WBB 2023-24 AAC Games

[1972Shocker]

TULANE (7-4) at WICHITA STATE (4-8)
Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023 | 2 p.m. CT
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
TV: ESPN+ with Shane Dennis and Tracey Anderson
Radio: GoShockers.com/Listen with Steve Strain

SCOUTING TULANE
> Tulane finished at 7-4 in the non-con against a pretty weak schedule ranked 295th (among 360 D-1 teams). Tulane is ranked #160 in the net vs #251 for the Shocks.
> Both the Shockers and Green Wave have dropped a game to Missouri State. Tulane lost 70-60 on Dec. 1 and Wichita State fell 72-65 on Dec. 16.
> Kyren Whittington ranks 10^th in the nation in steals per game (3.27) and 17^th in steals (36). She also is in the top 100 in free throw attempts, free throws made and points per game.
> Whittington has landed on the AAC Weekly Honor Roll twice.
> Kaylah Rainey is top 100 in assists, and assists per game.
> Marta Galic ranks in the top 100 in three point percentage and three pointers per game. Galic joined Sierra Morrow on the last AAC Weekly Honor Roll.
> Three Green Wave players are averaging double-digit scoring with Whittington leading the team with 16.7 points per game, followed by Marta Galic with 14.9 points per game, and Hannah Pratt with 12.4.
> Tulane was picked 6th of 14 teams in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll.

---

The Shocks the non-con at 4-8 vs a non-con schedule ranked #289 losing 6 of their last 7. So perhaps this Shocker team needed the 10-day holiday break. Will see if that will make a difference.

[WuDrWu]

Shocks closed on a 10-4 run to pick up their first conference win of the season over a decent Tulane team.

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers managed to grind out a 63-60 win over a bigger, more athletic, more skilled and more experienced Tulane team to open up AAC play.

In addition the Shocks were playing without 5th year senior guard DJ McCarty who was in street clothes while still nursing a season long knee injury. This is the right move for DJ except this should have been done 12 games ago.

It was pretty ugly game for 3 quarters with the Shocks closing out the 3rd quarter on a 10-4 run to go up 41-39. However, both teams came alive in the 4th quarter with the teams trading blows with Tulane taking a 60-59 lead with just under a minute to play with the Shocks then scoring the final 4 points of the game in the final minute of play although Tulane had a final possesion in the front court with 2.8 seconds to play but were unable to get of a 3 point attempt before the final buzzer as it turned into a very entertaining game.

In that 4th quarter Tulane scored 21 points on 9-14 (2-4) from the field and 1 of 2 from the line. But the Shocks scored 22 points on 6-11 (2-3) from the field and 8-10 from the line.

Tre'zure Jobe who played the full 40 minutes carried the Shocks to the win in the 4th quarter scoring 13 of her game high 21 points on 3-3 (1-1) from the field and 6-8 from the line. Tre'zure also had a huge steal against Tulane's best player, Kyren Whittington, with 26 seconds to play that led to a foul and free throws for Tre'zure.

Ambah Kowcun came off the bench to score a season higth 8 points including 2-4 3-pointers. Ambah had only scored 12 points in the previous 12 non-conference games. Salese Blow added 8 points while Dani Abies and Sierra Morrow chipped in 7 each. Sierra score 4 of her points in the 4th quarter and Salese hit a big 3 pointer in the 4th quarter.

Not sure how repeatable this result will be but the Shocks showed a lot of grit grinding this one out.

[flyingMoose]

...more athletic, more skilled ...

More skilled? Probably. More athletic? If you think you are an athletic team, I don't think you are playing zone for about 3/4 of the game. I thought we pressured out front well for the most part ("out-athleted " them) - although back-cuts got us several times.

Whittington always seemed to be a threat for the Green Wave as was Galic. After that, kinda hit and miss - Parau maybe.

Jeniah/Amber were a defense/offense combo for much of the second half.

[1972Shocker]

RH: Jobe Makes Big Plays In The Final Minutes

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/12/30/the-roundhouse-rh-jobe-makes-big-plays-in-the-final-minutes.aspx

[1972Shocker]

Shane Dennis wasn't kidding when he said Tulane was an old team. Their starting lineup consists of 3 grad students (one of which is in her 6th year in colege), a 5th year senior and a redshirt junior.

[1972Shocker]

The redshirt-senior from Wichita, Kan. played all 40 minutes, putting up 21 points and a career-high eight assists in the Shockers' conference-opener win over Tulane.

Jobe scored Wichita State's final eight points in the last 1:41 of action to hold off the Green Wave.

[1972Shocker]

WICHITA STATE (5-8) at RICE (6-5)
Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2023 | 7 p.m. CT
Houston, Texas
TV: ESPN+ with Matt Pederson and ShaVonne Herndon
Radio: Audacy.com/KFH with Steve Strain

SCOUTING RICE
> Rice is 6-5 and ranked $97 in the NET. 4 of their losses came against top 100 NET teams with 3 of those losses fairly close. The Shocks have a NET ranking of #241.
> The Owls opened their season with a 70-38 win over Houston Christian, a team the Shockers fell to, 49-44.
> Dominique Ennis is the only Owl averaging double-digit scoring with 13.0 points per game.
> Maya Bokunewicz ranks 44^th in the nation and third in the AAC in three point percentage (.429).
> Rice was picked third of 14 teams in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll.

---

While Rice only has on double figure scoring they have 4 other players averaging between 8.1 and 9.4 ppg. Rice has ten players who have played at least 15 minutes per game.

Rice is not nearly as old as Tulane was but they do appear to be deeper.

Rice may have slight size advantage as they start two 6-2 players and they have a 6-4 senior and a 6-1 redshirt freshman who each play about 15 mpg off the bench. The Shocks counter with 6-0 Dani Abies, 6-0 Ornella Niankan; 6-1 Sierra Morrow and 6-1 Jayla Murray. The Shocks do have 6-4 Ella Anciaux and 6-4 Sophia Goncalves on the bench but neither plays much.

Rice shoots 38.8%/32.2%/76.4% vs the Shocks at 38.6%/26.4%/64.8%. Rice averages 20.9 3-point attempts per game vs 16.3 for the Shocks.

The Shocks will probably have to play at least as well as they played against Tulane at home, maybe a little better, to pull off a 2nd straight surprise. Against Tulane the Shocks shot above norm on 3 point shots and Tulane was well below their norm on treys. The Shocks will probably need a repeat of that against Rice and they need to keep from putting Rice on the line too much.

Rice averages 14.7 turnovers per game to 18.4 for their opponents. The Shockers average 17.0 turnovers per game to 17.4 for their opponents. The Shocks seem to have a handful of careless, low BBIQ turnovers every game. The Shocks did keep the turnovers even in the win over Tulane at 15 each. They need to do that again against Rice.

One question for the Shocks is when will DJ McCarty be able to return to the lineup. IMHO it would be best to make sure she is as close to full speed as possible when she does return and even then they need to work her back in gradually.

[1972Shocker]

Rice 76 - WSU 64.

Shocks with 24 turnovers (including 16 steals by Rice) to 16 for Rice (including 8 Shocker steals). Rice with 29 points off of turnovers and 16 fast break points vs 22 turnovers and 10 fast break points for the Shocks. 29 bench points for Rice to 11 for the Shocker bench. Rest of the stats pretty close.

DJ McCarty did not play.

The Shocks have only achieved that turnover target 1 time in 14 games. In the other 13 games they are averaging 18.9 turnovers. The Shocks do make a fair share of turnovers duo to carelessness and poor decision making (lack of BBIQ). You should be able deal somewhat with the carelessness. Tougher to overcome the lack of BBIQ. However, at this point I think you have to conclude that perhaps that turnover target is simply beyond the reach of this team. Might want to raise that by 25% to 15 and perhaps focus on avoiding live ball turnovers. So far this year about half of the Shocks' turnovers have been live ball turnovers. Against Rice that was 67%.

[1972Shocker]

WICHITA STATE (5-9, 1-1 AAC) at UTSA (6-7, 0-2 AAC)
Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024 | 2 p.m. CT
San Antonio, Texas | Convocation Center
TV: ESPN+ with Karl Schoening and Carlie Heineman
Radio: Audacy.com/KFH with Steve Strain

SCOUTING UTSA
> Led by 16^th-year head coach Karen Aston (third at UTSA), UTSA (6-7, 0-2 AAC) is coming off two AAC road losses to Temple, 58-71, and East Carolina, 54-82). Terry Nooner coached under Aston at Texas during the 2019-20 season. The Longhorns were 19-11 before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
> The Roadrunners are 2-2 at home with their wins coming against New Mexico State and UTEP.
> Two Roadunners are averaging double-digit scoring with Sidney Love leading the team with 10.9 points per game and Elyssa Coleman averaging 10.4.
> Idaro Udo was named AAC Freshman of the Week on Dec. 26 following her 15 points and nine rebounds off the bench in UTSA's win over Seattle U.
> Sydney Love, Aysia Proctor and Kyra White have also landed on the AAC Honor Roll this season.
> Elyssa Coleman leads the conference and ranks 55^th in the nation in blocks per game with 1.7.
> Kyra White ranks in the top 100 in the nation in assists and assists per game.
> UTSA was picked eighth of 14 teams in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll and currently sits in 13th at 4-9 (0-2 AAC).

---

UTSA is at 161 in the NET rankings; the Shocks are at 239..

[WuDrWu]

Another WSU game, another team not ready to play when the ball tips.

7-0 UTSA 3 minutes in.


It's early, but so far the 3 hires by the new AD haven't exactly overwhelmed anybody, on any level.

9-0 now.

Actually fortunate it isn't worse than 9.

10-0 at the media timeout.

[1972Shocker]

Five minutes into the game and the Shocks are done 10-0. The Shocks are 0-10 from the floor including 0-6 on 3-pointers several of which were air balls. Getting our rebounded 12-7,

Not seeing anything at this point to indicate the Shocks will be in this game.

The Shocks finally get a ball through the baskets on a banked-in 3-pointer by Tre-zure. Aniya Bell added a runner and a 2-pointer but that's all the Shocks got in the quarter. Shocks trail 19-8 at the end of quarter 1. Could have been worse.

Aniya is 2-3 from the fileld. The rest of the Shocks are 1-13.

[shoxlax]

Much better second quarter. Only six turnovers in the half. Might meet our target.

[WuDrWu]

Much better second quarter. Shocks are getting pushed around inside by 3 bigger (and I do mean bigger) Roadrunner post players but at least they limited the turnovers in the 2nd quarter and banked in a couple of 3s that have made the game competitive. Had a possession to cut it to 1 or even tie at the end, but trailing by 3 at half, could be a lot worse.

It's not like they are playing South Carolina, but it was nice to see them battle back a little.

[1972Shocker]

Much better second quarter. Only six turnovers in the half. Might meet our target.

Indeed it was. Coach Nooner went to a 3-2 zone on defense and a 5-out, 0-in motion offense in the 2nd quarter. He pulled Tre'Zure and Sierra (neither of whom played in the 2nd quarter) and with Aniya Bell and Jeniah Thompson playing in their places.

Aniya gave the Shocks and unexpected boost scoring 11 points in the 1st half on 4-7 from the field including 3-5 on treys. Dani added 9 points, all in the 2nd quarter, including banking in her first 3-point attempt of the season. Jeniah contributed 5 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists all in the 2nd quarter. The rest of the team was 2-16 in the 1st half.

Officials letting UTSA's bigger players play very physical against the Shocks.