PLAYER OF THE WEEK Tulsa's Megan Moody has been named the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 23-29. This is the first career WAC Player of the Week honor for the sophomore this season. The Golden Hurricane have been awarded the honor three times this year.
Moody, a guard/forward from Frankston, Victoria, Australia, came off the bench in both games last week and put together one of the best back-to-back shooting performances of the season. Moody nailed five three-pointers against both Hawaii and San Jose State, and was the leading scorer in both games. She concluded the week 10-of-13 (.770) from behind the three-point line and connected on a total of 11-of-18 (.611) field goal attempts. For the week, she averaged 16.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game.
Against Hawai'i, Moody tied her career scoring mark with 17 points, hitting 6-of-8 (.750) field goal attempts, but more importantly, nailed 5-of-6 (.833) three-pointers, and also contributed six rebounds and three blocked shots. She nailed a total of three three-pointers in the second half, including two during a 12-0 run for Tulsa that broke a 31-31 tie and gave the Hurricane a commanding 12-point lead, which it did not relinquish. Moody's five three-pointers in each game ranks fifth on Tulsa's single game list.
Also nominated: Amisha Carter, Louisiana Tech; Lauren Neaves, Rice and Sarah Davis, SMU.
THURSDAY NIGHT SHOWDOWN The WAC's top two teams will battle for the out-right number one spot Thursday night when Rice travels to Ruston, La., to face No. 6 Louisiana Tech. Tip-off at the Thomas Assembly Center is set for 7 pm. The Lady Owls defeated Louisiana Tech 87-84 in overtime earlier this season at Autry Court, and will be looking for their first win in Ruston.
Rice has won a school-record 12 straight games, and 15 of its last 16. Louisiana Tech has won 14-straight games. With its only losses coming on the road to Rice and No. 1 Tennessee.
Louisiana Tech has won out-right or claimed a share of 11-straight regular season conference titles dating back to the 1991-92 season when the Lady Techsters finished third in the Sun Belt Conference, one game behind both Lamar and Western Kentucky who tied for the championship. Last season, the Lady Techsters completed a perfect 18-0 WAC record.
The winner will claim at least a share of the regular season WAC title. Both teams close out the regular season on Saturday, March 6. The Lady Techsters and Lady Owls will not have a seed lower than No. 2 in the upcoming WAC Tournament.
PERFECT AT HOME In WAC games, there are only two schools remaining undefeated at home this season. Rice ended its the WAC regular season 9-0 at home. Louisiana Tech is currently 7-0 at home. Overall, Louisiana Tech is 11-0 at the Thomas Assembly Center this season. Rice had four non-conference losses at home for a 10-4 overall home record. Louisiana Tech, Rice, UTEP (5-2), Tulsa (5-4) and SMU (6-1) are the only teams with winning home records in WAC play.
CLOSE NATIONAL RACE Five different teams have earned at least one first place vote in the most recent AP Poll. Top-ranked Tennessee, Duke, Texas, UConn and Penn State all received at least one first place vote. In the latest USA Today/ESPN/WBCA poll, Lousiana Tech received one first place vote for the first this season.
NON-CONFERENCE RECORD The WAC is an even .500 with a 46-46 record against non-conference opponents. The WAC has the most wins against the Southland Conference with a solid 7-2 record. The WAC is 5-1 against the Big West Conference. The league has a solid 2-0 mark against the Big Ten. The WAC has seven losses against the Big 12 and Pac-10 Conferences.
AMONG THE NATION'S BEST This week, Rice is first in the nation in blocked shots (6.8 bpg). Tulsa is seventh, averaging 6.1 bpg. Louisiana is second in steals (13.9 spg), scoring margin (25.1) and scoring offense (84.0).
LOUISIANA TECH'S FRIERSON NAMED NAISMITH FINALIST Louisiana Tech senior Trina Frierson was one of 20 finalists named Tuesday for the 2004 Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year Award, announced by Atlanta Tipoff Club President Jackie Bradford. Frierson, who was also named to the preseason watch list prior to the start of the 2003-04 year, is averaging 16.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game for Louisiana Tech while shooting 52 percent from the field and 69 percent from the free throw line. The Naismith Board of Directors, which includes some of the countrys leading basketball coaches, journalists, and administrators, began the selection process earlier this year. They reduced the number of finalists by balloting to the 20 top males and females they feel are most deserving of the award.
WAC ADDS NEW MEXICO STATE, UTAH STATE On Oct. 23, 2003, the WAC issued invitations to New Mexico State and Utah State for the 2005 season. New Mexico State is currently 12-15 this season. Utah State is 5-20 in its first season of women's basketball in 17 years. The Aggies earned their third Big West win against Long Beach State, 64-60.
WAC TOURNAMENT TRAVELS WEST TO FRESNO For the first time since the 1999-00 season, Fresno State will serve as the host for the Men and Womens WAC Basketball Tournament. The 2004 tournament will be held in the new 16,116-seat Save Mart Center. The seven through 10 teams will play on Tuesday, March 9. The remaining eight teams will play in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 10 with the top seed competing versus the winner of the Tuesday game, the No. 2 seed against. No. 7, etc. The winners will play in the semifinals on Friday and the championship game will be Saturday.
AGAINST THE BEST The WAC is 1-9 against teams ranked in the top 25. Louisiana Tech captured the league's first win over a ranked team with a last-second win over then-No. 6 Penn State. SMU has already played three ranked teams in No. 5 Texas Tech, No. 16 Oklahoma and No. 23 TCU. No. 12 Louisiana Tech fell to No. 3 Tennessee two weeks ago. Hawaii lost to No. 21 Arizona, while Rice has fallen to No. 7 Stanford and No. 18 LSU. Fresno State is 0-1 this season against ranked teams falling to No. 19 Utah. Tulsa lost to No. 2 Duke in Durham on Dec. 14. Rice has also lost to Baylor who is now ranked. Rankings at time of meeting.
AROUND THE COURT Boise State has four of its last five games after splitting games with SMU and Louisiana Tech at home. Last week, the Broncos upset the Mustangs, but fell to the sixth-ranked Lady Techsters. The Broncos will closeout the regular season next Thursday on the road in El Paso, Texas when they take on the UTEP Miners at 7:00 p.m. at the Don Haskins Center. The Broncos are still fighting for a seed in the WAC Tournament. Fresno State, Hawaii and Boise State all have five wins. Last season, the Broncos were a No. 8 seed.
Fresno State was 6-1 during the month of February last year and started a five-game winning streak midway through the month that ultimately propelled the club to an appearance in the postseason WNIT. The Bulldogs once again appear to have righted the ship after a slow start, having won four of their last six after suffering an eight-game losing skid. Fresno State still has an outside shot at a .500 season, but must sweep both road games this weekend and follow that with three wins in the WAC Tournament the following weekend.
Hawaii head coach Vince Goo will coach his final games on the island as the Rainbow Wahine host Fresno State and Nevada. Goo's retirement will mark the end of a 20-year coaching career at Hawaii, including 17 years as head coach. He is the program's all-time winningest coach with a record of 331-162. Goo's team's have averaged nearly 20 wins per season during his 17-year tenure and have earned four straight post-season berths. His 331 wins are the most ever by a collegiate coach in Hawaii, men's or women's. The Rainbow Wahine look for a little revenge against Nevada who defeated them, 77-62, in Reno. The win was of only two WAC wins for the Wolf Pack.
Louisiana Tech was ranked No. 7 in this week's Associated Press poll, marking the 215th straight week of being ranked. This breaks the programs old record of 214 straight weeks which started in the last 1970s, covered the entire 1980s and ended in the early 90s. This current streak started on Nov. 24, 1992. Louisiana Tech finishes the regular season with home games against Rice and Tulsa as the Lady Techsters are attempting to win their 12th straight regular season conference title. Louisiana Tech will host Rice Thursday and will be attempting to keep the Owls from sweeping the series. Rice defeated Louisiana Tech, 87-84, in overtime on Jan. 5. Only one time in Louisiana Tech's 17-years of conference existence has a Lady Techster team been swept in the regular season by a league opponent. Lamar swept the Lady Techsters during the 1990-91 season when both teams were a member of the Sun Belt. Senior forward Amisha Carter has scored 20 or more points in eight of Tech's last nine games.
Nevada will be the No. 10 seed in the upcoming WAC Tournament. This is the second-straight tournament in which the Wolf Pack will be the No. 10 seed. Nevada will play the yet to be determined No. 7 seed. The Wolf Pack close out the regular season with a road trip to San Jose State and Nevada. Earlier this season, the Wolf Pack lost to the Spartans and defeated the Rainbow Wahine.
Rice finishes the WAC home season with a perfect 9-0 record, the first time a Lady Owl team has gone undefeated in conference play at Autry Court since the 1997-98 season. Rice held San Jose State to an opponent season-low 20.4 shooting. Eshombi Singleton scored a career-high 10 points against the Spartans, and Lindsey Maynard and Elisa Inman each had double-digit points. Rice has now won 12 straight and 15 of its last 16 games. Rice will end the regular season on the road at Louisiana Tech on March 4 and at SMU on March 6.
San Jose State has lost eight of its last 10 games. Despite losing both games on its road trip last week, San Jose State remains in sixth place in the conference standings. The Spartans are one game ahead of seventh place Hawaii and Fresno State with two regular season games remaining. The Spartans end the season at home against Nevada and Fresno State.
SMU needs four more three-point field goals and three three-point field goal attempts to set new season records. The most three-point field goals made in a single season was 174 during the 1998-99 season and the most three-point field goal attempts in a single season is 536 which took place last season. The Mustangs did not win back-to-back WAC road games this season, splitting the Thursday-Saturday series between Rice/Tulsa and Nevada/Fresno State, and dropping both games at San Jose State and at Hawaii. SMU lost Thursdays road game at Boise State but defeated UTEP Saturday night in El Paso. In last weeks NCAA statistics, SMU was 19th in the nation in three-point field goals made per game, improving over previous weeks ranking of 26th in the nation. Sophomore forward Sarah Davis posted a career-high 18 rebounds at UTEP, the fourth-most in Mustang history. She recorded her sixth career double-double at UTEP, and is fifth on SMU's all-time career list in blocked shots, totaling 81 blocks. She needs four more to move into fourth.
UTEP has shot under 40 percent 16 times this season and under 30 percent four times. The Miners are 6-10 when shooting under 40 percent and 1-3 going below 30 percent. UTEP has shot under 40 percent in its last four games, including a season-low 25.8 percent (17-for-66) against SMU on Feb. 28. UTEP's 38.0 percent shooting this season is not the lowest in school history. Actually, it is the eighth lowest. The Miners had a harder time finding the bottom of the net in 1982-83, when they shot 35.2 percent.
Tulsa recorded its 17th win of the season in its victory over San Jose State and tied the 2001-02 Golden Hurricane squad for the most single season wins in school history. TU also registered the most home wins in one season with a 10-5 home mark this year. In two games last week, Tulsa nailed 21 three pointers and concluded the week 21 of 43 (.490) from beyond the arc. Tulsa tied the school's single-game record for three point field goals with 11 treys against Hawaii (2/26). Previously, the Hurricane drained 11 three-pointers twice last season against Boise State (1/18/03) and Nevada (3/8/03). This season, TU has chalked up 159 blocks in 26 games (6.1 bpg) and has posted eight games with eight or more blocks and three double figure games The Golden Hurricane set the school and WAC record for blocks in a single season a year ago with 167.