Women's Basketball 2022-23

Final 

Dawgs 83

Bradley 65 

Randle with 25 & 10. Jones with 20.  Williams with 13. Taylor with 11 & 9. Love with 8 assists. Took the foot off the gas in the 4th. Don't really like that in conference play. But it's a win and the women are at .500. Deadbirds on Saturday at 2. 

SIU 6-6 (3-0) vs Illinois State 8-5 (2-1)

Saturday Jan 7^th, 2pm – Banterra Center

Video Streaming ESPN3

Audio/Radio Saluki Sports Network/Magic 95.1

WarrenNolan.com Prediction: ISU-Red -7

 Series History and Redbirds Head Coach:

Our series with the Redbirds goes back to 1962 and its not exactly pretty. We’ve played 119 times and ISU owns a 71-48 series lead. We swept the two games in the regular season last year and lost a contentious semi-final game at the MVC tournament back in the spring. During and prior to the COVID season we had lost seven in a row to the Redbirds. In the past decade there has only been one blowout, a 41-89 loss at Redbird Arena back in 2013. A large portion of the games have been decided by only a few buckets. The low point a 36-39 (Yup, that’s right – 75 TOTAL points!) loss in Carbondale in February of 2018. The Redbirds are coming off of earning the MVC Auto Bid to last season’s NCAA Tournament. We have one common opponent in Saint Louis. They lost at SLU 65-75. ISU sits at 93 int the NET with a 98 RPI and a 110 SOS.

The Redbirds are coached by Kristen Gillespie who is in her sixth year at the helm. Gillespie has had some success in her tenure with an 87-61 (42-30) record. Her teams have not eclipsed the twenty win mark yet, but has had nineteen wins three times. Coach Gillespie has only one losing season.

Tale Of The Tape:

                             ISU        SIU

PPG                      67.0       75.8      

Pts Allowed         64.4       75.6

FG%                      .393       .426

FG% OPP             .407       .426

3pt%                     .363       .355

3pt % OPP           .303       .388

FT%                       .750       .678

Rebounds            34.7       38.3

Reb OPP              38.9       38.5

Assists                  12.15     16.6

Turnovers           12.9       16.3      

T/O Forced          16.5       19.3

Steals                   6.4         10.8

Blocks                  4.38       4.2

Offensive Rtg     65th       104th

                              104.5     96.3

Defensive Rtg    268th     266th

                              103        95.9

Pace of Play        271st     8th

                              63.5       78.7

ISU-Red Dramatis Personae –

This a veteran team.

The Redbirds are led by last year’s NCAA Division 2 National Player of the Year 5-10 Graduate Guard, Paige Robinson. She averages 19.6 PPG which leads The Valley. Her shooting splits are impressive .450/.403/.863 (FG/3FG/FT)

Next are several ISU veterans starting with 5-8 Graduate Guard Mary Crompton. She averages 10.8 PPG ad shoots nearly 48% from three.

DeAnna Wilson is a returning post player a 6-2 Senior Forward who averages 9.8 PPG and 7.2 rebounds.

Mya Wong may be ISU-R’s unsung asset. The 5-8 R-Junior Guard can guard and she will probably get Love and Jones as an assignment. She averages 8.6 PPG and leads the team in assists.

ISU’s second big is 6-1 Junior Forward Kate Bullman. She averages 6.4 PPG, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game.

ISU just got by Missouri State in their last game 67-63.

Even after the departure of Valley First Team and leading scorer JuJu Redmond the Redbirds sport a veteran team. The addition of Robinson makes up for Redmon’s loss and then some. ISU was picked second in The Valley Pre-season poll. At first it was a bit of a head scratcher but after what Robinson has shown, the 2^nd place pick may be warranted. This team, like their coach, has an attitude. They play like they have a serious chip on their shoulder having playing second-fiddle to Drake, Missouri State, and UNI over the last few years. The last several games in this series have been a slug-fest and I expect that to continue Saturday. Its going to be important that we get off to a hot start shooting and stay at home on defense.

A couple of interesting stats… ISU’s assist percentage (Assists on baskets made) is 43 % ranking them 232^nd nationally. Our assist percentage is 60% ranking us 51^st nationally. Steal percentage (steals per opponent possessions) 4.2% Redbirds putting them 232^nd nationally and ours is 13.6% placing us 98th nationally.

How We’re Doing:

After the expected blowout win over Bradley, we now get to the teeth of our schedule. After this first real test of The Valley season we go on the road for four against Missouri State, UIC, Belmont and Murray. Even though we’ve only played three Valley games, this is kind of a must win game if we want to finish in the upper division of The Valley. Laniah Randle’s second double-double of the season was no fluke. The Sophomore forward can score in bunches and she knows just where to be on the floor. If she’s stays out of foul trouble she can be huge to this team’s success. Ashley Jones continues her scoring consistency with 20 points last night. Promise Taylor was quite a bit more aggressive and vocal last night in wanting the ball. Shemera Williams was impressive again scoring 13 points in just 16 minutes of play.

GO DAWGS!!!

Looked great against an awful Bradley team. We are improving and playing together better. Let's whip some Redturds.

After 1 

SIU 17

ISU-R 15

Slow start but we stepped up on defense and forced several turnovers. Getting the ball in to Taylor. She's 4-4 from the line. We've hit all six FT's so far.

Halftime 

SIU 28

REDBIRDS 30

Big stop and shot clock  violation just before half.

Cold shooting...

After 3 

SIU 37

ISU 44

Missing shots we normally make, especially in transition. We are holding Robinson - conference leading scorer - in check she only has four. 

Time for another 4th quarter comeback!

Wild finish...

Final 

SIU 56

REDBIRDS 59

Love with a HUGE mistake on an inbound. She stepped in bounds before getting rid of the ball with 11.6 left under our own basket.

Should have won this game. I REALLY HATE losing to these assholes. 

Jones with 12. Love 11. Williams and Taylor with 10 each. 

It would be a bit unfair to put all the onus on Q there at the end of the game. We didn't do a good job of rotating over to her on the inbounds play. 

Both teams played great defense. We missed shots that should have dropped and so did ISU. We just let them get loose one too many times at the end. Held Crompton and Robinson both under average. I said in my preview that Wong was the unsung asset and she delivered. She ended up with 11. Q was on her like a cheap suit, she did force her into 6 turnovers and Q also had 7 steals and two big 3's in the fourth. 

Taylor impressed me. She was tough against two of the top bigs in The Valley. I think she had a double - double, but the box scores says otherwise. She also had 4 blocks that looked like she was playing against middle-schoolers. Only one of her blocks went out of bounds, the other three stayed in and we retrieved them. 

Tough loss, feel bad for the women. This would have been a nice feather in the cap. 

Did I say I hate losing to these f@#!ers? I think I did, but it's worth repeating.

I HATE LOSING TO THESE F@*#ERS!!!!

An eventful second weekend in The Valley. No more undefeated teams. Belmont holds on to split thier first trip to The Iowas beating UNI. Murray lost both Iowa games. 

We're in a six way tie for first with ISU-R, Drake, Belmont, MoSt, and UNI. 

Next up for us at MoSt on Wednesday. 

Posted by: @rabidsaluki

↑

Wild finish...

Final 

SIU 56

REDBIRDS 59

Love with a HUGE mistake on an inbound. She stepped in bounds before getting rid of the ball with 11.6 left under our own basket.

Should have won this game. I REALLY HATE losing to these assholes. 

Jones with 12. Love 11. Williams and Taylor with 10 each. 

That 3rd qtr, we threw the ball away time after time. Sloppy passing. Then we missed a bunch of close in shots in a row.

Let them gradually pull away because of our mistakes.

SIU 6-7 (3-1) vs MISSOURI STATE 8-5 (3-1)

Wednesday Jan 11^th 6pm Springfield, MO

Streaming ESPN+

Listen Streaming Saluki Sports Network – Over The Air 95.1 STEVE FM

WarrenNolan.com Prediction: MoSt -14

Series History And Lady Bears Head Coach:

This is the 91^st meeting in the series that goes back to 1971. The Lady Bears have a 59-31 lead and have won 20 of the last 25 meetings. Our last win in Springfield was back in 2006 a 63-38 blowout. Our last win in the series was last season in Carbondale, a 65-49 decision on February, 4^th. Two days later we lost 53-52 in Springfield.

MoSt is led by Beth Cunningham in her first season. She is one of three Power Five assistant coaches to be debuting in The Valley this season as head coach. Cunningham came from Duke and prior to that Notre Dame (or as some prefer - South Bend Junior College) where she – as well as our Coach did at Texas A&M – helped win a national championship. Prior to Notre Dame she was the head coach at VCU for seven years and played in the WNBA for the Washington Mystics in 2000.

We have two common opponents: SLU (W) and Middle Tennessee (L). MoSt is coming off of a weekend split losing to Illinois State and thumping Bradley.

Missouri State currently sits at 122 NET 124 RPI and 127 SOS.

Tale Of The Tape:

                             MSU        SIU

PPG                      65.2       75.8      

Pts Allowed         63.6       75.6

FG%                      .390       .426

FG% OPP             .415       .426

3pt%                     .282       .355

3pt % OPP           .286       .388

FT%                       .617       .678

Rebounds            43.4       38.3

Reb OPP              38.9       38.5

Assists                  13.17     16.6

Turnovers           17.2       16.3      

T/O Forced          16.2       19.3

Steals                   8.5         10.8

Blocks                  3.2         4.2

Offensive Rtg     164th     111th

                              91.5       95.2

Defensive Rtg    142nd    249th

                              89.4       94.9

Pace of Play        173rd     11th

                              71.2       78.0

Missouri State is 8^th in scoring in The Valley but 4^th in defense. Not a particularly good shooting team; they are 10^th in FG%, last in 3 point FG% and last in FT%. On the plus side they are 2^nd in rebounding and 2^nd in 3 point defense. Missouri State ranks 10th nationally in rebounding percentage.

Missouri State Dramatis Personae –

The Lady Bears lost a few players after the departure of Coach Mox to UVA. But still have some contributing pieces from last year’s NCAA at-large team and several transfers.

First up is their leading scorer - a portal transfer from Kansas - Aniya Thomas a 5-7 graduate guard. She averages 13.1 PPG 4.5 rebound and 4.6 assists.

Next up is another transfer coming from Colorado. Kennedy Taylor is a 6-3 sophomore forward that averages 11.3 PPG and has 7.9 rebounds per game and nearly 54% shooting. Taylor has two Valley Newcomer Of The Week nods.

Sydney Wilson a 5-11 senior guard is a returning starter who averages 10.4 PPG and is second in rebounding at 6.1 per game.

Jade Masogayo a 6-3 freshman forward leads the team in blocks at nearly 2 a game and averages 4.2 PPG.

India Green a 5-11 sophomore forward averages 8.7 PPG and leads the team in rebounding at 8.4 per game.

The Lady Bears basically run an eight player rotation.

How About Us?

After the near miss against Illinois State we now are on the road for the next four. I don’t think this game is a fourteen point spread. It feels to me more like a six or seven point spread. Missouri State can defend the three, but our game is more downhill slashing and backdoor cuts. They rebound very well so we need to be at our best on the boards. On paper we don’t have to look hard at three-ball defense, but our defense beyond the arc has been suspect at times.

Promise Taylor has been more vocal and aggressive the last two games, and that’s a good thing. Most of the time she made two of the better Valley post players on Illinois State look out of place. Free throw shooting was improved, but the overall defensive play by ISU-R knocked our shooting out of whack.

The Lady Bears are not the Juggernaut that they have been in years past and usually have been after a coaching change; I wouldn’t be surprised if we steal this one.

GO DAWGS!!!  

Weird. Womens game didn't show on the main menu for live games had to go digging for it. 

After 1

SIU 13

BEAR-ETTS 15

Jesus - this MoSt team can rebound like crazy. Can't really shoot though. We're torching them in transition. 

Halftime 

SIU 38

LADY BEARS 30

Well things looked good at halftime. Then the 3rd quarter happened....

Bad shooting. Silly turnovers.  Late shot clock luck by the Bears. And a bunch of ticky tack fouls on us. 

SIU 46

MSU 58

Bears outscore us 28-8. 

Great adjustments by MSU here in the second half. Didn't think they had it in them based on what happened in the first half.  Couldn't shoot for shit in the second half. MSU was 0-4 before tonight at halftime. We give up THREE double doubles including a 25 point 10 ASSIST night from one of thiers.  

Williams with 17. Mason with 13. Taylor had six blocks. 

Final.

SIU 57

MSU 78

Got outscored 48-19 in the second half.