Texas guards earn preseason women’s basketball all-Big 12 honors
By Steve Lansdale
AUSTIN, Texas — A year after earning All-Big 12 honors and being named to the Big 12 All-Tournament team, junior Texas guard Brooke McCarty was named to this year’s Preseason All-Big 12 Team in a vote of the league’s 10 head coaches (who are not allowed to vote for players on their own teams).
Junior guard Ariel Atkins earned preseason honorable mention honors.
McCarty played in all 36 Texas games last season, starting 35. She led the Longhorn offense with 11.8 points per game and hitting 67 three-pointers — both team highs. She scored in double figures 24 times and was UT’s leading scorer 10 times last year. She also finished second on the team with 89 assists.
McCarty ranks fifth all-time at UT in three-point accuracy, knocking down 104 of 270 shots (.385) from behind the arc. With 11 more shots from long range, she will join the top 10 in three-pointers made.
Atkins earned second-team All-Big 12 honors last season and was named to the NCAA Bridgeport All-Regional Team. After sitting out nine games because of injury, she played in the Longhorns’ final 27 games last season, starting 14. Her average of 11.2 points per game ranked third on the team, and her average of 18 points per game in NCAA Tournament games led the team in 2015-16. Atkins was the team’s most accurate shooter from the floor, hitting her field goals at a .536 clip, and from the free throw line (.819).
The Longhorns tip off the season at 7 p.m. (central time) Nov. 14 when they face Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif., in a game that will be shown on ESPN2.
