WACO, Texas —
Five Baylor Lady Bears and head coach Kim Mulkey earned postseason honors from the Big 12, the league announced Wednesday. Mulkey earned her seventh Big 12 Coach of the Year honor while junior Lauren Cox was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year for the second-straight season.
Baylor finished the regular season at 28-1 overall and ran the table in league play for the fourth time in school history with an 18-0 mark. The Lady Bears are ranked No. 1 in both the Associated Press and WBCA/USA Today polls and enter this weekend’s Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship as the No. 1 seed.
Senior center Kalani Brown and Cox were each named to the All-Big 12 First Team. For Brown, it was her third selection to the first team in as many seasons. She averaged 15.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in the regular season in just 26.3 minutes of play. In addition, she led the Big 12 in field goal percentage at .621 and shoots a team-best 80.8 percent from the free-throw line.
Cox is a first-teamer for the second time go along with her Defensive Player of the Year award. She averaged 12.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 3.4 assists during the season. She shot 52 percent from the floor and thru games played March 5, she ranks 24th in the nation in assists-to-turnover ratio at 2.50:1.
Graduate transfer Chloe Jackson and junior Juicy Landrum each garnered All-Big 12 Second Team honors. Jackson averaged 11.2 points per game in the regular season while ranking second in the Big 12 in assists per game at 5.7. Landrum averaged a career-best 11.4 points per game, led Baylor with 50 3-point field goals made (.407 pct.) and is third on the team averaging 3.8 assists per game.
DiDi Richards joined Brown and Cox on the Big 12 All-Defensive team, which marks the first time in league history that three players from the same school have been on the team since the Big 12 began the award in 2006.
Richards finished with 35 steals on the season and has been tasked with the top perimeter player all season long on defense, helping the Lady Bears rank first in the nation in field goal percentage defense for the third-straight year.
Mulkey continues her dominance in the Big 12, especially since the 2010-11 season where the Lady Bears are 153-7 in league play and 303-23 overall. Baylor has the second-best winning percentage in the NCAA the past nine seasons at .929 under Mulkey’s direction. She picked up career win No. 550 this season and led Baylor to its 10th regular-season Big 12 title and ninth consecutive.
2018-19 Phillips 66 All-Big 12 Awards
Coach of the Year: Kim Mulkey, Baylor (19th season at Baylor, 19th overall)
Player of the Year: Bridget Carleton, Iowa State, G, 6-1, Sr., Chatham, Ontario, Canada
Defensive Player of the Year: Lauren Cox, Baylor, F, 6-4, Jr., Flower Mound, Texas
Newcomer of the Year: Vivian Gray, Oklahoma State, G, 6-1, So., Argyle, Texas
Freshman of the Year: Chrislyn Carr, Texas Tech, G, 5-5, Davenport, Iowa
Sixth Man Award: Kari Niblack, West Virginia, F, 6-1, Fr., Leesburg, Fla.
** Unanimous Selection
All-Big 12 First Team (honors listed alphabetical by school)
Player School Pos Ht Cl Hometown
Kalani Brown+^** Baylor C 6-7 Sr. Slidell, La.
Lauren Cox+** Baylor F 6-4 Jr. Flower Mound, Texas
Bridget Carleton+^** Iowa State G 6-1 Sr. Chatham, Ontario, Canada
Kayla Goth% Kansas State G 6-1 Sr. DeForest, Wis.
Peyton Williams Kansas State F 6-4 Jr. Topeka, Kan.
Vivian Gray** Oklahoma State G 6-1 So. Argyle, Texas
Jordan Moore TCU C 6-3 Sr. Round Rock, Texas
Sug Sutton Texas G 5-8 Jr. St. Louis, Mo.
Naomi Davenport% West Virginia G/F 6-0 Sr. Cincinnati, Ohio
Tynice Martin^** West Virginia G 5-11 R-Jr. Atlanta, Ga.
All-Big 12 Second Team
Player School Pos Ht Cl Hometown
Chloe Jackson Baylor G 5-8 Gr. Upper Marlboro, Md.
Juicy Landrum Baylor G 5-8 Jr. Waco, Texas
Kristin Scott Iowa State C 6-3 So. Kasson, Minn.
Ana Llanusa Oklahoma G 6-0 So. Choctaw, Okla.
Amy Okonkwo% TCU F 6-2 Sr. Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
All-Big 12 Honorable Mention
Alexa Middleton (Iowa State), Kylee Kopatich (Kansas), Christalah Lyons (Kansas), Braxtin Miller (Oklahoma State), Joyner Holmes (Texas), Danni Williams (Texas), Brittany Brewer (Texas Tech), Chrislyn Carr (Texas Tech).
** Unanimous First Team Selection (coaches cannot vote for own players, unanimous denotes voted first team by other nine coaches)
+ 2017-18 All-Big 12 First Team Selection
% 2017-18 All-Big 12 Second Team Selection
^ 2016-17 All-Big 12 First Team
> 2016-17 All-Big 12 Second Team
Big 12 All-Defensive Team
Player School Pos Ht Cl Hometown
Kalani Brown Baylor C 6-7 Sr. Slidell, La.
Lauren Cox^** Baylor F 6-4 Jr. Flower Mound, Texas
DiDi Richards Baylor G 6-1 So. Cypress, Texas
Peyton Williams Kansas State F 6-4 Jr. Topeka, Kan.
Jordan Moore TCU C 6-3 Sr. Round Rock, Texas
** Unanimous Selection (coaches cannot vote for own players, unanimous denotes selected for team on other nine ballots)
^2017-18 Selection
Big 12 All-Freshman Team
Player School Pos Ht Hometown
Ashley Joens Iowa State G 6-0 Iowa City, Iowa
Christianna Carr Kansas State G 6-1 Manhattan, Kan.
Taylor Robertson Oklahoma G 5-7 McPherson, Kan.
Chrislyn Carr Texas Tech G 5-5 Davenport, Iowa
Madisen Smith West Virginia G 5-5 Greenville, S.C.
