WBB - 2016-17 Pre-Season and Exhibition Games

[1972Shocker]

With Shocker Madness (October 20th) just around the corner I thought I would open a new thread to discuss the upcoming season for the Lady Shocks Basketball team moving the discussion from a recruiting focused thread.

Paul Suellentrop reported on Coach Adams-Birch's pland on using her deeper roster and a faster pace this year which has been discussed some on the aforementioned recruiting thread. Jody has by far her biggest roster in her time at WSU with 16 players and their appears to be decent level of talent and size to work wiht as well. This roster is 45% larger than the typical roster fielded by Jody in her 1st 8 years at the Shocker helm.

I think Jody is on the right track with this approach. Time will tell as always.

Looking forward to seeing the Shocks at Shocker Madness. With this roster hopefully they can and will play intrasquad instead of their male practice squad which quite frankly doesn't provide much of a challenge from what I have seen in the past.

[1972Shocker]

Shocker Madness Observations

The 4 Lady Shocks who participated in the 3-point shooting contest (defending champion Rangie Bessard, Taquandra Mike, Jyar Francis and newcomer Tamara Lee) weren't exactly hot. Jyar won the women's competition with 10 points and she had no chance in the Battle of the Sexes against Connor Frankamp.

Unlike the mixing and matching that 3G did with the men resulting in a very competitive men's scrimmage, Jody appeared to have more of a 1st team vs 2nd team set of squads for the women's scrimmage. Not sure what her thinking was with that but if she wanted to see how much of a drop off she had from her 1st five to her 2nd five she found out it was quite a bit as the Black (1st team) squad drilled the Gold (2nd team) squad 24-6. I could be wrong about that but that is what it looked like to me.

Rangie Bessard was terrific for the Black team scoring and rebounding. She is not an overly tall power forward/center at 6-1 but she is strong, wide body who has some skills and good BBIQ. I didn't think any of the other returning players particularly stood out.

Among the newcomers 5-5 Jr. G Keke Thompson, 6-2 Jr F/C Angiee Tompkins and 6-1 Fr G Kayla Williams looked like solid additions. Thompson looks like she may have the inside track to start at point guard. She is slightly built but very quick and the dribble drive offense seems to suit her game. Tompkins is another big body not to dissimilar to Rangie Bessard who moves well and looks like she can do some damage in the Valley. Williams has some athleticism although she did play like the freshman she is and got bit out of control a couple of times.

Not sure that the Lady Shocks will have the depth that I was hoping for but hard to really tell from a 15 minute intrasquad scrimmage. I have a feeling that there may have been a bit of nerves at play for some of the ladies.

In any case, still very much a work-in-progress.

[ShockTalk]

That's pretty much the same way I saw it '72. I was looking for depth, but maybe it's too early to see it. Williams did look like freshman, however, she still appeared to be one of the top 6 or 7 out there in addition to having a lot of up side.

As I said, it's early and there's a lot of new faces, but having this level of play with 5 seniors, 7 juniors, 3 sophomores, and 1 freshman is a little disconcerting.

[WuDrWu]

Who was #23?

[Shox1979]

Who was #23?

I thought it was Taquandra Mike.

I was impressed with Rangie and the Juco point guard. Rangie should have her way against a lot of teams again this year.
I thought Audra Stovall and Jaleesa Chapel were total non factors, especially for returners. And Mike and Diamond Lockhart didn't fair much better. Especially Mike in the 3 pt contest.
Kayla Williams could be a player someday. You can tell she is young. And so thin.
The Butler transfer hit one 3. Other than that, I don't recall much without looking at a program.
Bigger roster may not mean more depth at all. I thought Pacar(?) looked way out of shape. Elle didn't do anything to speak of. Sabrina missed a gimme. I think Brittany Martin could be effective in short spells just Bc of her size.

[WuDrWu]

In my advanced age I am becoming confused a little too easily and a little too often.

Either 23 or 25 really sees the floor well and made some outstanding passes.....often dropped or fumbled but I enjoyed the way they looked for teammates.

[1972Shocker]

In my advanced age I am becoming confused a little too easily and a little too often.

Either 23 or 25 really sees the floor well and made some outstanding passes.....often dropped or fumbled but I enjoyed the way they looked for teammates.

TaQuandra Mike (#23) and Jaleesa Chapel (#25) are the Shockers top two seniors and, along with Rangie, are probably the team leaders. TaQuandra is a 2-year Juco tansfer and is very athletic and she is capable of really going off offensivley although in her 1st year in D-1 last year was very inconsistent. Jaleesa is the only player on the squad that is a 4-year Shocker. She has been through a lot including the turmoil of a couple years ago. I think she has grown a lot in her time as a Shocker. She is very unselfish. One of our best defenders. I think she can be decent offensively although she seems to have lacked confidence in her offensive game in the past.

I think it was Jaleesa who made a few oustanding passes in the scrimmage. But both of these ladies will be key components.

[1972Shocker]

That's pretty much the same way I saw it '72. I was looking for depth, but maybe it's too early to see it. Williams did look like freshman, however, she still appeared to be one of the top 6 or 7 out there in addition to having a lot of up side.

As I said, it's early and there's a lot of new faces, but having this level of play with 5 seniors, 7 juniors, 3 sophomores, and 1 freshman is a little disconcerting.

I was also a little bit disappointed in the level of play. However, even though we have 5 seniors and 7 juniors their actual experience at the D-1 level is not the same. If these were all 4-year players you could have a combined 29 years of D-1 experience plus maybe a redshirt year or two. This group of seniors and juniors have 14 years of combined D-1 experience and of the seniors is walked on to the team last year. Only Jaleesa Chapel has 3 years with the Shockers and only 1 year where she was a starter and played much. Furthermore, Jody is implementing a new offensive system. That may or may not work out well, only time will tell, but after only scoring 53 points a game last year perhaps making some changes is warranted.

Longer term, IMHO, Jody needs to rebuild this roster with primarily 4 year players and cut back on the reliance on Juco transfers. Half of the current roster are Juco transfers. 2 others are D-1 transfers. But you do what you have to do I guess. I'm sure a lot of that is due to the turmoil and publicity surrounding the WBB program a couple of years ago. Only 4 of the current 16 players will be on the roster two years from now. So the next two recruiting classes will give us an idea of which way Jody will go longer term. Not saying she should eliminate Juco recruiting. Maybe cut it down to 25% of the roster instead of 50% of the roster.

[ShockdaWorld]

My memory isn't great by any means, but I think I saw something this year that I didn't see from the women's team at last year's Madness. They all came out with smiles, like they were actually happy to be there and were enjoying themselves. I don't remember seeing that much at last year's event. I know it doesn't necessarily lead to improved play, but the morale just seemed to be a little better this time around or something. Again, it could just be me.

[Shox1979]

Jaleesa had one pass that I remember very well. She was down on your end Doc. Fired a pass from the left wing into the post. Could have taken a 3 but instead threw a bullet into the post. I do remember that much from her. She doesn't look to score much but she normally does do a very good job defensively.

[1972Shocker]

With 16 players on the roster and 15 scholarships to give one of the Lady Shocks is a walk-on. My guess is that is Hannah Mortimer.

Hannah played 2-years at Brown Mackie College in Salina and then walked on to the Shocker team last year. She was awarded a scholarship for the 2nd semester last year when Jody had plenty of extra room. My guess is Hannah proabably is a non-scholarship player this year. Just a guess.

Hannah did hit a nice 3-ball from the corner at the buzzer at the end of the women's scrimmage. From what I've heard and seen she brings a great attitude and work ethic to the team.

[1972Shocker]

As expected Drake has been installed as the WBB favorite to win the Valley this year. They did receive 34 out of 40 first place votes but I am a bit surprised they weren't a unanimous choice.

http://www.mvc-sports.com/wbasketball/news/2016-17/9068/drake-university-picked-as-favorite-in-valley-womens-hoops/#.WBI4WS0rKM8

UNI recieved 4 first place votes and is picked 2nd while MSU received the remaining 2 first place votes as the 3rd place pick.

SIU was picked 4th with 306 points followed by the Lady Shockers with 248 points.

Indiana State, Bradley, Illinois State, Evansville and Loyola round out the botton half in that order.

I think the Shocks have a chance to do better than the projected 5th place finish although after watching Shocker Madness I am not quite has optimistic as I was previously. However, based on how the Shocks played last year I am not all surprised they are picked where they are. They still have not proved themselves on the court.

Part of my optimism stems from the fact that I see the Valley being down this year, which is not good since they were ranked 21st among 32 conferences last year.

Drake only lost 1 player to graduation. 6-3 C Emma Donahue who was 7th in scoring and 5th in rebounding on Drake's team last year. Donahue will most likely be replaced by 6-2 Sophomore Becca Jones who was on the All-Valley Freshman team 2 years go and missed all of last year with a knee injury. Assuming she is healthy she should be every bit as good, if not better than Donahue. Jones averaged 12.5 PPG and 9.1 RPG compared to the 5.1 PPG and 4.1 RPG averaged by Donahue las year.

UNI graduated 4 of its 5 starters with only Sr. All-Valley guard Madison Weekly returning. Weekly is a very good player but UNI has a lot to replace. Perhaps UNI is getting credit for having one of the better coaches in the Valley in Tanya Warren.

MSU lost two 1st Team All-Valley players in Valley Player of the Year Tyonna Snow and 2 time 1st teamer Kenzie Williams. MSU also graduated its starting post Hillary Chvatal who was their leading rebounder and 4th leading scorer. So they have some very key platers to replace as well.

SiU graduated 5 players including Valley 1st Team All-Valley picks Dyana Pierre and Cartaesha Macklin. Peirre averaged a double-double at 12.3 PPG and 11.2 RPG and Macklin averaged 13.8 PPG, 5.2 RPG and lead SIU in assists with 3.6 APG. SiU does return their leading scorer in R-Sr guard Rhonda Napier who averaged 15.5 PPG last year and was also a 1st Team All-Vallley pick.

The Shocks return all 11 players from last year and have added 4 Juco transfers and 1 freshman to the mix.

I don't expect the bottom half of the Valley to be very good and Loyola, in particular was devastated by a player revolt which resulted on all but 2 seldom used guards returning and the firing of Head Coach Sheryl Swoopes.

IF the Shocks can fix their scoring woes with a new offense and better shooting this year then they could easily surprise on the upside. They should definitely be deeper this year and should be able to go 10-11 players deep based on what I saw at Shocker Madness with Rangie Bessard looking like the best of the bunch.

[1972Shocker]

Saw that the Shockers only beat D-II Newman by 9 points in their first exhibition game and actually trailed 43-42 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

I suppose my biggest take away just from looking at the box score is that the new offense has (yet) fixed our offensive issues from a year ago as we only scored 58 points against a D-II team picked to finish 6th in their 9 team conference. Shocks only shot 32% from the field and 51% from the free throw line including a 5-19 (26%) in the second half compared to 13-16 (81%) in the 1st half.

I would anticipate we will be around the 71% we shot from the line last year but still waiting for some indication that our FG shooting will improve.

Not a particularly impressive debut but hopefully progress is being seen in practice.

[mumdaddy316]

Keep in mind no Mike or Francis were available, two big weapons IMO. All Newman did was go all in on Rangie and she still had a good game.

[1972Shocker]

Keep in mind no Mike or Francis were available, two big weapons IMO. All Newman did was go all in on Rangie and she still had a good game.

Valid point on missing players. What is the story on that? However, with or without a full complement of players if all it takes to deal with the Shocks is to go all in on one player that is not a good sign. Hopefully, that won't be the case once the season starts.