WBB: 2023 offseason news/updates

[SubGod22]

She was apparently in high demand and we can thank Scales for landing her.

AOL - Why Tre'Zure Jobe picked Wichita State over major women's basketball recruiting offers

Wichita native Tre’Zure Jobe was being pursued by teams in the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 following a Div. II All-American career at Emporia State.

In the end, Jobe’s loyalty and desire to help elevate her hometown program trumped the allure of playing women’s college basketball at the power-conference level.

Jobe officially signed with the Wichita State women’s basketball team on Tuesday, choosing the Shockers over Maryland, Oregon, Missouri and Oklahoma State and giving first-year head coach Terry Nooner a monumental start to his own 2023 recruiting class.

“This is bigger than me,” Jobe told The Eagle. “It’s going to mean a lot to me and my family, but I also want to show that local kids can hopefully turn this program around. I really hope this makes a statement and we start showing love to the inner-city kids and change the whole dynamic of this program.”

WSU assistant coach Antwain Scales, a Wichita native himself who coached Jobe from grade school to high school, spearheaded the recruitment to convince Jobe to finish her collegiate career in Wichita. Jobe was a first team all-state player at Wichita South, where she also won a Kansas high school state championship in 2016 under Scales.

Of interest, Taylor says Blow (big scorer out of Texas) is still coming.

While Jobe is the first player Nooner has signed in WSU’s 2023 recruiting class, the new staff already scored major recruiting wins in convincing McCarty, the lone starter back from last season, to remove her name from the transfer portal and retaining Blow, who signed with former head coach Keitha Adams.

Blow is the lone retention from WSU’s fall signing class, as international players Mariama Sow (Senegal), Luisa Vydrova (Czech Republic), Dunja Zecevic (Serbia) and Delma Zita (Mozambique) all followed Adams to UTEP.

Nooner still hss 5 schollies at his disposal.

[Shockm]

I don't know Antwain Scales, but he seems to have been a "winner" everywhere he's been. Perhaps Keitha Adams tried, but if she didn't try to hire him during her tenure, it may be one of the biggest mistakes of her time in Wichita, and if she did try to hire him, and failed, it may tell us more about her. We never were able to lure any of Wichita's top rated high school talents to stay in Wichita (we had several highly recruited girls go to different Div. 1 schools), and it appears that he might have been a big help.

[1972Shocker]

She was apparently in high demand and we can thank Scales for landing her.

AOL - Why Tre'Zure Jobe picked Wichita State over major women's basketball recruiting offers



Of interest, Taylor says Blow (big scorer out of Texas) is still coming.



Nooner still has 5 schollies at his disposal.

As soon as I saw she was from Wichita South I assumed Coach Scales was a big part in that.

If Salese "BoBo" Blow is still coming that would be a really good get. She appeared to me to be the cream of that recruiting class. She is 5-11, I think, and finished her decorated high school career as the area's leading scorer at 32.8 points per game to go along with 6.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.2 steals.

If she does in fact stay true to her commitment she will have a great opportunity to step right in to the lineup with the potential to be an impact player.

With D.J. McCarty, Tre'Zure Jobe and Salese Blow sounds like the guard position is shaping up nicely. I think 5-9 Jeniah Thompson can be a pretty good player. Showed showed flashes of that last year in her first year post-juco but just never quite earned traction for a lot of playing time. Her Juco numbers at John A. Logan College were very good. Also 5-10 Ambuh Kowcun came on towards the end of last year. In the 12 games where she played double figure minutes she was 22-48 (45.8%) from beyond the arc.

This is a very good start for Coach Nooner, especially if he retains the commitment from Salese Blow. Needs to find some quality size. Ella Anciaux is a great young lady and she definitely has size as a 6-4 wide body and has a pretty good shooting touch. The question with Ella is does she have the athleticism needed to be effective at this level.

Daniela Abies and Ornella Niankan are our only other returning forwards and both are a bit undersized at around 6' even. That can work as a small forward but it is a challenge if they have to carry the load at the 5.

It will be interesting to see if Coach Nooner will use all 15 of his shollies. Jody Adams generally only used 11-12. Keitha Adams generally used all 15. Perhaps ADKS wants all 15 schollies utilized for Title IX purposes but not sure about that.

[1972Shocker]

“This is bigger than me,” Jobe told The Eagle. “It’s going to mean a lot to me and my family, but I also want to show that local kids can hopefully turn this program around. I really hope this makes a statement and we start showing love to the inner-city kids and change the whole dynamic of this program.”

Read more at: https://www.kansas.com/sports/colleg...#storylink=cpy

Almost sounds to me like Tre'Zure maybe thinks the the previous regime at WSU overlooked her coming out of high school. I wouldn't mind having a player that perhaps has a bit of chip on her shoulder.

[SubGod22]

Nooner gets another one year addition. Sounds like this will be her 5th school.


Go Shockers - Shockers Add Forward from Miami (OH)

Wichita State head women's basketball coach Terry Nooner added his second signee in three days with the addition of Sierra Morrow Thursday morning.

Morrow will have one season of eligibility with the Shockers after completing her junior campaign at Miami (OH).

"Sierra Morrow is an athletic stretch forward whose versatility will allow her to create scoring opportunities both in the post and outside," Nooner said. "She is highly-competitive, driven and motivated to win. As a former junior college All-American, she has the experience of competing at a high level and the skill-set to help advance our program to the next step. She will not only add to our team athletically, but she will be a tremendous young lady on our campus and in our Wichita community. Sierra is excited about being a Wichita State Shocker, and we couldn't be more excited to add her to our family."

The Minneapolis, Minn., native made 29 starts in 2022-23 with the Redhawks, averaging 7.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. Her 1.5 blocks per game ranked fourth in the MAC. She shot 44.5 percent from the field and 75.4 percent from the free throw line. Morrow reached double figures 11 times and had multiple blocks in 12 different games. Against Akron, she scored a career-high 18 points and pulled down six rebounds. Her six blocked shots vs. Kent State were a career high.

[SubGod22]

Go Shockers - Wichita State, Kansas Agree to Future Series

Wichita State head women's basketball coach Terry Nooner and Director of Athletics Kevin Saal announced a home-and-home series with Kansas for the next two seasons.

Wichita State will host the Jayhawks in Charles Koch Arena during the 2023-24 season and make the return trip to Lawrence in 2024-25. Game dates will be announced when the full non-conference schedule is revealed.

Nooner is no stranger to the Kansas program having spent the last three seasons on staff under head coach Brandon Schneider.

[1972Shocker]

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/5/1...-miami-oh.aspx

Morrow will have one season of eligibility with the Shockers after completing her junior campaign at Miami (OH).

"Sierra Morrow is an athletic stretch forward whose versatility will allow her to create scoring opportunities both in the post and outside," Nooner said. "She is highly-competitive, driven and motivated to win. As a former junior college All-American, she has the experience of competing at a high level and the skill-set to help advance our program to the next step. She will not only add to our team athletically, but she will be a tremendous young lady on our campus and in our Wichita community. Sierra is excited about being a Wichita State Shocker, and we couldn't be more excited to add her to our family."

The Minneapolis, Minn., native made 29 starts in 2022-23 with the Redhawks, averaging 7.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. Her 1.5 blocks per game ranked fourth in the MAC. She shot 44.5 percent from the field and 75.4 percent from the free throw line. Morrow reached double figures 11 times and had multiple blocks in 12 different games. Against Akron, she scored a career-high 18 points and pulled down six rebounds. Her six blocked shots vs. Kent State were a career high.

Prior to Miami, Morrow spent a year at Bradley where she blocked 40 shots, and her 1.6 rejections per game ranked in the top 75 nationally. Out of high school she made junior college stops at North Iowa Community College and Seward Community College. As a freshman at North Iowa CC, she earned Second Team All-America honors and was named the conference Defensive Player of the Year. At Seward, she was the Jayhawk Conference Player of the Year after averaging 18.1 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per contest. Morrow also earned honorable mention All-America honors.

---

Addresses an area of need. Not a program changing addition but considering the late start HCTN got probably about as solid as we can expect at this point.

Kind of a basketball nomad.

[SubGod22]

[1972Shocker]

As far as the question following the above tweet:

Walker Windham
@WindhamWalker
What’s the outlook record wise/post season for this team if you had to take a guess?


While this is a senior and junior oriented team it really is not a very experienced team in terms of D-1 playing time outside of D.J. McCarty and to a lesser extent Sierra Morrow. The Shocker coaching staff is also relatively inexperienced at the D-1 level.

As far as the record goes we will have to see what the schedule looks like. Last year the Shockers went to 10-3 in the non-con but that was against a schedule ranked #317. The Shocks finished 6-10 in the AAC regular season. Also unknown is how the restructured AAC will set up their schedule. I anticipate that will be a divisional setup. They played pretty well in the AAC post-season tournament and then were totally outclassed by K-State in the WNIT.

Personally, I plan on taking a wait and see approach and keep my expectations pretty modest. Let's see where we are and how we are trending 3 years from now.

[SubGod22]

[1972Shocker]

Missouri State was down a little last year but would have been a higher rated opponent (based on NET rankings) than all but 2 (Kansas and Wyoming) of the Shockers' non-conference opponents this past season.

[1972Shocker]

HCTN adds a little bit of size with a grad transfer which was definitely a need:

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/5/3...hern-miss.aspx



Femi appears to have been pretty highly rated out of high school. She committed to Seton Hall:

Played in the first 11 games of her freshman campaign in 2018-19 before an injury cost her the rest of the season...was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Week on Nov. 12...averaged 7.1 points and 4.4 rebounds in 17.0 minutes per game.

In her sophomore season she played in 18 of the Hall's 30 games, all off the bench... Averaged 2.7 points and 1.6 rebounds in 7.4 minutes per game.

As a junior in 2020-21 lost for the season due to injury only one minute into the second game of the season. She didn't play in ag game again for nearly 2 years.

Returned to basketball at Southern Miss last year after 2 years off the court, playing in-game for the first time since Dec. 11, 2020 … After missing the first 4 games of the season, she played in the final 27 games of the season, making 21 starts as the Lady Eagles’ primary forward … Averaged 6.7 points per game and 5.9 rebounds per game while averaging 23.5 minutes per game.

Hopefully, Femi has a healthy final year of college basketball and will be able to give the Shocks something close to what she did last year at Southern Miss. Not sure what was behind Femi's decision to transfer. Sounds like she is a good student.

Coach Nooner on Femi:

"Femi Funeus is an extremely skilled forward with huge upside," Nooner said. "At 6'2", she can play both on the perimeter and in the post. Her ball-handling skills relative to her size, as well as her shooting touch and range, will allow her to have an immediate impact for our program. Femi is a dominant offensive rebounder and extremely hard worker. She has the competitive fire and spirit we look for in a Shocker, and she is committed both in the classroom and on the court. Femi comes from a wonderful family, and they are extremely excited about their daughter being part of Shocker Nation."

[shoxlax]

She sounds pretty solid. Would expect lots of minutes out of her if she is healthy. Like what Nooner and staff are doing so far.

[1972Shocker]

Here is the most current info I could find on Wichita State's portal activity:

https://wbbblog.com/womens-basketbal...-i-2022-23/22/

New info to me is Nhug Bosch Duran looks to be headed to Cal Baptist

Carla Budane, a 6-0 F, who redshirted last year is apparently coming back to the Shockers.

If that is accurate, then Coach Nooner has his roster currently setting at 12 with 3 scholarships still available, if he chooses to use them.

Guards: D.J. McCarty, Tre'zure Jobe, Ambuh Kowcun, Jeniah Thompson, Aniya Bell, Raissa Nsabua
Small Forwards: Ornella Niankan, Sierra Morrow, Femi Funeous, Carla Budane
Center/Power Forwards: Daniella Abies, Ella Anciaux

I suppose Femi could play some at the 5 if needed.

I think HCTN should try to find one more C/PF if he can find someone who could contribute immediately. Otherwise, I think he should be very picky using his final 3 scholarships unless he is under orders to use then all.

Guards: D.J. McCarty, Tre'zure Jobe, Ambuh Kowcun, Jeniah Thompson, Aniya Bell, Raissa Nsabua
Small Forwards: Ornella Niankan, Sierra Morrow, Femi Funeous, Carla Budane
Center/Power Forwards: Daniella Abies, Ella Anciaux

[1972Shocker]

Jayla is a 6-1 Forward. The averages Taylor listed in his tweet were from Jayla's freshman year in 2021-22. This past year she only played in 8 games and will qualify for a medical redshirt and will have 3 years of elegability remaining with the Shocks.

Not sure what her injury/medical issue was. Most commonly it is knee injury.

Here are some highlights for Jayla (No. 0): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2zBpD8tCzI

I suppose it is a bit of an unknown with a player coming back from an early season injury but she looked decent on her highlight video.

Here are her stats from her freshman year: https://fswbucs.com/sports/wbkb/2021...ray_jayla_gkti

Here are her stats from the 8 games she payed last year: https://fswbucs.com/sports/wbkb/2022...ray_jayla_jmj1