Wichita State WBB - Miscellaneous

[xazshox]

Roster Posting Time

My recollection is that the men's & women's basketball rosters are never posted until after fall classes start. Summer finals are over this week. Most of the women's & women's team members will return home now for a brief vacation before returning in mid Aug to start classes.

The Volleyball roster has been posted but their season starts in late August.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

My recollection is that the men's & women's basketball rosters are never posted until after fall classes start. Summer finals are over this week. Most of the women's & women's team members will return home now for a brief vacation before returning in mid Aug to start classes.

The Volleyball roster has been posted but their season starts in late August.

Thanks.

[1972Shocker]

Since Diamond Lockhart and Anna Khmelevskaya did not sign LOI's they are verbal commits and not officially committed until school starts. I don't think Jody can comment on them until that time nor would it make sense to include them on a roster until that time. However, I understand that everyone is anxious to find out how Anna pronounces her last name.

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

Khmelevskaya

Kah mel ev sky a

[1972Shocker]

Anna

Ah nuh

[1972Shocker]

Looks like the Lady Shocks will be playing K-State at home on December 12th.

http://cjonline.com/sports/2014-07-01/k-state-announces-womens-nonconference-basketball-schedule

So we know the Lady Shocks have a home game vs K-State and reportedly a road game at Tennessee on December 16th. Two solid non-con games. Can the Ladies take advangtage of those opportunities?

[1972Shocker]

Jody usually plays to exhibition games as opposed to the 1 exhibition and 1 controlled scrimmage that 3G prefers.

Looks like Kansas Newman is on the docket for one of the Lady Shock's exhibition games. based on Newman's WBB Facebook page.
Newman Women's Basketball

July 18

Counting the days down for the return of our seven returning players and the arrival of our seven new additions. Class breakdown: 2 seniors, 4 juniors, 4 sophomores & 4 freshman. Very excited about the people we have in the program and how they will work to become great teammates. Our '14-'15 season schedule is loaded, we will release it soon. Exhibition games at Wichita State & at Kansas State wi...ll surely expose some things early and give us great learning experiences.

[1972Shocker]

Chynna Turner will be on the Ole Miss staff this season as a graduate manager.

http://www.olemisssports.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/chynna_turner_868168.html

Got to start somewhere. Not sure if Chynna will be doing graduate level course work at Ole Miss or not. In any case good luck Chynna.

[Shocker-maniac]

Looks like the Lady Shocks will be playing K-State at home on December 12th.

http://cjonline.com/sports/2014-07-01/k-state-announces-womens-nonconference-basketball-schedule

So we know the Lady Shocks have a home game vs K-State and reportedly a road game at Tennessee on December 16th. Two solid non-con games. Can the Ladies take advangtage of those opportunities?

Two solid adds to the schedule. What are the expectations for K-State with the new coaching regime?

[1972Shocker]

Two solid adds to the schedule. What are the expectations for K-State with the new coaching regime?

I can't imagine they are real good. K-State is coming off of a 11-19 (5-13) season and lost their leading scoring in Leticia Romero who transferred to Florida State after a fairly long and public dispute with K-State regarding her scholarship release.

Even with Romero in the lineup the Shocks dominated K-State in Manhattan last year 69-46 as the young Wildcats looked like deer caught in the headlights in the face of the Shocks withering pressure on defense. K-State has a couple of good senior guards Ashia Woods (Wichita Collegiate) and Haley Texada.

I really don't expect a win of that proportion this year, but the Shockd should be a solid favorite in this year's games especially being at Koch Arena.

I hope we can continue this series. K-State is bound to get better sooner than later and the Kansas schools playing each other always adds a level of fan interest not there for a typical game. Good for everyone involved.

[1972Shocker]

Tennessee will be a whole different story. The perennial powerhouse will no doubt be a very difficult challenge for the Lady Shocks.

In particular the Lady Vols will have a big size advantage.

But this is the kind of opportunity the Shockers need to measure where they are as a program.

[Shocker-maniac]

I do recall WSU handling the kitties pretty easily last season, and did not think that they would be expected to have a whole lot of improvement. K-State denying that transfer for so long didn't play out to well with the national media.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

I do recall WSU handling the kitties pretty easily last season, and did not think that they would be expected to have a whole lot of improvement. K-State denying that transfer for so long didn't play out to well with the national media.

Terrific pre-season schedule. The schedule is out, but the roster is not. Men's roster is out. I would still like to know who we have. I'm old, just like to know who the players are. They are on a break, so haven't seen them in a while and wasn't sure when I did see them other than the returners.

[Shocker-maniac]

Terrific pre-season schedule. The schedule is out, but the roster is not. Men's roster is out. I would still like to know who we have. I'm old, just like to know who the players are. They are on a break, so haven't seen them in a while and wasn't sure when I did see them other than the returners.

It looks like a challenging OOC schedule. I'm looking forward to the upcoming season, and hope we can build upon the success of the past couple of years. Go Shocks!

http://www.kansas.com/2014/08/01/3578006/tennessee-paradise-jam-highlight.html?sp=/99/240/

[1972Shocker]

WSU WBB 2014 Non-Conference Schedule

Last year's RPI ranking shown in parenthesis.

Nov. 15, Creighton (66)
Nov. 18, at Eastern Washington (150)
Nov. 22, Texas Arlington (334)
Nov. 27, Florida Gulf Coast @ Paradise Jam (51)
Nov. 28, Ohio State @ Paradise Jam (50)
Nov. 29, Clemson @ Paradise Jam (160)
Dec. 5, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (349)
Dec. 12, Kansas State (151)
Dec. 16, at Tennessee (5)
Dec. 19, Louisiana-Monroe (277)
Dec. 20, Winthrop (88)
Dec. 28, Sam Houston State (234)

Last year the Shocks finished with an RPI of 83 with an overall SOS of 253. Not sure where our non-conference SOS ranked last year but our average non-con RPI was 187.54 last year.

Based on last year's RPI's this year's non-con schedule has an average RPI of 159.58. The home portion of the schedule appears pretty comparable RPI-wise to last year but the road/neutral court schedule looks to be substantially tougher.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff (SWAC) had the worst RPI among D-1 schools last year. Texas-Arlington (Sun Belt) wasn't far behind.

The Valley ranked 19th in RPI out of 32 conferences last year. The previous 6 years the Valley was consistently ranked around 10th in RPI. So in terms of RPI the Valley was definitely down last year. Just as with the men, the women were hurt by replacing Creighton with Loyola.

I think the Valley, whose average RPI last year was 201, should be a little stronger this year but not so much to be able to build an at-large resume just from Valley play. Our non-home non-conference schedule is where the Shocks will have a chance to perhaps build an at-large resume.

A look at a few of the stronger opponents on this year's Non-Con Schedule:

Creighton - The Bluejays graduated 5 seniors from last years team including 2 double digit scorings and their top rebounder. Their leading scorer at 17.6 PPG, 5-8 Jr G Marissa Janninng, was the Valley FOY 2 years ago does return. The remaining returning players only provided about 25% of Creighton's scoring and rebounding. Creighton's size this year will reside in the freshman class with a pair of forwards, one 6-2 and one 6-3, from Minnesota.

Eastern Washington - EWU from the Big Sky (#14 in Conference RPI) returns 70% of its scoring and rebounding from a 16-14 (12-8). Their 2 leading scorers are 5-6 RSr Lexie Nelson (15.9 PPG, 44.0% 3Pt% and 86.6% FT%)) and 5-10 RJr Hayley Hodgins (13.5 PPG, 40.6% 3Pt% and 83.6% FT%). Shocks should match up well with this team.

Florida Gulf Coast - FGCU, out of the 21st RPI-ranked Atlantic Sun Conference, was 26-8 (17-1) last year. They lose only 1 player from last year's team, 5-10 G Sarah Hansen, although she was the team's leading scorer (13.6 PPG) and Rebounder (7.1 RPG). The Lady Eagles do return 2 double digit scorers. Whitney Knight (12.3 PPG, 5.3 RPG) and Stephanie Cobb (11.6 PPG, 3.4 RPG). Knight, a 6-3 RJr, is the most intriguing player on the team in that, although she is the tallest player on the roster she is listed as a guard. 63% of her shots were 3-pointers and she knocked down 38% of her nearly 7 trey attempts per game. In fact, the Lady Eagles as a team took 51% of their FGA from behind the arc shooting 34.7%. By way of contrast the Shockers shot 24.4% of their shots from behind the arc last year hitting 31.2%. FGCU is not real big. Outside of the 6-3 Knight who, at least on offense, plays a lot on the perimeter they have a 6-1 Sr F out of Greece who only played sparingly last year.

Ohio State - The Buckeyes went 17-18 (5-11) last year. The lost to Shocker NCAA opponent Penn State by 24 and 20 during the regular season but beat the Lady Lions 99-82 in the Big 10 Tournament. They graduated 5 seniors from last years team and have a young team this year with only 1 Senior and 2 Juniors on the roster. Those 3 player include the top 2 and the 5th leading scorers from last year all 3 of whom are guards. OSU does have a 6-6 Sophomore center who played in 25 of 35 games last year and averaged 7 minutes a game in those 25 games. She does not appear to be a strong offensive presence but she did block 30 shots in her 176 minutes.

Clemson - Finished 13-18 (4-12) last year playing in the tough ACC conference (ranked 2nd in Conference RPI). This is their 2nd year under head coach Audra Smith and it looks like they has been some house cleaning. 7 of last year's 11 active players are no longer on the roster. Only 2 of those were seniors. The do return leading scorer Nikki Dixon (13.6 PPG, 4.4 RPG), a 5-10 Sr G/F. Nyila Jamison-Myers, a 6-3 Jr F/C, is their only experienced post player. They have brought in two 6-4 and one 6-2 freshman post players. With all the turnover this year's roster consists of 2 Seniors, 1 Junior, 2 Sophs and 5 Freshman.

Kansas State - Finished 11-19 (5-13) last year including a 46-69 drubbing at the hands of the Lady Shocks in Manhattan. Long-time HC Deb Patterson has been replaced by an experienced Jeff Mittie who had a pretty good run at TCU. KSU graduated 3 seniors, only one of whom (6-1 F Katya Leick, 7.7 PPG, 4.3 RPG) played much. The big loss was their leading scorer Leticia Romero, a 5-8 Fr PG from Spain, who has transferred to Florida State. Romero lead KSU in scoring, rebounding, assists, 3Pt%, FTA, FT% and steals last year. I do think K-State did improve during the year last year and are probably better than when they played the Shocks last year. K-State will be lead this year by 5-11 Sr G Ashia Woods (10.1 PPG, 5.8 RPG) and 5-7 Sr G Haley Texada (7.5 PPG, 4.3 RPG). Size comes from 6-5 Breanna Lewis, 6-3 Jessica Sheble and 6-3 Erica Young, all sophomores.

Tennessee - The crown jewel of the Shocker schedule this year. The Lady Vols lose only 1 player, but a very good one, from last year's team that finished 29-6 (16-3) and lost in the Sweet 16 to Maryland. They lose Meighan Simmons, a 5-9 G who led them in scoring last year at 16.5 PPG. Otherwise everyone else is back. They also added ACC Freshman of the Year Diamond DeShields, who transferred from UNC, to the roster but she has to sit out this year. Tennessee's size will not doubt present a problem for the Shocks. The Vols have 5 players at 6-2, two at 6-3 and one at 6-6.

Winthrop - The Eagles had a very solid 24-8 (15-5) season in the Big South before getting drubbed 87-45 by Duke in the 1st Round of the NCAA Tournament. Winthrop's top scorer from last year, 2-time Big South POY 5-8 G Dequesha McClanahan (17.6 PPG, 6.5RPG) has graduated as has 6th woman, 5-7 G Tiffany Charles (4.8 PPG, 2.7 RPG). Winthrop does return 4 starters: 5-10 So G/F Erica Williams (15.6 PPG, 7.9 RPG), 6-3 Jr F/C Shaquilla Nunn (11.52 PPG, 9.9 RPG, 75 blocked shots), 5-8 RSr G Samiya Wright (10.4 PPG, 2.4 RPG) and 5-11 Sr G/F Taylor Calvert (4.4 PPG, 6.7 RPG). Winthrop looks very capapble of hanging with the Shocks.

While this is an improved non-con slate, especially the road/neutral site games, it is one that the Shocks can handle for the most part IMHO. The only game I see as a probable loss is the Tennessee game. That's not to say they won't lose several of these games but an 11-1 start to the season is certainly something this Shocker team is capable of achieving.