7 Game Home Stand

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shockers have a pretty favorable schedule close out the non-conference season and to start the MVC season with 7 consecutive home games including non-conference games with:

12-08 Appalachian St. 1-5 (0-1) RPI 259 08:05 PM
12-13 AR Pine Bluff 1-3 (0-0) RPI 204 03:05 PM
12-17 Kent St. 3-1 (0-0) RPI 156 08:05 PM
12-21 Western Ill. 1-4 (0-0) RPI 334 03:05 PM
12-29 Mercer 3-2 (0-0) RPI 108 08:05 PM

The Shokcs RPI is currently 163. Kent State and Mercer would appear to be the toughest tests, but all five games are winnable.

All things considered the weak non-conference schedule is probably a plus for this year's team learning a new system. On the other hand, you how well it will prepare us for conference play

Shocks open MVC Play with a pair of games at home:

01-02 Bradley 5-1 (0-0) RPI 69 08:05 PM
01-04 Northern Iowa 2-3 (0-0) RPI 238 03:05 PM

Bradley was picked 8th and Evansville 5th in the MVC pre-season poll.

This may give us our first true indication of exactly where we are and how far we have progressed or how far we need to go.

This is the time to make some hay Shocks. Let's get 'er dun.

[1972Shocker]

First Up - Appalachian State (1-5) with a game against Davidson on Saturday before facing the Shocks next Wednesday.

At first glance App State's record does not look very formidable.

However, they will present some challenges for the Shocks.

They have 8 players that have played 12.0 MPG or more. One is a Senior and 3 are Sophs and 4 are Freshman. They are very young and have turned the ball over an average of 27 times per game. One key to the game will be how much pressure the Shocks bring on the defensive end and perhaps rattle this young team into frequent turnovers.

App State does bring some size to match up with Marcy. Bittany Mixon is a 6'3" Senior who is backed up by 6'2" Freshman Haley Hackett and 6'4" Junior Karina Mill. However, the leading rebounders for App State are 5'9" Freshman Canesha Edwards (6.8 RPG), 5'9" Freshamn Sade Means (6.0 RPG) and 6'1" Freshman Catherine Williams (5.5 RPG).

Because of the size they can bring in the middle we may need some decent minutes from Sam Smith to backup Marcy. We also will need to do a good job rebounding as a team.

Offensively, Frances Hernandez, a 5'8" Soph Guard, leads App State in scoring at 14.0 PPG and is a very good 18-38 on 3-Pt attempts (47.4%). Second leading scorer and second leading rebounder is 5'9" Freshman Sade Means who comes of the bench to average 10.0 PPG and is shooting 6-15 (40.0%) from behind the arc. The Shocks will need to make sure they keep track of these two players on the perimeter. I can see Haleigh Lankster playing a key roll with these match ups.

App State is out shooting its opponents from behind the ard 35.7% to 24.1% in 6 games. Not sure if that reflects good perimeter defense or poor opponent shooting.

Among App State's losses were a 65-67 road loss to Marshall, a 75-80 road loss to East Carolina and a 68-72 road loss to East Tenn State.

So despite their early record, I think App State will be competitive. Shocks will need to be ready to play.

[1972Shocker]

1 down, 6 to go on this home stand.

Next up is Arkansas Pine-Bluff who is currently 1-5 with a current RPI of 290.

They have played some pretty good teams including Miss State, Oklahoma State and Colorado. However, they were also blown out in all three of these games by 42, 46 and 34 points, respectively.

They opened the season with their only win, a 65-53 defeat of Texas-Pan American (RPI 313). They also lost 70-71 to Central Arkansas (RPI 299).

They don't show any current year stats on their web site.

The have a full roster of 15 players. They are not real big but do have Ava Walters, a 6'2" Senior returning starter, Camille Cooper, a 6'1" Soph who played very sparingly as a Frosh and Shay Holmes a 6'1" JUCO transfer.

They have 3 returning starters and 3 other returners that played regularly. In addition, they have added 4 Juco transfers to their roster.

The did graduate 3 players that accounted for about one-half of the scoring last year.

UAPB did play Indiana State in their first game last year and were blown out 89-55 by the Lady Trees.

The Shocks whose RPI is now 184 will not blow UAPB away like the BSC teams have this year, but this is a game they should win, probably by double figures.