Lady Eagles defeat 1st Place - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Jan 22, 2006

Lady Eagles defeat 1st Place

Date: Jan 22, 2006

...she still has man hands....

Date: Jan 22, 2006

What's becoming clear by now is just how horrible C-USA is in womens basketball. Marshall, the first place team, was ranked about #115 or so today. Will fall a lot by tomorrow.

Cox-Purvis was correct when they said that one team --- the conf tourney winner --- will go to the big dance from C-USA and that's all. That team won't even deserve to be there.

Date: Jan 22, 2006

Just imagine what Mercer, South Alabama, Elon, Liberty, UALR, or Louisiana-Monroe could do if they were in conference USA.

Date: Jan 22, 2006

factory head wrote:

Just imagine what Mercer, South Alabama, Elon, Liberty, UALR, or Louisiana-Monroe could do if they were in conference USA.

The fruitbasket turnover in teams began when USM was in the old Metro Conference. If the turnover continues at that rate, all of the teams you mention will probably rotate in and out of C-USA at one time or another.

Date: Jan 22, 2006

If CUSA doesn't pick up some quality soon, several of the teams may drop to D-II status. Nobody wants to go watch low-quality sports at semi-decent venues when more and more alternatives are being piped in via cable and satellite.

Date: Jan 22, 2006

Houston was a top 25 team during the previous two seasons, but Sancho Lyttle is gone, and plays for the WNBA now. She was one of the top players in the NCAA last year in points or rebounds ( I can't remember which one anymore). Even without her, Houston is still managing to keep it's head above water (albeit barely). You don't lose a player like Lyttle without suffering a bit of a drop-off (see Connecticut post-Diana Taurasi), especially on a team like Houston, which was not loaded with stars. The ones Houston had were upperclassmen the last few years so expect Houston to atleast rise somewhat again in the next few years as the newer players mature. It's just a cycle thing. Houston and Southern Miss are similar in that they both started out sluggish this year and both are currently on fire.The biggest losses for CUSA in women's hoops were surprisingly some of the non-football schools and TCU. TCU and Depaul leaving were perhaps the two biggest hits to women's basketball.

The Lady Eagles are getting better right now, just imagine what they could be like next year if they have both Shannon Stueber and Emer Foley back in the lineup with this year's freshmen, and if everyone stays healthy. Remember that some of these freshmen were considered to be some of the top talent in their state when they were seniors in high school (some of the freshmen from Mississippi were members of the Clarion Ledger's Dandy Dozen team last year).

I had the pleasure of seeing this team in Orlando on New Year's Eve. They really react well to each other off the court, when the other team has gone home and the fans have left. And they react well to Coach McNelis as well so it's possible we won't see a mass exodus again. Another couple of years of recruiting classes like that one and McNelis could have a team, top to bottom, on the same level as some of Kay James' best teams. McNelis also has the benefit of having the support of James and several former Lady Eagles, including Janice Felder (if you don't know who Janice Felder is, you don't know very much about Lady Eagle basketball).

It would be nice to see another NCAA Sweet 16 banner hanging in the Coliseum.

Date: Jan 22, 2006

Curt Yeomans wrote:

Houston was a top 25 team during the previous two seasons, but Sancho Lyttle is gone, and plays for the WNBA now. She was one of the top players in the NCAA last year in points or rebounds ( I can't remember which one anymore). Even without her, Houston is still managing to keep it's head above water (albeit barely). You don't lose a player like Lyttle without suffering a bit of a drop-off (see Connecticut post-Diana Taurasi), especially on a team like Houston, which was not loaded with stars. The ones Houston had were upperclassmen the last few years so expect Houston to atleast rise somewhat again in the next few years as the newer players mature. It's just a cycle thing. Houston and Southern Miss are similar in that they both started out sluggish this year and both are currently on fire.The biggest losses for CUSA in women's hoops were surprisingly some of the non-football schools and TCU. TCU and Depaul leaving were perhaps the two biggest hits to women's basketball. The Lady Eagles are getting better right now, just imagine what they could be like next year if they have both Shannon Stueber and Emer Foley back in the lineup with this year's freshmen, and if everyone stays healthy. Remember that some of these freshmen were considered to be some of the top talent in their state when they were seniors in high school (some of the freshmen from Mississippi were members of the Clarion Ledger's Dandy Dozen team last year). I had the pleasure of seeing this team in Orlando on New Year's Eve. They really react well to each other off the court, when the other team has gone home and the fans have left. And they react well to Coach McNelis as well so it's possible we won't see a mass exodus again. Another couple of years of recruiting classes like that one and McNelis could have a team, top to bottom, on the same level as some of Kay James' best teams. McNelis also has the benefit of having the support of James and several former Lady Eagles, including Janice Felder (if you don't know who Janice Felder is, you don't know very much about Lady Eagle basketball). It would be nice to see another NCAA Sweet 16 banner hanging in the Coliseum.

Then, what's up with losing to NW State of LA, Mercer, South AL, Elon, Louisiana Monroe, Arkansas Little Rock, etc? Let's let them get away from Hattiesburg again and we'll know more. They've been playing bad to mediocre teams at RGC for a while now.

Date: Jan 22, 2006

This is how C-USA womens hoops looks like in Sagarin:

15 CONFERENCE USA          = 67.63      67.03 ( 15)   TEAMS= 12
Women's College Basketball 2005-2006 Div I games only    thru Sunday January 22, 2006
HOME ADVANTAGE= 3.90

70 Tulsa

117 UTEP

123 SMU

129 Marshall

131 Rice

144 UAB

161 East Carolina

189 Houston

214 Tulane

231 Southern Miss

266 UCF

303 Memphis

This is pretty sad. Look at McNelis' old program, Memphis. Go an read the thread asking if she left that program in shambles. Everyone wants to blame USM's current situations on James Green and Rick Reeves. Look how bad off JLM left the Lady Tigers.

Date: Jan 22, 2006

westchester wrote:

Then, what's up with losing to NW State of LA, Mercer, South AL, Elon, Louisiana Monroe, Arkansas Little Rock, etc? Let's let them get away from Hattiesburg again and we'll know more. They've been playing bad to mediocre teams at RGC for a while now.

This is Southern Miss basketball, at this point, given the history over the past few years for both teams, any kind of winning streak is a reason to celebrate. If we bash every team that loses games they shouldn't lose, then lets throw Duke, Florida, Pittsburgh and Wisconsin on the fire for this past weekend's losses by all of those teams (Wisconsin lost to North Dakota State? By nearly 4 possesions?). Are you gonna try telling me that Georgetown is a better team than Duke? Is Tennessee really better than Florida?

Date: Jan 22, 2006

Speaking of Duke's loss, I'm pretty sure one faculty member in the history department is on cloud nine right now.