That One Really Stings: Women's Basketball Falls in SOCON Opener 68-61

There seemed to be a lid on the basket for the Bulldogs this morning as shot just 35% from the floor for the entire game. Andrea Cournoyer was the only one who was exempt from the lid, as she scored 31, her second most this season. In the game, Samford committed a season high 21 turnovers, allowing ETSU to score 17 points. Today just wasn't Samford's day as the Bulldogs only lead once after the opening 2 minutes of play. Playing from behind with shots just not wanting to fall through the basket is not conducive to winning. In what could be seen as a microcosm of the game, Samford went the first 15 minutes and 26 seconds without a 3 point basket. Throughout the conference season, Samford averaged 18 3 point attempts and made 6.7 per game. Today, the team went 6-24 from downtown. One positive was that Samford dominated the glass today, pulling down 41 rebounds to ETSU's 34.

Maybe something was in the water up in Asheville, NC that caused Samford to lose. 7 Seed WCU only lost by 9 to the Mercer Lady Bears, 5 seed UNCG kept it close with 4 seed Wofford until the very end, and 6 seed Furman pulled the upset over 3 seed Chattanooga. Then again, if we play that game, we might as well say that the AC was blowing the wrong way. Or we could be really outlandish and say that the refs were paid off. At the end of the day, our shots didn't fall and theirs did.

So what's next? In a year full of shoulder shrugs and "I don't knows," I'll add one more to the growing count. As good as I believe the team to be, I don't see us receiving an At-Large bid to the big dance. Maybe the team gets a WNIT bid? As of yesterday's NET rankings put out by the NCAA, Samford has the highest rating in the SOCON. However, I think that's pushing the envelope a bit too far over the edge of the table. What might be more likely is for us to receive a bid to play in the WCBI tournament. Samford was nominated a few times to be in their Mid-Major Top 25 this past week, and this tournament has a decent shot of getting Samford to play. For the WNIT, the teams will be in a bubble in NYC, so very few fans, if any, will be allowed to go to the games. However, the WCBI is played on college campuses, allowing Bulldog fans the opportunity to cheer on the team in person. Of course, this is assuming that Coach Kuhns wants to play in a postseason tournament. Now I am in no way suggesting that Coach Kuhns and her squad don't want to play basketball at any opportunity possible. Full stop. However, one should take into consideration that Samford would not be guaranteed a home game and also the logistics of approving Samford even playing in the tournament are, to put it simply, complicated. While I would love to be able to see this group play just once more, even if it means seeing a 20 point blowout, I would be ok (but sad) with this crazy season coming to a close.

While it's easy to say that this season was worse than last year since we didn't repeat as tournament champions, the stats say otherwise. Last year, the Bulldogs scored 65.73 points a game and allowed 57.29 during conference play. This year the team scored 71 and allowed 58.15 points against conference foes. The Bulldogs shot the ball better this year too, improving their field goal percentage from 40.9% for the season up to 44.47%. Still not convinced? Last year, our offensive efficiency fell in the "below average" range, with the team's average offensive efficiency sitting at 0.86 for conference play. This year, the team upped it to 0.89 to increase the level from "below average" up to "average." While, yes, this is a small increase, Shauntai Battle went down in the 4th game of the season and was the team's leading scorer at the time. If that doesn't happen, I think that we go perfect at home and we might even beat JSU on the road. And that's not to mention how our offense doesn't have to spin their wheels for the rest of game 4 and games 5, 6, and 7. On the defensive end, the team went from "good" to "elite." And it was no small change. Last year the Bulldogs' Defensive Efficiency during conference play was 0.76. This year it was down to 0.71. To put into context just how mind-blowing that defense is, Memphis' Men's team had the best in college hoops this year and they have a defensive efficiency at 0.83. I've said it before and will say it again for those in the back: Coach Kuhns knows how to coach and has something brewing here on Red Mountain.

Photo taken by Chase Cochran