DALLAS - Middle Tennessee has been voted by the league's 11 head coaches as the preseason favorite to win the 2022-23 Conference USA women's basketball regular season championship. The league announced Wednesday, Louisiana Tech's Keiunna Walker was named the Preseason Player of the Year and headlines the conference's 10 Preseason All-Conference honorees.

Middle Tennessee tallied nine first-place votes and finished with a total of 118 points. Rick Insell heads into his 18^th season as the winningest head coach in Lady Raiders program history and returns four starters from last year’s squad that finished second in the East with a 14-4 record. Senior Savannah Wheeler, a two-time All-Conference USA honoree, transfers to Middle Tennessee after leading C-USA with 20.2 points-per-game at Marshall a season ago. Wheeler lands herself on the Preseason All-Conference Team along with redshirt senior Kseniya Malashka and senior Courtney Whitson. Malashka, who was named the 2021-22 Sixth Player of the Year, returns after averaging 13.6 points and 5.3 rebounds last season, while Whitson averaged 12.4 points and 7.3 rebounds.
 
Louisiana Tech takes the runner-up position with 104 points after an 11-7 C-USA record and winning the West Division in 2021-22. The 2022-23 Preseason Player of the Year, Keiunna Walker, who averaged 18.9 points and 4.4 rebounds a year ago returns to Ruston for a fifth year and looks to lead LA Tech back for a deep postseason run. Walker scored in double figures in 32 of 33 games including 27 consecutive games to begin the season. Additionally, teammate Anna Larr Roberson also returns to the Lady Techsters after averaging 15.2 points. Roberson ranked second among C-USA averaging 8.5 rebounds per game and third shooting 52 percent from the field.
 
Senior’s Mikayla Boykin and Jada McMillian will lead the defending Conference USA champions, Charlotte, as they finished third in preseason voting. Boykin earned All-Conference USA Second Team honors in 2021-22, finishing second on the team in scoring with 13.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per night. McMillian, who led the 49ers with a 44.4 field goal percentage last season, joins Boykin as a Preseason All-Conference selection.
 
Rounding out the Preseason team are Quincy Noble (North Texas), Ashlee Austin (Rice) and Jordyn Jenkins (UTSA). Noble leads a Mean Green squad that finished fifth in the preseason poll after earning Second Team All-Conference honors averaging 14.4 points in last years campaign. She led North Texas in scoring and tied for first with 42 3-pointers made. Austin, who also was a second-team All-Conference USA member last season, ranked first with 16.5 points per game with an incredible 46.3 field goal percentage. She was the fifth-leading scoring in C-USA and fourth in field goal percentage. Jenkins joins UTSA after spending two seasons at the University of Southern California. She played in 26 games last season while leading the Trojan offense averaging 14.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. The junior transfer also ranked seventh in the Pac-12 with a remarkable 51.7 field goal percentage.
 
The 2022-23 campaign is set to tip off Monday, November 7, and will conclude at the 2023 Conference USA Basketball Championships March 8-11 at Ford Center at the The Star in Frisco, Texas. The women’s Championship title game is scheduled for Saturday, March 11, at 4:30 p.m. CT and will be aired on CBS Sports Network.
 
2022-23 C-USA Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll

Rank	School (first-place votes)	Total
1.	Middle Tennessee (9)	118
2.	LA Tech	104
3.	Charlotte (2)	95
4.	Rice	77
5.	North Texas	75
6.	WKU	66
7.	UAB	58
8.	UTEP	43
9.	UTSA	36
10.	FIU	34
11.	Florida Atlantic	20

 
C-USA WBB Preseason Player of the Year
Keiunna Walker, LA Tech
 
C-USA WBB Preseason All-Conference Honorees

Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown
Mikayla Boykin, Charlotte	Sr.	G	Clinton, N.C.
Jada McMillian, Charlotte	Sr.	G	Raleigh, N.C.
Anna Larr Roberson, LA Tech	Jr.	F	Ruston, La.
Keiunna Walker, LA Tech	Sr.	G	Lonoke, Ark.
Kseniya Malashka, Middle Tennessee	R-Sr.	F	Minsk, Belarus
Savannah Wheeler, Middle Tennessee	Sr.	G	Catlettsburg, Ky.
Courtney Whitson, Middle Tennessee	Sr.	F	Kingsport, Tenn.
Quincy Noble, North Texas	Sr.	G	McKinney, Texas
Ashlee Austin, Rice	Sr.	F	Johns Creek, Ga.
Jordyn Jenkins, UTSA	Jr.	F	Kent, Wash.

 
-ConferenceUSA.com-