ended, as Texas Tech has danced just twice since. Gerlich returned as head coach in 2020 to sparse success, treading water at a program without a winning season in the Big 12 since 2012-13.

Until the mayhem arrived.

Powered by the right recipe of returners and transfers, the Lady Raiders have their best record since 2004. They went 19-0 to start the season, their longest win streak since that national title-winning team. 

Bailey Maupin waited for this moment, sticking by Gerlich through three tumultuous years. Snudda Collins was patient for hers, rotationally successful at Ole Miss before Texas Tech allowed her star to rise. The guards combine for 31.4 points a night.

Denae Fritz was at Iowa State and Baylor before settling down in Lubbock for her last two years. She’s become the quintessential Big 12 role player, a tough shot machine with defense far above her 5-11 pay grade. Paired with ascending forward Jalynn Bristow, they’ve bolstered the Power Five’s seventh-best scoring defense. 

And after winning a quarter of conference games through her first five seasons, Gerlich is a dime a dozen. She’s the Big 12’s only representative on the Naismith Coach of the Year Watch List.

But Texas Tech is surrounded by cannibals. The league eats its own as much as ever. On Feb. 9, half of the Big 12’s teams were within three games of first place. As of Wednesday, three-quarters of its squads are top-60 in NET.

The Lady Raiders have been in every nook-and-cranny of it. They’re 5-5 in their last 10 games, but two of those wins came against No. 12 TCU and No. 15 Baylor. That stretch started with losses to Kansas State and BYU, the conference’s 10th and 11th-best teams.

And on Saturday, despite shooting 67 percent through three quarters, all it took was a flash for red-hot Colorado to upset them. Though they’re not alone, as Boulder has been a buzzsaw.

“It’s an NCAA Tournament environment, and we played an NCAA Tournament team,” Gerlich said after. “Kudos to them for getting a crowd out here, that’s a fun environment … It was an incredible opportunity for us.”

As March awaits, coach JR Payne’s squad is another benefactor of the Big 12’s volatility. Never among the elite on paper, the Buffs figured things out while averaging 55 points in regulation on a road trip to Kansas.

But after winning eight of nine, they fell victim to another of the league’s many mojo-busters in Utah. The Utes are right in the thick of the conference’s chaos, falling twice each to BYU and Arizona State, but holding wins over TCU and West Virginia.

Damn-near literally, anyone can beat anyone.

“The fact that some of the lower quarter of the conference are taking some of the top teams to the wire, or the middle-of-the-pack teams,” Payne said Saturday. “It speaks to the strength of the conference, the balance in the conference, the tremendous coaching in our conference, and I’m definitely expecting a lot of teams to be dancing in March.”

Around every corner, the Big 12 has a compelling story. Guards Taliah Scott (Baylor) and Olivia Miles (TCU) are among the best transfers in the country, keeping last year’s conference title game teams on top. The sides end their regular seasons against each other Sunday, with College Gameday stopping by.

Audi Crooks has been one of the nation’s best players, yet Iowa State has struggled without her longtime Robin, Addy Brown. But she’s back and breaking herself in, making the Cyclones dangerous just in time.

Arizona State is another can of worms, improving as much as any team in the country. Coach Molly Miller has led the Sun Devils from offseason champs to March Madness talks.

Even its bumblers have tales to tell. Kansas, tied for 12th place, has the conference’s best freshman in guard Jaliya Davis. BYU has another top freshman in Olivia Hamlin, who, alongside now-healthy Delaney Gibb, is a conference-tourney spoiler waiting to happen.

Ninth-place Utah has three Quad 1 wins. Even portal-depleted K-State has two. Yet national priority, as eternally adjacent to the SEC, ACC and Big Ten, won’t come that easily.

“The strain of 18 games in this league, with different styles of play, when you catch a team on a given night, it’s part of the narrative nationally that we all have to continue to fight,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly, the Big 12’s all-time wins leader, said on Feb. 10. “When we beat each other up, a lot of national people think our league isn’t strong. When other leagues beat each other up, they get credit.”

The Big 12’s reputation remains that, post-Texas and Oklahoma, it’s a slew of middleweights without programs that can go the distance. But it only needs one. 

Pivotal progress was made this season, by far the most since its shakeup. TCU and Baylor are building a lineage of stars, ASU is back, Colorado is climbing and the mid-tier lurks. At least nine teams will wait patiently on Selection Sunday.

But the most excited returner for a shot at glory is Gerlich. It took over 30 years of toil, coaching UT Arlington for seven years and sending an aimless team to rep its country at the FISU University Games before this season.

Now, it’s about making a city, state and conference proud.

“I’m just excited for the Big 12 to be able to showcase the quality of teams we have,” Gerlich said. “I don’t think we get very much respect … It’s a fun atmosphere. It’s a fun conference to be a part of. It’s hard-nosed, and I know that on the men’s side, the Big 12 gets all the respect, [but] I think they need to start looking at the Big 12 on the women’s side.”