The Lady Raiders had four Big 12 Conference wins during the 2007-08 season.
However, the Big 12 is not making it any easier to improve that total from last season.
Texas Tech enters conference play as the only unranked team in the Big 12 South and one of five unranked teams in the whole conference.
No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 6 Baylor, No. 8 Texas and No. 20 Oklahoma State headline the Big 12 South this season. No. 18 Kansas State and Iowa State, who is No. 25 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll, round out the other top-tier team in the conference.
With their only game against a ranked opponent being the 68-54 loss to then- No. 3 Cal, the Lady Raiders will look to their Big 12 schedule to boost them into the NCAA Tournament, while some teams' non-conference resumés speaks for themselves.
The first two games are ones Tech can use to add to the list of impressive wins.
While No. 8 Texas visits Lubbock to kick off conference play, the Lady Raiders will have to turn around for a visit to Texas A&M, the highest-ranked team in the Big 12. Kansas, No. 18 K-State and No. 6 Baylor loom for the Lady Raiders after the first two conference games, making four of their first five Big 12 opponents ranked. However, three of those ranked opponents must come to Lubbock.
But these games are the ones Tech center Dominic Seals said can get this team where it wants to be.
"I'm pretty sure everybody's gonna turn it up a notch," she said. "This is the Big 12. This right here gets you to the NCAA Tournament. We just know anybody can win on any given night."
The four-win conference season was rare considering the Lady Raiders last few seasons in Big 12 play. In the past seven years, the 2006-07 and 2007-08 season were the only ones where Tech finished conference play under .500.
Tech is 9-0 at home so far this season and with some of those first batch of ranked opponents in Lubbock, Tech forward Jordan Murphree said the winning streak has to continue.
"It's definitely important to get off to a good start," she said. "Every team in conference is going to be good. So we need to get our wins at home, protect our home court.
"It's going to be good for us to come out with a lot of energy. We only had four wins last season. We're looking to add more to that this year."
With this year's Big 12 opponents, Tech coach Kristy Curry said conference play will not be a smooth ride.
"The Big 12 is not a sprint," she said. "It's a marathon. Whether it's good or bad, you gotta have short-term memory and get ready for the next game. You really don't have any time to celebrate or to be down. You've gotta have short-term memory and focus on the next opponent because it is very treacherous. Can't get too high or too low."
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