Southland Weekly Basketball Update
11/14/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 14, 2000
Ladyjacks Favored to Repeat, Louisiana-Monroe and Northwestern State to Challenge With 12 Conference tournament championships and 11 regular-season titles in the last 13 years, Stephen F. Austin is the overwhelming favorite to win the 2000-01 Southland Conference championship in a vote of the women's basketball head coaches and sports information directors.
Head coach Royce Chadwick welcomes back three pivotal players and has added five new members to put the Ladyjacks in contention for another championship run. Heading the list of returnees are freshman of the year Nathesia Wright, all-conference post Tami Rater and junior LaShinda Winters. Chaquita Dilworth, a junior forward who transferred from Colorado, will add another punch to the Ladyjacks' high-octane offense.
Twin guards Jessica and Nicole Guild, the heavily sought-after duo from the 2000 national champion Tyler Junior College squad, will add versatility to an already exciting team.
SFA, which finished 28-4, 17-1 last season, was the unanimous first-place pick of the SIDs and received all 10 possible votes from the head coaches since they could not vote for their own team.
The number two and three spots were reversed in the two preseason polls. Last year's regular-season and tournament runner-up Northwestern State (24-6, 15-3) came in second in the SIDs' poll while Louisiana-Monroe (16-13, 11-7) was the second choice among the coaches.
Both groups agreed that Southwest Texas (18-11, 12-6) should finish fourth, but had Lamar (10-17, 5-13) and Texas-Arlington (13-15, 9-9) flipped at No. 5 and No. 6.
The coaches and SIDs were in agreement on how the remaining five teams should end up with Sam Houston State (12-15, 11-7) at No. 7 followed by McNeese State (14-14, 8-10), Southeastern Louisiana (10-18, 5-13), Nicholls State (4-23, 3-15), and Texas-San Antonio (7-20, 3-15).
WomensCollegeHoops.com Early Bird Top 50 1. UConn 2. Tennessee 3. Purdue 4. Notre Dame 5. Georgia 6. Duke 7. LSU 8. Old Dominion 9. Texas Tech 10. Stanford 11. Louisiana Tech 12. Wisconsin 13. Virginia 14. Rutgers 15. Xavier 16. Oregon 17. Oklahoma 18. Mississippi State 19. UC-Santa Barbara 20. N.C. State 21. USC 22. Iowa State 23. Penn State 24. Stephen F. Austin 25. Auburn 26. Michigan 27. Vanderbilt 28. SW Missouri State 29. St. Joseph's 30. SMU 31. George Washington 32. Utah 33. Clemson 34. Western Kentucky 35. Alabama-Birmingham 36. Virginia Tech 37. Arkansas 38. Illinois 39. UCLA 40. Boston College 41. Michigan State 42. Delaware 43. Georgia Tech 44. Kansas 45. New Mexico 46. Colorado State 47. Indiana 48. Texas 49. Arizona 50. Montana
Teams in italics are on the Southland schedule.
Stephen F. Austin Places Three on Preseason All-Conference Teams Defending league champion Stephen F. Austin State University has landed one player on the preseason all-conference first team and two on the second team.
Sophomore Nathesia Wright, last year,s freshman of the year, is SFA,s first-team selection. Wright, a guard from Arlington, Texas, averaged 9.0 points and had a .466 field goal percentage.
Wright is joined by seniors from four different schools. Northwestern State,s Kia Converse, a guard from Napoleonville, La., ranked fourth in the Southland with an average of 15.6 points per game.
Two post players have been named to the first team. Southeastern Louisiana,s Stacey Turner, a product of Greenwood, S.C., and last season,s newcomer of the year, became the first Lady Lion to win the Conference scoring title when she finished with an average of 18.8 points per game. Louisiana-Monroe,s Terri Butler, who hails from San Antonio, Texas, averaged 11.5 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.
The final spot is occupied by McNeese State,s Eunice Mayo, a forward from Lake Charles, La., who scored 9.9 points per game and was the league,s top defensive rebounder.
The preseason all-conference second team consists of senior Tami Rater and junior Chaquita Dilworth of SFA, senior Deirdre Allen of SLU, senior Ilona Hollosy of ULM, and junior Kendall Arant of Southwest Texas.
This week's games Nov. 17 Southwest Texas at Stetson Southern Arkansas at Northwestern State McNeese State at Houston Nicholls State at Tulane Alcorn State at Stephen F. Austin
Nov. 18 Loyola-New Orleans at Southeastern Louisiana Texas-Arlington at TAMU-Corpus Christi SMU or Florida A&M at Stephen F. Austin Wichita State at Lamar Sam Houston State at Louisiana State Texas-San Antonio at Arizona State
Nov. 20 McNeese State at Centenary Nicholls State at Samford Sam Houston State at Louisiana-Lafayette Texas-Arlington at Texas Tech Texas A&M-Kingsville at Southwest Texas Texas-San Antonio at UNLV -SLC-
