WBB 2002-23 AAC Games

[1972Shocker]

Wichita State (10-3, 0-0) vs. Cincinnati (7-6, 0-0)
Friday, Dec. 30, 2022 | 6:00 PM CT | Charles Koch Arena
ESPN+ | GoShockers.com/Listen | ShockerStats.com

SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
Led by fifth year head coach Michelle Clark-Heard, Cincinnati enters Friday's matchup at 7-6 this season. The Bearcats are scoring just 66.8 points per game on 40.3 percent shooting. They are one of the league's top shooting teams from long range at 34.7 percent. Cincinnati ranks in the top 40 nationally in free throws made and attempted and offensive rebounds. Jillian Hayes does it all for the Bearcats, leading the team in scoring (15.0), rebounding (8.5), blocks (21) and steals (23). Mya Jackson has dished out a team-leading 43 assists to go with 13.4 points.

Based on this season's results to date here is how WarrenNolan.com is predicting the AAC will pan out:

1. South Florida 16-0
2. Memphis 13-3
2. Tulane 13-3
4. SMU 12-4

5. Temple 6-10
5. Tulsa 6-10
5. UCF 6-10
8. Cincinnati 5-11
9. East Carolina 4-12
9. Wichita State 4-12
11. Houston 3-13

Note that Houston was picked 2nd in the preseason AAC Coaches' Poll receiving the only 2 first place votes not going to South Florida.

Also notice the big gap behind the top 4 and the bottom 7. The implication is that WarrenNolan.com sees the AAC as a top heavy league/ The have a 4-game game between 4th and 5th but only a 3-game gap between 5th and 11th. So I think the opportunity is their for the Shockers to finish substantially better than their preseason 10th place pick. But they could do that and still finish AAC play well below .500.

The good news schedules wise is the Shocks only play South Florida and Memphis once (both at home) among the top 4 teams. They also only play UCF and Houston once (both on the road). I think the Shocks can contend for the best of the rest (5th place) position. Seems like the 4-12 record predicted above is almost a worst case result. What their best case scenario could be is hard to say. If they lose all 6 of their games vs the Top 4 they would have to go 8-2 against the bottom 7 to finish at .500. That seems like a long shot. Really hard to evaluate based on their weak non-conference schedule. Just not much to go on. 6-10 should be doable for sure I would think.

[ShockTalk]

Sorry if you had posted about it before, but what happened to Houston to go from being picked 2nd pre-season to being 3-13 in the non-con and last currently on Warren Nolan?

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks get off to a good start to open conference play with 61-49 home win over Cincinnati. The game turned at the mid-point of the 2nd quarter after Cincy scored to tie the game at 22-all. The Shocks didn't exactly light up the scoreboard scoring only 4 points to take a 26-22 half-time lead then opened the second half with a 7-0 run to take a 33-22 lead before Cincinnati scored with 4;20 remaining in the 3rd quarter. That 10+ minute scoreless spell pretty much did the Bearcats in.

Trajata had a big game with 24 poiints on 9-16 from the field and 6-9 from the free throw line and grabbed 9 rebounds. D.J. scored 15 on 6-13 from the field and 3-5 from the one and handed out 5 assists and had 4 steals although she did turn it over 5 times. Jane chipped in 8 points and dominated the boards with 15 rebounds and added 4 steals but turned it over 5 times. Sham Duncan chipped in 8 points as the Shockers continue to rely heavily on their starting 5 as theys starters scored 55 of the teams 61 points. But the bottom line is they don't ask how, just how many.

[1972Shocker]

Sorry if you had posted about it before, but what happened to Houston to go from being picked 2nd pre-season to being 3-13 in the non-con and last currently on Warren Nolan?

That I do not know. I don't know if they had some key injuries or if they simply were over-valued by the AAC coaches. However, they might just come alive in AAC play. They knocked off SMU, predicted by WarrenNolan.com to finish 4th, at home tonight 60-44.

[flyingMoose]

Other AAC games

South Florida 69-61 Tulane

Memphis 69-80 Temple

SMU 44-60 Houston

Tulsa 55-47 East Carolina

[WuDrWu]

That I do not know. I don't know if they had some key injuries or if they simply were over-valued by the AAC coaches. However, they might just come alive in AAC play. They knocked off SMU, predicted by WarrenNolan.com to finish 4th, at home tonight 60-44.

Watched just a bit of this, and it was a total mismatch. 16 points makes it seem competitive, and it was not.


Again, for me at least, I was pleasantly surprised at the execution of the ladies last night. They are definitely improving. Yes, there is a TON of places to improve and I'm not at all suggesting they are going to compete for a top 4 spot in conference or even top half, but they are getting better and getting at least a little production from some bench/younger players.

Baby steps, but at least it's in the right direction.

[ShockerFever]

Watched just a bit of this, and it was a total mismatch. 16 points makes it seem competitive, and it was not.


Again, for me at least, I was pleasantly surprised at the execution of the ladies last night. They are definitely improving. Yes, there is a TON of places to improve and I'm not at all suggesting they are going to compete for a top 4 spot in conference or even top half, but they are getting better and getting at least a little production from some bench/younger players.

Baby steps, but at least it's in the right direction.

So do you think Keitha deserves a contract extension?

[WuDrWu]

So do you think Keitha deserves a contract extension?

No. I understand the nuances of college athletics and recruiting and I get #MeToo and Title 9. Keitha has been paid a ton of money to go find 14 young ladies around the world that nobody else wanted and when compared to say, Gregg Marshall, has done little if anything to endear herself to the fan base, or Wichita in general, either on her own or through her program.

A competent AD should have no trouble finding a replacement to beat a handful of 300-365 ranked teams at home and get blistered by anyone in the top 100 while drawing dozens to the home games and creating zero buzz around the program each year. And probably could do so for less than a quarter mil per year to start.

I have no problem paying someone for results, even overpaying them, but no one is suggesting Bolt get 400K and he wins and wins with a lot of local types. I don't care if the entire team is from Antarctica, but there's got to be SOMETHING to hang your hat on.

[1972Shocker]

With everything else on his plate it would not surprise me a bit if ADKS was allowed to finish out her current contract next year. If she is retained beyond that it would have to be with a completely renegotiated and restructured contract. I would offer ADKS or whoever her replacement is a base salary of $150,000 and load it up with reasonable but meaningful performance bonuses that could add as much as $350,000 to that base. Although I doubt ADKS and perhaps any successor could earn max bonuses they would at least have the opportunity to do that. And I don't think a 10-3 non-conference record against the schedule the Shocks played this year was worth any bonus.

If the Shocks finish at 8-8 in the AAC I think she would almost assuredly be back. Now that is probably a longshot but at this point I don't think the AAC is all that strong overall.

I will be interested to see what kind of contracts ADKS negotiates when he starts hiring/replacing coaches. Hopefully, it's not a continuation of the big guaranteed contracts the reward just showing up on time. But rewarding meaningful performance targets gets a thumbs up from me.

[WuDrWu]

I would add, I don't think it's unreasonable at all to allow HCKA to coach next year if the team finishes strong this season. But extending the contract beyond next season is a hard pass. There would have to be a large step forward next year, after a strong finish to this season, to justify keeping her beyond the contract now.

[1972Shocker]

Wichita State (11-3, 1-0) at Tulsa (11-3, 1-0)
Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2022 | 6:30 PM CT | Donald W. Reynolds Cen
ESPN+ | KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM | ShockerStats.com

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN HURRICANE
Led by second year head coach Angie Nelp, Tulsa enters Wednesday's matchup at 11-3 this season and 1-0 in American play. Tulsa boasts a high-scoring offense, averaging 75.4 points on 43.4 percent shooting. The Golden Hurricane are one of the nation's top teams in three-point shooting, as they rank first nationally in three-point attempts and third in three-pointers made. Tulsa also ranks top 25 nationally in assist-turnover ratio, assists, field goal defense, defensive rebounds per game, blocks per game and three-point defense. Temira Poindexter leads Tulsa in scoring at 15.2 points followed by Maya Mayberry at 12.2 and Delanie Crawford at 11.4 per game.

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/1/3/womens-basketball-shockers-prepare-for-road-tilt-at-tulsa.aspx

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The Shocks and Tulsa bring identical records into this game and those records were built in a similar way. Both teams went 10-3 in the non-con with WSU have a SOS that ranked #348 while Tulsa put up an identical 10-3 record in the non-con against an SOS ranked #338. So neither team has been under much fire. Both teams lost to KU. WSU by 52-72 and Tulsa by 62-81. They also both lost to the 2nd toughest opponent on their non-con schedules. WSU lost 55-61 to Wyoming (Net #115) and Tulsa lost 70-79 to Arkansas (Net #40). So not much to chose from there.

This will apparently be a contest of contrasting offensive approaches. Tulsa loves to jack up the 3-pointers and the Shockers prefer to go inside. Even the Shocker guards do the majority of the damage inside the arc with the possible exception Sham Duncan. The Shockers average 12.7 3-point attempts per game and in their win over Cincinnati the Shocks only put up 4 treys making 2 of them. In this game the Shocks should have and advantage size-wise inside. Tulsa's tallest play, 6-3 junior Katelyn Levings, started the first 6 games of the season but has not played since (presumably due to injury). The tallest expected starter or Tulsa will be 6-1 sophomore Temira Poindexter. She will have her hands full fending off Trajata and Jane.

Tulsa, on the other hand lives and dies by the 3-pointer as they jack up an average of 31.3 treys per game hitting 33.6% of those attempts. In their lowest scoring output of the year, a 45-64 loss to Long Beach State the were 3-30 on 3-pointers. In their AAC opening 55-47 win over ECU, their 2nd lowest scoring output of the hear they were 7-25 from 3.

I like the Shockers chances in this one, as think they have the ability to pressure Tulsa's perimeter shooters better than most of the opponents on Tulsa's schedule to date and the Shockers were quite successful pounding the ball inside against Cincinnati. I think the Shocks will have better luck dealing with Tulsa's bombs away approach than Tulsa will have dealing with the Shocks more inside oriented approach. The Shocks are also a better free throw shooting team than Tulsa (74.0% to 67.7%) and they average 21 free throws a game to 16 for Tulsa.

[1972Shocker]

Tulsa leads the Shocks at half 33-28. Glancing at the stats it looks like Tulsa is shooting it just a bit better than the Shocks so far. One stat that standsout is the Shocks are 3-14 on layups. Must be quite of few contested or high degree of difficulty layups. The Shocks have been a pretty good 2nd half team this year so trailing by 5 at half is not a big deal.

Shocks with a big 3rd quarter outscoring Tusa 21-9 to take a 49-42 lead and the momentum heading into the final quarter. Shocks now out shooting Tulsa for the game.

The Shocks still led by 6 at 55-49 with 6 minutes to play at which point Tulsa starting knocking down their shots outscoring the Shocks 21-8 as they rallied for a 70-63 home win. In those final 6 minutes Tulsa made 7-9 shot inlcuding 4 of 6 3-pointers. Up to that point in the game Tulsa was 8 of 32 for the game. Conversely, the Shocks were 3-12 from the field and 2-6 from the free throw line.

The Shocks seemingly were in control of this game but were hit by a tsunami at the end of the game and could not find high ground.

Trajata almost had a double-double with 11 points and 9 rebounds as did Jane with 9 points and 14 rebounds. DJ scored 9 points. But the threesome combined to shoot 12-39 (30.7%). Jane and DJ led the Shocks with 3 assists each but also had the most turovers by far with 5 and 3 for 8 of the Shockers' 13 turnovers.

For perhaps the 1st time this year the bench was more efficient offensively than the starters. Nhug, Ornella and Jenia combined for 9-14 (64.3%) from the field over roughly 15 minutes of playing time each.

[WuDrWu]

I didn't see all of this game, but I saw a bunch.

The officiating was .......what word am I looking for here.....ATROCIOUS.

I'm not just making fun of women's basketball here, but is there a different rule regarding travelling for the women's game? Because they are consistently allowing folks to establish a pivot foot, try various steps, then take a full step while establishing a new pivot foot, and it's being allowed all the time and it's a disgusting display of travelling.

That being said, there were multiple blown egregious mistakes in addition to mechanical breakdowns (very late whistles, insane fishing tactics) and while admitting a bias, certainly did not come down in favor of the road team.

It was embarrassing to watch (the parts I did)

[flyingMoose]

AAC Games Tue->Thu

Temple 55-77 USF

East Carolina 55-47 Memphis

UCF 51-61 SMU

Houston 59-56 Tulane

[shoxlax]

I didn't see all of this game, but I saw a bunch.

The officiating was .......what word am I looking for here.....ATROCIOUS.

I'm not just making fun of women's basketball here, but is there a different rule regarding travelling for the women's game? Because they are consistently allowing folks to establish a pivot foot, try various steps, then take a full step while establishing a new pivot foot, and it's being allowed all the time and it's a disgusting display of travelling.

That being said, there were multiple blown egregious mistakes in addition to mechanical breakdowns (very late whistles, insane fishing tactics) and while admitting a bias, certainly did not come down in favor of the road team.

It was embarrassing to watch (the parts I did)

What’s a fishing tactic?