By Mike Siroky
As soon as Mississippi State flatlined in the Portland Regional championship, the greatest conference in women’s college basketball, the Southeastern, leapt ahead to this coming season.
Three of four teams that qualified as Sweet 16 hosts – Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Kentucky – are the likely repeat suspects, in that order.
South Carolina is woozy from defections but has a talented recruiting class that could make an impact.
Any team that wins all its conference home games wins the regular-season title.
Mississippi State lost one last season and held on, then repeated in the conference tournament and won a top elimination seed in a pick ‘em with Oregon, the team that eliminated them.
The Bulldogs graduated the only league All-American, as we reported all season.
Teaira McCown leaves a void.
Perhaps Texas A&M’s Chennedy Carter can become this year’s Player of the Year. She is surely the front runner.
The Aggies are the only league team to bring back all five starters. They are all juniors now.
They still lack backups with experience and a true center.
The graduates underlined the WNBA theory we have been working for three seasons: The league is tough to break in because any addition means a veteran is let go. Only the top rookies survive.
For instance, the consensus college player of the year did not make the cut, although she ended up getting sign soon thereafter.
The SEC placed one, Teaira McCowan, and she played every game.
What a wonderful long basketball season is upon us for the best women’s conference in America.
The long game stream will not end until after the 2020 Olympics, led by South Carolina coach Dawn Staley.
In a completed circle, this is likely to be the first Olympics ever without a Tennessee representative, as the devolution of that program completes its descent following the loss of Pat Head Summitt.
She was in the 1976 Games, with teammates to be Cindy Brogdon and Trish Roberts as she started the program and, in essence, thrust women’s basketball on the major stage.
The Vols start this season without the touchstones of either Summitt or Holly Warlick for the first year ever.
The latest ascenders, South Carolina and Mississippi State now dominate the league.
With 95 consecutive weeks in the Associated Press poll, State starts the season at No. 10.
We say here they will repeat as conference champs, if favorite Texas A&M somehow muffs it.
As the months roll into March, we will report weekly on the participating conference teams in the Top 25.
No. 6 TEXAS A&M
This is the team to beat. The Aggies have the legendary coach in Gary Blair. They have all five starters back, the only Sweet 16 team to have that.
He started them all as freshmen. He started them all as sophomores. This is the first of the payoff seasons.
The Aggies return 94 percent of their points, 91 percent of their rebounds and 94 percent of their assists, and each of their top six scorers.
Leading that group is Chennedy Carter, the nation’s second-leading returning scorer at 23.3 points per game and the league’s only All-American right now. She was the nation’s rookie of the year two seasons ago as a freshman.
In addition to Carter, the Aggies bring back double-digit scorers in Kayla Wells (15.1), Aaliyah Wilson (13.8) and Ciera Johnson (12) plus rebound leader N’dea Jones (11.3) and assist leader Shambria Washington (3.5).
Chennedy Carter is unguardable, as all other coaches assess it.
Sometimes, she displays the “shooter must shoot” mentality, but still gets her team where it needs to go.
Only one player has left the program rather than share the spotlight, so it is not her ego trip. She was finally second team All-American in the coaches’ association, the only sophomore among the 15 players honored.
Carter averaged a school-record 23.3 points per game, eighth-best in the nation. She stepped up her average to an NCAA Tournament-leading 30.7 points during the Aggies’ run to their eighth Sweet 16 appearance. She added 4.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.
She also has program records for consecutive 10-plus point games (39), career 20-plus point games (47), career 30-plus point games (11), sophomore season scoring (676) and fewest games to reach 1,000 career points (45).
She has the only league credential on file nationally as a second team All-American, sure to rise this season. Carter was a member of the USA Pan American team in Lima Peru this summer.
They won Gold.
Kayla Wells won the Aggies’ Most improved award with the most dramatic conference rise raising her average from 2.8 points to 15.1
The center problem may be solved by the team’s prestigious Miss Aggie Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the women’s basketball program. It was won by 6-5 Anna Dreimane of Riga, Latvia, by way of Colorado State.
Even though she sat out the year under transfer rules, she won the team’s leadership award for her work in practice. She has represented Latvia 35 times in European competition, including an appearance with the senior national team in 2017.
If she breaks into the starting lineup, whomever she bumps becomes the immediate depth the Aggies need.
She will be joined by UCLA graduate transfer Ashley Hearn, a McDonald's All-American in 2015 who was then the No. 4-ranked power forward in America. Hearn will be a senior. She is a Texas naïve, originally recruited by Blair.
Another in-state addition is 5-6 four-star point guard McKinzie Green, who scored more than 2,000 in her high school career.
A&M was the first conference team to announce a matchup for this season.
Blair was overjoyed to renew his rivalry with Oklahoma State from his time in their league over in the Big 12.
These are two of the best in the country this season and will be the marquee matchup for the annual Big 12/SEC Challenge.
“Our enthusiasm is as high as it’s ever been,” Blair said.
“It was not this high before the national championship, not this high after the national championship.
“It’s all in front of us and how it’ll play out.
“So I am not in this to build up our egos. It’s all about execution. I am trying to teach how to get in transition, how to handle the ball.
“It comes from the situational drill building up how to begin playing basketball.
"This is it; this is playing basketball.”
They finished 14th in last year’s final poll.
No. 8 SOUTH CAROLINA
Dawn Staley, in a sequence of months that will end as her Olympic coaching season, starts with a series of distractions.
The thing in college basketball now is how many players feel entitled.
Part of the problem Holly Warlick had at Tennessee was the inability to deal with this.
The conference amazingly releases players to transfer scholarships to other league schools. In a strange way, the new wave of entitlement cost a coach her job.
It is an amazing challenge; dealing with all the deserters. This reminds us of the group that left UK a few years back.
Two of them became all-conference in their new homes and were drafted into the WNBA, so they were above average in talent. But UK survived.
Staley lost what was essentially four starters expected back.
This is a young team again, but without veteran leadership except for Ty Harris.
Tea Cooper, after five seasons’ worth of time, is a graduate transfer elsewhere.
Some coaches have taken it lightly as they prepared for their Games with USA.
Tara Vanderveer at Stanford took a season away from campus. Pat Summitt did not.
Another SEC coach, Van Chancellor, came into it after he was done with college for awhile and was successful in the WNBA.
Staley also graduated a mercurial guard who had a downward trending finish anyway. She also lost a former UK player, whom she nursed across the finish line on a bum leg.
Still, Staley remains the only conference person not named Pat Summitt to win a National Championship, with only a few players left from the title team.
She will be the Gold Medal Olympic coach. She can stay as long as she likes.
They were decimated in the Regional semifinal, but that was supposed to be a rebuilding season anyway. It gets tougher now with non-graduation losses.
Staley has had two wonderful recruiting classes in a row but is really leading a team of mostly kids, again likely to have double-digit losses.
As always, if she can win 20, she’s in the elimination games, but likely not at home and likely challenged from the first game. The Regional, though, will be in nearby Greenville in the same arena as the SEC tournament.
South Carolina will get an early test in a pseudo NCAA deep into the tourney matchup Sunday when the Gamecocks travel to No. 4 Maryland, the once ACC power who has dominant the Big Ten most seasons after its conference switch.
Staley does start without her top five scorers from last season.
However, the top recruiting class in America has a lot of talent. Staley will need to coach ’em up by the end of the season.
“I like what we bringing to the table,” Staley said. “We have great leadership. From Day 1, it has just gotten better.
“It is always a great thing when your best players are the hardest workers. It is good to see the good players rise up.
“You get opportunities to be successful in our league. It takes 3-4-5 years to move the pendulum even a little bit. It is great competition and you’ll see more parity in our league.
“I don’t now legit who is going to start. We have 10 starters. Our non-starters may contribute more than our starters, We had to decide who will start and work the as a group. Then we have to accept our roles.”
Among the newcomers, Brea Beal was the player of the year in Illinois for the third straight season. The 6-0 Rock Island, Ill., guard is rated the third best at her position nationally.
Aliyah Boston was the player of the year in Massachusetts. The last name and the state are merely serendipitous.
She was the state’s high school player of the three seasons as well. At 6-5,Boston is ranked No. 1 at center among the newbies.
Notre Dame, UConn and Ohio State also pursued her. She played for Team USA in its Gold Medal achievement at the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championships a year ago earning Most Valuable Player honors.
She made the Under-19 team coached by Louisville’s Jeff Walz this summer and won another Gold for the U.S, in Bangkok, Thailand. Harris made the 12-person Pan American team in Lima Peru.
Olivia Thompson, a 5-8 guard, was an unprecedented high school player of the year three times in South Carolina. Zia Cooke is a 5-9 point guard from Toledo, Ohio. Cooke and Boston were invited to the Team USA Under-19 Trials.
All made the major high school All-America teams.
Staley also attracted a five-star guard transfer for a season from now. Former Texas guard Destiny Littleton is transferring in. She applied for immediate eligibility and was denied.
Littleton is 5- 9 and was a McDonald's All-American.
Point guard Tyasha Harris was invited to the Pan American Team as they won a Gold.
Harris already earned had a pair of international medals. She helped the U.S. to a gold medal in the 2016 FIBA U18 Americas Cup with 10.6 points per game and a team-high 5.4 assists per outing.
Her 27 assists at the event are the all-time USA U18 record, and her assist average ranks second.
In 2017, she was part of the silver medal team at the FIBA U19 World Cup, where she again led the team in assists with 5.7 per game to go with her 8.0 points per game.
With just seven turnovers in seven games, she boasted a 5.7 assist-to-turnover ratio at the event. The U.S. is 14-1 with Harris on the team.
In September 2018, Harris was among a handful of college student-athletes invited to participate in the USA World Cup Team training camp in Columbia, S.C. She added six points and two assists in the intrasquad exhibition game played at the Gamecocks’ Colonial Life Arena.
South Carolina is among eight teams in the Paradise Jam. The SEC is always represented in the tournament.
The Gamecocks will play in the Reef Tournament against Indiana, Washington State and reigning national champion Baylor Nov. 28-30, at the University of the Virgin Islands' Sports and Fitness Center in St. Thomas.
Oregon is among the teams in the other half of the tournament.
Bianca Cuervas-Moore answered a call from the WNBA and was cut the day before the season started.
The Gamecocks finished No. 16 in the poll last season. They were No. 8 in the preseason.
No. 10 MISSISSIPPI STATE
Teaira McCowan, the undisputed league player of the year and feared consensus All-American center, is gone, already one season through the WNBA with Indiana.
She started her pro life with a spinning left-handed layup at the buzzer for a win in her first game.
Jazzmun Holmes and Anriel Howard, made honorable mention All-AP. Howard was another SEC player drafted into the WNBA. She was cut two games in.
Mc Cowan is the second in program history to be a first-round pick, the top center chosen as the No. 3.
She will eventually be a teammate of 2018 grad Victoria Vivians, who blew out a knee playing in Europe and missed this WNBA season.
Howard was picked in the third round by Seattle.
She was essentially the top pick for Seattle. The woman taken in Round 1, an Australian, had already declared she would not show up until next season, so Howard was the top choice in camp.
She signed her contract within the month.
Four of the remaining underclassmen – sophomore or younger – competed for USA basketball in the annual 3-on-3 tournament as the only SEC representative.
Jessika Carter, Andra Espinoza-Hunter, Bre’Amber Scott and Myah Taylor played in May to represent the Bulldogs.
MSU is one of 13 NCAA programs to be invited to the event, and the only SEC team in the field.
Howard was invited as an individual to the FIBA United States 3-on-3 tournament. This sport will be in the next Olympics.
The America winners were to compete in the world tournament. Participation also gives USA Basketball a heads-up on assembling Team USA for the World Cup and so on.
Amazingly, it was the second year running Vic Schaefer had four graduating starters.
Not this year.
As Chloe Bibby is recovered from knee reconstruction, she joins now-junior Aundra Espinoza Hunter as two starters for sure. She also was selected pre-season all-conference.
Let us not forget, Espinoza-Hunter was originally recruited and signed by UConn.
Point guard Myah Taylor, a five-star recruit a year ago, could be impactful. She sat out a redshirt season but worked out with the team. She is three-time Mississippi player of the year. No one else has done that.
Breamber Scott was the only one really scuffling in that final loss. So there is likely a third starter.
In NCAA magic, Jordan Danberry was granted another season. She is the team leader.
Can 6-5 sophomore Jessika Carter step forward? Sophomore Xaria Wiggins is another 6-1 player with potential and the lone signee of her class.
Promise Taylor, a 6-5 sophomore transfer from Ole Miss, causes the most excitement as McCowan’s replacement.
She fled the Rebels when her coach was dismissed. She went against McCowan every day in practice and oftentimes offered more of a challenge than did the opposing center in games. She’ll do just fine. She has three years of eligibility left.
The newbies are Rickea Jackson, the first McDonald’s All-American in the program. She is a ,6-2 forward from Detroit, also sought by South Carolina and Rutgers.
Jackson joins Jayla Hemmingway, a 5-9 guard from Collierville, Tennessee, stolen from the previous Tennessee regime; JaMya Mingo-Young, a 5-7 point guard from Bogalusa, Louisiana, recruited away from LSU; Esmery Martinez, a 6-0 forward from the Dominican Republic via Chattanooga and Alityah Matharu, a 5-7 point guard from Forrestville, Md.
The junior college transfer is 6-5 Yemiyah Morris from Cochise Community College, a 6-6 center.
Then again, Schaefer sprung Anriel Howard on us well after all recruits were signed.
This season’s incoming transfer will be eligible next season. She is former Wisconsin Player of the year and McDonald’s All-American Sidney Cooks, who won Gold for American in the 2016 Under-18 world championships.
She will have two years of eligibility after her upgrade. Her last game was a double/double against Notre Dame in the NCAAs.
Schaefer has had success adding transfer players before. Anriel Howard was a key member of State’s Elite Eight run this past year and was a second-round draft pick of the Seattle Storm in April after joining the Bulldogs from Texas A&M.
Danberry came to Starkville from Arkansas and boasted the second-highest scoring increase in the SEC.
Other notable Bulldog transfers playing this season include Andra Espinoza-Hunter (UConn) and Promise Taylor (Ole Miss). Espinoza-Hunter became a major three-point threat for MSU and set the SEC Tournament record with eight 3s in the championship game, with the No. 7 single-season 3 percentage in school history.
Taylor will return to competition after sitting out the 2018-19 season in her transfer to the sidelines. But she dd go against Howard and McCowan every day in practice.
Schaefer celebrates the continued play of graduate guard Danberry.
“Obviously, I am glad to have Jordan Danberry sitting next to me today. I’m really excited about our team. Like I have said the last three years, this will be a different team, but they are really talented and skilled. They are going to be extremely fun to watch.
“Jordan, in her month that she has been back, has been sensational. She’s doing a great job of trying to lead this young team. She has done it any way you could think of: on the court, off the court, verbally.
She has been a blessing, and we were really fortunate to get her back. I want to thank our compliance office.
“Jordan has only actually had two full seasons of actual competition. I am excited about her and our entire team.
“We had a great experience this summer. That was beneficial for us. We practiced in June like it was January. That’s good and bad.
“We were able to get four weeks of workouts in and then go compete against some really good teams in the World University Games.
“You have to be careful about wearing them out too soon, especially with these freshmen, so that’s why we sent them home for the second summer session and let them get their legs back underneath them before we started the fall.
“The television schedule gives us a lot of opportunities. I think people around the country have been able to see Mississippi State is a positive environment for our basketball program and have seen what it looks like on game days in The Hump and how special it is.
“That is great for TV. I’m excited to continue having the opportunity to show the country and world what our great university is all about.
“I have given the team the fall break off the last three years, and it’s worked out well. They will get Friday, Saturday and Sunday off again this year, and once they come back, we are going to be in it to win it from that point. It’s usually a six-day week for us.”
He said he was anxious awaiting the NCAA ruling on Danberry.
“It’s the right decision and the right thing for her. I’ve always felt in my heart that we had a great shot at it. But again, you just never know with a committee. I certainly had some days where I was wondering, but I also wanted to make sure this was something that Jordan was 100 percent locked in and ready to do.
“When she’s 100 percent locked in, she’s really good. It’s hard to find at any time of year, 14 points a game in the SEC to add to your game, and it’s really hard to find it in August.
“That’s what she averaged last year. She didn’t turn the ball over, she averaged two or three steals a game and two or three assists.
“To add a player like her to our current roster was really special. Certainly, I knew what the implications and the ramifications could be if we could get her.
“I’m sure that there were probably 13 other schools that weren’t really excited to see that because I think she’s earned their respect throughout her career here and the impact that she’s had on our program.”
At point guard, with the graduation of Jazzmun Holes, Schaefer said, “I think Jordan can help us there. Myah Taylor is going into her third year, and she is someone that we are going to need to play. If you can play Myah, JaMya Mingo-Young or Aliyah Matharu at point, then it lets Jordan be in her position that she needs to play, which is the off guard.
“If I have to play Jordan at the point, my job is to put her in a position where she is still an offensive player. Replacing a point guard is an important piece. It’s like replacing the quarterback of a football team.
“It’s a really important position. We have to make sure we continue developing our guards, especially our point guards, and getting them ready to play.
“A point guard’s play affects everybody. Myah is probably my best help-side defender and maybe one of our better on-ball defenders.
“Our job is to help her become the overall player she needs to become; just like with every player we have. JaMya has played some point in high school, and Aliyah has as well. We have to get them ready in case we have to go to option three or four.”
He said Jackson is also ready.
“First of all, she has acclimated well to our university and community. She is just a happy, smiling kid.
“She enjoys our community. She really seems to be comfortable. She obviously had a big summer for us.
“You talk about somebody that is really talented, loves the game, works at it and is highly motivated.
“Her top end is off the chart. I don’t know where it will end up, but she has the chance to be really special.
“ She is going to be a big key for us as a freshman. How is she acclimated to the SEC?
“That is yet to be determined. We all know this league is a well-coached and defensive league. She is going to meet some defenses that are ramped up for her throughout the course of the year. She is going to have to be able to respond on those nights.
“She isn’t scared. She had 35 points one night while we were overseas and averaged 22 points a game.
“She shot 50 percent as well. From an offensive standpoint, she is really hard to deal with. I am really excited about her.”
These days, the U.S. sends a team to the World University Games? State represented America against national teams and finished with a Silver.
“I think the Australians exposed us a little bit,” Schaefer said “They were very talented, and we just weren’t ready to beat them for the Gold. They are a veteran team. They are really fundamentally sound, and they exposed us on a couple of different things.
“But again, when you have only practiced for a month together, it’s hard to go through every scenario.
“When we played against Japan in our friendly, we were down four with 1:04 to go, and they had the ball. We ended up getting a stop. We scored. We got another stop. We then scored again on an offensive rebound on a stick back and got fouled for an and-one from Jessika, so we were then up one point with five seconds left.
“Japan had to go the length of the floor to score, and we were telling them in a timeout that we were going to switch everything.
“Unless you have really had an opportunity to work on that, it’s easier said than done. Sure enough, we screwed it up, and the kid made the shot. She just happened to be standing out of bounds with one foot when she made it.
“Thankfully, the referee saw it and waved the basket off. Otherwise, we would have gotten beat in our friendly. That’s a great example of us working on some situations, but we are so early in the process, especially with our younger kids, that it’s natural to have to work on that.
“For us, we have a long way to go. It’s a long fall getting ready.
“When we go to Victoria, Canada, to play, we are going to run into three NCAA Tournament teams, and we could face Stanford, who is No. 3 in the country and had one of the top recruiting classes in the nation.
“We have to get ready to go. We have a good non-conference schedule full of teams that win their conference.
“We have to play a bunch of mid-majors on a neutral floor, which is what they want. If you’re a mid-major and get to play a Top 10 team on a neutral floor, it doesn’t get any better.
“We will have to do that as well. I’m excited about getting this team. They work extremely hard, and they want to do what it takes every day. They are working really hard. Their attitudes are good. They are fun to see every day.”
He said Jessika Carter can show more.
““I need her to be really good. Right now, she is probably more comfortable because she has been in the system.
“I need Yemiyah Morris to come on. She’s our junior college player, and I need her to come on and continue to work and get better. It would be nice to get Promise Taylor healthy.
“I would love to see what our big lineup in. Promise probably has more poise and presence in the low post than anyone we have, but she’s just not able to practice yet. I’d love to see what that big lineup looks like.
“You could put her and Jessika on the floor together with Jessika at the four, which is where I would ultimately love to see her moved to but might not be until her senior year.
“Then we would play Rickea at the three at 6-2 and play Jordan at the two. That is a big lineup, and I would love to see what that looks like.
“You could cover a lot of ground and play the matchup. You could do a lot of things, and then just chuck it and go get it.
“I’m anxious to get Promise and Yemiyah to where we can function a little bit and maybe look at that. I do like our low-post presence. I think those three are doing a great job.
“Sidney Cooks, our transfer from Michigan State, can’t play right now, but she is practicing every day.
“Man, you talk about a kid that can fill it up. That is an exciting piece to the puzzle to have in the future.
She is really going to be special for us. We have some options, but it’s still early.”
Danberry is, of course, all in.
“I think for this season, we have a lot of different combinations with a lot of different players that can do a lot of different things.
“We have a nice post game. We have a lot of big post players and a lot of big guards this year. We have some people that can shoot it well from the three as well as drive. I think it will be hard to stop us.
“We put in the waiver over the summer, and I got the news the day before school started,” Danberry said. “Coach Schaefer called me and said he wanted to check on me and chat with me. So, I came to the office, and I really wasn’t expecting that news.
“I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting something like that because we had been waiting on it. At that point, for some reason on that day, my mind wasn’t really thinking about that.
“I was in complete shock when I was given the news. He asked me if I still wanted to do it, and I told him that I did.
“They started ringing cowbells and told me that I got my year back.
“A lot of different emotions came through when I heard those words. We were able to call my mom and grandpa. I felt excited and relieved a little bit. It was a good feeling.”
“I think that they’re (the new players) all doing a good job. Rickea is doing really good just getting up and down the floor. I’ve seen a lot of her in the passing lanes, and I know coach Schaefer likes to see her denying the ball out there in practice.
“With our guards, Aliyah, Jayla and JaMya, I’ve seen progress from the first practice in the summer to now.
“With their defense and willingness to learn, they all have some fight in them, which is very exciting to watch. I think it will be very exciting to see them play.”
How State reacts to starting back in the pack with the usual killer schedule means we might not know what the team is capable of until late in the season.
Early on, in the Big 12/SEC games, State will welcome in West Virginia. Other games in the series are Georgia at Baylor, Iowa State at Alabama, Ole Miss at Texas Tech, LSU at Oklahoma, Auburn at TCU, Kansas State at Arkansas, Florida at Kansas and Texas at Tennessee.
The Bulldogs finished No 4 in the poll last season. They were No. 6 last preseason.
No. 13 KENTUCKY
This is the second-highest preseason ranking for the Kats. They finished at No. 17.
Matthew Mitchell keeps plugging along in his 13th season.
When they win 19 this season, he will have 300 program triumphs.
Howard led UK with 16.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, was second with 68 steals and 74 3-pointers made and third in assists and blocks.
She scored in double figures in 26 games with 20 or more points in 10 games and five double-doubles while she was the only freshman in the country with more than 500 points, 70 3s, 75 assists and 65 steals.
Mitchell can finally quit answering questions about all those transfers who still played elsewhere.
Jaida Roper is likely to show up as a junior at two guard. Two seniors with redshirt seasons behind them, Gechi Anyagaligbo and Nae Nae Cole add depth out front, as does junior Keke McKinney.
Big Blue seems to reload every season, with players whose names become familiar over time.
Chasity Patterson, who was the top ranked point guard in the class of 2017, the Big 12 Preseason Freshman of the year at Texas interrupted her sophomore season to transfer in. She will be eligible for the SEC season.
Dre’una Edwards the 2019 Pac-12 Conference Freshman of the Year last season at Utah, will transfer to Kentucky.
She enrolled in the summer.
The 6-2 forward will sit out a transfer year but will participate in workouts after rehabbing an ACL she wrecked in February.
Dorie Harrison’s strange career at Kentucky closed. She played as a rookie, then sat out last season for personal reasons.
She has transferred to Gulf State Community College where she will be immediately eligible then available for another Division 1 run.
He has a bonafide All-American in last season’s national Rookie of the Year, Rhyne Howard. She spent part of her summer leading the USA to the Gold at the FIBA Under-19 world tournament
.The newbie is Emma King (5-10 in-state). Top recruit Deasia Merrill blew out a knee and will rehab all season, working with the team as soon as she can, learning the system in her non-playing year.
Growing up near Stanford, King always wanted to play basketball for the University of Kentucky. King, who has been a Wildcats fan as long as she can remember, can start living the dream.
“It’s been great, it’s something I have dreamed of since I was little,” King said. “Just getting to do it and having the people back home support me, but even people from other counties in the state, knowing that they are supporting me, it means so much to me.”
At Lincoln County High School, she scored more than 2,500 , averaging 18.5 points and 7.3 rebounds as a senior.
King caught the eye of the UK coaching staff early during the recruiting process.
“There were a few things that really drew me to Emma early on in her career that she’s still doing here,” said Mitchell.
“(I’m) real pleased that she is bringing her best qualities to the table. When you looked at her as maybe a freshman or sophomore, she wasn’t physically mature at the time, but I just loved her tenacity, she was always on the attack. She just played with a fearless attitude.”
He notes King’s progress since she arrived on campus.
“She seems to be a little ahead of the game mentally as far as being able to absorb things,” Mitchell said. “She still will have to make an adjustment to college, but I think by the end of the season, you’re going to see her able to do some things for us that are contributing to our success.”
King knows that she has some adjustments to make to be able to play in the college game.
“It is really quick and I think that’s been a big challenge for me because I feel like I can run the floor, but there are certain things, like finishing when you’re going 100 miles an hour, that’s been my biggest problem so far,” King said.
“But coach (Kyra) Elzy tells me every day that it’s a process and to be patient.”
King is known as an outstanding shooter, something that she and her father would continually prove to Mitchell after King had committed to the Kats.
“I can’t count how many times she and her dad would send me a picture of how many shots they made that night,” Mitchell said.
King said it is just a proud dad bragging about his daughter.
“He would definitely do that sometimes, especially the nights I was shooting super good,” King said of her father’s messages to Mitchell. “I would always try to make 200 or 250 3s, outside of everything else.”
King wears jersey 34 because she was a fan of former UK men’s player DeAndre Liggins. But on the recruiting circuit, she drew comparisons to another former Cat whom she admired.
“When I was getting recruited, everyone said I reminded them of Maci (Morris),” King said. “So that was always something I thought was a huge compliment.”
King hopes to follow in the footsteps of Morris and others who have been Kentucky prep legends, then made an impact on the UK program. But for now, King is relishing in being a Wildcat.
“It’s everything I hoped it would be,” King said. “I truly just enjoy being here.”
No. 22 ARKANSAS
Mike Neighbors is the first SEC coach ever to win 20 games and get dissed by the Selection Committee.
That will not happen this season. He graduated three seniors from the previous quirky coaching staff.
His senior class includes four more.
They made an impressive closing run.
Against Texas A&M in the league semifinal, they held the Aggies scoreless in the final 6:30 and won by seven. that made three aspects of ranked teams. They had trailed 17-2.
In the quarterfinals they stopped No. 12 South Carolina, 95-89. Chelsea Dungee scored 31 points for the second consecutive day.
South Carolina (21-9) had won four consecutive conference playoff titles and had its 12-game win streak in the SEC Tournament snapped.
Had this been done by a female coach, it would have been enough for the awkward NCAA Selection Committee.
Instead, they went with a Pat Summitt tribute and gave a gift to 19-win Tennessee which continued to flop.
When they were dissed by the Selection Committee, they partied on for two more post-season wins in the WNIT and rose to 22, an improvement of nine.
Neighbors’ best player, and preseason All-SEC, is now-junior Dungee, an Oklahoma transfer and irrepressible scorer.
She was all-tournament to close the season. She won Gold at the Pan American Games. He still needs a big.
The other top three scoring returnee in double figures is Alexis Tolefree.
Neighbors made a Final Four at his previous stop. Only three other SEC coaches have that on their resumes.
This team is almost all his.
He is a beloved legacy Razorback, a state native and university graduate who wanted this job. They will remain in the top four in conference, likely dislodging the defending champs and/or South Carolina.
The best addition is Amber Ramirez, a junior and former McDonald’s All-American with experience having already sat out her transfer year from Texas Christian and worked the past season with the team.
She was also pursued by South Carolina and has two Gold medals playing with USA basketball international age-group teams.
Neighbors signed four top quality freshmen, forwards Marquesha Davis and Destinee Oberg and guards Makalya Daniels and Ginger Reese.
Davis is in-state, Springdale. She is a 6-0 swing. Oldberg is 6-2, from a private school in Bufrnsville, Minn.
Daniels is a 5-7 guard who came to prominence as a junior, leading Frederick, Md., to the state title. She has relatives in the Little Rock neighborhood, but her signing shows Neighbors and assistant Lacey Goldwire are active nationally.
Reese is a 5-10 guard from Lawton, Oklahoma.
AUBURN
On the one hand, many national programs would automatically sell out for the chance to be in every NCAA tournament.
For Auburn, the problem has not been making the tournament as the seventh or eighth SEC entrant every year. It is moving beyond the first round for a 22-10 team, just 9-7 in the league, but the best of the middlest teams in the SEC.
Because of the league and history within the qualifying conference tournament, the Tigers never quite get good enough to host one of the 16 first-round games. So they are forever a road team, the very definition of plateauing.
Here we go again, three seniors graduated and the bulk of the scoring back.
In Terri Williams-Flournoy’s grand plan, the highest scorer is always around 14 per game.
They graduated 1,000-point scorer Katie Freking. Unique Thompson averaged a double-double and is a preseason all-conference selection.
They had a marquee conference win at home over what used to be Tennessee and the first win at Florida since 2007.
This summer, they took advantage of extra practices on a tour of exhibitions against Italian teams.
They add Sania Wells (5-7, Moss Point, Mississippi); Annie Hughes, 5-9, in-state); Maliya Perry (6-0, Columbus, Ohio); Lauren Hansen (5-8, Setaukey, N.Y).; Jala Jordan (6-2, West Virgnia prep school); and Morgan Robinson-Nwafwu (Norcross, Ga.).
Williams-Flournoy always hints at restoring the program to the levels of legendary Hall-Famer Joe Ciampi’s three straight Final Fours and 25 successful seasons.
His successor, Nell Fortner, ruined the program and Williams-Flournoy has tried to rebuild. They did finish 22-10. It is her eighth year with the Tigers.
GEORGIA
Another team that has plateaued, these ‘Dawgs have the classic problem of a coach who followed a legend, in this case Hall of Famer Andy Landers.
While never winning a National Championship, he basically invented Georgia women’s basketball.
So former assistant Joni Taylor came in knowing how tough it is to follow a charismatic legend after 36 seasons.
They were not ranked in the preseason, last year or this. They did not win 20 and did not participate in even the women’s NIT.
They made the same decision two years previous, meaning they have missed post-season two of the past three seasons or half of Taylor’s tenure.
Freshman Chloe Chapman (5-8, Mitchellsville Md.) is a stellar athlete, starting and leading scorer on the university soccer team. Other newcomers: Jordan Isaacs (6-5, in-state); and Javyn Nicholson (6-2, in-state).
Caliya Robinson saw her commitment through to graduation and was rewarded with a selection by the Indiana Fever in the third round of the WNBA Draft. She was released a few days before the season started.
As the 28th overall pick, the First-Team All-SEC selection became the 23rd Lady Bulldog (fourth-most among collegiate women’s basketball programs) and the third Georgia player in the past four years to be selected in the WNBA draft.
She is also the 11th Lady Bulldog from the state of Georgia to be drafted.
Robinson finished her four-year career second in program history with 292 career blocks and ninth in rebounds with 874.
She is one of five Georgia players -- joining Katrina McClain, Tracy Henderson, Tawana McDonald and Angel Robinson -- to score more than 1,000 career points, with more than 800 rebounds and more than 200 blocked shots.
Georgia also attracted a quality transfer, from UConn. Mikayla Coombs, a 2017 McDonald’s All-American and the state of Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year, has two years of eligibility remaining at Georgia after she sits out this season but works with the ream to learn the SEC and the system.
The teams ahead of them in conference are solid, with Arkansas already claiming the second tier of teams. Georgia needs to hope Missouri slips down the elevator shaft and no one on their level improves as much as they do.
She took her new team to Italy for a three-game initiation this summer.
TENNESSEE
The inevitable decision for a nationally-tracked coaching change came when Holly Warlick began telling intimates she could no longer relate to her players and had thought of stepping away.
Talk of employment suicide became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Her new contract assured a healthy buyout.
The best returning player spoke of it out loud after the elimination game, one and done in an NCAA Tournament with a gift invite.
The player transferred to UConn where it was revealed on Friday the NCAA denied the petition for immediate eligibility but the Huskies have appealed with a decision expected this week.
We said all last season a change in coaching was not a bad opportunity for the university.
The regime then had lost touch with the players in a sad way. It took Athletic Director Phil Fulmer one season to assess that.
He made a strong move, knowing three great recruiting classes can make a new person look like a genius quickly.
He gets things done. He is not afraid.
All three players in Tennessee’s 2019 recruiting class -- Jordan Horston, Tamari Key and Emily Saunders -- reaffirmed their commitment to the Lady Vols as soon as Kellie Harper was introduced.
Horston, a 6--1 forward whose hometown college, Ohio State, couldn’t sign, is rated as the No. 2 freshman in America.
She said Harper contacted her mother and visited Horston and her mom the day after Harper returned to Knoxville.
“Tennessee is not going to pick the wrong person as coach,” Horston said. “I want to turn the program around.”
Horston heard about the coaching change as the news swept into McDonald’s All-American Game sidelines as she was preparing to take the court. She was named MVP of the game. She waited until UT made the change official before she commented.
“There were a lot of mixed emotions,” Horston said. “I was kind of upset but also excited about what’s next. I want to win.”
Harper, a native of Sparta, Tennessee, was still Kellie Jolly when she helped the Lady Vols to NCAA titles in 1996, 1997 and 1998 as a point guard.
“She was a point guard, and I’m a point guard,” Horston said of Harper. “She has the blueprint. She’s going to push me to be a great player.
“I believe she still has that ‘Lady Vol’ in her, and she’s not going to let this program down.”
Harper began her coaching career in 2000 as an Auburn assistant. This past season, as head coach at 11th-seeded Missouri State, she led her team to upsets over No. 6 DePaul and No. 3 Iowa State.
Horston said she keeps in contact with most of the Tennessee players -- especially Zaay Green and Jazmine Massengill -- and they have indicated to her that the program is on the right track.
“I know the girls on the team now want to work hard,” Horston said. “They don’t want to lose. They are gym rats. They want to redeem themselves.”
Key, a 6-5 imposing player from Cary, N.C., is a top 50 national prospect. She said she committed to Tennessee for the school and not only for a particular coach.
“I wasn’t happy to see Holly go,” Key said. “I heard a lot of talk on social media during the season, but I didn’t think Holly was going to get released until it actually happened.
“It surprised me. But ... I want the program to get back on track. I have never had any doubts about wanting to attend Tennessee.”
Key said she woke up with a mountain of text messages from friends and coaches, all telling her that Harper was headed to Tennessee.
Harper called Key’s mother, and they also quickly worked out a family visit.
Key said, “I’m looking forward to getting to know her. I moved in at Tennessee at the end of May. I’m excited.”
Saunders, was the 2019 West Virginia Player of the Year.
Another 6-5 player, it shows Warlick was going after bigs to complement her stable of guards. She has dreamt for years about playing for Tennessee.
As a freshman, she led Wyoming County East (New Richmond) to a West Virginia state title. Three months later, her maternal grandfather, Gary Shrewsbury, died at the age of 68 due to cardiac arrest.
Saunders used to go to her grandparents’ house for dinner every Sunday after church. On many of those Sundays, she would watch the Lady Vols with her grandfather and the rest of the family.
“I wanted to make him proud,’ Saunders said. “If he were here today, knowing that I’m a Tennessee recruit, he would be proud and happy.”
Given that personal history, Saunders was also not put off by the coaching change.
Saunders said it was “upsetting” and “very sad” when Warlick was dismissed. But she was thrilled when she found out Harper had been hired.
“I love that it’s staying in the Vols family,” Saunders said. “We’re keeping the tradition alive.
“Transferring never occurred to me. Tennessee has been my dream school since I was 8 years old. I grew up watching Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings.”
The first signee by Kelli Harper is Jessie Rennie, a 5-8 guard from Kangaroo Flat, Australia.
Aussie Basketball USA, which connects Australian athletes with scholarship opportunities in the U.S. They announced the commitment. She is supposedly a long-range shooter, something Tennessee has lacked. The three signees the previous year were supposed to fill that void
The Vols then added a Knoxville native 6-3 frontliner Jaiden McCoy, a junior college product, She had a rocky start after signing with Louisiana Tech only to see the coach she committed to get fired.
Then she chose Virginia Tech, but decommitted when that coach got fired. She broke her hip in her rookie season. So she lands up at home.
This is the first Tennessee team ever to not have a coaching support staff link to Pat Summitt.
When Warlick beat the heck out of “we’re so young” repeatedly, it was really a cry for help, an anxiety for the good ol’ days when players did what they were told. She never solved it.
The senior is seldom-used Kamera Harris, the lone survivor from her recruiting class.
With the leadership defection of grade A guard Evina Westbrook – the first player to ask for a coaching change, then she left herself – UT’s two remaining juniors from what was the best national recruiting class have to step up with plenty of time left.
Westbrook landed at UConn and will be eligible, if not this year, then when the Huskies visit Knoxville next year.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, other than leaving, is her left knee needed to rebuilt.
Another in her original recruiting class, the state high school player of the year, was run off by Warlick and will resume play this season at Middle Tennessee State.
Center Kasiyahna Kushkituah was never quite the same after a knee sprain last season. That leaves Rennia Davis to shoulder the work from the once-lauded recruiting class with a superlative sophomore class quartet.
It is why it is hard to overpraise recruiting classes.
Three of the top five scorers are gone. The sophomore class lost Mimi Collins, another McDonald’s All-American who had worked herself into the starting lineup. She will sit out a season.
Lou Brown, a 6-3 graduate transfer from Australia via Washington State, sat out a season rehabbing her knee after the transfer, but the NCAA granted a sixth year of eligibility so she is also available, as a one-year senior.
She started 23 games in her last full season.
Harper did snatch recruiting coach Lacey Goldwire from Arkansas. She is following a very tough act.
Among the sad facts of a regime change is Sharona Reaves is no longer with the program.
We had profiled her when she was hired.
Reaves is the one who recruited the three successive classes full of five-star players and McDonald’s All-Americans.
Harper missed a chance by not keeping her. She sold the traditions well. The latest to flee the program had committed to her as much as Tennessee.
Among the other coaches also not retained is Bridgette Gordon, a Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and an Olympic Gold Medalist in 1988. She scored 2,462 points in her career at Tennessee (1985-89). She helped lead UT to its first two national championships (1986-87, 1988-89).
FLORIDA
Mired in the bottom third of the conference, this is a team with traditional institutional supports who hired a wonderful mid-level coach a few seasons back but still lacks traction.
They have already taken in a big loss when projected scorer Danielle Rainey was lost for the year with a blown knee in a practice.
She came from TCU and was eligible for the conference season, hitting nearly 10 points per game. She will have two seasons left.
They add freshmen Faith Dut (6-4, from Canada), Brylee Bartram (5-8, in state); Nina Richards, 5-9, New York); and Lavender Briggs (6-1, Utah). They add a 6-5 center, a transfer in from Texas A&M.
So there is a possibility of Cam Newbauer starting a whole new lineup. He had six SEC Academic winners.
ALABAMA
Kristy Curry is a marvelous coach.
She has been caught in the confluence if a school that doesn’t do much to help the program and a lack of history on which to draw. It is her seventh season in Tuscaloosa.
She defeated Holly Warlick and Tennessee five straight times to enhance her seasons.
UT was always ranked and ‘Bama not. She also got a first program win at Georgia since 1997. She graduated three 1,000-point producers.
Those bouquets keep her motivated.
One of her recruits has the best name in conference: Ahriahna Grizzle (5-8 Toronto); and Destiny Rice (5-8, Shreveport).
The Tide rolled through Canada on an exhibition tour for its summertime adventure
OLE MISS
Oxford is a tough place to coach. The university itself seems to be on constant probation with the NCAA (though not women’s basketball).
The Rebels started yet another new rebuild last season with coach .Yolette McPhee- McCuin.
They have not been relevant since Van Chancellor left for a women’s basketball Halls of Fame career in the WNBA -- multiple titles -- and as the Olympic Gold Medal Coach in 2004.
He proved you could win at Ole Miss, advancing as far as early NCAA Elite Eights. They made the NCAAs 17 times.
That ended in 1996.
Coach Yo has added Jordan Berry (5-7,New Orleans); Sarah Dumitrescu (6-1, Romania), Brynn Parker (6-0, Aarizona); Deja Cage (5-8, junior transfer from DePaul); Jayla Alexander (5-9, in-state). In her second season, she also has the possibility of a whole new lineup.
LSU
When a team underperforms year after year it is a wonderment to see the coach hold on. Nikki Fargas is back for her ninth season.
They led the nation in scoring defense at 56.2 last season but finished 16-13.
All of the recruits are unremarkable: Tiara Yiung (5-8, in-state); Emily Ward, 5-11, in-state); Dominque Davis (5-6, in-state); Sharna Ayres (5-10, Australia). He originally signed with Marquette, but did not play in one season on campus.
Senior forward Ayana Mitchell went from third team all-conference to first team preseason
VANDERBILT
If there is any mystery meat the conference stew, this is it.
A proud program, with a history if institutional support All-Americans and wonderful coaches, despite being in the shadow of its more-famous in-state Vol rivals, how it ends so bad in recent years is amazing.
They even won at Tennessee late last season.
They hired a legacy coach, the accomplished Stephanie White, and she hired two legacy assistants, one a college teammate. But nothing happened.
There are always high hopes for Vanderbilt. But as White enters her fourth season – meaning the players are all hers now – the only stellar achievement from the previous season was winning at Knoxville as that team imploded.
It was the first Vanderbilt win ever at Knoxville. But it was one of two league wins, seven overall wins.
You cannot measure success in one-game gradients.
Vandy always has the challenge of being a private university with high academic standards. Not everyone can get in.
The good news is everybody’s back.
Like many teams at the bottom of the league, the bad news is everybody’s back.
This will also be the first season without a major assistant coaching change. Stability is the first move towards foundation.
How much time does she have?
A new athletic director may have his own wish list of coaching candidates. He may also have a year of double-secret probation.
The former coach got launched when attendance fell in consecutive seasons. ADs notice the money. But he also concentrated an replacing a charismatic men’s coach, which he has now done.
The only loss to graduation was Bree Horrocks, who started her career at Purdue and had two seasons in Nashville.
White has six newcomers, three guards and three forwards. Not all of them gained a mention in national scouting servers. Her three seniors are all guards,
The newbies: Yaubryon Chambers (6-1 in-state); Demi Washington (5-10, Wake Forest, NC); Kaylon Smith (5-10, West Palm Beach, Fla.); Taylor Hutchins (5-9, Mansfield, Texas); Taylor Golden (6-3, Atlamta); Kiara Pearl (5-8, Louisville).
The Commodores are entrants in the Junkanoo Jam at Resorts World Bimini, The Bahamas, from Nov. 27-Dec. 1. LSU is among the other teams there.
This is the fourth season Missouri has declined to participate in our coverage.
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