Here’s a quick mid-season basketball pop quiz: What sophomore leads the Big 12 Conference in scoring, rebounding and blocks, and is in the top 10 for field goal and free throw percentage during league play?

If you guessed Alec Burks or Jordan Hamilton, give yourself a consolation prize. Those aren’t terrible guesses, but the correct answer is Brittney Griner – of the No. 1 Baylor Lady Bears.

I know, I know, it’s women’s basketball. Who cares, right? Maybe you’ve seen Griner show up on Sportcenter or YouTube every so often, or perhaps you’ve never heard of her, but if there was ever a time to care about Big 12 women’s basketball, it’s now. And that’s solely because of one 6-foot-8 woman.

If you’re unfamiliar with Griner, here’s the scouting report: She’s averaging 23.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 4.27 blocks per game in league play. Her 118 blocks on the year are 22 more than the nearest Big 12 player. In her last three games, she’s scored 23, 29 and 26 points. In her last game, against No. 5 Texas A&M, she scored 23 points in just the second half, including a stretch where she had 13 straight Baylor points.

In a nutshell, she’s scary good.

Just listen to what her coach, Kim Mulkey, had to say about her star player after Baylor throttled Kansas 76-37: “People want to say Brittney’s going to change the game… but there’s not going to be a lot of girls that come along who are built like Brittney that can play above the rim.”

Yeah, probably, like, none.

Watching Griner in a college game is like watching a middle schooler join a group of third-graders playing a pick-up game on the playground. With her ridiculous 7-foot-4 wingspan, she does almost whatever she wants to underneath the basket.

Also, she can, and does, dunk. On a regular basis, actually. She has done it since high school. The ridiculousness of that statement can’t be overstated. WNBA.com has a list of all the times that players have dunked in professional regular season games in the history of the league. The list is about as long as my fingernail. The last time a woman slammed in the league was 2008. Griner did it 52 times her senior year of high school. And that was without playing organized basketball until her freshman year.

All the attention she’s garnered isn’t the easiest thing for a 20-year-old to handle, but the consensus on Griner is that she’s also a great ambassador for all of women’s basketball.

One of my most frightening assignments as a journalist was asking Griner, nearly a half-foot taller than me, about the time she punched an opposing player her freshman year. But she responded with the grace and poise that have helped her move past that embarrassing episode to becoming perhaps the most dominant player in women’s college basketball history – all before her 21st birthday.

— Edited by Caroline Bledowski