Shocker WBB 2020-2021 Offseason/Preseason

[1972Shocker]

Now that the 2020-21 roster seems to be set how does that roster breakdown by class:


Seniors 1: Mariah McCulley
Juniors 9: Seraphine Bastin, Carla Bremaud, Shyia Smith, Trajata Colbert, Asia Henderson, Jaida Hampton, Ene Adams, Rachel Johnson and Asia Strong.
Sophomores 2: DJ McCarty and Ashlei Kirven
Freshman 3: Shamaryah Duncan, Emani Jenkins and Carla Budane

Jaida Hampton is currently listed on the roster as a Junior but she only played in 7 or 8 games last year which I presume was due to an injury but I don't know that for sure. Thought she might seek a medical redshirt and perhaps that is still something that will happen and she will drop back to the sophomore class in terms of eligibility which would help a little bit.

Quite frankly HCKA, heading into her 4th season, has done nothing to really address the class imbalance in her roster since inheriting a team with 8 seniors 4 years ago. At this point my conclusion is that apparently is not something that she is concerned about. Personally, I think it is difficult to sustain success if you are doing a total rebuild every 4 years. I always thought she made a mistake not redshirting Trajata Colbert as a freshman.

Had she done that, and can get a medical redshirt for Jaida (if possible) and kept 2 of her 15 scholarships in her back pocket for the Class of 2021 the classes would not be too bad next year at 5+4+3+3. I am not sure how common it is to even utilize all 15 scholarships in WBB especially if you don't use redshirts which, so far, HCKA doesn't seem too inclined to do. But she has been doing this a long time so it is what it is. I would be interested to hear her thoughts on this subject but I doubt it will come up.

[1972Shocker]

So, at least at this point the roster is somewhat out-of-balance in terms of class size. What does it look like in terms of position.

Point Guards: 5-8 Jr. Sepaphine Bastin
Combo Guards: 5-8 So. DJ McCarty, and 5-8 Jr. Rachel Johnson

Wings: 5-7 Sr. Mariah McCully, 5-11 Jr. Carla Bremaud, 5-10 Jr. Jaida Hamption, 5-10 Fr. Shamaryah Duncan

Combo Wing/Small Forwards: 5-11 Jr. Shyia Smith, 6-0 Jr. Ene Adama, 6-1 Fr. Emani Jenkisn, 6-0 Fr. Carla Budane

Power Forwards/Posts: 6-2 Jr. Trajata Colbert, 6-3 Jr. Asia Henderson, 6-2 Jr. Asia Strong, 6-3 Sophomore Ashlei Kirven

While the classes are pretty imbalanced the position balance looks to be pretty good. Will have to wait and see how good the 3 incoming freshman and the 3 incoming juniors are but I think this roster overall will be stronger than last year roster. But again finding minutes for everyone will be a challenge. In fact, I think it is safe to say there simply are not enough minutes to go around. Looks like the competition for those minutes will be pretty strong this year. Last year between having 3 players on the end of the bench that were in over their heads and having quite a few injuries playing time was not that much of an issue. Hopefully,. the injury bug doesn't bite us quite so badly this coming season but will just have to see how many, if any, players we have this year that clearly deserve to be parked on the end of the bench.

Looks like the pieces are in place to go big, go small or about anywhere in between depending on the matchups.

Time for the Lady Shocks to make their move in the AAC although it will be interesting to see what kind situation the Shocks will be faced with 2 years from now if we, in fact, end up with a 9-player senior class the year after next.

[1972Shocker]

Coach Keitha Adams has announced the signing of 4 players for the Class of 2021 in the early signing period this week.

https://goshockers.com/news/2020/11/...for-adams.aspx

One local player, 6-4 Ella Anciaux out of Kapaun, and 3 international players, one who will be a sophomore at Grayson Junior College this year.

HCKA has 8 players returning from last year after graduating 3 seniors and losing 4 other players. 3 of those other players were seldom used Diamond Forrest, Nataili Ryng and Vendela Danielsson. However, the 4th player not return is 5-11 forward Shyia Smith, who played 26 minutes a game last year. Not sure what was behind Shyia's departure.

HCKA has 6 newcomers this year 3 who signed early and 3 who signed this spring including 3 Juco transfers and 3 high schoolers bringing here roster to 14 players.

However, this year's roster only has 1 senior, Mariah McCulley, so she must be planning on a couple more departures next year as she only has 2 scholarships to give next year to reach the 15 scholarship limit.

Nice to see her pick up a local player.

[1972Shocker]

I don't think I would want to mess with Rachel. She looks like a pretty powerful young lady.

Edit: On her November 23rd coach's show HCKA said Rachel is very athletic and built like a running back.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks picked in the middle of the pack at 6th out of the 11 teams in the AAC. USF picked as the favorite to top the league this year with UConn moving on to the Big East.

https://theamerican.org/news/2020/10...ason-poll.aspx

I think the Shock have shot at a Top 4 finish but we will see. The Shocks finished in a 3-way tie for 6th last year and finished with an RPI rank of 169. The HCKA honeymoon is over. Time to start showing some significant progress.

The Lady Shocks have 5 non-conference game line up with all 5 being contested at Koch Arena. They open this Friday at 2:00 pm with Texas A&M - Corpus Christi who were decent last year with an RPI of 73 as they won the Southland Conference regular season. That is followed by 2 SWAC teams, Alcorn State (323) and Southern (232). The Shocks finish up the non-con against Northern Iowa (77) and perennially tough South Dakota (27) who went undefeated in the Summit last year.

Since all of these are at home would be disappointed if the Shocks don't go 4-1 in the non-con. Then will have to see how they do in AAC play. I think the key is that the Shocks need to play good team basketball. At times last year I thought they were a bit too one-on-one oriented. I would like to see more five-on-five although I'm not sure how HCKA wants them to play.

[1972Shocker]

Lady Shocks tip off at 2:00 against Texas A&M - Corpus Christi at Koch Arena. TAMCC had a pretty good team but they graduated 8 seniors so they will be pretty young this year.

The game is on ESPN+ and on Shocker HD Audio Stream

Shocker Starters - 4 Guard. Lineup

Seraphine Bastin
Carla Bremaud
DJ McCarty
Mariah McCulley
Asia Strong (6-2 Juco Transfer at the post)

Interesting lineup. Shock only have 8 players available. Injuries or Covids issues?

So far TAMCC looks much better than the Shocks. TAMCC moves the ball very well against the Shocker zone and are very patient and getting great looks. Shocks going mostly one on one and forcing things. TAMCC is up 11-4 midway through the 1st quarter. Shocks make some defensive adustments and pull to within 13-12 at the end of the 1st quarter. Shocks offense is still mostly one-on-one stuff. It appears that is by design. Not an offensive concept I like very much but we saw a lot of this last year as well.

Shocks shoot the ball much better in the 2nd quarter. Still a lot of one-on-one play but at least they started looking to create for teammates and had 6 assists on 10 baskets. Shocks pretty much have played zone all the way. Perhaps due to only having 8 players available. TAMCC made 5 of their 1st 10 shots in the game but only hit 4 of their last 16 shots of the half. The Shocks were 1-6 from the field in the first 5 minutes of the game but hit 14-25 after that. Shocks lead 36-26 at the half.

Nice opeing half to Asia Strong's Shocker career. The juco transfer from Trinity Valley (same juco Jaime Echineque played for) has 11 points on 5-7 shooting plus 1-1 from the line.

The Shocks get to the line 17 times in the 3rd quarter making 11 of them. Asia Strong banks in a 3 pointer at the buzzer and the Shockers extend their lead to 60-43 at the end of 3 quarters.

Mariah McCulley goes down with an ankle injury with 5:30 remaining in the game. Looks like she will be out of the lineup for a week or two.

Carla Bremaud heats up in the 4th quarter hitting 4 of 5 treys in the quarter and the one she missed was in and out. Seraphine and DJ did a good job looking for Carla of of their penetration.

Shockers 78 - Islanders 58

No post game interview with the Coach. No doubt a Covid thing. Shockers down to 7 players at the end fo the game.

Good win for the Shocks. TAMCC not as good this year as they were last year but they have a few nice pieces in their lineup. Well coached, disciplined team that is generally pretty odd defensively. TAMCC had already played a game this season. So an okay season opener for the Shocks all things considered.


The Shocks had 4 players in double figures. Asia Strong had 20 points and 6 rebounds, Carla Bremaud had 15 points, 12 of those in the 4th quarter on 4 out of 5 treys, Mariah McCully had 12 poiints plus 4 assists, Seraphine Bastin had 11 points and 6 assists.

DJ McCarty chipped in 9 points and 5 assists plus she ran her legs off at the point of the Shockers zone.

Sophomore Ene Adams, another juco transfer, gave the Shocks a lift on the boards with 10 rebounds, 6 of those offensive boards.

IMO, player of the game was Asia Strong.

[1972Shocker]

With one exception I am not sure why 7 of the players on the Shockers roster were not available today. Perhaps the most likely culprit would be due to players quarantining either after having tested positive or having been exposed to someone else who tested positive.

Not suited up today included"

Jr. Jaida Hampton 5-10 G
Jr. Asia Henderson 6-3 C
Jr. Rachel Johnson 5-8 G (Chopola Juco Transfer)
So. Ashlei Kirven 6-3 C
Fr. Emani Jenkins 6-0 G
Fr. Carla Budane 6-0 F (From Lisbon, Portugal -- Apparently has not been able to make to the states yet -- may be joining the team in December)

Fortunately for the Shocks this list does not include any of our key players although Rachel Johnson might prove to be that. We could also use the size of one or both of the centers.

With Mariah McCully going down with late game ankle injury for who knows how long the Shocks are now missing a key player.

The Shocks have games against two SWAC teams, Alcorn State and Southen, next week. They should be able to win those games but it seems like this season my be play it by ear regarding whether you will even play and if you do play who will you have available.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks vs Alcorn State

Same starting lineup as Friday except Ene Adams starts in place of Mariah McCulley who left Friday's game midway through the 4th quarter with an ankle injury. Still evaluating Mariah but sounds like she will be out at least through the next 3 games.

Shockers have 8 players available again tonight as Juco transfer Rachel Johnson makes her debut to offset the loss of McCully. Early on looks like Rachel has a lot of juco in her but is very athletic.

Shocks trail 14-17 at end of 1st quarter. Similar start to the start they had against TAMCC.

Flopfest so far.

Shocks are very passive on defense and impatient and forcing things on offense. Finally, got some decent ball movement and freed up Carla for a wide open trey to tie the game at 21-21 midway through the 2nd quarter.

Asia Strong has missed a good part of the 1st half. I think she to a shot to the chops and had to have a few stitches.

Shocks lead 29-27 at the half. Did not play well or smart on either end of the court. Pretty much content to let Alcorn State take uncontested 3-point shots. ASU has hit 6-18 after a 2-13 performance in their first game but he shots they are getting in this game are pretty much just shooting practice shots. Shocks have turned the ball over 10 times in the first half after only turning it over 11 times total against TAMCC. 4 of the turnovers were offensive fouls. Shocks left some points at the free throw line as well missing 3 of 5 attempts. The smaller Alcorn State team also outrebounding the Shocks 18-17. HCKA needs to do some coaching during the half time break.

Shocks much more active on both ends of the court in the 3rd quarter were especially active and aggressive on the defense playing both a trapping zone and a good bit of man-to-man and expanded their lead to 51-40. Asia Strong (8 points) and Carla Bremaud (9 points) led the way on the offensive for the Shocks in the quarter.

Shocks stretch it out a bit more in the 4th quarter to finish of a 71-53 win. Nice adjustments by HCKA at the half. I think the defensive adjustments were the big thing and that defensive energy carried over to the offense and provides some fast break opportunities as the Shocks had 13 fast break points in the 2nd half after getting only 2 in the 1st half. Alcorn State only scored 1 fast break point in the game.

Another nice game for Asia Strong with 16 points although the box score shows her with no rebounds which is not good. Carla Bremaud chipped in 14 points 3-5 on treys so she is off to a good start with her long-range game. Rachel Johnson with a nice Shocker debut with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. She is a strong looking athlete. She does have some juco habits she needs to break as she had 4 turnovers but overall a very good start to her Shocker career. DJ McCarty had a solid floor game and lead the Shocks with 6 assists while also chipping in 4 rebounds, 5 points and 2 streals. Seraphine Bastin had 8 point, 3 rebounds and 4 assists. Trajata Colbert used her size advantage to come off the bench to score 9 points and grab 6 rebounds as she did a solid job backing up Asia.

The Shocks were 15-27 (55.6%) including 3-6 on treys in the 2nd half and a very good 9-11 (81.8%) from the line.

The Shocks move to 2-0 as they should be against this competition despite only suiting up 8 players in both games. Another SWAC team, Southern, is on the docket this Friday at 6:00 pm.

[1972Shocker]

RH: Shockers Pull Away in Second Half

https://goshockers.com/news/2020/11/30/the-roundhouse-rh-shockers-pull-away-in-second-half.aspx

[1972Shocker]

AAC favorite South Florida hosted 4th ranked Baylor tonight a gave the Lady Bears a very tough game losing 62-67.

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks hosted Southern tonight and played with an 8 player roster for the 3rd consecutive game. However, the none of the roster shortage is due to Covid issues. Mariah McCulley is out for the 2nd consecutive game after spraining an ankle late in the Shocks season opener. Might have her back Sunday vs UNI but more likely she won't return until next Thursday against South Dakota. Asia Henderson is nursing some kind of injury and they hope to have her back in time for AAC play. Jaida Hampton is still dealing with some health issues that plagued during the 2nd half of last year. Ashlei Kirven is suspended indefinitely and may or may not be reinstated I guess that is mostly up to her at this point. Freshman guard Emani Jenkins returned home to Dallas for personal reasons and it's not known whether she will return or not. Freshman Carla Budane is still in Portugal. I think they expect her to joint the team for the 2nd semester but we will see.

This maybe answers why HCKA signed 4 players this past month despite only having 1 senior and 1 other open scholarship as far as we knew at that time.

This was a pretty lackluster game with the Shocks winning 57-53. The Shocks had a 12 point lead with about 2:10 remaining in the game and nearly gave it away. The Shocks may have been the beneficiary of a missed call with about 20 seconds remaining in the game. With about 20 seconds left Seraphine threw her left hand out trying to fight off a double team and hit one of the Southern defenders in the face. Could have easily been called a Flagrant 1 with Southern getting 2 free throws and the ball. As it was Southern fouled DJ McCarty who knocked down both free throws to seal the deal for the Shocks.

I thought DJ McCarty, Trajata Colbert and Ene Adams played the best of the Shocks but no one played great.

DJ had 11 points on 3-5 FG's and 5-8 FT's, grabbed 4 rebounds, had 6 of the Shockers' 10 assists and added 2 steals and a blocked shot.

Trajata had 8 points on 4-5 FG's plus 4 rebounds and 3 blocks in only 15 minutes of play but had to leave the game with about 8 minutes remaining after falling on a rebound play and hitting her head on the floor. Didn't look all that bad but we'll see if she has to go throught concussion protocol which would probably cause her to miss Sunday's game with UNI.

Ene hit her average with 9 rebounds and made a great save on an errant Seraphine pass late in the game and the Shocks turned that into 2 important points on that saved possession.

Neither team shot the ball well. The Shocks certainly left some points at the free throw line as they were only 13-25 for 52%. The Shocks also lost the battle of the boards 32-39.

Not many games left on the schedule that the Shocks will win playing like they did tonight.

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shockers hosting Northern Iowa tonight. At the half UNI leads 36-33 and the Shockers are lucky they are that close as I did not thing the played very well at all outside of Trafata Colbert. Trajata had 14 points on 7-10 shooting plus 4 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal although Trajata was gassed late in the half. The rest of the Shockers were 5-20 from the field and turned the ball over 12 times.

UNI has the advantage in the number of available players and they have a more experienced roster than the Shockers. Otherwise they are pretty evenly matched. UNI perhaps better coached, a little better basketall skills and better BBIQ. That said the Shockers can win this game if they play smarter, take care of the ball and work for good shots. Now whether they are capable of doing that remains to be seen. The Shockas lso have 3 players with 2 fouls and 1 with 3.

Asia Strong proving to be a black hole. Forcing a lot. Midway through the 3rd quarter Asia is 1-7 from the field with 3 turnovers and 3 fouls. A very juco kind of performance.

Trajata now has 19 points but has picked up her 4th foul with 13:30 left in the game.

A 31-18 3rd quarter has pretty much put this game away. UNI leads 67-51 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Shocks up to 20 turnovers.

Shocks have cut the lead in half 73-65 with 5:30 left in the game. Asia starting to score with 4 points on 2 shots and Rachel Johnson has 6 points. UNI calls a timeout.

Shocks have now cut the lead to 76-74 with 2 minutes to play.

Shock tie it up at 78-all with 58 seconds left. Shocks get final possission but Seraphine is unable to score on a drive down the left side of the lane. Probablu got fouled.

Shocks take an 84-83 lead on a Rachel Johnson basket with 36 seconds left. UNI center gets a layup with 25 seconds left to give the lead back to UNI at 85-84.

One more possession for the Shocks. Serephine gets fouled with 15 seconds left and hits 1 of 2 to tie the game at 85-85. UNI has th final possession.

UNI's senior point guard drives to the basket but the Shocks walled up well and were on to a second OT.

The Shocks have had plenty of opportunities but they have to be getting tired and they have foul

Back and forth we go but Serephine puts the Shocks up 89-88 on a vert nice drive and reverse layup. But Serephine goes down with a leg cramp and Trajata has fouled out.

Serephine comes back in and hits 2 free throws with 25 seconds left to tie the game at 91-all.

UNI scores with 3 seconds remaining to make it 93-91. DJ McCarty did get a half court shot but it wasn't close. But the Shocks had a lot of opportunities to win this one and they could not cash in.

Asia Strong came back in the 4th quarter and the 2 OT's to lead the Shocks with 22 points and 13 rebounds but she took 25 shots to get her 22. Trajata scored 21 on 14 shots, Rachel had 17 on 8 shots and Serephine had 16 points on 11 shots.

Tough loss by the Shocks. HCKA said the Shocks played poorly for the first 3 quarters and were hanging their heads. But they picked up full court in the 4th quarter and that got them going. But there were a lot of little things they could have done in this game that would have made the difference.

HCKA said she didn't think her team followed the scouting report and the game plan very well. She thinks this a game that has a lot of lessons to learn.

One more non-con game against South Dakota which is probably a step up from Northern Iowa.

[shoxlax]

Tough loss but heck of a game

[1972Shocker]

AAC favorite South Florida beat 6th ranked Mississippi State 67-63 in OT on Saturday. The played 4th ranked Baylor with 5 points on Tuesday.

Looks like they are the real deal.

UConn, now in the Big East, is ranked 3rd but has not played yet. I don't think UConn lost an AAC game but that may have been at risk this year if they had stayed on the AAC.

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers finished off their non-conference play Thursday night falling to a good South Dakota team 62-54 ad their record moves to 3-2.

The Shocks did well holding the Coyotes to 62 points. Part of that was a poor shooting night by SD but give the Shocks defense some credit for that. SD shot 31.8% from the field including 5-22 (22.7%) from 3. The Shocks shot 39.6% from the field including 6-16 (37.55) from 3, however, they had 18 fewer FG attempts than SD.

The game was lost due to poor free throw shooting.and turnover differential. SD was 15-20 (75%) from the line vs 10-21 (47.6%) for the Shocks and the Shocks turned it over 23 times vs 9 for SD. Points off turnovers were 22-6 in favor of SD.

The Shocks continue to force things a lot on offense. They lack patience and ball movement is not great. Sometimes downright sticky. Their bigs a very poor and kicking the ball back out to shooters. However, that may by a system thing as much as anything. Some of that could be due to just not having enough players to go work 5 on 5 in practice and they don't have the boys practice squad this year due to Covid-19.

Rachel Johnson started for the Shocks but went scoreless through the first 3 quarters. However, Rachel scored 10 points in the 4th quarter on 4-4 shooting including 2 treys. May need for Rachel to get a little more assertive and for her teammates to look for her a little more.

Mariah McCully, who looks like she is fully recovered from her ankle injury, led the Shocks with 16 points on 6-14 shooting including 4-8 from the field. However, Mariah had 7 turnovers and while she makes many very good plays she also makes a bunch of headscratchers. Still a lot of juco in her game.

Trajata Collbert had 7 points and 10 rebounds and could easily have had a double-double if she could make her free throws. She was 3-10 from the line.

Serephine Bastin and Carla Bremaud did not play well. They were a combined 2-11 from the field for 7 points. Serephine did collect 8 rebounds but she also made 5 turnovers.. Carla was pretty much a non-factor in the game.

DJ McCarty didn't do much in the 1st half but did score 5 points in the 2nd half including the play of the game on in bounds play under the basket. It is a play I have seen her execute before. The Shocks weren't really getting open and a defender had her back to DJ. DJ bounced the ball off the defender's back, stepped in bounds, grabbed the ball and dropped it in the basket. However, the official scorekeeper only gave her credit for the basket. DJ did not get an assist on the play.

Not really sure where we're at with this team heading into AAC play. I think they have the pieces to be competitive but I just don't know if they have discipline and BBIQ to put it all together in a pretty package.

Shocks open AAC play on next Wednesday in Tulsa who were unanimously picked by the AAC coaches to finish dead last in the 11-team league this year. Also has not played a game yet this season as all 4 of their games have been cancelled. The are scheduled to play Oklahoma State on Sunday. Their game with St. Louis this past Wednesday was cancelled to to Covid issues on the St. Louis team who has suspended all women's basketball activities at this time.