Five things you need to know about the 2-0 start for Wichita State women’s basketball
The Wichita State women’s basketball team is 2-0 for the second time under head coach Keitha Adams following a 71-53 victory over Alcorn State at Koch Arena.
Here are five things to know about the Shockers this season ahead of Friday’s 6 p.m. game against Southern at Koch Arena.
1. They’re winning short-handed right now
While the WSU men’s basketball team is set to open up its season this week with just eight players available for its first two games, the WSU women’s basketball team has already won two games with only eight players.
Four players have been in quarantine due to either positive COVID-19 tests or being identified as close contacts. WSU is also still waiting on the arrival of 6-foot freshman forward Carla Budane from Mozambique.
But the biggest absence is 5-7 senior guard Mariah McCully, who was WSU’s first preseason all-conference player since joining the American Athletic Conference. McCully scored 12 points in WSU’s 78-58 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last Saturday but missed Monday’s game against Alcorn State due to injury.
“Right now we’re dealing with some numbers issues,” Adams said. “Hopefully we can start getting some more people out there on the floor, but right now we’re facing some adversity with that.”
According to Adams, it’s been an issue that’s disrupted WSU’s preseason as well. She said there have been a handful of practices where WSU only had six or seven players.
“We’ve had players who have had to sit out 14 days because of someone they were around that had covid, not that they had it,” Adams said. “So that’s two weeks of missing practice and we’ve had some players who have had that happen to them multiple times. So that’s very tough, very challenging.”
2. Shockers have chance for best AAC finish
The Shockers finished last season with a 16-15 record, won seven games in league play and beat Houston in the first round of the conference tournament for its first AAC postseason victory.
With three starters back and its five top scorers from last season, WSU has earned the respect of its peers in the American. That was evident in the league’s coaches tabbing McCully as an all-conference second-team player and picking the Shockers to finish sixth, the highest preseason nod for WSU since the Shockers joined the conference four years ago.
“If we have everybody healthy and everybody ready to go, on paper I think we have our best team yet,” Adams said. “But that’s the big question. I told our team that the team that wins conference this year might not be the team with the most talent, it might be the team with the last amount of disruption and most consistency with not having players in and out.”
Adams expects McCully, who led WSU in scoring (12.6 points) and steals (2.2) last season, to have a big senior season.
“For her to be recognized like that by the league coaches, that means you’ve done some work and gained some people’s respect,” Adams said. “That’s always an honor, but now it’s time to get the work done.”
3. Returning guards leading the way
McCully isn’t the only standout guard returning for the Shockers, who used the strength of their guard play last season to their success.
Junior point guard Seraphine Bastin (9.5 points, 5.0 assists), junior shooting guard Carla Bremaud (14.5 points) and sophomore guard D.J. McCarty (7.0 points, 5.5 assists) bring talent and experience to WSU’s backcourt this season. Bastin and Bremaud were full-time starters last season for WSU, while McCarty logged seven starts.
“Good experience like that definitely helps and makes a difference,” Adams said. “Our athleticism and our speed are definitely going to be our strong suits. We ought to be able to cover some ground and do some things defensively that should cause some people some challenges.”
4. Help has arrived in the post
Not since Rangie Bessard and Angiee Thompson graduated in 2018 has WSU had much of a low-post presence.
That seems to have changed with the arrival of 6-2 junior Asia Strong, who has led WSU in scoring both games this season and has 36 points on 56.7% shooting.
Strong was a highly-touted junior college transfer from Trinity Valley (Texas) after leading her team to a 32-1 record and averaging 14.6 points and 9.2 rebounds as a sophomore.
“Asia Strong is a really good post for us and we worked really hard to get her,” Adams said. “She’s going to help us in our inside game big time.
“We’ve added some people who can do a lot of really good things for us and I believe we’ve added some pieces to the puzzle that we may have been missing.”
Ene Adams, a 6-1 sophomore, is another junior college transfer who has helped WSU immediately inside. Adams leads WSU in rebounding with 18 total, including nine offensive boards, through two games.
“She has a lot of potential to develop into a really good post player for us,” Adams said. “She’s got some great jumping ability and rebounding ability.”
5. Outside shooting, fouling are concerns
WSU has never been a good outside shooting team under Adams, a weakness that she tried to address in the offseason.
After making under 30% of three-pointers the first three seasons under Adams, the Shockers are off to a hot start from beyond the arc this season. WSU has connected on 14 three-pointers in two games and has made 43.8% of its shots from distance.
Bremaud was the team’s top shooter last season and is off to a blazing start to her junior campaign, having made 8 of 13 threes so far.
“I’d like for us to shoot the three-ball more consistently,” Adams said. “I think knocking that shot down at a higher percentage would really help us out.”
Another issue Adams would like to see cleaned up this season is WSU’s propensity for fouling. Last season in conference play, the Shockers committed on average two more fouls than their opponents, which gave their opponents an advantage at the foul line.
Adams likes WSU to play an aggressive style on the defensive end, but the 19.5 fouls per game the Shockers were whistled for last season in conference play needs to shrink.
“We’ve got to bring that number down,” Adams said. “That’s a big area where we still need to get better at. If we can get more disciplined in our defensive system, then we will have less fouls and that is going to help us out in a big way.”
Through two games this season, WSU is averaging just 13.5 fouls per game and has outscored its opponents by 12 points at the free throw line.
.jpg)