Nov. 17, 2009

Complete Game Notes in PDF Format

Melissa McFerrin has made college coaching stops at Central Michigan, Ohio State, Minnesota and American before coming on board as the head coach at the University of Memphis prior to last season. In all those stops, she has never sat on the visiting side line against her alma mater, the University of Missouri. On Wednesday night, she will take her young Tiger squad back to Columbia for her first-ever trip back to the sidelines at Missouri for a 6:30 p.m. non-conference match-up.

The Tigers of Memphis are 14 points away from a 2-0 record right now, but instead are sitting 0-2 with a 78-74 loss to Indiana, a WNIT quarterfinalist squad last sesaon, and a 69-59 loss to Murray State, a team that was 23-9 last season and which won the Ohio Valley regular season conference title and advanced to the WNIT field.

Memphis has struggled to find its touch through the first two games, shooting just 33.1 percent from the field and just 12.5 percent from three-point range in the first two games.

Sophomore guard Brittany Carter leads the team with 16.5 points per game and ranks second on the squad with 7.5 rebounds a night. She scored 20 points against Indiana in the season-opener, then had a double-double against Murray State, but is looking for some more scoring help from her teammates. True freshman forward Nicole Dickson made a big splash in her first career game, becoming the first Tiger freshman in school history to score 20 points in her first collegiate game. But Dickson found the defense a bit stiffer once she was on the scouting report against Murray State, dropping her scoring average to 13.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.

Senior guard LaToya Bullard is also trying to quickly learn McFerrin's offensive system after missing all of last season following back surgery. Bullard went scoreless in the opener, but found some touch on Sunday. But while she's working through the offensive challenges, the Tigers need her to stay tough defensively. She leads the team with six steals through the first two games and is third on the team in assists right now.

Junior center Savannah Ellis opened the season with her second career double-double, and is averaging 7.0 points and 9.5 rebounds a game while leading Memphis with three blocks. The junior struggled against Murray State as the Tigers' troubles shooting from the perimeter meant the Racers could just pack the paint and double and triple team the Tiger posts.

This is also a return trip to Columbia for assistant coach Brett Schneider. Schneider spent two years as an assistant at Missouri, and two years ago, as a member of the staff at UMKC, came in and helped the Kangaroos come back from an 18-point deficit to force overtime.

The game can be heard on WUMR, 91.7 FM, and fans outside the WUMR listening area can listen to the stream online here

The Series History
This is the 10th meeting between the two Tiger squads, and the Tigers of Missouri lead the overall series, 5-4.

In the first-ever meeting between the two schools, a point guard named Melissa McFerrin started for Missouri. She finished 4-for-10 from the field, 3-for-4 from the free-throw line, and had five rebounds, one foul, one assist, one turnover and a steal in 37 minutes of play. She scored 11 points in the 79-70 Memphis victory. Her starting teammates in that game were Pam Green, Annette Hollins, Lisa Carrell and Debbie Walker. That game was the championship game of the 1981 Mid-America Classic and was played on Dec. 12, 1981 in Hearnes Arena.

Memphis is 0-4 against Missouri in true road games, including a 72-69 loss to Mizzou in the last meeting on Jan. 17th, 1995.

<>B>All Sorts of Personal History in This Meeting
In addition to McFerrin's history as a player at the University of Missouri, there are other personal links between the two coaching staffs. McFerrin was an assistant coach at Central Michigan from 1984-1990, and the graduate assistant coach on that staff from 1984-86 was Cindy Stein. Stein graduated from Central Michigan with a master's degree in physical education, then went on to join the staff at Miami University, then Cincinnati.

Stein also had a current Tiger assistant serve on her staff as first-year McFerrin assistant Brett Schneider was an assistant at Missouri for two seasons from 1998-2000, before he returned to his alma mater, West Texas A&M, as an associate head coach from 2000-2006. Unlike McFerrin, Schneider has been on the visitor's sideline against Missouri before. During the 2007-08 season, as an assistant coach at UMKC, he was part of the Kangaroo team that took Missouri to overtime, before then-freshman Shakara Jones stuck back an offensive rebound with 6.1 seconds remaining in the game for a Mizzou victory, 75-73.

Perimeter Game Needs Some Reps
Memphis has found life a little difficult from beyond the arc so far this season. The Tigers are just 5-for-40 from three-point range through the first two games (12.5 percent), and are allowing opposing shooters to get loose for a 42.9 percent clip (12-for-28) on the defensive side of the three-point line.

Junior Alex Winchell, who is among the career top 10 in three-point field goals made, is 0-for-10 from three-point range through the first two games, the first time since her freshman season that she has gone back-to-back games without hitting a three.

Kelsey Providing Some Sparks
Freshman guard Chatia Kelsey will celebrate her birthday on the Tuesday before the Missouri game, and the birthday girl is providing her own sparks on the court. Against Indiana, she spelled Ramses Lonlack for five minutes, getting some experience against Indiana's upperclassmen guards on the defensive end.

Against Murray State on Sunday, Kelsey was 3-for-4 from the field with one rebound, six points, one assist and one steal in 14 minutes. A pair of back-to-back Kelsey layups powered a Memphis second half run that helped cut the deficit to six.

Expect Shooting Drills This Week
Memphis is shooting just 33.1 percent from the field so far through two games, with five different players shooting under 35.0 percent so far this season, including four of the five Tiger starters. Savannah Ellis is the lone Tiger starter to shoot over 35 percent, shooting 46.2 percent through two games. But Ellis has had her struggles from the free-throw line, shooting 28.6 percent on seven attempts.

A Busy Week
In just one seven-day stretch, the Memphis women's basketball team will have three games under their belt, including back-to-back WNIT teams from last season and a road game at Big 12 member Missouri on Wednesday. The three games were all played in six days, five actual practice days since Monday is the team's traditional day off.

Sluggish Starts Costing Memphis
The Tigers are just 14 points away from a 2-0 record right now, having lost by four to Indiana on Friday night and by 10 to Murray State, Sunday. With 10 different players having scored already this season, those 14 points are there, but in both games, the Tigers spotted their opponents a 14-point first half lead and spent most of the remainder of the opening half trying to close the gap before halftime. Memphis out-scored Indiana, 37-35, in the second half on Friday, and was out-scored by just two, 35-33, by Murray State in the second stanza on Sunday. If the Tigers can stop digging such a deep hole early on, they will be better positioned for a mark in the win column.

Ellis To Top Five in Blocked Shots Junior center Savannah Ellis leapfrogged all the way to the career top five in blocked shot with her pair of blocks against Murray State. She is now fifth with 58 blocks, but will have a ways to go before she moves any higher on the charts. Damita Shazier (1987-89) is fourth with 72 blocks, 14 away from Ellis' mark.

Carter Notches First Career Double-Double
Sophomore guard Brittany Carter notched her first career double-double on Sunday, finishing with 13 points and 11 rebounds. She is averaging 16.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game through her first two Tiger career contests.

An Offensive Start to the Season
For just the 15th and 16th times in Memphis history, a Tiger scored 20 or more points in the season opener when Brittany Carter and Nicole Dickson scored 20 against Indiana Friday night.

That marked just the third time in school history that two Tigers have scored 20 or morepoints in season openers:

		Nov. 19, 1979	Betty Booker (25) vs. UT Martin
		Nov. 24, 1980	Kim Duppins (22) at Vanderbilt
		Nov. 23, 1981	Kim Duppins (22) vs. UT Martin
		Nov. 27, 1983	Vera Webb (23) vs. Eastern Illinois
		Nov. 26, 1990	Audrey Covington (22) vs. Lamar
		Dec. 1, 1993	Keeta Matthews (21) vs. UT Martin
		Nov. 26, 1994	Kitty Allen (22) &
				Keeta Matthews (23) at Tennessee
		Nov. 15, 1995	LaTonya Johnson (23) &
				Keeta Matthews (20) at Drake
		Nov. 18, 1997	LaTonya Johnson at SIU-Carbondale (27)
		Nov. 19, 1998	Kelly Herron (20) vs. Ole Miss
		Nov. 16, 2001	Shannon Hamp (21) at Nevada
		Nov. 21, 2003	Victoria Crawford (23) vs. Maryland-Eastern Shore
		Nov. 13, 2009	Brittany Carter (20) &
				Nicole Dickson (20) vs Indiana				

What Freshman Nerves?
Freshman Nicole Dickson's 20 point night on Friday against Indiana marked the first time ever that a Tiger freshman scored 20 points in her first collegiate game. Dickson was 7-for-14 from the field, 1-for-2 from three-point range and 5-for-5 from the free-throw line, finishing with 20 points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal in 27 minutes off the bench.

If that wasn't impressive enough, Dickson had her big game despite not playing in the exhibition game last week. She suffered a concussion and missed the exhibition game, but came out rock solid against Indiana in the opener.

Against Murray State, Dickson found life a little more difficult once she was on the scouting report, finishing with six points and five rebounds in 24 minutes.