and that team down south BGSU:

21-22 Record: 16-16, 10-10 MAC
21-22 NET: 124
21-22 Finish: T6th, MAC Tourney QF, WBI 3rd Place
NET PtPerPoss: +0.034 (5th)

Production lost: 23%
Starts Lost: 18%
Key Losses:
Kenzie Lewis (11%) Stepped away from basketball
Madisen Parker (6%) Graduation

@UT: 80-51, Lockett 24 pts, Noveroske 10 reb
@BG: 71-67, Wiard 20 pts, Cook 13 reb

Bowling Green was another team to disappoint last season, but not without reason after losing MAC Freshman of the Year Lexi Fleming (16 pts, 5 reb in '20-21) to a season-ending knee injury. Although they would have been a better team with Fleming, what they really seemed to miss most was having any appreciable inside presence at all. BG was the best shooting team in the MAC by far, with three players who shot better than 40% from three. Also one of the highest scoring teams, their defense was not as good, and they were 11th in the league in rebounding. That led them to a tie for 6th and an 8th seed in the MAC tourney, after being picked to finish 2nd.

They don't lose all that much this year, with the biggest piece being glue-player Kenzie Lewis (3 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast) who is stepping away from basketball. She was not an offensive threat, but a good defensive player and ball handler. They add an impact DI transfer in 6'1 F Allison Day (10 pts, 5 reb) from Loyola Chicago, who immediately addresses their lack of inside presence. They also add a super-rare, DIII-to-DI transfer forward, and 3 freshmen recruits, 2 of which did not seem to have any other DI offers. But of course, the huge add is getting Fleming back from injury, assuming she is 100% and plays back up to her freshman level. They also get back Jasmine Clerkey who was injured early in the season. They return a solid set of guards, including 3 all-MAC players: All-Freshman Amy Velasco (11 pts, 3 ast), 3rd Team Kadie Hempfling (12 pts, 5 reb) and All-Defensive Team Nyla Hampton (8 pts, 3 stl), so their back court is loaded, and someone that had played a lot last year is gonna lose a lot of minutes to Fleming.

Coach Fralick is beginning her 5th season at BGSU with not so great overall record (.463 overall, .392 MAC) but is looking to return to the performance of the '20-21 team that finished 21-8 and 14-4 for the best in the MAC. They lost to CMU in the MAC championship, but went on to win 2 rounds in the WNIT. On paper, they certainly look like they have the players to challenge for 1st place again, but a lot depends on Fleming's condition and the play of the Loyola transfer in the BG system.

EMU had their exhibition tonight, beating DII Northwood 92-84.

To put in some perspective, Northwood is in the same conference as Ferris State (UT's exhibition opponent), and last season those two split 2 games, Northwood winning at home by 5, and FSU winning at their place by 25.

Looking at the live stats, interestingly, EMU only played 7 players (well 1 freshman got 1 minute at the end of the game). So, their starters mostly played 30+ minutes and yet it was a 4 point game a couple minuted into Q4. Lachelle Austin played 39 minutes and led EMU in points (31), rebounds and assists. The Spanish newcomer played 29 minutes and scored 9.

Missouri State played an exhibition against DII Missouri S&T, winning 58-44. MSU's best returning player, Sydney Wilson did not play for unknown reasons and neither did Aniya Thomas, who looked to be their best incoming transfer. So, the score doesn't look as bad knowing those two were out. They open the season against Missouri.

Kent and WMU both have exhibitions tonight, Kent against DII Mercyhurst, and WMU against NAIA Aquinas College.

BG's student media organization, Falcon Media, has put out a season preview where they are predicting BG will go 25-5 this season and 15-3 in the MAC. Bold statement from a group that has their website configured to download the BG student magazine PDF in the background every single time to visit any page on the site. So, I don't recommend visiting the page.

Kent 72 Mercyhurst 40
They deleted the live stats immediately following the game for some reason, but if I recall what I saw during the game, Kent shot abysmally from three, at one time being 1-17, before getting a few to go in the 4th. Also had a bundle of turnovers, 20+ I think. But, at least they played their whole roster, including all the freshman. Hauser played a lot and scored and had a bunch of assists, so the scout on her looks like it was good.

WMU 81 Aquinas 49
WMU also played the whole roster and shot abysmally from three (7-34, only after going 3-6 in Q4). They also shot badly from the FT line (16-31) but dominated the boards. Ross and Williams led the scoring. Aquinas played 19 different players in the game.

5 mid-major women’s college basketball teams that can make serious noise

https://fansided.com/2022/11/04/mid-majo...leepers/5/

Look who's number 1. Worth it just to watch the linked highlight video from last season.

And of course there was one team left that I hadn't produced a preview for, and that's Toledo:

21-22 Record: 29-6, 19-1 MAC
21-22 NET: 63
21-22 Finish: MAC RS Champs, MAC Tourney Semis, WNIT Elite 8
NET PtPerPoss: +0.164 (1st)

Production lost: 10%
Starts Lost: 3%
Key losses:
Hannah Noveroske (9%) Season-ending Knee Injury

What a season it was for UT, picked 8th in the preseason poll, they proved everyone wrong with a record-setting 19-1 MAC regular season. Only the disappointing loss to Ball State in the MAC Semis and the heartbreaking OT loss to MTSU in the WNIT Elite 8 tainted a really magical year. They did this even with UT star Quinesha Lockett having a slightly down season from '20-21, shooting only 29% from three. Statistically, the Rockets finished in the top 3 in almost every single MAC statistical category, except steals and turnovers-forced, where they were near the bottom. UT turned in a truly incredible rebounding performance, finishing 10th in DI in defensive rebounds and 29th in rebounding margin, despite being only the 6th tallest team in the MAC. Five different players received All-MAC honors, which may be a record - I am not sure.

The Rockets are headed by reigning MAC Coach of the Year, Tricia Cullop who is entering her 15th season at UT. She has the best winning percentage of any current MAC coach (296-158, .652 overall; 161-85, .654 in MAC play.) Her 296 wins is 2nd in MAC history, only trailing Kent legend Bob Lindsay who won 418 over 22 seasons. Cullop has 419 wins overall, counting her time at Evansville (also 22 total seasons). Cullop also has the most MAC tournament game wins (16) and interestingly, she has more post season wins (NCAA, WNIT, WBI) (18 wins in 14 seasons) than all the other current MAC coaches combined (15 wins in 62 combined seasons.)

Up until a couple weeks ago, it looked like UT would be returning literally 99% of last year's record-setting production, but unfortunately some bad luck hit with the announcement that MAC 6th-POY Hannah Noveroske will miss the '22-23 season with a knee injury. That will hurt against some specific opponents, but she often sat against teams with smaller more-mobile 5s, so it won't hurt as much in every game. Even without her, UT still returns 90% of production, and 97% of starts. Those returning include 1st Team All-MAC G Quinesha Lockett (18 pts, 5 reb) who should be a preseason candidate for MAC POY and was recently named to the Becky Hammon Award preseason watch list (mid-major POY.) Also back is 2nd Team All-MAC PG Sophia Wiard (12 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast), who was 16th in the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio. Lockett and Wiard were both selected as preseason All-MAC 1st team players. Defensive All-MAC G Khera Goss (7 pts, 2 reb) is back along with Freshman All-MAC post Jessica Cook (8 pts, 5 reb), not to mention all-MAC snub, Sammi Mikonowicz (8 pts, 8 reb, 2 ast).

Although UT did not sign any high school recruits, they did add 2 impactful transfers in 5'8 G Justina King (12 pts, 2 reb, 4 ast) from Long Beach State, where she had scored almost 1300 points, had nearly 200 steals and was a multi-year All-Conference & All-Defensive team selection. The also added Akron's 5'11 F Lonasia Brewer (7 pts, 5 reb) who started 27 games for the Zips and was a major contributor to their 17-12 record. Combining those two with experienced backups F Nan Garcia (6 pts, 3 reb) and 5th year G Jayda Jansen (6 pts, 2 reb) and UT has a solid 9 player rotation with which to defend their title. Guards Yani Curry and Soleil Barnes also have game experience to round out the roster, and Scottish G Ella Doherty waits in the wings.

The two transfers fit key needs (backup PG and backup 4/5.) Although the loss of Noveroske hurts some, it should not hurt enough to significantly impact UT's quest to repeat as MAC regular season champs again this year, I don't think. But, it's never easy to repeat such an amazing season, and BGSU and Ball State (and everyone else) will be gunning for UT now. The Rockets will need to be better in some areas to keep up the pace. Still, I have to pick them to repeat again this year, as of right now. I'm anxious to see Sammi this year, given the big jumps her game took both as a FR and again last year, if she can make another big step up, maybe as an inside offensive threat, she could be this year's secret weapon. And, if Lockett can return to her shooting form of '20-21 (37% from 3, as opposed to 29% last year), then watch out for this team.

Also keep your eyes peeled on the Rockets' career record book as this year's squad should make a further dent in that. Currently:

Q Lockett:

1384 points, 17th all-time (Next in sight: Lucretia LeGault 1409)
15.4 points/game, 6th all-time (Next in sight: Angela Drake 15.9)
502 FG made, 68 short of top 10
1187 FG attempts, 47 short of top 10
128 3FG made, 35 short of top 10
423 3FG attempts, 57 short of top 10
252 FT made, 61 short of top 10
432 FT attempts, 1 short of top 10.
146 steals, 43 short of top 10
2767 minutes played, 733 short of top 10

Sophia Wiard:

875 points, 125 short of becoming 32nd 1000 point scorer
37.9% 3FG%, tied for 5th all-time (tied with Courtney Risinger)
325 assists, 70 short of top 10
225 FT made, 88 short of top 10
83.6% FT percentage, 1st all time
2542 minutes played, 958 short of top 10

Sammi Mikonowicz:

7.0 rebounds/game, tied for 7th all-time (tied with Lucretia LeGault)

Slightly interesting season preview article on WMU:
https://www.westernherald.com/sports/art...32470.html

Says they normally don't appoint team captains, but decided to this year ... interesting. Also says they are changing to an "open lane" offense, which sounds a lot like they don't have a post, so are gonna be shooting even more threes than they did last year.

Michigan and Duke both played exhibitions yesterday, and both were the blowouts expected when a good P6 team plays a DII team.

Michigan beat DII Daemen 87-32. Yes, this the same Daemen that Buffalo struggled against only to pull away late for a 61-51 win.
This shows how much Buffalo needs to improve still. Interestingly although UM won the boards battle, they did not dominate it, taking it 39-32. Last season UM averaged a +10 rebound margin over the whole season, so that was a little surprising. They did shoot well from three, behind incoming transfer Greta Kampschroeder who went 4-5 off the bench. Last season they were an average three point shooting team at best. They were led by 6'3 F Emily Kiser who had 18.

Duke beat DII IUP (Indiana of PA) 90-36. They forced 36 IUP turnovers, with 17 steals. Like UM they did not dominate the boards though, tying IUP 37-37, despite having a 4 inch average height advantage in the starting lineups. They also shot well from three, but only 9-17 from the line. Four players scored in double figures.

The lack of rebounding dominance gives me some hope UT may be able to hold their own on the boards against these two much taller teams, although they will likely be better and more polished by the time UT plays them.

One final tidbit before the season starts tomorrow. There has been a lot of speculation that conferences like the MAC are becoming the minor leagues for P6 schools and the top players will be poached a transfer up to bigger name schools. As of yet, that has not happened to the MAC. Of the top 25 players from last season (measured by efficiency) 6 graduated, 1 turned pro and only 4 transferred. Two of the transfers followed coach Jack to Syracuse and would probably still be in Buffalo otherwise. One other, Molly Davis, moved up to Iowa, but you have to wonder if that would have happened if CMU had not had such a terrible season last year. The only other was Nila Blackford who went to a bottom-tier P6 school at Xavier, but her minutes had dropped substantially at Kent at the end of last year, so again you wonder if that was due to some discontent at Kent, rather than trying to move up the ladder. Here's the list:

Top 25 '21-22 MAC Players by Efficiency* per Game (Averaged over a whole season)

Efficiency, Player, Team, (% of Team Eff), Status
1. 23.0, Dawson, AKR, (31%), Graduated
2. 21.0, Hooks, OU, (27%), Graduated
3. 19.9, A Davis, NIU, (28%)
4. 19.9, Fair, BUF, (22%), Transfer to Syracuse
5. 19.0, Hemphill, BUF, (21%), Graduated
6. 18.4, Scott, MIA, (26%)
7. 17.7, Smith, CMU, (31%)
8. 16.4, Becki, BSU, (20%)
9. 16.3, Wiard, TOL, (19%)
10. 15.7, Lockett, TOL, (18%)
11. 15.0, Skanes, EMU, (22%)
12. 13.6, Burris, OU, (18%), Graduated
13. 13.5, Ross, WMU, (20%)
14. 13.1, Woolley, BUF, (15%), Transfer to Syracuse
15. 13.0, Johnson, OU, (17%), Turned Pro (unsure if she signed anywhere)
16. 12.8, Williams, WMU, (19%)
17. 12.7, Mikonowicz, TOL, (15%)
18. 12.7, Combs, EMU, (19%), Graduated
19. 12.0, Blackford, Kent, (16%), Transfer to Xavier
20. 12.0, Hempfling, BGSU, (15%)
21. 11.9, Jacobson, WMU, (17%), Graduated
22. 11.7, M Davis, CMU, (20%), Transfer to Iowa
23. 11.7, Thall, Kent, (16%)
24. 10.6, Keifer, BSU, (13%)
25. 10.0, Santoro, Kent, (13%)

* Efficiency is basically points +rebounds +assists +steals +blocks -turnovers -missed shots