Sherri Coale (Oklahoma) was chosen Big 12 Coach of the Year for the fourth time while Courtney Paris (Oklahoma) earned her third consecutive Big 12 Player of the Year honor, both league records in highlighting the 2008-09 Phillips 66 All-Big 12 Conference Women’s Basketball Awards.
Tanisha Smith (Texas A&M) was voted Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, Whitney Hand (Oklahoma) garnered Big 12 Freshman of the Year and Danielle Gant (Texas A&M) was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. Melissa Jones (Baylor) and Nyeshia Stevenson (Oklahoma) tied for the Sixth Man Award. The honors were voted by the league’s head coaches, with coaches not allowed to vote for their own players.
Coale led OU to the 2009 Big 12 regular season title, the team’s sixth, all since 2000. The Sooners finished the conference season with a 15-1 record and are 27-3 overall. Oklahoma is currently ranked No. 3 in the national polls and has been rated in the Top 10 the entire season. Oklahoma will enter the Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship as the No. 1 seed.
Paris is the first three-time Big 12 women’s basketball player of the year award winner. The senior center is the Conference’s all-time leader in points (2,624), rebounds (1,941) and blocked shots (415). She is also the NCAA’s career leader in rebounding and consecutive double-doubles. Her streak of 112 consecutive double-doubles came to an end on Feb . 2 in the Sooners’ win over Tennessee. Paris tops the Big 12 this season in rebounding (13.7) and field goal percentage (.587). She is third in blocks (2.6) and fifth in scoring (16.1).
In her first season with the Aggies, Smith started 15-of-28 games played after transferring from Arkansas-Fort Smith. She is third on her team in scoring with 9.6 points an outing while adding 3.6 rebounds. Smith has contributed 56 assists, 41 steals and 20 blocks. She leads Texas A&M in three-point field goal percentage at 41.4 percent, knocking down 24-of-58 attempts.
Hand started all 26 games she competed in before suffering an injury. Her 9.2 points rank second in the Big 12 freshman class while she is fourth in assists (1.58) and steals (1.12). Hand is third among all Big 12 players in three-point field goal percentage (.388) and seventh in three-pointers made per game (1.7). She earned four league Freshman of the Week honors.
Gant, the cog in Texas A&M’s full-court press, is often charged with guarding the opponent’s best player. She is second in the Big 12 in steals (2.4), 12th in rebounds (6.9) and 13th in blocks (0.9). The senior guard/forward also produces on the offensive end with 13.3 points per contest.
Jones and Stevenson tied for the third annual Sixth Man Award. Jones averages 7.1 points and 5.7 rebounds in 22.8 minutes per game for Baylor. She has contributed 46 assists, 44 steals and 11 blocks while hitting 49.3 percent (67-of-136) of her shots. Stevenson provided a spark off the bench for the Sooners before starting the last four games due to Hand’s injury. She averages 9.6 points and 1.6 rebounds with 33 assists and 35 steals. Stevenson was named Big 12 Player of the Week on Dec. 15 after scoring 21 points, all in the second half, to lead OU from a 26-point deficit to victory over No. 9/7 California in the largest non-overtime comeback in NCAA history.