Last season, the Big 12 Conference saw seven of its women’s basketball teams advance to the 64-team field in the NCAA tournament.

Despite changes to the Big 12 this season — the loss of Missouri and Texas A&M and the addition of both West Virginia and Texas Christian — the expectations for the conference remain the same.

“Every year, probably every coach says the same thing to all of you, that the Big 12 is the best league in the country, and it’s a hard league,” said ISU women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly at the team’s media day Wednesday. “But it’s the truth.”

Most teams in the league will bring back the bulk of their starters from last season, including Baylor, which went 40-0 on its way to a national championship.

Conference newcomer West Virginia made the NCAA tournament last season too, beating one of its new conference foes, Texas, in the first round.

“I think it’s going to be a situation where our league could put seven, eight teams in the NCAA tournament,” Fennelly said. “You better be ready to play.”

The Cyclones went 18-13 overall last season and 9-9 in the Big 12, making the postseason for the 15th time under Fennelly in his 17 seasons at the helm of the program. 

One thing Fennelly hopes to see improve this season is the team’s shooting.

“Our field goal percentage was the second-lowest since we’ve been here, [and] we’ve got to turn the ball over less,” Fennelly said. “Offensively, we have to be more efficient, and we have to get the ball in the basket.”

Last season, the Cyclones shot 39.2 percent from the field and committed 495 turnovers. The team averaged 62.7 points per game. 

This season, the team has three seniors, including two key players in Chelsea Poppens and Anna Prins. Poppens was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 First Team on Wednesday.

Fennelly said injury-prone Prins has missed more than 150 practices in her time as a Cyclone. Prins said she’s healthy and hopes to contribute more in her senior season.

“I’m actually really excited that I’m healthy,” Prins said. “I know for me it’s been frustrating to work hard for a period of time, and then all of a sudden something happens, and I take a few steps back and have to work back again.”

The team also has three freshmen this season in forward Madison Baier and guards Emiah Bingley and Nicole Blaskowsky. Poppens said the tough Big 12 will be a challenge for the young players, but she thinks they can adjust.

“You always expect it to be competitive; you always expect everyone to be super good,” Poppens said of the Big 12. “At first it’s going to be pretty stressful, and they’re going to feel a lot of pressure, but they’ll adjust.”

Iowa State’s season will begin on Nov. 1 with an exhibition against Northwest Missouri State in Ames. The regular season kicks off on Nov. 11 at Hilton Coliseum with Western Illinois.