The Lady Raiders will take a break and begin conference play hosting TCU on December 30.
Difficult to say how good the team is since the Pre-con schedule was mostly soft competition. The Lady Raiders lost games against the two best teams they played, Washington (RPI 47) and Santa Clara (RPI 46). ACU was Tech’s closest victory [71-65]. Abilene Christian’s RPI is 16 and they have a good chance at winning the Southland conference. Tech finished 9-2 and now have the 18 game conference schedule remaining.
The eye test indicates this is the best team play in Whitaker's three years. There is no individual talent as good as Amber Battle but the rest of the parts are better than they have been including clear improvement from year to year of returning players. Outside shooting by several players had shown noticeable improvement. And they all appear to have a better understanding what they are supposed to be doing. While they are still missing some size and perhaps a shutdown defender to match up to the better conference scorers, the team has a chance to make the post season, at least the WNIT.
On paper:
Difficult to say how good the team is since the Pre-con schedule was mostly soft competition. The Lady Raiders lost games against the two best teams they played, Washington (RPI 47) and Santa Clara (RPI 46). ACU was Tech’s closest victory [71-65]. Abilene Christian’s RPI is 16 and they have a good chance at winning the Southland conference. Tech finished 9-2 and now have the 18 game conference schedule remaining.
The eye test indicates this is the best team play in Whitaker's three years. There is no individual talent as good as Amber Battle but the rest of the parts are better than they have been including clear improvement from year to year of returning players. Outside shooting by several players had shown noticeable improvement. And they all appear to have a better understanding what they are supposed to be doing. While they are still missing some size and perhaps a shutdown defender to match up to the better conference scorers, the team has a chance to make the post season, at least the WNIT.
On paper:
- Tech is the second in team scoring avg in the Big 12. Some of that is the soft competition compared to the better Big 12 teams’ schedules. But much of it is just better shooting than last season. In 11 games, Tech has scored 70 or more points 10 times (only game below-62 pts vs Fordham). Last year in 12 games the LR were 10-2 but scored 70 or more points only 2 times.
- In Field Goal percentage the LRs are 5th in the conference at .448 average. Considering Tech has no height advantages and is relying on outside shooting a good amount, that is a respectable rate. The problem with outside shooting is that Tech has the second lowest attempted free throws per game in the Big 12.
- The Lady Raiders are in the middle of the pack among the 10 teams in the Big 12 in most other team statistical categories. That is an improvement.
- The primary place where Tech doesn’t rank middle of the pack in the conference statistics is RPI - showing up in the lower section just above ISU, TCU, and Kansas on one list and just above Kansas on another. Like I said – soft schedule.
- If the Lady Raiders where to pull off some upsets and finish above the middle in the Big 12, Strength of Schedule could be a detrimental factor in getting an NCAA bid due to RPI. Based on not winning a conference game two seasons ago though, getting to a place to be in the neighborhood of an NCAA bid would be great. But it would be painful if SoS kept them out. Ifs… There is a long way to go and lots of underdog wins need to happen for that to be a problem.
- Four Lady Raiders are averaging double figures and are in the top 20 of Big 12 scorers: Ivonne Cook Taylor 14.4, Rayven Brooks 13.2, LeeLee Grant 11.5 and Japreece Dean 11.1. Dayo Olabode is just under at 9.4 a game.
- Japreece Dean is a two time Big 12 freshman PoW award winner. A great sign for the future.
- In 11 games Tech had 6 different players lead the team in scoring and 6 different players lead the team in rebounding. As mentioned, the team play has been better together this season and balanced. The numbers on paper bear that out.
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