2023-24 ISU WBB Season Thread

[BoxsterCy]

Some random stats entering conference play tomorrow.

• We are up to 38% from three. We shot 33% last year.
• FG 48% is compared to last season's 42%
• Free throws 70% compared to last years 80%
• Assists 20.7 per game versus last years 14.6
• Rebounds are 44.3 compared to 42.1

Looks pretty decent overall even if you factor in that the stats through 11 games are skewed by the cupcake games everyone plays in non-conference.

Big 12 stats ranks:

• #8 Offense
• #12 Defense
• #5 FG percentage
• #4 Opponents FG percentage
• #4 3-Point FG Percentage
• #2 3-Point FGs Made
• #2 Team Rebounding
• #7 Opponent Rebounds
• #13 Turnover Margin

It's interesting that our overall scoring offense/defense ranks pretty low but we are mostly higher ranked in the individual categories. BTW, we rank right next to Oklahoma State in both of those total scoring metrics.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Not sure who is more short on players right now, Okie State or TCU. Thought I'd post in the season thread because it was pretty relevant to our game on Saturday.

Cowgirls just lost their top portal transfer in, Guard Kennedy Fauntleroy, last season’s Big East Freshman of the Year at Georgetown.

Fauntleroy’s leave is critical for the Cowgirls, who just dropped their conference opener to Iowa State on Saturday and is at 7-5 to end 2023.​

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Also, her leave limits OSU not only in games, but in practice, too.​

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The Cowgirls have had tough injury luck this season, with forward Chandler Prater rupturing her Achilles in November, guard Ale’Jah Douglas, who’s still in a boot and on a knee scooter, guard Landry Williams re-tearing her ACL in the off season and center Brianna Jackson, whose status is unknown moving forward. - Ocolly.com​

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Kennedy Fauntleroy no longer with Cowgirls

OSU’s biggest portal addition this summer is no longer a Cowgirl.

www.ocolly.com

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I knew they were short rostered from injuries but the announcers didn't talk about it much. First real accounting of their bad luck was in the article above. Adding to all of that was center Hannah Gusters just becoming eligible. If you reordered the predicted finishes you'd have to place them in the lower half of the league for sure.

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[ZorkClone]

Big 12 stats ranks:

• #8 Offense
• #12 Defense
• #5 FG percentage
• #4 Opponents FG percentage
• #4 3-Point FG Percentage
• #2 3-Point FGs Made
• #2 Team Rebounding
• #7 Opponent Rebounds
• #13 Turnover Margin

These are going to be the things that lose us games. That full court press almost killed us.

 

[BoxsterCy]

These are going to be the things that lose us games. That full court press almost killed us.

Will have to see how things go in other conference games versus teams that have some defense. Cowgirls couldn't keep that press up, or apply it earlier, with their short roster. They are currently #13 in scoring defense. Teams like Baylor that go 10 deep can keep pressure on all game long.

Upcoming game is versus Kansas who is 10th in forcing turnovers and bad team defense stats, #10 in scoring defense.

 

[CloneSt8]

Looking at the stats so far for the season, there are 9 players that are averaging more than 15 minutes per game. And each of those nine have had at least one game scoring in double figures.

Crooks and Brown have been the most consistant, but everyone of the nine is capable of going off in any game. Crooks amazingly averages her 16 points while playing only 21 minutes per game - that's efficient!

 

[kcdc4isu]

Looking at the stats so far for the season, there are 9 players that are averaging more than 15 minutes per game. And each of those nine have had at least one game scoring in double figures.

Crooks and Brown have been the most consistant, but everyone of the nine is capable of going off in any game. Crooks amazingly averages her 16 points while playing only 21 minutes per game - that's efficient!

Some more stats: top 7 players in minutes, 5 are our freshmen rebounds top 6, 5 are freshmen we are winning by an avg .of 25 points and our 4 loses have been by ah avg. of 12 points

 

[ICCYFAN]

Matthew Postins of Heartland College Sports is not yet a believer in our young Cyclones, putting them at 11th in his week 8 conference power rankings.

Big 12 Women’s Basketball Power Rankings for Week 8 | Heartland College Sports

The Big 12 women’s basketball season is now eight weeks old and we have finally made it to the start of conference play. Each of the league’s 14 teams was in action on Saturday and got their first run against a conference foe. Now, the quality of these teams in relation to league play will […]

www.heartlandcollegesports.com

Continue proving him wrong, young ones!!!

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

Matthew Postins of Heartland College Sports is not yet a believer in our young Cyclones, putting them at 11th in his week 8 conference power rankings.

Big 12 Women’s Basketball Power Rankings for Week 8 | Heartland College Sports

The Big 12 women’s basketball season is now eight weeks old and we have finally made it to the start of conference play. Each of the league’s 14 teams was in action on Saturday and got their first run against a conference foe. Now, the quality of these teams in relation to league play will […]

www.heartlandcollegesports.com

Continue proving him wrong, young ones!!!

Guy is clueless no way we belong with the cellar dweller crew.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Matthew Postins of Heartland College Sports is not yet a believer in our young Cyclones, putting them at 11th in his week 8 conference power rankings.

Big 12 Women’s Basketball Power Rankings for Week 8 | Heartland College Sports

The Big 12 women’s basketball season is now eight weeks old and we have finally made it to the start of conference play. Each of the league’s 14 teams was in action on Saturday and got their first run against a conference foe. Now, the quality of these teams in relation to league play will […]

www.heartlandcollegesports.com

Continue proving him wrong, young ones!!!

I get his rationale to a certain extent (we haven't any signature wins, just signature player performances) but I would still have us in the middle part of his Tier 2. Nobody else in the nine below the top five have much in the way of big brag wins either. Going to be that way until somebody among the group actually beats someone good or at least keeps beating bad teams to accumulate a winning league record. Or fall flat on their face and auger in. Wednesday won't tell us much with a win other than we avoided a home loss to a team we should beat at Hilton. Jayhawks got blasted at home by WVU. They start four seniors but just because they are experienced doesn't mean they are very good.

After the first five it's sort of a scrum for who's going to be good from the next nine. Nobody in that group looks "great" at this point or should be crowing about their record. All need resume work and need to accumulate some conference wins. I think his last tier is sort of clickbait and I don't take it too seriously. It's like he was serious for the top five (or just followed the polls) and than thought "Think I'll just **** around and see if I can get people forwarding this!" with his other picks.

Boxsters list:
1st. Baylor
2nd. Texas, Kansas State
4th. TCU, WVU
6th. ISU, Kansas, Oklahoma State, OU, TT
10th. Cincinnati, BYU, Houston, that team from Florida.

Big game for TCU at Baylor Wednesday. Sort of a prove it game. TCU does have good players and Sedona Prince is off to a great start but they only play six players. Not sure if that's going to be sustainable over 18 league games.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Some poster on the UConn Boneyard forum went through the top freshman and ranked them using the NBA "Efficiency game score" calculations. The two gals at the top, Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo and USC's JuJu Watkins, have crazy great stats. What's fun is his calcs have Addy Brown as #3 and Audi Crooks as #5!

Linky to his post:

Ranking the freshmen class so far

I haven't watched enough LSU and Arkansas games to form an opinion on who is better. Williams seemed to come in "pro ready" on offense. She looked like the best player on the team during stretches of their big games. Fulwiley is still very raw and learning how to work her bag of tricks at the...

the-boneyard.com

 

[BoxsterCy]

Moved up a bit. Big 12 NET after games last night.

 

[mwwbbfan]

Moved up a bit. Big 12 NET after games last night.

View attachment 121641

If we continue on our current trajectory and have a few bumps in the road that made us a bubble NCAA team would the selection committee take into consideration that our first four losses were without Emily Ryan. I thought that was a consideration and if she continues to be a part of the rotation I feel like that may have changed some of the results of those games.

 

[ZorkClone]

WVU will be our second (of many) big tests. They are better than us in all metrics other than rebounds and assists. The real scary stat is that they manage 15(!) steals a game which puts them at #1 in the nation.

 

[carvers4math]

WVU will be our first (of many) big tests. They are better than us in all metrics other than rebounds and assists. The real scary stat is that they manage 15(!) steals a game which puts them at #1 in the nation.

That’s scary given how we handled the press. Now I need to look at who they have played.

 

[BoxsterCy]

If we continue on our current trajectory and have a few bumps in the road that made us a bubble NCAA team would the selection committee take into consideration that our first four losses were without Emily Ryan. I thought that was a consideration and if she continues to be a part of the rotation I feel like that may have changed some of the results of those games.

Those losses won't matter that much if we have a good conference record. The Big 12 WBB isn't as strong as big MBB (obviously). We control our own destiny. Jan/Feb matter more than December. Late season stumbles won't get a pass.

 

[Buster28]

That’s scary given how we handled the press. Now I need to look at who they have played.

Mostly nobodies. But WVU did manage to go into Lawrence and win 85-60 over the weekend.

 

[acoustimac]

That’s scary given how we handled the press. Now I need to look at who they have played.

WVU has stuffed the stat sheet playing the sisters of the poor. We know they will play aggressive defense and give up fouls in droves to rattle us.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Ran across this post on Twitter/X.

 

[cincy_cy2014]

Bracketology now has the Cyclones as a ‘Last 4 In’ with a matchup with Duke.

Brown vs Brown sibling matchup.

 

[JimDogRock]

Once we knew Emily wouldn't be 100% this season, the only disappointment for this season has been free throws.

Here's the overall team free throw percentage chart going back to 2003 since that was how far back sports-reference.com shows team averages & totals.

Spoiler: And the data in a table to see the percent for each year.

Year	Percentage
2003​	69.3%​
2004​	75.8%​
2005​	75.0%​
2006​	73.7%​
2007​	74.4%​
2008​	68.9%​
2009​	73.2%​
2010​	73.8%​
2011​	71.4%​
2012​	72.8%​
2013​	80.5%​
2014​	80.4%​
2015​	77.0%​
2016​	75.5%​
2017​	79.9%​
2018​	74.7%​
2019​	79.3%​
2020​	76.4%​
2021​	82.7%​
2022​	81.0%​
2023​	80.3%​
2024​	68.6%​

This is easily explainable.
We've been spoiled in recent years by having high volume & high percentage free throw shooters. So, a step back was to be expected.

Here's hoping Crooks can progress like Chelsea Poppens did.
For reference, Crooks is at 62.5% while Poppens finished her freshman year at 62.7% & was an 83.7% shooter as a senior.