CAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WEEKLY REPORT - JAN. 9
**Full report in PDF Format with team notes located at the bottom of this article**
CAA
4-1-1:
• Nationally-ranked
Delaware and Hofstra are the just the two teams left undefeated in conference
play at 3-0. James Madison, VCU, Drexel
and Old Dominion improved to 2-1 after resuming conference action.
• CAA
squads went 77-54 in non-conference play.
• The
CAA finished the non-conference slate with the fourth best NC strength of
schedule.
• UD's
Elena Delle Donne (1st, 30.3 ppg), VCU's Courtney Hurt (6th, 23.1 ppg) and
George Mason's Taleia Moton (11th, 21.3 ppg) rank in the Top 11 leading scorers
in the nation. The Blue Hens also lead the nation in free-throw shooting
(83.5%). Full listing on page 11 of this report.
• Delaware
fell to No. 3 in the latest RPI rankings report compiled by Collegiate
Basketball News. The CAA is ranked seventh among the conferences with six teams
in the Top 100 and four in the Top 42.
• Delaware
moved back up to #20 in the AP Top 25 (Jan. 9) and are ranked #20 in the
ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.
• CAA
Women's Basketball weekly conference calls will continue on Jan. 10 (full
schedule on page 5).
• Delaware
was selected as the preseason CAA favorite to win the 2011-12 title. VCU
followed along with James Madison and Hofstra to round out the top four.
• Virginia
529 Women's Basketball Championship will return to The Show Place Arena in 2012
in Upper Marlboro, Md.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK:
Elena Delle Donne • Delaware
Wilmington, Del./Ursuline, Jr.,
Guard/Forward
Delle Donne collected CAA Player of the
Week honors after leading the #21/20 Blue Hens to a 3-0 start in conference
play with victories over Towson and George Mason. The junior guard forward averaged 38.5 points
and 12.0 rebounds per game. She eclipsed the 30-point mark twice last week with
outings of 37 and a season-tying, Patriot Center record 40 points. Delle Donne
also added 15 rebounds against the Patriots for her fourth
double-double of the year. Against Towson, Delle Donne became UD's all-time
career scoring leader in her 63rd career outing. She finished the week shooting
64.6 (31-48) percent from the floor, 66.7 (6-9) percent shooting from long
range, 90.0 (9-10) percent from the line, five assists, three steals and seven
blocks.
Shante Evans • Hofstra
West Chester, Pa./Henderson, Jr., Forward
Evans received CAA Player of the Week honors
after leading the Pride to a 2-0 week with victories over Drexel and William
& Mary. The junior forward poured in 21.5 points and 12.0 rebounds per
contest for Hofstra in a pair of double-double performances. She shot 61.9
(13-21) percent from the floor, 73.9 (17-23) percent from the line and added
two assists, two blocks and two steals on the week. With 40 career
double-doubles, the junior forward ranks fifth nationally amongst active
players.
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK:
Myeisha Hall • Old Dominion
West Palm, Fla./Palm Beach Lakes, Fr.,
Guard
Hall earned CAA Rookie of the Week helping
the Lady Monarchs to a 2-0 week in conference play. The rookie guard averaged
7.5 points per game on 5-of-10 shooting, while all made shots came from long
range. All of Hall's 15 points on the week came against Northeastern during her
19 minutes of play. She posted just one assist in her five minutes against
Georgia State early in the week. Hall finished with five assists and one steal.
CAA AT NO. 7 IN RPI RANKING -
SIX CAA SQUADS IN TOP 100, INCLUDING DELAWARE AT NO. 3 (Through Games of Jan.
8): The CAA is ranked seventh among the nation's 32 Division
I conferences in women's basketball according to the RPI report compiled by
Collegiate Basketball News. Delaware fell to No. 3 in the team RPI ranking, as
the first of six CAA teams in the Top 100. Hofstra (28), James Madison (30) and
Towson (42) and are the only other CAA schools that are listed in the Top 50.
Drexel (74) and UNCW (100) round out the CAA teams in the Top 100.
CAA IN THE TOP 25: The
Delaware Blue Hens moved back up to #20 in the Jan. 9 AP poll after a pair of
conference victories and stayed at #20 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. The
Blue Hens were awarded the #20 spot with 285 votes and #20 with 153 nods. For
the third time in her tenure as head coach, Tina Martin's squad is receiving
notice in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Delaware received notice in the AP
Top 25 polls during the 2006-07 and 2009-10 campaigns. It's Delaware's first
appearance in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll ever in school history.
FOUR CAA WBB TEAMS RANKED IN
COLLEGEINSIDER.COM MID-MAJOR POLL (Jan. 3): Delaware stayed steady ranked second in
the CollegeInsider.com Jan. 3 edition of the mid-major poll, while James
Madison fell to eighth and Hofstra dropped to #15. Towson improved in the Top
25 jumping to #19. Atop the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 is Green Bay,
which received 30 first-place votes. The women's Mid-Major Top 25 is comprised
of teams from the following conferences: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky,
Big South, Big West, Colonial, Great West, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro
Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley,
Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast
Conferences. The Mid-Major Top 25 will be released every Tuesday throughout the
season.
STELLAR OUTINGS & STRONG
STATS (Week Ending Jan. 8): Delaware's Elena Delle Donne exploded this
week averaging 38.5 points per game, while William & Mary's Taysha Pye
(26.5 ppg), Old Dominion's Tia Lewis (23.0 ppg), and Hofstra's Shante Evans
(21.5 ppg) all averaged 20+ points on the week.
VCU's Courtney Hurt grabbed a league-best 15.0 rebounds per outing,
while Northeastern's Jewel Tunstull added 12.3 rpg, Delle Donne and Evans
recorded 12.0 rpg and W&M's Emily Correal added 11.0 rpg. The Tribe's
Katherine DeHenzel dished out 8.0 assists per game and Hofstra's Candice Bellocchio
followed with 7.0 apg in her two outings. Five players shot perfect from the
free throw line shooting six or less, while Pye went 15-for-16 from the line
(.938) for the Tribe. Delle Donne led the league in block shots on the week
with seven in two outings, while Georgia State's Chan Harris made seven stops
in three games.
THREE CAA PLAYERS NAMED TO
NAISMITH WATCH LIST: The CAA is well represented on the 2011-12
Naismith Women's Basketball Player of the Year early-season watch list with
Delaware's Elena Delle Donne, Hofstra's Shante Evans and VCU's Courtney Hurt
making the line-up. In late February, the Atlanta Tipoff Club's Board of
Selectors will compile a mid-season team of the top 30 players in the nation.
Then in March, the Naismith Trophy voting academy will vote to narrow the list
to the four finalists.
UPSET CITY-NEWARK, DEL.:
Delaware women's basketball squad pulled off the biggest upset in school
history on Nov. 17 as the Blue Hens brought down No. 11/12 ranked Penn State
with an 80-71 victory. Backed by another brilliant performance from
All-American Elena Delle Donne (40pts/12 rbs), the Blue Hens made history by
defeating their highest ranked opponent in school history. Delaware had knocked
off a Top 25 team just two other times in school history in 28 previous tries,
including an 86-70 win over No. 20 Kentucky during the 2006-07 season and a
77-67 victory over then No. 22 James Madison at the BCC on Feb. 22, 2007.
SETTING RECORDS: Junior All-American Elena Delle Donne exploded for 37
points to became the schools all-time career scoring leader (1,685) against
Towson (J. 5). She passed Cindy Johnson (1,675, 1997-01). Delle Donne set the
record in just her 63rd career game while Johnson needed 113 games to reach the
scoring mark. In the upset of #11/12 Penn State, Elena Delle Donne scored 25 of
her game-high 40 points in the second half as Delaware recovered from an
eight-point deficit midway through the second half with a big final flurry. Her
40 points set a Bob Carpenter Center record and was the third highest total in
school history, trailing only her school-record 54-point performance at James
Madison on Feb. 18, 2010 and her 41-point explosion against Yale on Nov. 20,
2010. Her 40 point performance ties the CAA all-time 10th best single game
mark. She tied her season-best 40 points against George Mason on January 8th.
Joining Delle Donne on the CAA all-time list, is VCU's Courtney Hurt as she
poured in a school-record 40 points against UMKC (N. 19).
TV EXPOSURE: The
CAA is scheduled to see a record-best of at least 40 regular season games on
television this season, plus three televised games during the CAA championship.
All 12 teams will make at least one television appearance during the 2011-12
season. The CAA women's basketball television package has aired over 20 games
for the last four seasons. The CAA also enjoyed a record amount of exposure
through new media efforts.
2012 VIRGINIA 529 CAA WOMEN'S
BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: The 2012 Virginia 529 CAA Women's
Basketball Championship will return to The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro,
Md., for the second straight season. The 2011 outing was the first time that
The Show Place Arena had served as host of the CAA women's championship. The
Show Place was the first neutral site since 1998 for the CAA women's
championship and the teams played in front of 7,727 fans during the four-day
event.
EXTRA HONORS:
CollegeSportsMadness.com has named Hofstra's Shante Evans a Madness High-Major
Conference Player of the Week representing the CAA (Jan. 9). The junior forward
poured in 21.5 points per game to go along with a 12.0 rebounds per outing. She
helped the Pride capture a pair of conference victories over Drexel and William
& Mary.
CAA PRESEASON TEAM PREDICTED
ORDER OF FINISH: Delaware, which returns five starters from
last year's 20-14 team, is picked to win the 2012 CAA Women's Basketball title
according to a vote of the league's head coaches. The results of the poll were
announced during Tuesday's CAA Basketball Media Day at Champps-Pentagon Row in
Arlington, Va. The Blue Hens were followed in the voting by VCU, James Madison
and Hofstra. Drexel and Old Dominion tied for fifth, followed by UNCW, George
Mason, William & Mary, Georgia State, Towson and Northeastern.
CAA PRESEASON INDIVIDUAL
HONORS: Delaware's Elena Delle Donne was chosen as the CAA
Preseason Player of the Year. She is joined on the preseason All-CAA first team
by Hofstra's Shante Evans, VCU's Courtney Hurt and Andrea Barbour and Drexel's
Kamile Nacickaite. Voted to the preseason All-CAA second team were UNCW's
Alisha Andrews, Georgia State's Chan Harris, JMU's Hislop, Old Dominion's Tia
Lewis and William & Mary's Taysha Pye.
HUNGRY FOR MORE:
Nine of the 15 players who received all-conference honors in 2010-11 return
this season. Back from the All-CAA first team are Delaware's Elena Delle Donne,
Hofstra's Shante Evans and VCU's Courtney Hurt, who all earned All-America
accolades. All but one of the All-CAA third team will return. The CAA teams
also return 70% of their starters from a year ago.
RETURNING THREE ALL-AMERICA
HONOREES IN 2011-12: The CAA welcomes back three Associated
Press All-America honorees in Delaware's Elena Delle Donne, Hofstra's Shante
Evans and VCU's Courtney Hurt. The trio joined former JMU all-star Dawn Evans
in receiving Honorable Mention accolades in 2011.
OLD DOMINION WELCOMES KAREN
BAREFOOT AS HEAD COACH: Former Lady Monarch assistant coach Karen
Barefoot, who last season led Elon to its first ever Division I postseason
appearance, was named Old Dominion's new head women's basketball coach on June
8, 2011. Barefoot became just the sixth head coach in Lady Monarch basketball
history and first new hire since 1987. Barefoot, the school's first Native
American head coaching hire, takes over a program that has reached postseason
play in 19 of its last 20 years and has won 929 games, the third most all-time
in women's basketball history. Barefoot, who hails from Newport News, Va., has
a career head coaching record of 209-144, resulting in 11 winning seasons.
Aside from Elon, Barefoot has also held the head coaching position at Division
II Lenoir Rhyne College and at the Apprentice School.
REPRESENTING THE USA IN WOMEN'S
HOOPS: CAA women's basketball standouts Elena Delle Donne of
Delaware and Shante Evans of Hofstra were invited to participate in a pair of
USA Basketball events. Delle Donne was selected for the 2011 USA World
University Games Team and led her team to a gold medal in China in August 2011.
VCU's Courtney Hurt also received an invite to the team trials with Delle
Donne. The Delaware stand-out and All-American led the USA team averaging 15.7
points and 8.5 rebounds for the Red, White and Blue during six games. Evans was
selected as a member of the USA Basketball Women's Pan American Games Team. She
averaged 6.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game during her four outings with the
Pan American Games Team which went 2-2.
SIX TEAMS DANCE IN POSTSEASON
PLAY IN 2011: For the sixth consecutive season, at least three CAA
teams advanced to the postseason and for the 11th consecutive season the CAA
had a representative in the WNIT, as the CAA was just one of three conferences
to see five teams in the WNIT. CAA champion James Madison was selected as the
11th-seed in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, while Delaware, Drexel,
UNCW, Old Dominion, and VCU were invited to the Women's National Invitation
Tournament. The Southeastern and Atlantic 10 also saw five conference teams
advance to the postseason WNIT event in 2011.