Dickson currently is tied for first in the NCAA with seven double-doubles on the season. Sacramento State's Kylie Kuhns is the only other player in the country with seven double-doubles in the NCAA's second national rankings that came out on Monday.
Dickson's sixth straight games with double-digit rebounds (vs. Tenn. State) also broke the school record of five straight games with double-digit rebounds held by Tamika Whitmore (1/8/98-1/23/98).
Carter Moves to Sixteenth All-Time
Senior guard Brittany Carter had a season-best 27 points in the win over UT Martin on Sunday. That pushed her to 1,197 career points (just three shy of the 1,200 point mark) and moved her to 16th on the Memphis career scoring list. She needs 102 more points to move in to the top 15. Victoria Crawford (2002-05) is currently 15th on the list with 1,299 points.
Night of Career Highs
Sunday's win over UT Martin came on the strength of a number of career high performances. Brittany Carter broke her personal steals mark that she just set on Thursday with nine steals. Freshman Ann Jones came off the bench to score a career-best nine points. Senior guard Ramses Lonlack dished out a career-best six assists.
Dickson Moves in to Career Record Book
Junior forward Nicole Dickson hit two three-point field goals in the win over Texas-Arlington and that was enough to rock her past Jessica Hall (2004-05, 2007-08) in to 10th in all-time three-point field goals made with 66 threes. Heading in to the UALR game, Dickson needs one more triple to tie Lauren Jackson (1998-2002) for ninth all-time and two to tie Raven Rogers' (2001-05) mark of 72 all-time.
Fortieth Season
The is the 40th season that women's basketball has been a varsity sport at Memphis. It's been a bitter sweet celebration, as Elma Roane, the women's athletic director who returned women's sports to varsity status at the university, passed away in September at the age of 93. The Tigers entered the 2011-12 season just 20 wins away from the 700th win in program history. The program's current record heading in to the UALR game is 687-504.
In school history, 18 Tigers' teams have won 20 or more games. In the last 10 years, Memphis has just three 20-win seasons, but two of them are the back-to-back seasons under McFerrin.
Valuing the Basketball
Even as up-tempo as the Tigers like to play, Coach McFerrin will tell you we play up-tempo, but not out of control. The result is a team assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.18, which ranks 11th in the country. Point guard Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir ranks 19th in the country and fifth in Conference USA with a 2.8 assist-to-turnover ratio, while Ramses Lonlack (4th, 1.5) and Brittany Carter (5th, 1.4) also rank in the top five in Conference USA.
Back-to-Back 20-Point Outings
Senior Brittany Carter did something in the win over UT Martin that she hasn't done since her sophomore season. After a 23-point game against Tennessee State, she scored 27 points against UT Martin, her first back-to-back 20-point games since her sophomore season, when she accomplished the same feat two times -- once with back-to-back 20 plus point games vs. FIU (21) and South Alabama (20) and a back-to-back-to-back run against East Carolina (29), UMKC (22) and Wichita State (25). Carter has scored 20 or more points in three different games so far this season for Memphis.
Tigers Sweep C-USA Honors
After the wins over Tennessee State and UT Martin, the Tigers then swept the Conference USA weekly honors. Brittany Carter was named the C-USA Player of the Week, her second career weekly honor, while post Ann Jones was named the C-USA Freshman of the Week for a second time. Carter averaged 25.0 points, 7.5 steals, 2.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game, shooting 64.7 percent from the floor and 57.1 percent from three-point range. Jones averaged 8.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game, shooting 58.3 percent from the floor and posting a career-high nine points with five rebounds, including four offensive, in the win over UT Martin, a 2011 NCAA Tournament team. She has now scored 20 or more points 22 times as a Tiger.
Stop, Thief!
On Thursday night, Brittany Carter set a career-high with six steals in the win over Tennessee State. She broke that record just three days later, with nine steals in the win over UT Martin. That nine steals ranks fifth in the Memphis single game records. Carter now ranks second in Conference USA with 3.1 steals per game. A lot of those steals come courtesy of Conference USA all-defensive team honoree Ramses Lonlack's presence on the floor. Lonlack is such a defensive threat, that opponents are game planning around her player not handling the ball. Lonlack already has 251 career steals, sneaking up on the Memphis career top five, and has pressured passers to try to get rid of balls, opening up the passing lanes for both Carter and sophomore point guard Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir. Abdul-Qaadir ranks right behind Carter in the league steals standings, 3rd with 2.8 steals per game. Her quick hands already have 22 steals this season, just six fewer than she had in 34 games last season. She is already at the 50 career steals mark.
On Point
The question heading in to the 2011-12 season was who would replace graduated point guard Alex Winchell. Sophomore guard Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir played behind Winchell last year, and is now mentoring freshman guard Lauren McGraw. Abdul-Qaadir ranks second in the league with 4.9 assists per game, first in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.8) and third in steals (2.8). In just eight games this year, she has just one fewer assist than she had all of last year (40 last year, 39 so far this season). Last year, as a redshirt freshman, she was upside down in assist to turnover ratio (40 assists vs. 61 turnovers). This year, she has 39 assists against just 14 turnovers while averaging well over twice as many minutes as last year (26.9 minutes per game vs. 12.3 minutes per game last year).
The aforementioned McGraw and senior guard Danay Collier are playing a little out of position, but are backing Abdul-Qaadir up at the point. Collier has 16 assists and 13 turnovers and McGraw has 14 assists against 13 turnovers.
Lonlack Looking for 1,000 Points, 500 Rebounds, 250 Steals
Senior guard Ramses Lonlack is trying to become just the sixth player in Memphis women's basketball history to have over 1,000 career points, 500 rebounds and 250 steals. Lonlack already has the steals and rebounds marks passed (527 rebounds, 251 steals heading in to the UALR game) and is now just 43 points shy of her 1,000th career point. Only five other players in Memphis' 39-year-history have had 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 250 steals:
Betty Booker (1976-80): 2,835 points, 628 rebounds, 360 steals
Keeta Matthews (1992-96): 2,133 points, 926 rebounds, 282 steals
Linda McKinnie (1977-82): 2,000 points, 831 rebounds, 337 steals
Kim Duppins (1978-82): 1,835 points, 1,163 rebounds, 281 steals
Kitty Allen (1993-97): 1,823 points, 559 rebounds, 289 steals
Bench Responds in Win Over UT Martin
The Tiger bench is young, with three freshmen and a sophomore and senior who played sparingly last season. That group, along with senior guard Danay Collier, have had to get acclimated quickly to the college game as the Memphis bench was out-scored in five of the first seven games. The Memphis bench out-scored the UT Martin bench in the last game, 19-17. That marked just the third time this season that the Tigers' bench has out-scored the opposition, a trend Memphis will need to continue as we wind down the non-conference schedule and start league play. Part of that was the scoring of freshman post Ann Jones, who had a career-high nine points.
Carter Named to Women's Naismith Trophy Early Season Watch List
Senior guard Brittany Carter was the lone Conference USA player to be named to the Women's Naismith Trophy Early Season Watch List. Carter, one of 51 players on the list, becomes the first Tiger player under the guidance of Melissa McFerrin to earn a spot on the watch list. A two-time All-Conference USA first team honoree, Carter is also one of 30 candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. The senior was also named to the CollegeChalkTalk.com Worthy 20 preseason Wooden players list from George Rodecker.
Double-Doubles Racking Up
Memphis has already had 10 double-doubles on the season in the first eight games. Nicole Dickson had just one career double-double heading in to this season (she now has eight) and Jasmine Lee, who has three double-doubles already this year, has added to her eight double-doubles from last year (improving to 11 for her career). The Tigers as a team had just 12 double-doubles all last year. Prior to her double-double against Belmont, Dickson had not had a double-double since her freshman season (the UMKC game in the WBI tournament).
Memphis has had two players with a double-double in three games so far this season (Belmont, at Illinois, vs. UT Martin).
Double-Doubles
Nicole Dickson vs. Belmont (11/13/11), 10 points, 10 rebounds
Jasmine Lee vs. Belmont (11/13/11), 19 points, 12 rebounds
Nicole Dickson at Illinois (11/15/11), 10 points, 11 rebounds
Jasmine Lee at Illinois (11/15/11), 13 points, 12 rebounds
Nicole Dickson vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (11/19/11), 19 points, 10 rebounds
Nicole Dickson vs. Southeastern Louisiana (11/22/11), 11 points, 10 rebounds
Nicole Dickson vs. UT Arlington (11/27/11), 20 points, 11 rebounds
Nicole Dickson vs. Tennessee State (12/1/11), 15 points, 12 rebounds
Nicole Dickson vs. UT Martin (12/4/11), 11 points, 10 rebounds
Jasmine Lee vs. UT Martin (12/4/11), 18 points, 10 rebounds
Four Straight vs. 2011 NCAA Tournament Teams
The Tigers got off to a good start with the 90-69 win over UT Martin on a four-game stint made up of teams from the 2011 NCAA tournament. Memphis will continue that stretch with a road game at UALR, then following final exams, will play Louisiana Tech on the first day of the St. John's tournament. Depending on the Louisiana Tech result, Memphis will then face either host St. John's or Prairie View A&M on the second day of the tournament on Dec. 18th.
Three Televised Tigers Games This Year
Memphis will appear on television three times during the regular season. After the Tigers open their home stand against a tough Tulane squad, Memphis will fly to El Paso, Texas, for a televised game at currently-unbeaten UTEP on Jan. 8th. On Jan. 22nd, Memphis will play a road game at UAB that will also be televised. Memphis' lone televised regular season home game will be a Feb. 5th match-up with UCF at FedExForum. That game will be the back end of a double-header with the Tigers' men's basketball team. All three games will appear on Fox Sports Network. Check www.GoTigersGo.com for additional information as those dates get closer.
