BTW was at the game. Being on the same night as opening round of high school football playoffs was expecting similar crowd to our exhibition games. Practically every team in Rutherford County were in playoffs tonight. Was surprised to see our crowd seemed almost double to our exhibitions. Flipped over on ESPN+ for some replay when getting home. Video didn't really give justice as home side view was mostly blocked, but D, E, & F had a sizeable attendance tonight.

This was a perfect game to prep us for a fight against Tennessee. GCU came out ready to fight, & are a very tough team. Wouldn't be surprised they knock off Oregon & Arizona St both this year. We weren't exactly ready for such a hard fight that first period. However by the end of 2nd quarter we were not only matching their intensity we were beating it. And by midway through the 3rd they were wearing down.
I hope Jada or Savannah can spell Courtney a few minutes next Tuesday. She was exhausted.
Concerning Tennessee, they have played 3 easy opponents to build their team's confidence & garner attention for a few blowouts. We may not win Tuesday, but Tennessee has yet to play such an aggressive defense as what MT has to offer. I'm somewhat disappointed in Gregory's & Arike's offense thus far, but you can't spite their defensive tenacity. Very impressive. Hopefully our offense will have a little more cohesion for our next game.
But for so early in the season our defense kicks butt!

That was like being in the middle of March Madness already. That was the most defense by two teams just about ever. We always have good defense, but theirs is just a small below ours. Their perimeter defense is for real. TaMia turned it on in the second half. I loved it. GCU kept trying to attack Elina and Anastasia unsuccessfully. This is already the best defensive team Insell has had at MTSU. Defense will get you a lot of wins on the road.

Good win. Showed a lot of strength in this one against a very good mid major program. Hope we’re ready for UT!

Got to re-watch their 93-52 win over Bakersfield on Monday. I chalk most of the scoring margin to Bakersfield being a bad team, and a first year head coach. Nothing CSUB did impressed me and GCU capitalized.

GCU played man defense and will press the point guard all the time. They want to double team immediately crossing the half-court line if they can push us to the sideline. This created a lot of rushed passes, and made Bakersfield's offense very uncomfortable. However, the downside to the half-court trap is you're constantly watching the ball. Off ball screens/movement, back door cuts, etc. will be open. Dribble penetration will collapse their defense and leave one (if not more) wide open on the perimeter -- Bakersfield could not buy a 3 (0/17) and they had many open looks.

GCU is relatively small compared to MTSU. Graduate post Laura Erikstrup (#20) is 6'2" and works in the low block. Her twin, Sydney Erikstrup (#11) is 6'1", similar style, but can step out and shoot a 3 (40% on 70 attempts LY). This team in general isn't known for their 3 point threat, but Oklahoma State transfer, Senior PG Ale'jah Douglas (#3, 5'6") had herself an opener (11 points, 3/4 from 3). The rest of their offense works from the perimeter and tries to dribble penetrate with 4 out. Trinity San Antonio (#23, 5'10") is their biggest threat (WAC Preseason POY) after leading her team with 11.5 ppg in '23-'24, she gets down hill and to the rim well. She has good vision because she draws a lot of attention and averaged 3.5 apg with a 1.25 A/TO. Graduate SF Tiarra Brown (#24) plays bigger than her 5'9" frame would appear and can score inside the paint. This team's offense thrives on transition buckets created by their defense. Limiting the turnovers in the backcourt will force this team to run a half court offense which I wasn't particularly impressed by versus Bakersfield.

GCU obviously has a recipe for beating MTSU as they did last year. We struggled with 36% FG. Wheeler and Gregory shot a combined 4/17 from deep. Despite winning the rebounding battle 41-27, giving GCU 20 points off 16 turnovers is the biggest reason we lost last December. I think if they can win the turnover battle this year, MTSU will be fine. I also expect a guard to have herself a game from deep. This may be Jalynn's breakout game or even Davis if she gets more minutes. I also expect the Boldyreva/Arike combo to combine for over 25 pts and 25 reb.

Tonight #8 Iowa State led Indiana St at the half only 35-28. The Cyclone's went on to win a sluggish game 64-42.
As a reference Indiana State's 1st game was a couple nights ago. They played Western Kentucky at home, & lost 71-59.

#22 Kentucky played Northern Kentucky tonight at home and won by 29. By comparison, we played NKU on the road and won by 21. I'd say that's pretty darn good.

Both are great additions to the league.

In the wake of the House settlement, the AAC plans to implement and minimum revenue share schools have to commit to in order to be in the American.

Just read Wyoming is opting in and sharing revenue as well as some other MWC. I really don't see how any CUSA school can afford it. Even Wyoming as their revenue is only $50m. (Ours is $40m). I guess the roughly $10m they are getting in exit fees, hoping to build till new revenue comes in. IDK.

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Yes, and Gregory isn't going to go 0-6 very often. She has slumps like anyone but is usually pretty quick to snap out of them.

MTFAN61 said:

Glad you brought up Gregory. Definitely need more production at her #2 position. One thing I would like to see is a quicker decision to bring in Davis while Gregory is in her funk. Can't afford to wait 15-20 minutes if she's shooting 0-6 from the field. Savannah Davis looks very capable on the floor while Gregory struggles mentally with her game.
If we're playing a team like Tennessee, & Gregory is still struggling by the first media timeout would like to see Davis get a shot.

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I’m inclined to agree with you but defensively Gregory is very good regardless how off her shooting is. CRI mentioned (not explicitly naming anyone in particular) that the newest additions still have a ways to go on learning how he likes for them to play defense. Based on the exhibitions, she falls in that group. She did look better in her minutes against NKU. As Davis gets equated with the college game we may see a quicker hook on cold shooting nights.

jakeboldenbrp said:

I think it will be evident the game plan this early in the season is double (or NKU’s case, just collapse the entire zone) Boldyreva when she catches in the low block and force MT to shoot the 3. Everyone on the floor is capable of doing that.

I’m interested to see how the team responds when Scott isn’t on or teams start to hedge the high ball screens that frees her up. I’m not too concerned since they’re still scoring well while Gregory is still trying to find her shot.

This team shoots too well to stay in a zone and they’re too quick at the guards to stay in man. We are a real headache for opposing defenses this year.

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Glad you brought up Gregory. Definitely need more production at her #2 position. One thing I would like to see is a quicker decision to bring in Davis while Gregory is in her funk. Can't afford to wait 15-20 minutes if she's shooting 0-6 from the field. Savannah Davis looks very capable on the floor while Gregory struggles mentally with her game.
If we're playing a team like Tennessee, & Gregory is still struggling by the first media timeout would like to see Davis get a shot.

MTFAN61 said:

Seen a specific trend that a lot of deep run tournament championship teams have shared through the years. I think this MT team shares many of those same traits.
All those teams had lots of talented role players where any one player was capable of a big time breakout on any given night. They were all well coached, & fundamentally sound with a solid defensive scheme. And they all had that 1 super star that was almost impossible for anyone to stop including the major power schools.
I see this Lady Raiders team with all of those same traits including the all important super star everyone has trouble stopping. I think this is the year where Ta'Mia Scott is capable of becoming that unstoppable super star for Middle Tennessee. And depending on how far she's willing to take us, we're capable of going places Middle Tennessee has only dreamed of in the past.

Click to expand...

I think it will be evident the game plan this early in the season is double (or NKU’s case, just collapse the entire zone) Boldyreva when she catches in the low block and force MT to shoot the 3. Everyone on the floor is capable of doing that.

I’m interested to see how the team responds when Scott isn’t on or teams start to hedge the high ball screens that frees her up. I’m not too concerned since they’re still scoring well while Gregory is still trying to find her shot.

This team shoots too well to stay in a zone and they’re too quick at the guards to stay in man. We are a real headache for opposing defenses this year.

Seen a specific trend that a lot of deep run tournament championship teams have shared through the years. I think this MT team shares many of those same traits.
All those teams had lots of talented role players where any one player was capable of a big time breakout on any given night. They were all well coached, & fundamentally sound with a solid defensive scheme. And they all had that 1 super star that was almost impossible for anyone to stop including the major power schools.
I see this Lady Raiders team with all of those same traits including the all important super star everyone has trouble stopping. I think this is the year where Ta'Mia Scott is capable of becoming that unstoppable super star for Middle Tennessee. And depending on how far she's willing to take us, we're capable of going places Middle Tennessee has only dreamed of in the past.

ESPN has introduced BPI to women's basketball this season! Going through the updated numbers after the first two days of games (everyone on our schedule has played their first game except for Purdue, Belmont, and Sam Houston), the Lady Raiders' are expected to go 28-3 with their only losses @ Tennessee (10% chance to win), vs. Iowa State (34.5%), and Kansas State (15.4%).

Something to note about BPI -- it takes some historical context into their data this early into the season. Our percentages actually went up vs Iowa State and Kansas State but didn't move against Tennessee which (to me) would imply their first game against Samford has not been calculated into the algorithm. And I full expect the data to shift more and more as we go through our first couple of weeks.

I know this means nothing, but I'm glad they are incorporating it into the women's game because it's interesting data to compare how teams fare against one another based on their season's results.

Some other games to note as of 11/6
88.4% vs. Grand Canyon
56.4% vs. Purdue (play their first game tonight vs. IPFW)
65.3% @ Belmont (play their first game Thurs @ Kansas State)
87.2% @ Cal Baptist
51.2% @ Princeton (big swing after their surprising loss @ Duquesne, scored 4 points in the 4Q to blow 7 point lead, lost 76-66)
71.4% @ Liberty
86.8% @ FIU