WICHITA, Kan. - Wichita State begins play on the hardwood for the 2016-17 campaign Wednesday night in an exhibition tune-up vs. Newman at 7 p.m. in Charles Koch Arena.
Quickly
-Wichita State plays host to Newman University in the first of two exhibitions. WSU also plays Cameron University in its second exhibition at 2 p.m., Sunday, in Charles Koch Arena.
-The Shockers return all five starters from last year's squad, and 11 players overall. With five newcomers, the Shockers carry 16 players on the roster.
-Senior guard
Jaleesa Chapel returns with the most experience, having played in 93 games with 31 starts the last three years.
-WSU welcomed five newcomers to the Shocker program, including four junior college transfers and one freshman.
-WSU opens the regular-season Nov. 13 against former Valley-rival Creighton in Charles Koch Arena. The Shockers and the Bluejays met a year ago with Creighton taking a 79-54 win.
-The Shockers were picked fifth in the MVC Preseason vote of coaches, SIDs, Radio play-by-play and beat writers for the second-straight year. The two fifth-place picks are the Shockers' lowest position in the preseason poll since 2010-11 when the Shockers were also picked fifth. WSU has only been the favorite once, in 2014-15, in the 33 years of the poll. The Shockers were chosen second in 2012-13 and 2013-14 and came away with the title at the end of loop play.
Newcomers Add Plenty of Experience... Led by the Juco All-American Tompkins, the bevy of newcomers start their WSU careers with backgrounds as proven winners: Junior Keke Thompson helped Shelton State CC to a 63-5 record in two seasons. Junior Jeliah Preston helped Blinn CC to a 26-9 record and a NJCAA Regional title. Junior Tamara Lee was a first-team All-Jayhawk Conference first-team honoree and helped Edmond Santa Fe to a 108-4 record as a prepster. Freshman Kayla Williams comes to WSU from Overton High in Memphis, Tenn., where she helped her team to a 102-16 high school record.
On Newman
The Newman women's basketball team was picked sixth in the Heartland Conference's preseason poll of league head coaches and sports information directors.
The Jets, who finished 2016-17 at 12-15 overall and 6-12 in Heartland play, return eight players who played in at least 11 games last season.
NU earned 71 points in the voting, which put them in a sixth-place tie with Rogers State.
Newman returns its second-leading scorer, senior Mali Wright, who averaged 12.8 points and 6.8 rebounds a year ago.
Darin Spence is entering his fifth year as the head coach of the Newman women's basketball program in 2016-17. Spence has compiled a 493-269 record as a head women's basketball coach over a 25-year span across NCAA Division I and Division II, NAIA, and NJCAA schools. His four years with the Jets have seen him amass a record of 49-58 overall and a 32-36 mark in Heartland Conference play.
Jody Adams-Birch
Adams-Birch (Tennessee, '94) is in her ninth season at Wichita State as the only Shocker women's basketball coach to make an NCAA appearance and win an MVC regular-season and MVC Tournament championship at WSU. Her 2012-13 team accomplished all of that, then the 2013-14 and 2014-15 teams repeated the exact same feat.
WSU won three-straight MVC regular-season and MVC Tournament titles while making three-straight NCAA Tournaments.
She is 155-105 in eight seasons at WSU and 171-113 overall in nine seasons as a head coach, which includes a 24-8 record as head coach at Murray State in 2007-08.
The 2014-15 team broke the school's season win record by three games at 29-5.
In addition, WSU is 88-24 (.785) overall at home under Adams, including 16-0 in 2014-15.
Adams is first on the WSU all-time wins list. She passed Linda Hargrove, who won 113 games at WSU from 1989-98, on Fri., Feb. 21, 2014 in a win against Illinois State.
Last Exhibition
WSU played two home exhibitions in 2015-16, defeating Central Oklahoma, 68-61, in a preseason exhibition, and winning 63-45 against Oklahoma Christian on Dec. 29 as a tuneup for Valley play that began Jan. 1.
On the Web
Wichita State's home games this season will be broadcast on the internet at
www.goshockers.com/listen with Steve Strain, who is in his third season calling the action for the Shockers. Steve, who is a veteran of radio and television, called women's basketball for the Texas Tech Lady Raiders from 2009-13. Strain will also call road games on KNSS 1330.
Shocker Honors
Wichita State's returnees earned honors in 2015-16, led by
Rangie Bessard, who was named to the 2016 MVC Honorable Mention Team and Newcomer of the Year after earning three Newcomer of the Week Honors during the regular season.
In addition, Bessard and
Diamond Lockhart were named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete Second Team.
Earlier this year Lockhart was also honored with the Valley's State Farm Good Neighbor Award.
Other honors in 2015-16 included:
-
TaQuandra Mike,
Jyar Francis and Lockhart as MVC Newcomers of the week once each.
-Mike and Bessard were named to the Winter Classic All-Tournament Team and Mike was named to the FIU Turkey Slam All-Tournament Team.
Shockers Picked Fifth in Valley
Wichita State's women's basketball team was picked fifth in the 2016-17 Missouri Valley Conference Preseason Poll, and Bessard was named to the Preseason Team, it was announced Oct. 25.
Wichita State is the only league team to return all five starters to the floor this season after finishing the 2015-16 campaign 8-22 overall and 5-13 in MVC action. The Shockers did not have a senior on last year's team and will look to ride that experience back up the league standings this winter after winning three-straight titles in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Bessard earned honorable mention all-MVC honors in 2015-16, and was also named the conference's 2016 Newcomer of the Year.
Bessard led the Shockers during the season, averaging 15.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. Mike also averaged double figures for Wichita State a year ago, averaging 12.5 points and 4.6 rebounds per outing. Lockhart (7.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists), senior guard
Jaleesa Chapel (4.5 points, 3.5 rebounds) and junior guard
Aundra Stovall (4.2 points) also return to the backcourt for the Shockers after starting in the majority of the contests a year ago.
Drake has been tabbed as the preseason favorite in the MVC's women's basketball race in the annual survey of the league's coaches, sports information directors and media.
MVC Women's Basketball Preseason Poll
| School (First-Place Votes) |
Total |
| 1. Drake (34) |
392 |
| 2. UNI (4) |
317 |
| 3. Missouri State (2) |
313 |
| 4. SIU |
306 |
| 5. Wichita State |
248 |
| 6. Indiana State |
199 |
| 7. Bradley |
141 |
| 8. Illinois State |
123 |
| 9. Evansville |
109 |
| 10. Loyola |
52 |
2015-16 MVC Preseason Team
Rangie Bessard, WSU
Caitlin Ingle, Drake
Rishonda Napier, SIU
Madison Weekly, UNI
Lizzy Wendell, Drake (Pre-Season POY)
