Shocker WBB 2020-2021 AAC Games

[1972Shocker]

Watching a replay of the game.

ECU picking up just past half court in a zone press but really looking to trap in the corners. ECU has good athletes and they are pretty aggressive with their defensive play.

The Shocks had 9 turnovers and 7 offensive boards in the first quarter. Despite that the Shocks lead 13-10 at the end of the quarter as ECU was 3-20 from the field. I would say 5 of the turnovers were unforced but no doubt the press is bothering the Shocks.

The Shocks committed 7 more turnovers in the 2nd quarter and again I would say have their turnovers have been unforced.

Not saying ECU's pressure is not effective but the Shocks have just been careless at times and have a at least 4 travelling calls. The Shocks are shooting 48% from the field for the half (60% in the first quarter) but they missed a lot of good looks in the 2nd quarter. They are in the game as ECU is only shooting 24% from the field in the first half on 8-33. The Shocks outrebounded ECU 23-17 but 9 of ECU's rebounds were offensive rebounds. The Shocks did hold ECU's best player LaShonda Monk scoreless in the first half playing a box and 1 when she was in the game. ECU probably pretty happy with a 26-all tie at the half.

The Shocks had another 11 turnovers in the 3rd quarter but the big thing is that they tried to be more aggresssive with their defense and they gave ECU a bunch of layups and wide open threes. Plus they went away from the box and 1 and ECU's Monk scored 13 points. HCKA picked up technical which she deserved but one I don't blame her a bit on. The refs let ECU get away with a lot of contact.

The 4th quarter was the Shocks best offensive quarter of the game but ECU did back off a bit on their defensive pressure in that quarter. Another 7 turnovers by the Shocks. LaShonda Monk ended up with 18 points in the half. 16 offensvie rebounds in the game for ECU. However, ECU had a lot of opportunities for offensive rebounds as they missed 42 shots. The Shocks had 10 offensive rebounds on 23 misses but ECU took 22 more shots from the field then did the Shocks. ECU ended hitting 9-22 from three land vs 5-13 for the Shocks. ECU also outscored the Shocks from the line on 17-22 vs 12-19 for the Shocks.

I don't think the Shockers were quite ready for ECU's pressure but in their defense this was only their 2nd game in the past 14 days and the Shocks have had only 2 practices with 10 players available this entire season. On top of that the Shocks were not allowed to have a men's practice squad this season. So it would have been very difficult to recreate ECU's pressure in practice. ECU has bigger and stronger athletes and they are very aggressive. The Shocks just were not up to the task and perhaps are becoming a bit discouraged with how the season as progessed to this point.

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers hosted Houston on Wednesday evening and lost 65-77 to fall to 1-9 in AAC play in a ragged game that was generally a lot closer than the final score indicates.

The teams combined for 43 fouls (22 on the Shocks and 21 on Houston) and both teams did a good job knocking down the resultant free throws. Houston was 22-29 for 75.9% and the Shocks were 21-25 for 84%. But a game with 54 free throw attempts is not exactly fun to watch.

Shocks trailed 33-34 at the half. They played okay but Houston shot the ball pretty poorly in the first half.

The Shocks fell behind 48-41 with about 3:45 left in the 3Q and HCKA called a timeout. The Shocks responded with a 8-0 run to take a lead at 49-48 lead with 1:30 left in the half. Asia Strong picked up 2 quick fouls, one on offense followed few seconds later with a double arm bar push on defense, both of which were good calls and gave Asia 4 fouls. Asia was replaced with Ene Adams who quickly picked up her 4th foul. Houston hit 3 of 4 free throws to retake the lead at 51-49 with 22 seconds left and the Shocks had what could have been the final possession of the half. But Carla Bremaud took and missed a 3 pointer with 8 seconds and Houston grabbed the long rebound, got down the floor and hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer for a 54-49 lead at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The Shocks continued to battle the bigger and stronger Houston team and pulled to within 1 at 56-55 on two Seraphine Bastin free throws with 7:30 left in the game. Trajata Colbert picked up her 4th foul with 6:45 remaining in the game so all 3 of the Shocker primary front court players had 4 fouls at that point. Nevertheless, the Shockers tied it up at 57-all with 6:30 remaining in the game. A minute later, at around the 5:30 mark Mariah McCulley made a nice left handed drive to the basket was fouled and made the free throw to give the Shocks a 60-57 lead. However, Houston quickly responded with their own And-1 three point play to tie the game at 60-all. It was still a 71-65 game in favor of Houston with 1:15 to play but the Shocks had to start fouling and Houston put the game away to win by the final score of 77-65.

Both teams played 9 players although Houston had more players than that available to them. The Shocks played all 9 players that they had available but two of those players only played 1 minute each. So the Shocks basically played a 7-player rotation. The Shocks may have wore down a little bit late in the game. Not only was Houston a liitle deeper they were also more phsyical and it was a pretty physical game. After the Shocks took the lead at 60-57 with 5:30 to play they only scored 5 points while Houston scored 20 to pull away. Those 20 points consisted of 1 3-pointer, 4 layups including an offensive rebound put back with 8 seconds to play and 9 free throws,

Houston shoots and makes more 3-pointers than anyone in the AAC and they shot 27 in this game but only made 7 for 25.39%. However, the Shockers were only 2-17 for 11.8% from behind the arc.

The Shocks did outrebound Houston 42-40 thanks largely to the hustle of their guards. While Trajata Colbert (11) and Asia Strong (8) combined for 19 rebounds Shocker guards Seraphine Bastin (10) and the slightly build D.J. McCarty (9) also combined for 19 rebounds to account for 38 of the Shockers 42 total rebounds.

Maria McCulley led the Shocks with 19 points on 5-13 from the field and 9-9 from the line. She had 2 assists and 1 turnover and 2 steals.

Asia Strong had 15 points on 3-14 from the field and 8-8 from the line and pitched in 9 rebounds. She did have 3 turrnovers.

D.J. McCarty had 12 points on 5-12 from the field and 2-4 from the lien plus 9 rebounds (a career high), 2 assists, 1 turnover, 2 steals and a blocked shot.

Seraphine Bastin had 6 points on 2-4 from the field and 2-2 from the line plus her usual stellar rebounding effort with 10 boards, 6 assists, 4 turnovers, 1 steal and she drew 2 charging fouls.

Trajata Colbert only scored 2 points on 1-4 from the field and 0-2 from the line but she did lead the Shocks on the boards with 11 rebounds.

I think this Shocker team is probably somewhat better than their 1-9 AAC record indicates but it seems like very little has broken their way this season.

With only 1 game left on the schedule, next Tuesday at Tulsa, I believe the are locked in to one of the two "play-in" games at AAC Tournament with the top 6 finishers getting a 1st round bye.

I would not surprise me if the Shocks don't beat Tulsa and then win the play-in game in the AAC Tournament. Although they easily could lose both as well. If the Shockers best Tulsa I think there is a good chance they could move ahead of Memphis onto 9th place with Memphis falling into 10th. If that happens there is a decent chance the Shocks would be rematched with Tulsa in the play in game and an equally good chance they would play the regular season champion which will be either USF or UCF in the next round. The Shocks only played 1 game agains USF/UCF this season losing at USF in early January 48-66. I would not anticipate the Shocks would win against either USF or UCF.

[ShockTalk]

I think this Shocker team is probably somewhat better than their 1-9 AAC record indicates but it seems like very little has broken their way this season.

Maybe this isn't the place (or time), but what did you expect from this team for this year. I know they lost a key player in Johnson, who was new to the program, and COVID has played it's havoc (but its done that to all teams). However, they return what looked like a good nucleus from last year. The team has only 1 senior, but has 5 juniors (I believe) and that means there needs to be some quality new, quality blood added before those 6 have all left. I haven't followed the team any where near as much as in past years. Comments. Thanks

[1972Shocker]

Maybe this isn't the place (or time), but what did you expect from this team for this year. I know they lost a key player in Johnson, who was new to the program, and COVID has played it's havoc (but its done that to all teams). However, they return what looked like a good nucleus from last year. The team has only 1 senior, but has 5 juniors (I believe) and that means there needs to be some quality new, quality blood added before those 6 have all left. I haven't followed the team any where near as much as in past years. Comments. Thanks

To be honest and frank I was expecting quite a bit more than this. Not world beaters but maybe middle of the pack finish. Perhap top half finish. But stepping back and looking at the bigger picture I would have to say the program does not seem to be progressing like I hoped it would. HCKA's best team may have been the one she inherited in 2017-18. But the problem with that team it had 8 seniors so you know it would take some time to get the roster replenished and perhaps more balanced. I think HCKA had several opportunities to balance her classes out better but she did not take those opportunities. I commented on this numerous times previously. Now we have a roster of 12 players that includes 7 in the junior class (which would have been 8 fo 13 if Rachel Johnson had not left the program). So going in to her 5th year HCKA would be right back in the same situation she was when she took over the program and it remains to be seen how good we will be next year. Maybe this year is a throw away year and we see how we do next year with the do over year. But generally, considering what we are paying HCKA, I don't see the progression in the program I was hoping for when she was hired.

I am beginning to question the international recruiting strategy or at least the execution of that strategy. I think Seraphine Bastin was a very good get but outside of her none of the other international recruits have been especially impressive. I think she has fared somewhat better with her juco transfers. The problem is it seems to take a year to get rid of some of the bad juco habits these players bring with them. Asia Strong is probably her best Juco get (especially with Rachel Johnson leaving the team) and we may have her for 2 more years. Mariah McCully is another good Juco get who we may get a 3rd year out of. And I can not think of any 4 year U.S. player she has recruited out of high school that she has developed into a high quality player. I have hopes for D.J. McCarty but she has quite a ways to go in my opinion. She has some quickness and smarts but is pretty slender and can be overpowered by bigger stronger guards (as can Mariah McCully). Not sure what is going on with D.J. but last year she shot 42.3%/31.6%/68.1% in 24 games. This year she is shooting 41.8%/15.4%/51.2% in 12 games. In AAC games D.J. is 39.1% from the line. Not the trend you want and not what you would expect from a guard. Maybe its just the sophomore slump or the stop and start nature of the Covid impacted schedule of play. Hopefully, she bounces back and becomes a Haleigh Lankster type player before she is done.

At this point HCKA's tenure feels kind of like Jane Albright's tenure. A really nice person who the players no doubt really like but a basketball coach who has not been able to deliver the goods in on the court performance. At this time her WSU career record is 46-61 for a 43.0% winning percentage. 12 of those wins were Non-con wins over SWAC or MEAC type schools at home. HCKA's AAC record to date is 22-36 (37.9%) and the AAC sans UConn is not much different than the MVC. In fact, this year and last the MVC was ranked slightly higher than the AAC. By comparison Jody Adams was 147-83 (63.9%) in her first 7 years before she brought in professional program wrecker Dana Eikenberg onto her staff and was 16-32 in her final 2 seasons as WSU head coach. Jane Albright had very good success at Northern Illinois and Wisconsin over a combined 19 years of coaching and seemed like a very good hire by WSU but she never found success at Wichita State with a record of 48-95 (33.6%). Jane was little better at Nevada after leaving WSU but not a lot at 115-165 (41.1%) never having regained her success prior to WSU.

Next year is HCKA's 5th year. In 2019 ADDB gave her a 2-year extension which extended her contract through 2024. In 2019 HCKA's compensation was $334,652. So seems like WSU is convinced she can get this program moving. The question is what is WSU expecting for that kind of money and what should fans reasonably expect?

For some reason developing a WBB program at WSU that can win consistently appears to a very difficult challenge. Really only Jody Adam did it in her 1st 7 years before blowing up her program by hiring Dana Eikenberg and running off Kristy Guffey. Whether Keitha Adams is up to the challenge or not remains to be seen I guess, but so far we are still waiting for some indications that will happen. I'm guessing HCKA is not all that happy with the programs progress at this point in time as well.

From a fans standpoint I don't think the product that is being put on the court is all that appealing to fans. Part of that is the sport of WBB is what it is and the tendency of fans to compare WBB to MBB when in reality they are very different animals. I think one of the problems WBB has is the talent pool is just not that deep compared to MBB and IMO that disparity probably has widened with the growing popularity of volleyball. Just look at some of the athletes Lambo puts on the floor not to mention the Amazons that the power programs have in their volleyball programs.

[1972Shocker]

If HCKA is going to win at Wichita State you would think it would be the next two years. If all the juniors on this year's roster return next year and all are healthy (Asia Henderson and Jaida Hampton did not play this year due to injury/health issues) she will have 8 juniors including the juco recruit she signed this last fall. Except for Jaida Hampton the other 6 will be functionally redshirt juniors as 5 of those played this year without that counting and Asia Henderson was a redshirt junior coming into this year. If the all come back in 2022-23 HCKA will have 8 seniors on the squad with 6 of those the being 5th or 6th year seniors plus 2 three-year juniors. If HCKA is unable to win with that kind of experience on he roster (all her recruits) are there good reason to believe she will get it done at WSU. And then what happens after 2022-23 if she does have to replace 8 seniors as she had to do after her 1st season with the roster she inherited. I guess we will see what happens.

I actually think the talent on this team this year should be better than 4-11 (1-9) including wins over Alcorn State and Southern. Now if that assessment is accurate, which may very well not be the case, what is the reason for the underperformance. Covid for one thing I suppose but that isn't program specific although you might be able to argue WSU has fared worse than average with Covid related pauses. Are there any other reasons? Perhaps the next year or two will provide some clarity. Hard to imagine next year won't be better. Perhaps significantly better.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks had to go to overtime to do it but they pick up only their 2nd win in conference play at Tulsa tonight 85-77 in their final regular season game and the only game they played against Tulsa this season.

The teams finished regulation at 69-all but the main reason it was that close is because the Shocks had 20 turnovers and Tulsa had 6 outscoring the Shocks 16-7 on points off turnovers plus the Shocks only scored 1 point over the final 3 mintues of regulation.

The Shocks shot 26-50 (52.0%) from the field in regulation including 6-11 (54.5%) from 3 and 11-16 (68.8%) from the line.

Tulsa shot 25-70 (35.7%) from the field in regulation including 7-21 (33.3%) from the field and 12-17 (70.6%) from the line.

The Shockers outrebounded Tulsa 48-34 but Tulsa had 15 offensive rebounds to 9 for the Shocks. Tulsa outscored the Shocks 14-10 in 2nd chance points.

The +14 turnover advantage and the +6 offensive rebound advantage pretty much account for Tulsa getting 20 more shots up than the Shocks.

The Shocks turned it on in OT scoring 16 points on a near perfect 5-5 from the field including 1 three-ptr and 5-6 from the free throw line.

The Shocks basically played a 7 player rotation with the 5 starters averaging 38.6 minutes per game. Mariah McCulley did not play for the Shocks.

The Shockers, my guess is for the 1st time this season, put 5 players on double figures with the starters scoring 81 of the Shockers 85 points.

Sophomore D.J. McCarty, who was 2-13 from 3 on the season and shooting 39.1% from the line in AAC play. led the Shocks with a career high 20 points on 7-14 from the field including both of her free throw attempts while chipping in 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a block shot.

Junior Carla Bremaud had a season high 18 points on 6-9 shooting including a very good 5-7 from 3 and 1-2 from the line plus chipped in 2 assists, a blocked shot and a steal.

Junior Seraphine Bastion had another double-double with 15 points on 5-9 from the field and 5-8 from the line (which is sub-par for Seraphine) and grabbed 10 rebounds from her point guard position while dishing out 8 assists (just missing a triple double).

Junior Trajata Colbert scored 14 points on 6-9 from the field and 2-2 from the line and led the Shocks with 13 rebounds for her 2nd double-double of the season plus she had a couple of assists and 2 blocked shots.

Junior Asia Strong, the Shocks leading scorer on the season, had 14 points as well on 5-11 from the field and 4-4 from the line. She had 3 rebounds which is about half her average with 1 assist and 2 blocked shots.

On the negative side Seraphine and Asia both had 4 turnovers each. Carla had 3 turnovers as did Ene Adams in 13 minutes off the bench. This accounted for 14 of the Shockers 20 turnovers. The Shocks average 17 turnovers a game so the weren't that far over their average but 20 turnovers greatly aided Tulsa, who only turned it over 6 times, to stay in the game and get the game to overtime.

Tulsa looks to be locked into 8th place and the Shockers are in 9th place ahead of only Memphis by percentage points. If Memphis beats Temple in Philly on Thursday, the Shocks and Memphis will swap spots. Note that Memphis lost to Temple in Phily tonight 89-66 so I don't think Memphis winning on Thursday is most likely.

So it looks like the Shocks most likely have a rematch with Tulsa in the play-in round of the AAC Tournament. If Memphis did manage to upset Temple on Thursday the Shocks would play 7th place Cincy in the opening 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9 play-in games.

Shocks could very well win their opening round game in the AAC Tournament but will draw either one of the top 2 teams in round 2 (either USF or UCF) and that's when their season would likely come to a close. Probably one the won't be all that upset to see go bye-bye.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks probably had perhaps their best offensive first half of the season. Really played with good tempo, good ball movement and sharing the ball the kind of team play and bal movement I like to see. Shocks led at the half 46-39. Always helps when you are knocking down shots but the way the Shocks played helped make that happen. And that was with Seraphine on the bend for the last 5 minutes of the half with 2 fouls.
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Shocks got off to a pretty good start in the 3rd quarter on a beautiful assist from D.J. to Carly cuttting to the basket an two tough runners by D.J. and a short pull up jumper in the lane plus a nice jumper from tthe left elbow and the Shocks pushed had 10 points with 6:50 left in the quarter. Unfortunately, the Shockers only scored 2 points over the remaining portion of the quarter coming with 25 seconds left in the quarter. Shocks not nearly as sharp on offense in the 2nd half as Tulsa switched from the zone they played most of the 1st half to a man-to-man in the 3rd quarter forcing the Shocks to do more one on one play. The Shocks had some decent looks but wasn't hitting anything plus the turnovers picked up. Fortunately, Tulsa was able totally take advantage of the Shocker scoring drought as they weren't shooting great but in their favor they weren't turning the ball over and they hit the offensive boards pretty well and pulled to within 58-54 heading into the 4th quarter.

Neither team was particularly sharp in the 4th quarter but Tulsa was able to pull to within 1 at the 66-65 with 3:16 to play after Tulsa scored on an atomic bomb by Seraphine which was the Shockers 20th turnover. A basket by Trajata on a nice move in the paint put the Shocks up 68-65 but the Shocks could only manage 1 more point after that and Tulsa was able to tie the score at 69-all to force overtime. Neither team was very good over the final 2:30 of the game. Tulsa scored on an offensive rebound and putback with 20 seconds to play to tie the game.

Carly got the Shocks on the board early in OT with a transition 3 of a nice kick out pass by Seraphine. Another excellent assist by Seraphine on a drivfe and dump to Trajata put the Shocks up by 5 at 74-69 and Tulsa called a timeout 1:15 into the OT period. Tulsa then got a banked in two with the shooters toe just over the line but at that point I figured the Shocks probably had this game based on the opponent banked in record the Shockers men have had this year. 2 free throws and 2 seventeen foot jumpers from the keyhole sandwiched around a Tusa free pushed the Shocker lead to 80-74 with 1:45 left. A Tulsa 3 made it 80-77. Another nice drive and dish by Seraphine produced an Asia Strong layup and an 82-77 lead with a minute left. Tulsa file to score on the ensuing possesion and Tulsa had to start fouling. D.J. who has been very poor with her free throw shooting in AAC play knocked down a pair of free throws and Carla hit 1 of 2 to salt the game away.

Serephine was clearly the catalyst for the Shockers in OT. She hit 2 of the Shocks 5 field goals and assisted (created) the other 3 field goals and knocked down 2-2 from the linee to essentially account for 13 of the Shocks 16 points in OT. The Shocks only scored 23 points total in the 3rd and 4th quarters.

[1972Shocker]

After not playing Tulsa until the final game of the regular season the Shocks and Tulsa meet up again, as anticipated in the play-in round of the AAC Tournament

Wichita State (5-11, 2-9) will be the No. 9 seed and face No. 8 seed Tulsa (5-13, 4-13) on Monday, March 8 in Fort Worth, Texas, at Dickies Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. CT on ESPN+.

If the Shocks play like they did in the 1st half and overtime against Tulsa on Tuesday they will win. If they play like they did in the 2nd half they will lose.

The winner's prize is a match up against #1 seeded USF in the quarterfinals.

The Shockers won their 1st AAC Tournament game last year after losing their 1st round games in the two previous years beating #10 seeded Houston 72-64 as the #7 seed. However, the Shocks were embarrassed in the quarters 65-32 by #2 seed UCF.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks lead Tulsa 16-14 at the end of the 1st quarter. Shocks led by 6 at 16-10 with 1 minute left in the quarter but finished poorly.

Both Seraphine and D.J. picked up 2 fouls in the 1st quarter and Trajata picked up her 2nd foul 23 seconds into the 2nd quarter so the Shocks are hamstrung a little bit for the 2nd quarter.

Shockers trail 30-32 at the half is not bad since Seraphine sat out the last 12:5 minutes of the half, D.J. sat out the last 10 minutes of the half, and Trajata sat out the last 9.5 minutes of the half.

The Shock got a bit of boost from little used Carla Budane and Shamaryah Duncan. Budane hit 3 of 5 shots for 6 points and grabbed 4 rebounds which are both season and career highs as she has only seen action in 8 games during the 2nd semester. Duncan who was 5-28 on 3-point attempts coming into this game made 1-2 to chip in 3 points as these two score 9 of the Shockers 14 second quarter points.

Asia Strong, who was just named to the AAC All-Conference 2nd team only has 4 points but not for the lack of trying as she is 2-11 from the field.

Hopefully, Seraphine, D.J. and Trajata can stay on the floor a bit more in the 2nd half.

48-all at the end of the 3rd quarter. Asia is 4-16. Need her to catch fire a little bit to close this game out. Seraphine and D.J. each have 3 fouls and that should be manageable.

Asia must heard me as she scored 15 points in the 4th quarter on 4-5 shooting including 2-2 treys and 5-6 from the line plus 3 rebounds and 2 steals as the Shocks may have had their highest scoring quarter of he year as they outscored Tulsa by 28-16 to pull away to a 76-64 win.

Asia finished with a game high 24 points and pulled down 12 rebounds for a double-dboule. Seraphine also had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds from the point guard position and added 7 assists with only 2 turnovers. Trajata chipped in 11 points and 9 rebounds and D.J. added 9 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steaks.

Not all that important of a win for the Shocks other than for maybe they feel a little better getting a couple of wins over rival Tulsa late in what has been a crappy season. Their reward is a matchup with #1 seeded USF tomorrow which most likely will end the Shockers season.

[1972Shocker]

The Tulsa game was a lot closer than the final score might indicate. The Shocks only lead by 66-62 with 1:30 left in the game. An Asia Strong 3, 2 Asia free throws and a Dexter Dennis vs Houston steal and breakaway by D.J. McCarty made it 73-62 just 40 seconds later and the Shocks finished it off hitting 3 of 4 free throws.

[1972Shocker]

#9 Seed Wichita State vs #1 Seed USF

Shocks got off to a really good start jumping out to a 14-7 lead. Unfortunately, the Shocks failed to score in the last 4 minutes until the scored a layup at the buzzer. Fortunately, USF went scoreless for 5+ minutes before hitting a 3 pointer with 23 seconds left in the quarter. Shocks lead 16-10 at the end of the 1st quarter.

I will be out-of-pocket for the next hour and half.

[The Mad Hatter]

WSU leads 25-20 at the half. The lead was 23-12, but USF ended the half on an 8-2 run.

[1972Shocker]

Final: USF 48 - WSU 44

Kudos to the Shocks for giving USF a really tough game. My plan was to watch a replay tonight but, boy, that score indicates it may have been a pretty ugly game.

[ShockTalk]

Final: USF 48 - WSU 44

Kudos to the Shocks for giving USF a really tough game. My plan was to watch a replay tonight but, boy, that score indicates it may have been a pretty ugly game.

Last 2 games at least give some hope for next year.

[1972Shocker]

Last 2 games at least give some hope for next year.

Maybe, maybe not. In HCKA's 4th year I was expecting to see more improvement that what the Shocks have shown. Granted this year had its own special challenges and the Shocks were far from immune.

The Shocks did not have much depth or talent coming off the bench especially after Rachel Johnson left the program. Excluding Rachel's limited contributions in only 4 games the Shocks top 6 players contributed 90.5% of this year's scoring. I assume all 6 will be back next year. Only Mariah McCulley was a senior and gets a do over if she wants it.

Asia Strong and Mariah McCulley might be our most talented players on offense but they are also our most selfish and tend to hunt their points IMO. Carla Bremaud is pure one-trick pony as a spot-up shooter but she adds little otherwise and is not a very good defender (again IMO only).

I like the skill set of both McCulley and D.J. McCarty but both are very slightly built and as a result get bullied by bigger guards and are perhaps a bit more prone to injury. OTOH both can use their quickness to good advantage and to me D.J. shows flashes of having a good innate BBIQ.

I thought Trajata showed steady improvement this year in the post and hopefully that will continue. I think she and Asia could make a pretty solid 4-5 combo. Asia definitely has stretch 4 skills.

Seraphine Bastin to me is the heart and soul of this team. Trajata averaged 6.8 rebounds per game and Asia averaged 6.6 out of their front court positions which are decent averages. Seraphine averaged 7.7 rebounds a game from the point guard position. That is impressive. Seraphine's only weakness is she is not a very good perimeter shooter and I am not sure why. She is a terrfic free throw shooter.

HCKB did have two players on her roster who did not suit up for any games this year. 5-10 Jr. G Jaida Hampton and 6-3 RJr. C Asia Henderson. Jaida played in only 8 games last year with her last game on 12/04/19. Asia played in 30 of the Shockers 31 games last year averaging about 13 minutes per game 4.4 points and 4 rebounds per game. I really don't know anything about either one of these young ladies situations or status.

HCKA did sign 4 players for next year during the early signing period last November.

https://goshockers.com/news/2020/11/12/womens-basketball-four-sign-national-letters-of-intent-to-play-for-adams.aspx

3 of the 4 players are from overseas, 1 by way of junior college. The one U.S. player is a local player, Ella Anciaux, a 6-4 center out Kapaun who averaged a 20 PPG and 10 RPG as a junior.
The young lady from New Zealand sounds interesting. She averaged 25 PPG, 8 RPG and 4 APG last year but hard to know what the competitive level was like.. Maybe the heir apparent to Seraphine. So far, outside of Seraphine, the international recruiting has not seemed to have yielded a plethora of D-1 talent.

But hope always springs eternal especially right after the final game of a season. I will say that next year should be better than this year. How much better is hard to predict. The AAC is not a great WBB conference especially now since UConn is gone. Even with UConn in the conference the AAC was ranked a notch below the MVC and the same is true this year (as reported by WarrenNolan.com). I think the Shocks should be expected to consistently finish in the top half of the AAC. Not performing to that level yet. At least that's the way I see it.