LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas Jayhawk duo of sophomore forward Jaliya Davis and senior guard S’Mya Nichols have been named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Women’s Basketball team, while KU is picked fifth in the Big 12 preseason poll. The preseason team and poll, as voted on by the conference head coaches, were announced Thursday by the league office.
Nichols is one of four players to earn a unanimous selection to the 10-player preseason team. This is her third consecutive selection to the preseason team and second straight year she’s been a unanimous choice. Davis receives her first preseason recognition from the Big 12 following a record-setting freshman campaign.
The Kansas duo is joined on the preseason team by Preseason Player of the Year Audi Crooks and Preseason Newcomer of the Year Liv McGill, both of Oklahoma State. Kansas and OSU are the only teams with two players on the preseason team. Other members include McKinna Brackens (Arizona State), Taliah Scott (Baylor, unanimous selection), Delaney Gibb (BYU, unanimous), Zyanna Walker (Colorado) Clara Silva (TU) and Gia Cooke (West Virginia).
Nichols enters her senior season as KU’s all-time leader in free throws made (627), while ranking third in both career free throw (83.8) and three-point (40.5) percentage. She is also ranked seventh in school history with 397 assists and No. 10 with 1,693 career points.
A two-time WBCA All-America Honorable Mention honoree, Nichols averaged 17.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game last season. She also led the nation in free throw shooting, hitting 243-of-287 (84.7 percent) attempts, breaking her own single-season school record of 218 made free throws from her sophomore campaign. Nichols scored in double figures 32 times in 36 games, with 13 games of 20 or more points, including a career-high 40 points vs. Georgia on Nov. 28 at the Fort Myers Tipoff.
Nichols has earned All-Big 12 First Team honors after each of her first three seasons at Kansas, joining Lynn Pride (1998, 1999, 2000) as the Jayhawks’ only three-time first team honorees. Last season, Nichols was twice named to the Big 12 Starting Five (Dec. 1, Dec. 8), and she was listed on the Liebermann Point Guard of the Year, Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award Watch Lists prior to the start of the year.
Davis earns her first preseason honor from the conference after she was unanimously chosen as the Big 12 Freshman of the Year for the 2025-26 season. She is the only Jayhawk to be named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, and she joined Nichols as the only KU freshman to earn All-Big 12 First Team recognition. Davis won the Big 12 Freshman of the Week award in each of the last nine weeks of the regular season, setting a new Big 12 and Power Conference record for consecutive weekly honors. She was also named the USBWA Co-National Freshman of the Week on Feb. 10.
A WBCA All-America Honorable Mention selection, Davis averaged 19.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. She scored 20 or more points 15 times, which ranks sixth in school history for a single season and is third-most in Big 12 history by a freshman. During Big 12 play, Davis ranked second in the league in scoring with 21.5 points per game, while leading the league by shooting 63.6 percent (136-of-214) from the field.
Oklahoma State is the preseason pick to win the Big 12 with seven first-place votes and 215 points total, three ahead of TCU, who received six first-place votes. Baylor (2) and West Virginia (1) also garnered votes for the top spot, and are picked third and fourth in the poll, respectively. Kansas is picked fifth with 160 points, ahead of Arizona State, BYU, Colorado, Kansas State and Texas Tech to round out the top 10.