predictions on this years' womens hoops...

[1972Shocker]

The roadie at Texas-San Antonio is an absolute must-win for confidence sake on the road. Chalk the A&M game up as a loss, but the Shockers should be competitive at least with Indiana and really need to come away with a W over Wake.

I think we come out of the first five games of the year with a 2-3 record and finish the non-con portion of the schedule at 7-5, primarily because our home non-con schedule is pretty weak. However, we do have a pretty solid away non-con schedule to help prepare is for MVC play.

I am interested in seeing how we play on the road, because that has not been a particular strength under Coach Albright. We get a feel for that right off the bat.

Wake Forest is an interesting game. They had the same overall record as the Shocks last year both finishing at 9-20. Wake Forest went winless at 0-14 in the ACC.

However, Wake was very young last year. No seniors, one junior and the rest were Freshman and Sophomores. They appear to have good size with two 6'2" Fwds, a 6'3" Fwd, a 6'4" Fwd/Ctr, a 6'4" Ctr and a 6'5" Ctr. Not sure how much athleticism is there, but they will definitely have a size advantage.

Indiana just might present a better chance for a win in the Virgin Islands than Wake Forest. They are not nearly as big as Wake Forest and freshman take up 6 of the 11 spots on this year's roster. While Indiana did beat Wake Forest by 20 on a nuetral court last year they were played very tough at home by Evansville and SIU of the MVC winning 83-80 and 73-66, respectively. Indiana graduated 4 seniors including their top 2 scores one of which was a 6'7" center.

No doubt the Shockers will have some opportunites early on to show they are ready to turn last season around. It will be interesting to see how they do.

[TweetieShock]

Going 0-14 in the ACC is easier than one would think. Guess we will soon find out if size really does matter, huh boys? :D

[SpanglerFan316]

I still say we will finish in the Top Ten (in the Valley)!! :D

[ShockerFever]

11-19. And that's my optimistic prediction..

About the 3-pt. shooting..

I rarely watched many of the women's games. I think they were on tv once. All I remember is they just shot a bunch of threes. Maybe it was just that one game, maybe not. But literally that's all they did. The defense realized that only about 1 in 4 were going in so they backed off. Anytime a girl was wide-open, they shot. Maybe our percentage was so high because that's all we did was shoot 3's. I dunno though. Just some random thoughts.

[The Mad Hatter]

11-19. And that's my optimistic prediction..

About the 3-pt. shooting..

I rarely watched many of the women's games. I think they were on tv once. All I remember is they just shot a bunch of threes. Maybe it was just that one game, maybe not. But literally that's all they did. The defense realized that only about 1 in 4 were going in so they backed off. Anytime a girl was wide-open, they shot. Maybe our percentage was so high because that's all we did was shoot 3's. I dunno though. Just some random thoughts.

Since 2 of our 3 leaders in shots taken were post players (Kiki and Annie), I would hardly say that we primarily took 3 pointers (we also took fewer 3's on the year than our opponents). However, teams did sag in on Annie and Kiki, and we took advantage by shooting .345 from the arc as a team. Unfortunately we turned the ball over too much and played too shoddy defense to get wins from our good shooting.

[1972Shocker]

11-19. And that's my optimistic prediction..

About the 3-pt. shooting..

I rarely watched many of the women's games. I think they were on tv once. All I remember is they just shot a bunch of threes. Maybe it was just that one game, maybe not. But literally that's all they did. The defense realized that only about 1 in 4 were going in so they backed off. Anytime a girl was wide-open, they shot. Maybe our percentage was so high because that's all we did was shoot 3's. I dunno though. Just some random thoughts.

Since 2 of our 3 leaders in shots taken were post players (Kiki and Annie), I would hardly say that we primarily took 3 pointers (we also took fewer 3's on the year than our opponents). However, teams did sag in on Annie and Kiki, and we took advantage by shooting .345 from the arc as a team. Unfortunately we turned the ball over too much and played too shoddy defense to get wins from our good shooting.

With the graduation of Annie Wells we will be challenged to replace her rebounding prowess. I don't think we have any one player who will be able to take that on, so we will need to do a good job of team rebounding with everyone being fundamentally sound on their positioning and blocking out.

Also, while teams will continue to need to be aware of Kiki, they may be able to extend their defense a little more this year since we don't look to have a dominant center at this point, although at times Marcy Sudbeck can be very effective offensively.

While Lexie McDonnell tended to be our "goto" 3 point shooter last year, I think we will actually miss Lexie more defensively than offensively, plus Lexie was an excellent reboudning guard. Offensively, Lexie was very streaky from the outside and we might actually be more consistent on the outside this year if we can get enough good looks.

We must (as TMH points out) reduce our turnovers. This has pretty much been a problem throughout Coach Albright's tenure. Initially, we blamed our youth for a lot of this. That should no longer be an excuse.

Replacing Annie and Lexie on the boards and on defense will be one of our bigger challenges. How much losing Annie in the middle will impact how teams defend us remains to be seen.

We will find out where we are soon enough.

Good Luck, Shocks! :goshocks:

[SpanglerFan316]

2007-08 Preseason Poll - (selected by coaches, SIDs and media • 39 votes received)

No. Team Points
1. Drake (24) 348
2. Illinois State (12) 342
3. Indiana State 289
4. Evansville (1) 288
5. Southern Illinois (1) 233
6. Creighton (1) 223
7. Missouri State 136
8. Northern Iowa 113
9. Wichita State 95
10. Bradley 78

[1972Shocker]

2007-08 Preseason Poll - (selected by coaches, SIDs and media • 39 votes received)

No. Team Points
1. Drake (24) 348
2. Illinois State (12) 342
3. Indiana State 289
4. Evansville (1) 288
5. Southern Illinois (1) 233
6. Creighton (1) 223
7. Missouri State 136
8. Northern Iowa 113
9. Wichita State 95
10. Bradley 78

That's slightly worse than I expected. I think we have a good shot at finishing ahead of Northern Iowa and maybe MSU. MSU is a tough call because of their coaching change, but my sense is this will give the Bears a little Boost.

This sure won't help Jane with her ticket selling duties.

If the above prediction for the Shocks comes to pass, does JS have any other choice but to make a coaching change?

[Snapshot9]

I sure hope not!

[RoyalShock]

I think the only thing that will save Jane's job is to get off to a good start (helping attendance) and finish in the upper half.

[1972Shocker]

I think the only thing that will save Jane's job is to get off to a good start (helping attendance) and finish in the upper half.

We might get off to an OK start, but attendance could still be an issue because our non-con home schedule is not exactly loaded with attractive. household names.

An upper half finish is possible, but that is not where I would place my bet.

[RoyalShock]

I just mean if they wrack up some wins, start out well in conferece (and I have no idea who they play early), it could create a modest boost in attendance.

[1972Shocker]

I just mean if they wrack up some wins, start out well in conferece (and I have no idea who they play early), it could create a modest boost in attendance.

Gotcha! :good:

[SubGod22]

Winning usually helps attendance

[1972Shocker]

Shocks finished the regular season at 9-21 (6-6 OOC and 3-15 MVC).

molly jabali predictied 8-22 and wxkid23 10-20 to share the closest to the pin bragging honors.

trufan guessed only the MVC record at 14-4 and wins the Yellow-Colored Glasses Award aka the Reality Check Award.

Other projections were:

lemuel777: good chance at a winning record
TweetieShock: capable of 17-13 or so
SubGod22: 15-15
rrshock: 13-17
1972Shocker: 12-18 (7-5 OOC; 5-13 MVC)
ShockerFever: 11-19
SpanglerFan316: 5-25

Sadly, despite the relatively low expectations overall, the Shockers managed to underperform all expectations except molly jabali and SpanglerFan316.