three years under head coach Jody Adams, leads the
team in scoring with an average of 12.9 points a game.
Last season, the women’s basketball team notched numerous achievements, and head coach Jody Adams is looking for even more gains this coming season.
There is nothing she would love more than to win the Missouri Valley Conference crown – and get her players in the NCAA Tournament, a first for the team. It will mean each player pushing herself to her limits, but that’s what Adams has been working on. “We teach them to bring their A game to every game,” she says.
Last season, the Shockers made their first Women’s National Invitation Tournament appearance in more than 10 years, tangling with the University of Kansas. While the taller, more experienced Jayhawks took the game, 79-58, Adams was pleased with being in post-season play. The women finished the season 17-15, which is part of the second highest two-year win total in Shocker history.
Other accomplishments include winning three games in March, a first in the program’s history, and, in a feat that warms any fan’s heart, snapping an 11-game losing streak against Creighton. This comes after a year in which the Shockers notched their first postseason win ever and set a school record with 14 home wins.
Clearly, Adams, who began in the 2008-09 season, is building her program, one that was parked at the bottom of the MVC before she took over. Last season, the women’s team finished in fifth place out of 10 teams with a 10-8 MVC record; however, three teams ahead of them compiled 12-6 records in the ultra-competitive league. In the building process, Adams is certainly not shying away from aiming for the top as the women compete against a number of powerhouses, including a Nov. 14 game against highly regarded LSU. The Lady Tigers made five consecutive ncaa Final Four appearances from 2004-08.
Other dates with heavyweight opponents include Nov. 17 at the University of Arizona and Dec. 7 at Kansas State. Arizona, of the Pac-12, went 21-12 last year and has earned seven trips to the post-season NCAA Tournament. For its part, K-State has made 12 trips to the NCAA Tournament and is coming off a 21-11 season.
Adams describes this year’s schedule in one word: “tough,” but that’s the way she wants it. “We want to challenge them early,” she says.
Along with weighty non-conference foes, the Shockers will face University of Northern Iowa, last year’s MVC’s champions. “That’s a very good team,” Adams says of the Panthers, who went 17-1 in the conference and 26-6 overall.
To take on their opponents, the women will field a well-balanced team with a mix of veterans and newcomers. Wichita State’s two seniors are Haleigh Lankster and Alicia Sanchez, backed by a core group of juniors, Jessica Diamond, Jazimen Gordon, Michelle Price and Chynna Turner.
describing the 2011-12 hoops
schedule, which includes LSU,
Arizona and K-State.
“I look at them as the supporting cast of those two leaders,” Adams says of the four juniors, who have played together since their freshmen year. They are being joined by two incoming juniors, Jasmine Jones and Nicole Wells. Brittany Taylor, Molly O’Brien, Kelsey Jacobs, Alex Harden and Krystle Henderson also will be resources for Adams to draw on this season. Darice Fountaine, a transfer student from Savannah State University, will sit out the season as a red-shirter.
Lankster is coming off a red-hot year, one in which she reached 900 career points and was named to the All-MVC second team and the MVC All-Tournament Team. The women have lost only one senior from last year, Morgan Boyd.
Not all the changes will be on the court, as there’s a new face on the sidelines, too. Bridgette Gordon, an Olympic gold medalist and member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, joins the team as an assistant coach. The team’s other assistant coaches, Kristy Guffey and Carlai Moore, are returning from last year.
Fans watching the Shockers this season should look for a smothering defensive blanket to be raised by the team. “We play a lot of pressure defensive,” Adams says. “That wears and tears on someone, and they can really feel it within 10 minutes of play.” Such effort requires endurance and power, which today’s training techniques are helping the players build, Adams says: “They’re all a lot bigger and stronger than women players used to be.”
The Shockers kick-started their season in August with exhibition play during an Italian tour. On the court, the women went 3-0, and off the court, they did well, too, jelling as teammates. They also enjoying being tourists, seeing the country’s many famed attractions. Also on the trip was Brian Petrotta, assistant director of media relations, who provided Shocker fans worldwide with a steady stream of updates through a blog, photos and video on the athletics department website.
Petrotta had fun with the blog with a steady stream of droll observations. “Jody Adams is a big believer in paying attention to, and performing, the details of basketball, be it footwork, running the offense, or picking up on the opposition’s tendencies,” he wrote. “If our players translate even a fraction of Michelangelo’s artistic detail into their play, we could sweep both the All-Valley First and Second Teams.”
The value of such a trip, Petrotta noted, is that the student-athletes bonded in a way they would not have otherwise. Adams, too, was pleased with the Italian tour and its role as a springboard to the season. She cited improvements in communication among team members, as well as in their ability to run defensive and offensive schemes.
“It was a fabulous trip,” Adams says. “I know this will make a big difference in the upcoming season.”
