The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

This season Conference USA women’s basketball has two wins over teams ranked in the top 25. One of them is WKU’s victory over #16 Louisville. The other is North Texas victory over #17 Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. The Mean Green played strong interior defense (the Sooners missed 17 lay-ups) and they were aggressive. After the game, long time Sooners coach Sherri Coale said her team didn’t communicate, bring energy, and lost focus in the game. Thus proving even top ranked teams with superior talent can lose if they don’t play together as a team.

On April 9, 2015 Jalie Mitchell become the new head coach of the Mean Green. She is the leading scorer in North Texas program’s history and was a former Sun Belter Player of the Year (2002). She has been an assistant coach for North Texas, Univeristy of Texas, and UNCW. She gives the fans a familiar face and hope as they remember a time when North Texas basketball was successful.

North Texas 8-12 (3-7) Home: 4-6 RPI: 201 SOS: 150
Vs San Francisco L 69-61 RPI: 120 Record: 12-9
@ Oklahoma W 61-57 RPI: 30 Record: 16-6
@ Texas St L 64-62 RPI: 186 Record: 8-11
Vs Arizona L 51-44 RPI: 104 Record: 11-13
Vs SMU W 60-57 RPI: 158 Record: 10-12

Hospitality Hill Tournament
Vs Weber St L 45-38 RPI: 184 Record: 13-6
Vs IUPUI W 68-67 RPI: 112 Record: 14-7

@ Iona L 62-51 RPI: 118 Record: 14-7
@ La Salle W 69-63 RPI: 279 Record: 3-20
@ Incarnate World W 62-55 RPI: 316 Record: 3-13
Vs UTSA W 68-58 RPI: 228 Record: 5-14 (Con USA 3-8)
Vs UTEP L 75-67 RPI: 24 Record: 18-2 (Con USA 10-1)
@ Rice L 100-97 (3 OT) RPI: 243 Record: 4-17 (3-7)
@ Marshall W 71-63 RPI: 140 Record: 14-6 (6-5)
@ Western Kentucky L 65-53 RPI: 57 Record: 17-4 (9-2)
Vs Middle Tenn St L 76-52 RPI: 78 Record: 15-7 (9-2)
Vs UAB W 53-51 RPI: 165 Record: 11-11 (4-7)
Vs Rice L 79-73 (2 OT) RPI: 243 Record: 4-17 (3-7)
@ Southern Miss L 57-38 RPI: 137 Record: 11-9 (5-5)
@ La Tech L 77-71 RPI: 170 Record: 11-9 (7-3)
Vs ODU 10-12 (6-4) RPI: 156

Mean Green Starting Five
#23 Acheil Tac 6’2” F Sr 10.3 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 56.6 FG%, 80.4 FT%, 27.4 mpg
#02 Teadra Jones 5’9” G Sr 6.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 1.0 apg, 33.1 FG%, 30.3 3P%, 64.0 FT%, 24.5 mpg
#03 Kelsey Criner 5’7” G Jr 12.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 5.1 apg, 2.4 spg, 41.5 FG%, 39.7 3P%, 63.4 FT%, 33.5 mpg
#13 Orianna Shillow 5’8” G Fr 5.0 ppg, 0.5 rpg, 58.3 FG%, 50.0 3P%, 1.000 FT%, 17.5 mpg
#14 Candice Adams 5’8” G Jr 11.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.5 apg, 37.2 FG%, 32.7 3P%, 79.5 FT%, 30.5 mpg
Top Bench
#10 Kasiney Williams 5’1” G Sr 2.3 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 1.7 apg, 23.8 FG%, 16.7 3P%, 61.9 FT%, 20.6 mpg
#20 Terra Ellison 5’11” G Jr 10.4 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.2 apg, 38.0 FG%, 36.7 3P%, 73.7 FT%, 34.9 mpg

To say that the roster is guard heavy is an understatement. They have four players listed as post/forward. The rest are guards. (Although some of them might be of the SF/SG variety) This team will run and run. Despite being guard heavy, this isn’t a team that shoots a ton of threes. The most likely candidate is Adams who has shot 36% of the team’s 3s. Criner is the player who makes everything goes. (leads the team in ppg, second in rebounds, leads in assists and steals) They do have good bench depth.

Conference USA stats only….
……….....…NT…….ODU
PPG….......64.3……66.7
OPPG….....70.1……61.6
FG%........43.6……43.3
OFG%.......41.0……39.4
3P%.........33.1……28.0
O3P%.......31.2……29.4
3PMPG…....4.7…….5.1
FT%..........67.0…...59.9
FTMPG….....11.8…...10.6
RPG……......36.3…..41.1
ORPG……....35.6…..32.5
APG……......12.1…..13.6
TPG………....21.1….16.8
SPG……….....6.8…...7.4
BPG……........1.3……3.2
Ast/TO ratio:
NT: 0.6, ODU: 0.8

During the LM's recent homestand, they have played extremely well. The question now is can they play as strong on the road. This is what defines the great teams. How they handle the pressure of the road.

End of first quarter. ODU 19, NT: 8. It was 17-2 until the final minutes when the Mean Green starting making a come back.

Simms has 7 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, and 2 blocks.

At the half, the LM are in control. ODU 37. NT 13. GG leads all scorers with 12 points. ODU leads in rebounding 28-18.

Final score: ODU 65. NT: 48

NT outscored ODU 20-12 in the fourth quarter to make the final score a closer. GG scored 15. Destinee Young had 11 points and 7 boards, with a team high 4 steals. It was Simms who had 14 points, 9 boards, and 8 assists. I was hoping for the rare triple double.

Yes the LM still have some work to do. But it's a win on the road. Next up Rice and possibly former LM Becca Allison. Her team (Houston Baptist University) will play Sam Houston St on Saturday. Since it's an hour and 20 minutes apart, she might be around Friday night for anyone traveling with the team.

Congrats to the ladies for the win yesterday. They seem to be playing better recently. Hope it continues. Sorry to read in today's paper that the point guard got injured and is out for the rest of the season.