Shocker WBB 2019-2020 Offseason/Preseason

[1972Shocker]

HCKA October 15th press conference:

I agree with HCKA. This is really her 2nd year. She did fairly well with the senior laden team she inherited in her 1st year but was basically starting from scratch again last year. I still think the Shocks are a year or two away from turning the corner. Hopefully, we see some signs we hare heading there this year.

[1972Shocker]

[1972Shocker]

Carla says she is talking more this year. The way she uses her hands when she talks I hope she has the stamina to make it through the year.

Kidding aside I would love to see Carla become the Ron Baker of the women's team. The potential seems to be there but that is really a high bar.

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shockers will host D-II Missouri Southern on Monday, November 4th at 6:30 pm. Missouri Southern is picked to finish 9th by the coaches and 10th by the media this year in the 14 teams MIAA conference. Last season Missouri Southern was 14-16 overall and 6-13 in the MIAA.

I am looking forward in seeing how much progress the Shocks have made since the Black and Yellow Scrimmage a month ago. I was not overly impressed with the Shock then but it was early and they had 4 players who did not play in that scrimmage. 6-3 R-So. Asia Henderson, 6-3 Fr, Ashlei Kirven, 5-7 Jr. guard Mariah McCully and 5-8 Jr. guard Vendela Danielsson did not play.

HCKA had some positive things to say about Asia and Ashlei in her radio show last Monday. Mariah McCully is a juco transfer that the Shockers actually signed as part of the Class of 2018. Mariah, who played at Wabash Valley College in Illinois, sat out all of last season for undisclosed reasons. Mariah was a 1st team D-1 Juco All-American at Wabash with impressive stats. She was definitely limping around at the Black and Yellow Scrimmage and HCKA indicated she was still knocking off the rust from sitting out a year. But their hopefully is some skill there. Vendala is a Swedish player who played her juco ball at Broward College in Florida. She was recruited to give the Shocks some badly need help with their long range shooting. However, HCKA reported on her radio show last Monday that Vendela sustained some kind of a non-basketball related head injury this past off season and has not practiced. So I assume she is unavailable for an undetermined period of time.

The Shocks should have no difficulty winning this game. The question is how will they look doing it. Hopefully, a month of good practice has sharpened them up quite a bit.

Paul Suellentrop: Three things to watch in Monday's exhibition game vs. NCAA Division II Missouri Southern State.

[1972Shocker]

It appears that the Lady Shocks went down to Stillwater for a "closed" practice/scrimmage with the OSU Cowgirls apparently this past Thursday.

This tweet and video is the only thing I have seen or heard about this. I guess the Shockers at least had a handful of highlights.

I guess it is not surprising the Shocks could line this up with OSU considering HCKA's past relationship with OSU head coach Jim Littell.

Believe it or not it looks like Shocker 6-5 Shocker Juco Transfer Diamond Forrest #0 may have shed a few pounds. I have to believe her game would be greatly helped if she can slim down a little bit.

[New2Wu]

Well Shocks start the season off tonight with a exhibition game against Missouri Southern. Here's to hoping that the Lady Shocks play team ball and everyone on the floor gets a touch of the ball. Really hoping Seraphine learned how to play under control and will stop trying to force the ball to Carla. (But looking at the all the reviews of the team so far it's clear HCKA is making this the Seraphine and Carla show, so I'm sure we will see lots unnecessary TO's from forced passes.) WSU reporters have labeled her a great pg but I disagree, she's good but not great (just my opinion and don't expect others to agree.) As we all know the team goes as the point guard goes. Also hoping all the returning girls have gotten more consistent in their play. Too many inconsistent players last year made it hard to get behind the team. Maybe freshman and the juco girls will bring a much needed spark. HCKA has stated they will play at a faster pace, which would make for a more exciting game if they can score and play great defense. We will see tonight how much things have changed...or stayed the same!

[1972Shocker]

Well Shocks start the season off tonight with a exhibition game against Missouri Southern. Here's to hoping that the Lady Shocks play team ball and everyone on the floor gets a touch of the ball. Really hoping Seraphine learned how to play under control and will stop trying to force the ball to Carla. (But looking at the all the reviews of the team so far it's clear HCKA is making this the Seraphine and Carla show, so I'm sure we will see lots unnecessary TO's from forced passes.) WSU reporters have labeled her a great pg but I disagree, she's good but not great (just my opinion and don't expect others to agree.) As we all know the team goes as the point guard goes. Also hoping all the returning girls have gotten more consistent in their play. Too many inconsistent players last year made it hard to get behind the team. Maybe freshman and the juco girls will bring a much needed spark. HCKA has stated they will play at a faster pace, which would make for a more exciting game if they can score and play great defense. We will see tonight how much things have changed...or stayed the same!

I think Seraphine has the potential to be a very good point guard but agree she is not there yet. Her perimeter shooting definitely needs to improve but that applies to everyone of the perimeter players on this team. The Shockers were a poor shooting team last year (including at the free throw line) and also struggled with turnovers. I think those two things were primarily responsible of their inability to score (only 56.9 PPG). The Shockers had 11 games last year where they scored 50 or fewer points. Last year the Shocks averaged 10.6 assists per game vs 18.7 turnovers per game fro a 0.567 assist to turnover ratio. IMO those metrics or where the Shockers need to see the most improvement this year.

I really did not see any indication in the Black and Yellow Scrimmage that they have improved in these areas but I also think it's not a necessarily proof they won't be better in these areas. That was a month ago so and they were missing 4 players. So it will be interesting to see if the month of practice and working together has much difference. That said I'm not sure how good of a measuring stick MIssouri Southern will provide but hopefully this will provide some signs they are progressing.

The home opener against Northern Iowa will provide a much better measuring stick. UNI is picked to finish 3rd in the Valley this year behind Drake and Missouri State.

Last year the Shockers finished in a 4-way tie for 9th place in the league. The AAC coaches have picked them to again finish 9th this year. So expectations from their peers aren't real high going into the season.

[New2Wu]

Definitely agree they were a poor shooting team and turned the ball over at an unbelievable rate. Improve in those two areas as well as increase FT % and they definitely will move from a 9th place finish/ranking to a 6th, maybe 5th place finish/ranking.

I am hoping with a year under their belt and a more fast paced offense we will see some improvement. Can't wait to see them against UNI then we all will have a better idea.

Do we know if the four players are not playing?

[1972Shocker]

Definitely agree they were a poor shooting team and turned the ball over at an unbelievable rate. Improve in those two areas as well as increase FT % and they definitely will move from a 9th place finish/ranking to a 6th, maybe 5th place finish/ranking.

I am hoping with a year under their belt and a more fast paced offense we will see some improvement. Can't wait to see them against UNI then we all will have a better idea.

Do we know if the four players are not playing?

The four players who were not available in the Black and Yellow Scrimmage were 6-3 R-So. post Asia Henderson, 6-3 Fr. forward Ashlei Kirven, 5-7 Jr. guard Mariah McCully (a juco transfer who sat out and was not on any roster last year) and 5-8 Jr. shooting guard Vendela Danielsson ) also a juco transfer). IIRC I think HCKA said that Asia, Ashlei and Mariah will be available tonight. As of last Monday, Vendela had not practiced yet this year due to a non-basketball related severe concussion she sustained in the off season so I am not expecting her to be available. So the Shockers should have 14 of their 15 scholarship players available tonight.

Here is the link to HCKA's radio show from last Monday where she talked about tonight's exhibition game: https://kfh.radio.com/media/audio-ch...-show-10-28-19

[1972Shocker]

HCKA picked up a a couple of Dr Dish Shooting Machines this year. The Shocks have put of 72,290 shots on those machines since August 18th. Hopefully, it translates to improved in-game shooting.

Like the Shocker men the Shocker women are still pretty young: 3 freshmen (1 redshirt), 6 sophomores (1 redshirt), 3 juniors (all Juco transfers with no D-1 experience) and 3 seniors (also all Juco transfers with only 1 year of D-1 experience each).

Shocks added some good size with juco transfer Diamond Forrest, a 6-5 big bodied post player. Now how much skill and athleticism Diamond will bring to the court remains to be seen. She could stand to slim down some. Also 6-2 Freshman forward is a big body who can bang on the boards but the game seems to moving a little fast for her right now. 5-7 Fr. guard DJ Mcarty is very athletic, can defend and create off the dribble. HCKA says DJ has great potential. They hope to get Vendela on the court this year but at this point it doesn't sound like HCKA really knows when that might happen, if it happens.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks also played Missouri Southern last year in their exhibition game winning by a 62-49 score. The Shockers won that game at the free throw line by hitting 28-37 (75.7%) vgs 16-22 (72.7%) for Missouri Southern. The Shocks only hit 25.9% of their field goals and 20% (4-20) of their 3 point attempts.

Perhaps just as bad as the Shockers shooting in this game last year, maybe worse, was the Shocks had only 7 assists vs 22 turnovers. 22 turnovers against a D-II team is simply unacceptable.

Missouri Southern had 2 seniors last year including their leading scorer 5-10 guard Chelsey Henry who averaged 15.8 points per game.

I will take 75% from he line any day (the Shockers shot 63% from the line on the season last year) but I hope we don't have to sit through 60 free throw attempts again this year nor do I want to see the Shocks making anywhere close to 22 turnovers.

I will be disappointed if the Shockers don't shoot the ball substantially better that what they did last year against Missouri Southern and score at least 75 points. Sharing the ball better and taking care of the ball a lot better is a must as well.

[New2Wu]

Sounds like Mariah is out and they are appealing a waiver with NCAA. So down to 13 without Mariah and Vendela

[New2Wu]

Well game was definitely faster paced. But 21 TO's and 53% from the charity strip doesn't exactly seem promising. It was clear that Missouri Southern wasn't to the level of the Shockers, 15-0 lead in the first few minutes of the game. But those two stat lines are still concerning for me, along with the 6 point second quarter. Kudos to the team for winning the rebounding battle 44-30.

Maya, Carla and Shyia played well, and I looks like all but two players got in the scoring column. Hopefully that translates into more offensive power all the way around.

UNI will be a good test for the team. Think we will get a better idea of where and who they are as a team.

[1972Shocker]

Well game was definitely faster paced. But 21 TO's and 53% from the charity strip doesn't exactly seem promising. It was clear that Missouri Southern wasn't to the level of the Shockers, 15-0 lead in the first few minutes of the game. But those two stat lines are still concerning for me, along with the 6 point second quarter. Kudos to the team for winning the rebounding battle 44-30.

Maya, Carla and Shyia played well, and I looks like all but two players got in the scoring column. Hopefully that translates into more offensive power all the way around.

UNI will be a good test for the team. Think we will get a better idea of where and who they are as a team.

The final score of 80-33 on the face of it indicates a dominating performance by the Shocks atlhough there were some issues.

I agree with those observations. MSSU had decent size for a D-II team but the skill level was not very good. MSSU shot 7-48 (14.6%) from the field including 1-23 (4.4%) from behind the arc. I give credit for some of that to the Shocks defense which I thought was pretty good. But MSSU actually ran a decent offensive scheme and they had plenty of good looks that they simply could not knock down.

The Shocks scoring was definitely helped by their pushing the tempo as they scored 21 fast break points. The Shocks put up 21 points in the 1st quarter when MSSU was in a man-to-man with the Shocks running primarily a dribble drive offense that was not very team oriented but against MSSU worked. However, the Shockers only scored 6 points in the 2nd quarter. MSSU switched to a zone to slow down the dribble penetration, both Carla and Maya went to the bench with foul trouble and the Shocks were a miserable 1-20 from the field.

With Carla and Maya back on the floor in the 2nd half the Shocks were much better. Maya in particular was hot scoring 16 of her 17 points in the 2nd half. The Shocks shot very well from the outside and picked up quite a few easy transition baskets. In the 2nd half the Shocks were 20-29 from the field for a sizzling 69% including 6-10 from behind the arc thanks to Maya's 4-4. The Shocks shot 25.89% from the field in the first half and only 1-11 from behind the arc. The Shocks did have a number of treys go in and out. As New2Wu mentioned the free throw shooting was poor at 17-32 (53.1%).

So seeing 80 points on the board was nice to see especially considering the poor 2nd quarter. The 21 turnovers are too many and the Shocks only had 12 assists on 28 baskets.

Individually, I agree that Maya, Carla and Shyia played well and looked good. Those 3 combined for 15-20 from the field including 6-8 from behind the arc, 6-8 from the free throw line, 10 rebounds, and 7 steals. Seraphine wasn't bad but I'm not wild about how sticky the ball tends to be when in her hands with the same thing applying to Ashley Reid when she is in the game. Part of that I suppose is the dribble drive offense HCKA seems to be emphasizing but personally I think Seraphine and Ashley try to do too much on their own. Seraphine does rebound the ball well for a 5-8 guard as she tied Raven for game high in rebounds with 7 (note there were a lot of bricks to be had with MSSU shooting 7-48).

The best of the newcomers IMO was freshman guard DJ McCarty. I thought she was better than either Seraphine or Ashley in distributing the ball and getting her teammates involved although she showed she could also could slash to the basket She was also very pesky on defense. He shooting looks like it may need some work. She was 2-4 from the field but was only 3-8 from the free throw line. Overall though she contributed 7 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists (to lead the Shocks and half of their total) and 4 steals in what I though was a very encouraging debut for DJ.

Of some concern is that the Shockers only got 11 points from their inside players Raven (4), Trajata (3), Asia (2), Ashlei (2) and Diamond (0). I don't think they are going to count on much scoring from the post players. Diamond is really big but not sure she will be of much value to the Shocks this year. Trajata is big and strong but also pretty active and runs well for her size. Ashlei is also a strong looking player and runs the floor well but her two free throws looked awful. She might benefit from a redshirt year but we'll see, Neither Asia nor Diamond get up and down the court very well. I prefer the more athletic post players myself.

Not sure about what kind quality depth the Shocks will have this year. Jaida Hampton only played 7.5 minutes so she has not lived up to her billing so far early in her Shocker career. Natalia Ryng played 15.5 minutes. She didn't really stand out as good or bad. Looks like a role player to me. Hopefully, Ashley will normally shoot better than she did in this game. She seems intent on being a shoot first point guard. She was only 3-13 from the field tonight including 1-8 from behind the arc and only dished out 1 assist in 21.5 minutes. She has worked hard on her shot in the off season so hopefully will see that reflected more than it was tonight.

I like Seraphine, Carla, Maya, Shyia and Trajata as a starting lineup.

We'll have to just wait and see if and when Vendela (concussion protocol) and Mariah (some kind of technical academic eligibility issue) will be available and if and when they are how much they might be able to contribute. Both, I think, were going to be counted on to provide perimeter shooting.

Overall I would say the Shockers are well ahead of where they were at this time last year. It will be interesting to see how they look against UNI on Saturday in their home opener.

UNI beat Upper Iowa on Sunday in their exhibition game 67-40 and only made 4-24 (16.7%) from behind the arc in that game. UNI hosts North Dakota State on Wednesday in their home opener before coming to town on Saturday.

[New2Wu]

Definitely was a dominating performance by the Shockers, just worried how they will do with a true D-1 team. I agree with 1972Shocker that tI don't think the post will be that dominate this year. Seems to be a more guard oriented offensive with the dribble drive. DJ was impressive and I hope she plays more point, hopefully she will get on the Dr. Dish shooting machine during the year. She is a freshman of course, so she will see some ups and downs but I liked her tough performance. Shockers should be ok at depth as long as Jaida (knee) and Natalia (knee) are 100% from their injuries and Mariah (eligibility) and Vendela (concussion) are cleared to play.