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PLAYER OF THE WEEK Rice's Lauren Neaves has been named the Western Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 25. This is the first WAC Player of the Week honor for the sophomore this season, she earned the honor once last season.
Neaves, a sophomore from Cooper City, Fla., averaged 15.5 ppg and 10.5 rpg in road wins over Fresno State and Nevada. She shot .545 from the field, helping the Lady Owls record their first road wins of the season. She had a double-double at Fresno State, her fifth of the season. The center also added a season-high 18 points, grabbing a season-best 13 rebounds behind 7-of-11 shooting against the Bulldogs. She swatted three shots and grabbed a steal against Fresno State. Neaves went 5-of-11 at Nevada, and 3-of-4 from the free throw line to score 13 points.
She was one of four Lady Owls to score double-digit points at Nevada and has racked up double-digit points in 10 of Rice's 18 games this season. She grabbed eight boards against the Wolf Pack, dished out an assist and recorded a block. Neaves now needs 19 blocks to break Rice's all-time blocks record of 142 (has 124 for her career).
Other nominees included: Amy Sanders, Hawai'i; Tasha Crain, Louisiana Tech; Jessica Kellogg, San Jose State; Katy Cobb, SMU and Megan Moody, Tulsa.
ON TAP THIS WEEK Fresno State will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak when it travels to Reno to square off against Nevada on Jan 29. The Bulldogs have dropped five of their last six games after starting the year 10-1. Four of those five losses have taken place at the Save Mart Center, where Fresno State is winless in conference play.
Undefeated Louisiana Tech will look to move to 9-0 at the midpoint of the conference season with wins on the road against Boise State and UTEP. Second-place Tulsa looks to pull away from the log jam of four teams that are 4-3. The Golden Hurricane will host two of those 4-3 teams, San Jose State and Hawaii.
LOUISIANA TECH BREAKS OWN RECORD Louisiana Tech set a WAC record with its 23rd-straight regular season conference win, breaking its own record of 22 games. Tech has now won 59 of 61 regular season games since joining the WAC.
REGAL RPI After four weeks of WAC play, the league has an overall Rating Percentage Index (RPI) of seven, according to the Womens Basketball Coaches Association. This is the highest RPI for the WAC in five seasons.
Last season at this time, the WAC had a WBCA RPI of 13th, while during the 2002-03 season the league was 10th. Since the 1999-00 season, the WAC has not had an RPI lower than 10th.
The WAC has four schools with an RPI under 75, and according to the WBCA has one school with an RPI higher than 200. Louisiana Tech has an RPI of 11 to lead the WAC, while Tulsa is currently ranked No. 34, according to the WBCA. SMU is ranked 52nd, while Hawaii currently has an RPI of 64. Rice has an RPI of 65.
ON THE RISE Louisiana Tech has moved into the top 10 in two of the three womens basketball college Ratings Percentage Indexes as of Jan 25. Louisiana Tech is No. 9 in the rpiratings.com poll, No.10 in the collegepri.com and and No. 11 in the WBCA/Summerville poll. The No. 9 ranking is the highest RPI ranking that Louisiana Tech has had since it joined the WAC during the 2001-02 season. Twelve of Louisiana Techs first 15 opponents are all ranked in the top 100 of the indexes, which accounts for the Techsters high ratings in both categories. Additionally, 14 of the 15 teams that the Techsters have faced currently have winning records and 10 of them already have won 10 or more games this year. One of Louisiana Techs four losses came to Tennessee the team with the No. 1 RPI, according to all three polls.
JACKSON SECOND IN THE NATION IN FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE San Jose State freshman sensation, Amber Jackson, dropped to second in the nation in field goal percentage in this weeks NCAA statistics. She led the nation for two weeks. Jackson actually improved her shooting percentage to .696. She trails only Libertys Katie Feenstra who is shooting .698. With the graduation of Tatiana and Teoma Taylor and all-WAC selection Cricket Williams, Jackson has emerged as a leader for the Spartans this season.
LOUISIANA TECHS TAYLOR FEATURED ON CBS Louisiana Tech senior guard Erica Taylor will be the subject of one of the features this Sunday during a CBS Sports Spectacular special titled, Pride, Passion and Power.
The hour-long show, which will air Sunday at 12:30 p.m. CST on CBS, will include a number of features from around the sporting world, including an eight-minute segment on Taylor, her husband Jermain and the couple's daughter Nia.
Rich Gentile of ESPN Productions contacted the Tech Media Relations Office during the summer about the possibility of producing the feature. Gentile thought the storyline of Taylor, the WAC Preseason Player of the Year, marrying Jermain, an undefeated professional boxer and one of the top contenders for the middleweight title, and having a daughter before returning to the court was worthy of the show.
ESPN, which produced the show for CBS, mailed Taylor a handheld video camera for her to document her pregnancy and her daily life with Jermain.
Gentile and his ESPN crew also made trips to the couples home in Little Rock, Ark., as well as to Louisiana Tech to film interviews with family, friends, teammates, coaches and doctors.
The final touches to the feature were shot this weekend when Taylor made her return to the court for Louisiana Tech against SMU in Dallas.
BREAKING THE TOP 10 There are several WAC teams that have broken the top 10 in this weeks NCAA statistics.
Rices 15-game home court winning streak is tied for seventh in the nation. SMU is eighth in field goal percentage defense (34.1) followed by San Jose State at 10th (34.5). Tulsa is eighth in the country in blocked shots (6.2 bpg), while Hawaii jumped to ninth this week after its 14 blocks against UTEP on Jan. 20.
BIG WINNERS This season, the WAC has six schools with more than 10 wins. Tulsa and SMU lead the pack with 13 wins. Fresno State, Louisiana Tech, San Jose State and Rice all have 11 wins. Last year at this point in the season, three teams had more than 10 wins. Louisiana Tech had 12, while San Jose State had 12. Tulsa had won 11 games.
RAINBOW WAHINE SET SCHOOL RECORD Hawaiis defense posted 24 blocks in its latest homestand with a school record 14 blocks coming against UTEP (Jan. 20). Brittany Grice had eight of those blocks, tying the individual single-game record accomplished twice by former Rainbow Wahine center Christen Roper. UH ranks in the top 20 in blocks in the nation and in the WAC is second overall (6.2) and first in conference games (7.3). Grice and fellow post player Alofa Toiaivao have combined for 74 of the teams 87 blocks with Toiaivao leading the team at 2.8 bpg and Grice not far behind at 2.5 bpg.
FAST-BREAK FRESHMEN Two freshmen have taken the WAC by storm not unlike the sensation caused by Rices Lauren Neaves and Tulsas Jillian Robbins last season. San Jose States Amber Jackson leads the league in scoring, averaging 16.9 points per game. Jackson is second in the nation in field goal percentage (.696). Fellow freshman Janielle Dodds is fourth in the league in scoring, averaging 14.5 ppg. Dodds is also in rebounding, averaging 8.5 rpg.
GOLDEN HURRICANE JOIN RELIEF EFFOTS In an effort to provide relief for the thousands of people affected in Asia by a deadly Tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, The Tulsa basketball players, coaches, and staff presented a check in the amount of $3,000 to the American Red Cross Tsunami Relief Fund on Jan. 13. The players, coaches and staff raised over $1,000 and fans more than matched their total with donations during the Boise State and UTEP home games.
WAC AGAINST THE REST The WAC is 61-32 (.656) this season. The WAC has a solid record against several conferences, including an 8-2 record against the Sun Belt Conference. The WAC is undefeated against the ACC (2-0). The ACC has the highest RPI in the country. WAC teams are also 7-2 against the Southland Conference and 5-3 against the Mountain West Conference. The WAC has a 2-4 record against the SEC, the conference with the second-highest RPI, according to the WBCA rankings.
AND THEN THERE WAS ONE Louisiana Tech is still the only remaining undefeated team in WAC play. With a win against SMU last week the Lady Techsters are 7-0 in league play.
Louisiana Tech ended non-conference play at 4-4 before once again displaying its WAC dominance with six victories in their first six league games. This week, the Lady Techsters look to stretch their record to 9-0 road games against Boise State and UTEP
Tulsa holds sole possession of second place with a 5-2 record. The Golden Hurricane are 7-0 at home this season. There are four teams knotted with 4-3 records, SMU, San Jose State, Rice and Hawaii.
WAC VS. RANKED TEAMS WAC teams are 0-5 against ranked teams this season. Fresno State is 0-1 with a loss to No. 18 UCLA at Savemart Center on Dec. 11. Rice is 0-2 against ranked teams with losses to Baylor and Texas Tech, when both teams were both ranked No. 11. SMU also has a loss to No. 23 TCU. Hawaii lost to No. 17 Houston at home.
WAC TO CHANGE IN 2005-06 Over the last year, the WAC issued invitations to Idaho, New Mexico State and Utah State effective July 1, 2005, the same date that Rice, SMU, UTEP and Tulsa are moving to Conference USA.
This season, Idaho is 10-6, 5-2 in the Big West. The Vandals are 6-0 when winning at half time. New Mexico State is 6-11, 1-4 in the Sun Belt Conference. The Aggies defeated No. 22 Houston earlier this season. It was the Aggies first-ever win over a ranked team. Utah State is 9-7, passing the win total of all of last season, the Aggies first season. USU is 4-3 in the Big West.
WAC TOURNAMENT TRAVELS TO RENO After one season in Fresno, the WAC Tournament will move to Reno in 2005. The 2005 WAC Tournament will be played at Nevadas Lawlor Events Center, March 8-12. The seven through 10 seeded teams will play on Tuesday, March 8. The remaining six teams will play in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 9 with the top seed competing versus the winner of the 8-9 Tuesday game, the No. 2 seed vs. No. 7 or No. 10, etc. The winners will play in the semifinals on Friday and the championship game will be Saturday.