Colorado To Host Arkansas State In WNIT Saturday
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THE GAME: The University of Colorado hosts Arkansas State University in a 2014 Preseason WNIT consolation game on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 6 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.
BROADCAST: Saturday’s game will air live on KKZN 760 AM (note there will be no pregame show and the broadcast will begin at the end of the men’s game at Wyoming which tips at 4 p.m. also on 760 AM). Cory Lopez will have the call with Carol Callan of USA Basketball providing the color commentary. A free live video stream will be available through Colorado’s Pac-12.com video player. All CU women’s basketball home games that are not televised will be available through Pac-12.com at this link
http://pac-12.com/videos/university-colorado
Non-televised Pac-12 road games are scheduled to be available on the opponents’ similar video player, free of charge.
OPENING TIP: Colorado opened a season with two teams that made the NCAA Tournament the previous year (North Dakota & Western Kentucky) for the first time since 2003-04 when the Buffaloes hosted Old Dominion and Notre Dame in the WBCA Classic. Only twice since then had the Buffaloes even played one team in their first two coming off a trip to the big dance, Loyola-Marymount in 2004-05 (Game 1) and Vanderbilt in 2006-07 (Game 2).
WHO IS IN THE WNIT?: Five NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago along with four Postseason WNIT participants, including Colorado, highlighted the 2014 field.
FIRST ROUND RESULTS
Friday, Nov. 14
Seton Hall 66, Rider 47
Penn State 71, Towson 64
Albany 90, St. Francis Brooklyn 47
Western Kentucky 93, Central Arkansas 57
Arkansas State 92, Jackson State 60
Mississippi State 97, Mercer 66
Saturday, Nov. 15
Colorado 68, North Dakota 59
West Virginia 67, Eastern Kentucky 42
QUARTERFINALS
Sunday, Nov. 16
Albany 54, Penn State 53
Mississippi State 93, Arkansas State 83
Monday, Nov. 17
Western Kentucky 79, Colorado 78 OT
West Virginia 89, Seton Hall 87
Semifinals
Thursday, Nov. 20
Mississippi State 74, West Virginia 61
Western Kentucky 63, Albany 54
Championship
Sunday, Nov. 23
Western Kentucky at Mississippi State, 1 p.m.
ABOUT THE BUFFS: Colorado is 1-1 after opening the Preseason WNIT with a home win over North Dakota, 68-59, on Nov. 14, and falling to Western Kentucky, 79-78, in overtime, in the quarterfinals. Colorado wraps up WNIT play with a consolation game against Arkansas State.
Colorado is averaging 73 points over its first two games hitting 41.2 percent from the field and 73.2 percent from the 3-point line. The Buffaloes have had early success from long range connecting on 42.3 percent from beyond the arc. Colorado has netted 47.5 rebounds over the first two contests and has a Pac-12 Conference best 15 blocked shots through two games.
Defensively, the Buffaloes have allowed their opponents 69 points on 33 percent shooting. Colorado’s first two opponents have shot a combined 4-of-37 from 3-point range, a league best 10.8 percent. The Buffaloes will be looking strengthen its rebounding numbers. While grabbing a solid 47.5 over the first two games, CU’s rebounding margin in as uncharacteristically low +2.5 early on. CU opponents have 15 more offensive rebounds and overall are averaging 45 per contest.
Senior forward Jen Reese is off to a fantastic start. She is coming off her fourth career double-double scoring a career-best 24 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in the loss to Western Kentucky. Reese hit 11-of-13 from the free-throw line against the Lady Toppers, also a career high. She is averaging 22.5 points and 10 rebounds in the WNIT.
Senior guard Lexy Kresl rebounded from a scoreless outing in the opener by matching her personal best with 20 points against Western Kentucky. She made her first four 3-pointers of the contest and has connected on 50 percent early in the season. Kresl also tops the Buffaloes in assists with nine.
Senior guard Jasmine Sborov is averaging 5.0 points and 7.5 rebounds a game after grabbing a career-best 11 boards against Western Kentucky.
Junior forward Jamee Swan is averaging 9.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.5 blocks. She pitched in 16 points, eight rebounds and four blocks in the win over North Dakota. Her four blocks tied a personal best, matching her effort against Kansas in the 2013 NCAA Tournament. She is 14th on CU’s career list for blocks with 69.
Sophomore guard Haley Smith had a career-best nine rebounds in the win over North Dakota. She is tied with Sborov for second in rebounding at 7.5 per outing.
BUFFS’ WNIT HISTORY: Colorado is competing in the Preseason WNIT for the third time with an all-time record of 7-2.
The Buffaloes won the event in 1995. Coming off an NCAA Elite Eight appearance the year before, No. 14/11 ranked Colorado won home games against New Mexico State (63-56), Utah (63-61, OT) and Texas A&M (74-68) before upsetting No. 9/9 Arkansas on the road, 73-71, for the title.
Colorado also played in the 2001 event, winning games over Oral Roberts (78-49) and New Mexico (78-63) before falling to No. 3/3 Vanderbilt, 72-51, in the semifinals. The rosters for that game at Vanderbilt included CU head coach Linda Lappe for the Buffaloes and coach Jenni Benningfield for the Commodores.
OVERALL IN REGULAR SEASON TOURNAMENTS: Colorado is 107-41 since the 1980-81 season in regular season tournaments, including a sparkling 44-10 in its own Omni Hotels Classic which celebrates its 29th year in 2014. The Buffaloes will host Missouri State, Colorado State and TCU for games Friday and Saturday, Nov. 28-29.
ABOUT ARKANSAS STATE: Arkansas State enters Saturday’s game at 1-1. The Red Wolves opened the Preseason WNIT with a 92-60 home win over Jackson State before falling at Mississippi State, 93-83, in the quarterfinals. Arkansas State has started red hot from the field shooting 52.9 percent from the field and averaging 87.5 points per game.
Junior guard Aundrea Gamble leads the Red Wolves at 21.5 points per game. Gamble, the coaches’ pick for the 2014-15 Sun Belt Conference Preseason Player of the Year, is shooting 58 percent for the first two games while also topping the squad at 6.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists. Senior guard Hanna Qedan is averaging 12.5 points and has hit 13-of-17 from the free-throw line. Junior forward Khadija Brown-Haywood is also averaging 12.5 points while hitting 50 percent from the floor.
Arkansas State is the coaches’ preseason favorite to win the Sun Belt title. The Red Wolves won the 2013-14 regular season title, but fell to former league member Western Kentucky in the conference tournament final. Arkansas State played in the 2014 Postseason WNIT, losing to eventual runner up UTEP in the first round.
Bryan Boyer is in his 16th season as head coach at Arkansas State with a record of 249-213.
THE SERIES: This will be the first meeting between Colorado and Arkansas State. The Buffaloes are 5-1 against teams that currently make up the Sun Belt Conference, most recently defeating South Alabama in the first round of the 2013 Omni Hotels Classic.
Linda Lappe has never faced Arkansas State as a head coach. Brian Boyer has never faced Colorado as a head coach
FOR OPENERS: Colorado improved to 36-5 (.878) in all-time season openers and has won the last 15. The Buffaloes started the season with a home game for the 28th time in 41 seasons. Colorado is an outstanding 39-2 (.951) all-time in home openers and has never lost its overall season opener when played at home (28-0).
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: Colorado has a record of 45-23 since the beginning of the 2012-13 season. Of those 23 losses, 12 have been to ranked teams and 11 of those ranked higher than Colorado at the time the game was played. The Buffaloes have won 42 of their last 53 games against unranked opponents.
The Buffaloes have been dominant in regular season nonconference games under Linda Lappe. Colorado is 42-6 in that stretch since the beginning of the 2010-11 season. The Buffaloes have won 35 of their last 37 regular season nonconference contests. The Buffaloes put together 33 straight nonconference wins from Dec. 30, 2010 through Dec. 12, 2013.
REESE’S PIECES: Senior forward Jen Reese is on pace to join a pair of elite groups in Colorado history this season.
Reese has 484 career rebounds, leaving her just 16 shy of 500 and the 21st player to reach that milestone. She needs just 37 to enter the Buffaloes’ career Top 20.
The 6-2 shooter is also Colorado’s active leading scorer with 832 career points, putting her well within range to become the 26th player in team history to reach 1,000 career points.
Hitting both marks would make her just the 15th player in team history to reach 1,000 points and 500 rebounds.
KRESL SOLID FROM ARC, LINE: Senior guard Lexy Kresl ranks 10th in career 3-pointers made (128) and attempted (427).
She has made a 3-pointer in 72 of 97 career games and has 34 contests with two or more buckets from long range.
Kresl has also been one of Colorado’s most reliable free throw shooters over the past three seasons. Her career percentage of 82.8 (130-of-157) would rank fifth on the Buffs’ all-time list (minimum of 100 attempts).
Kresl hit 84.1 percent from the line in 2013-14 (69-of-82) ranking third in the Pac-12 Conference. Her mark was also good for 19th on Colorado’s single-season list.
Kresl has a shot at reaching 1,000 career points. She enters the season at 738, meaning she would have to pace slightly above her 8.1 points per game average last year over 30 games to achieve that mark.
RETURN TO ‘D’: Defense has been a staple to the Colorado program under Linda Lappe and for the Buffaloes to be successful in 2014-15, toughness on that side of the court will once again be paramount.
Three of Colorado’s top four single-season field goal percentage defense totals have come under Lappe’s direction. The 2012-13 NCAA Tournament team set the bar with a school-record effort at .350. Last year’s squad came in with the third-best total at .369. Colorado’s 2013-14 total ranked third on the Pac-12 leaderboard and 34th in the nation.
Two of Colorado’s top 10 scoring defense totals have come under Lappe’s reign including a school-best 54.5 ppg in 2012-13. Three of CU’s top 10 rebounding margins have also come in that time frame, including last year’s mark of plus-5.0, the eighth best in team history.
HOME AT THE CECC: Colorado is traditionally tough at home with a 395-136 all-time record at the Coors Events Center (.744). The Buffaloes have won 10 or more games in a season at the CEC in 25 of 36 years. The Buffaloes have enjoyed five undefeated seasons (1980-83, 1992-94) at the CEC.
Colorado was 12-6 at Coors in 2013-14 and has won 19 of its last 27 and 30 of its last 41 at home.
BUFFS ON TV: Colorado women’s basketball will be televised to a regional or national audience at least 13 times during the regular season, including 12 games on the Pac-12 Networks during league play. This marks the third consecutive year the Buffaloes will have double-digit regional or national television appearances.
Colorado’s first scheduled appearance will be at Denver on Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 7 p.m., on ROOT Sports Rocky Mountain. A possible 14th televised contest could also come during the nonconference schedule. If the Buffaloes should reach the Preseason WNIT championship game, that contest on Sunday, Nov. 23, would be televised nationally at 1 p.m. MT on CBS Sports Network.
Colorado’s first eight Pac-12 games will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks as will five of the Buffaloes’ nine home conference games. All remaining home games, and conference road games, that aren’t televised will be scheduled to be streamed live through Colorado’s Pac-12.com video portal. In addition, CU’s game at Missouri on Friday, Dec. 12, will air on SEC Network +, the SEC’s online video streaming option.
Entering this season, Colorado has tipped off on 127 national or regional telecasts since the fall of 2001, and 28 since the advent of the Pac-12 Networks in 2012.