Texas Women's Basketball picked No. 5 by SLAM Magazine
NEW YORK -- The University of Texas women's basketball team, 30-5 a year ago and two-time defending Big 12 regular season champions, as been picked No. 5 nationally in the 2004-05 preseason preview by SLAM Magazine. SLAM, one of the premier basketball publications, will run its 2004-05 men's and women's college basketball previews in the upcoming issue, which will be available on newsstands on Thursday, Sept. 16. Texas is coming off a 30-5 campaign in which the Longhorns advanced to their third consecutive NCAA Sweet 16 appearance and won their second straight Big 12 Conference regular season championship. In addition, UT finished as Big 12 Tournament runnerup and was ranked No. 4 at season's end in the Associated Press Top 25 (conducted pre-NCAA tourney) and No. 10 in the USA Today/ESPN poll (conducted post-NCAAs). Coach Jody Conradt's Longhorns feature 11 returning letterwinners, headlined by three National Player of the Year candidates. Senior 5-6 guard Jamie Carey (Thornton, Colo./Horizon HS), 6-2 senior forward Heather Schreiber (Windthorst, Texas/Windthorst HS) and 6-3 sophomore forward Tiffany Jackson (Dallas, Texas/Duncanville HS) are preseason Wooden All-Americans and are on the ballot for both the Wooden Award and The State Farm Wade Trophy as National Player of the Year. All three are All-Big 12 standouts, and Jackson was tabbed the nation's best freshman a year ago, earning National Freshman of the Year honors from both the U.S. Basketball Writers' Association and ESPN.com. SLAM's women's basketball Top 10 preseason picks for the 2004-05 campaign are headlined by two squads from the Big 12 Conference and three from the Southeastern (SEC) Conference. The monthly magazine picks LSU and Tennessee, two Final Four squads a year ago, as one-two in the rankings. They are followed by Baylor, Georgia and Texas. Rounding out SLAM's top 10 are: 6. Connecticut; 7. Duke; 8. Stanford; 9. Rutgers; and 10. Notre Dame. With the college hoops season just around the corner, Other highlights in the September 16th issue is a class-by-class look at some of the nation's top players, along with features on Shaquille O'Neal, Jameer Nelson, Ron Artest and former pro legend Bill Laimbeer.
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