C-USA Women's Basketball Notebook 1

More Preseason Basketball Information

Nov. 12, 2009

By Brian Davis
Special to ConferenceUSA.com

After 15 years at Tulane, coach Lisa Stockton has seen Conference USA women's basketball undergo a complete metamorphosis. A league that started with three divisions and struggled for exposure has blossomed into one of the most competitive in the country.

Now, Conference USA boasts legitimate stars on the floor, dynamic leaders on the bench and, on any given night, anyone is vulnerable.

"In Conference USA before, there was a top and a bottom," said Stockton, who has guided the Green Wave to nine NCAA Tournament appearances. "That's not there anymore. You've got to win every game you can if you want to have the season you want to have."

And the intensity?

"You better be able to play when people are yelling at you, screaming at you, calling you `Bus Driver' and everything else from A to Z," Houston coach Joe Curl said.

No team or conference can thrive without great players. That's how Conference USA rose to prominence. Memphis produced two top WNBA draft picks in the late 1990s with LaTonya Johnson and Tamika Whitmore. Then, Tulane's Grace Daley was taken fifth overall by Minnesota in 2000. Conference USA produced another first-round pick in 2002, 2004 and 2005.

This season, UTEP senior Jareica Hughes is sure to add her name to that distinguished list. The two-time Conference USA Player of the Year is already considered one of the best players in school history. She's on pace to finish as one of the top scorers in C-USA history. Yet for all those points, UTEP coach Keitha Adams believes that Hughes is more concerned with assists. The 5-3 guard holds the UTEP record with 449 assists through three season and will only pad that number this year.

In Adams' mind, Hughes has a constant desire to get her teammates involved. That, in turn, makes the Miners better.

"She's got that true point guard mentality," Adams said. "She really feels good about those assists, and she's a playmaker. Her mentality is about winning, and she likes to play team-style basketball. It helps set the tone with the rest of our players and they buy into the team concept. I think what it does is become contagious and I hope we have that mentality of being a team and that it's not all on one person's shoulders."

The same could be said of UCF's Emma Cannon, who was named the 2009-10 Preseason Player of the Year. Cannon was the C-USA All-Tournament MVP after leading the Knights to four victories in four days. She didn't do it alone, though. Cannon leaned on exciting playmakers like Chelsie Wiley and Aisha Patrick, too.

For Southern Miss it's two-time All-C-USA first teamer Pauline Love. She has led the team and ranked among C-USA's Top 10 in scoring and rebounding for two-straight seasons. Love, a Jones Country Junior College transfer, enters her senior season as one of only two players in program history to have ever scored 1,000-career points in two years and looks to become only the fourth player to record 1,000 rebounds in a career. Coach Joye Lee-McNelis also returns the 2009 C-USA Sixth Player of the year in Tanesha Washington as well as Candace Rucker.

SMU's Brittany Gilliam led the league with 80 steals last season. But she couldn't help the Mustangs capture the Conference USA regular-season title all by herself. Gilliam had 6-2 post Christine Elliott gobbling up rebounds and sharpshooter Haley Day firing up 3-pointers.

Southern Miss, Houston, Tulane, Marshall -- they all excelled last season because of teamwork. And a majority of those teams have multiple veterans returning. That's why it's so difficult to handicap the 2009-10 season.

"I think the league is very strong," UCF coach Joi Williams said. "There are a lot of teams that return a lot. I think the first team that comes to mind is SMU. After that, you think about Southern Miss who has two or three seniors returning and a lot of experience. UTEP has one of the best guards in the conference. Houston is kind of like us, they're going to be a heavy junior class team. Some of those teams have a lot of experience. I just think it's wide open."

DOWN TO THE WIRE Just how close is the competition in Conference USA? Last season, it looked as if there would be a five-way tie for first place heading into the final day of the regular season. SMU moved ahead of the pack with a thrilling 78-65 win over UTEP on the final day at Moody Coliseum.

SMU finished the regular season with a 12-4 conference record while UTEP, Southern Miss, Houston and UCF all finished 11-5.

On paper, coach Rhonda Rompola's team looks stout heading into this season. Gilliam became just the 16th player in school history to score 1,000 points in a season last year. Rompola called her "one of the best pick-and-roll guards I've ever coached." Senior Jillian Samuels ranks 11th in C-USA history in 3-point shooting. Elliott grabbed 224 rebounds last season, third-most in SMU freshmen history.

Rompola's club was a NCAA regular during the 1990s. The program dipped a bit earlier this decade, but the Mustangs have been to a postseason tournament three times since 2005.

"Our girls have talked about doing something here at SMU that we've never done before, whatever that may be," said Rompola, who has 332 career victories. "There's a lot we haven't done. But they got a taste of it last year when we won the conference but didn't get to the NCAA Tournament." How did SMU get all the way to the NCAA alter only to get stood up? Thank UCF.

The Knights were picked to finish near the bottom in the conference last season. They stormed to the forefront and stunned everybody by winning the Conference USA tournament as a No. 5 seed. The Knights led the league in rebounding margin and second in steals per game (9.4). It was just the second time in league history that a team won the tournament by capturing four games in four days.

By capturing the Conference USA tournament title, UCF knocked SMU out of the NCAA picture. "It was a first for me personally as a coach to get a ring and cut down the nets and raise the banner," Williams said. "But we want to do that again, again and again or at least put ourselves in that position to do that."

EVERYONE HAS A SHOT Just because SMU and UCF won championships last season doesn't mean other teams have no chance. Over the last four years, four different teams have won the regular-season title. In fact, no team has ever won back-to-back league titles since C-USA went to a one-division format in 2001.

That means a team like East Carolina has as good a shot as anybody. The Pirates caught everyone flatfooted in 2007 and stormed the Conference USA tournament title. Last season, ECU finished 18-13 and has the bulk of its team returning, including 6-5 sophomore Jean Best, the league's best shooter (.615).

Marshall found its groove last February, winning five of its last seven games. Double-digit scorers Tynikki Crook, Chantelle Handy and Alyssa Hammond all return this season, giving coach Royce Chadwick reason for optimism.

Any team with a dangerous 3-point shooter cannot be overlooked. UAB's Amanda Peterson averaged 11.3 points per game last season and made 33.8 percent of her shots from beyond the arc.

Memphis may be the most unpredictable team in the league under second-year coach Melissa McFerrin. She returns only three veterans from last year's team that finished 12-18. But one of those is guard Alex Winchell, who shot 32.2 percent from 3-point range.

Tulsa must lean on experienced forward Larrissa Williams, who was the only player who posted double figures in points last season. The 6-3 senior averaged 15.4 points per game and grabbed 9.7 rebounds.

Rice has just one returning player who averaged double figures as well. Sophomore D'Frantz Smart shot 33 percent from 3-point range for a Rice team that struggled with consistency.

STRENGTH ON THE SIDELINE All conferences must have good leadership from the bench. Conference USA has developed a stable of steady, proven coaches who are guiding their programs to success through hard work, solid recruiting and savvy X's and O's.

Rompola will be entering her 19th season at SMU this fall. Greg Williams is heading into 17th season as a head coach, and Stockton (18th season) and Curl (21st season) are both experienced veterans.

"I really believe that our conference coaches are first-class all the way and we go head-to-head with players and there's never any negative recruiting," Curl said. "We support each other, we share information is how we're doing marking and promotions. We share a lot of information. When we have our spring meetings, we hang out together and talk about our teams and talk about recruiting and what's going on with other universities."

Curl would even invite his biggest rival to his weekly tailgating party outside the UH football stadium in the fall. Beef brisket, ribs, sausage; if you can eat it, Curl can cook it.

One area that Conference USA coaches have beefed up is their scheduling. The league can bolster its standing with NCAA Tournament committee members by scheduling tougher non-conference opponents -- and then winning those games.

Several coaches said the league has done a better job as a whole of improving its scheduling. Some may not be as daring as Curl, who lined up Oregon State, LSU, Miami and Kansas on his non-conference slate. But there are plenty of great matchups on tap this December. UTEP is scheduled to play in the Preseason WNIT and will face Kansas State.

"I think it's going to really test our waters," Adams said. "I think it will be really good for us. They're well-seasoned and well-coached and really play well together. I think it will make our basketball team better and show our newcomers what high-level Division I basketball is like."

UCF will host Alabama and Notre Dame this season. SMU will face Arkansas early in non-conference play. Memphis is headed to Missouri and will host Ole Miss. Rice will head right up Highway 6 to meet Texas A&M at Reed Arena in College Station.

"That one year we climbed up the polls to become eighth in the country, it was because of our [non-conference] schedule," Curl said. "It's just our style, and certainly I wouldn't get into anyone else's business, but in my opinion, everyone is beefing up their schedules a little bit."