WBB Offseason

[Lord Elrond]

39 minutes ago, Speyburn said:

It looks like 12/7 and 12/17 are also double headers.

They’ve had men’s and women’s games scheduled for the same day in years past, but they’ve done it by scheduling one in the afternoon and one in the evening, and clearing out the crowd who had tickets for the first game completely from the first game, then letting in only people who had tickets for the second game. Those were not doubleheaders. The doubleheader implies one ticket gets you in to both games, and there’s only about 30 minutes between games. It’s what they do at Lindenwood for OVC games, women play at 5pm on Thursday night, men play at 7:30pm (if the women’s game runs long, they push out the start time to give time for teams to warm up), and one ticket gets you both games. I’m sure there will be more communication on this as the games get closer.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

Kyla McMakin in as assistant coach

[courtside]

 

[brianstl]

1 hour ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Kyla McMakin in as assistant coach

So a 24 year old gets a D1 full assistant position with no coaching experience, no time as a grad assistant and no time as a DBO/video coordinator/recruiting coordinator?

[Pistol]

14 minutes ago, brianstl said:

So a 24 year old gets a D1 full assistant position with no coaching experience, no time as a grad assistant and no time as a DBO/video coordinator/recruiting coordinator?

In 2023, the NCAA approved a rule change allowing 5 recruiting assistant coaches per staff from 3. I believe that programs are still limited to 3 recruiting off campus, but they can now designate 5 recruiting assistants. Given that rule change, there is now room for teams to have some younger assistants, some of whom carry other titles.

Tillett has one Associate Head Coach and 4 additional Assistant Coaches. One of the ACs is also the DBO and another is the Recruiting Coordinator. McMakin is listed as the fifth AC.

[Lord Elrond]

3 minutes ago, Pistol said:

In 2023, the NCAA approved a rule change allowing 5 recruiting assistant coaches per staff from 3. I believe that programs are still limited to 3 recruiting off campus, but they can now designate 5 recruiting assistants. Given that rule change, there is now room for teams to have some younger assistants, some of whom carry other titles.

Tillett has one Associate Head Coach and 4 additional Assistant Coaches. One of the ACs is also the DBO and another is the Recruiting Coordinator. McMakin is listed as the fifth AC.

She got Tillett into two NCAA tournaments with 2 different teams, I don’t find it that hard to believe Tillett decides to return that with a hand in getting McMakin’s coaching career started. We really didn’t need another assistant coach, so she gets a chance to learn. If I were McMakin, I’d stick to Frozena Jerro like glue and soak up as much info from her as I could.

Nice pickup for next year’s recruiting class with Evelyn Shane from Ursuline Academy. She is the leading scorer for Ursuline with an entire senior year to go. Between her and Peyton Olufson, next years recruiting class is looking good.  Hopefully with Korkenmeier, Wallace, Bergstrom, the nucleus of a good team is being assembled. Just got to get through this year first.

[Pistol]

18 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

She got Tillett into two NCAA tournaments with 2 different teams, I don’t find it that hard to believe Tillett decides to return that with a hand in getting McMakin’s coaching career started. We really didn’t need another assistant coach, so she gets a chance to learn. If I were McMakin, I’d stick to Frozena Jerro like glue and soak up as much info from her as I could.

Nice pickup for next year’s recruiting class with Evelyn Shane from Ursuline Academy. She is the leading scorer for Ursuline with an entire senior year to go. Between her and Peyton Olufson, next years recruiting class is looking good.  Hopefully with Korkenmeier, Wallace, Bergstrom, the nucleus of a good team is being assembled. Just got to get through this year first.

This might be a bigger challenge than we realize.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

9 hours ago, Pistol said:

This might be a bigger challenge than we realize.

Yeah, this off-season and the non-conference schedule still don't inspire much confidence from me.

[Lord Elrond]

53 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Yeah, this off-season and the non-conference schedule still don't inspire much confidence from me.

I think it’s going to be very rough at best.  My expectations for this season are pretty low.  I think it’s something that must be endured to get to better times.  No one would be happier than me to be proven wrong about this year, but that’s up to the team at this point.

[CenHudDude]

20 hours ago, Lord Elrond said:

She got Tillett into two NCAA tournaments with 2 different teams, I don’t find it that hard to believe Tillett decides to return that with a hand in getting McMakin’s coaching career started. We really didn’t need another assistant coach, so she gets a chance to learn. If I were McMakin, I’d stick to Frozena Jerro like glue and soak up as much info from her as I could.

Nice pickup for next year’s recruiting class with Evelyn Shane from Ursuline Academy. She is the leading scorer for Ursuline with an entire senior year to go. Between her and Peyton Olufson, next years recruiting class is looking good.  Hopefully with Korkenmeier, Wallace, Bergstrom, the nucleus of a good team is being assembled. Just got to get through this year first.

I noticed that Evelyn Shane thanked Coach Travis, amongst a multitude of others, for getting her to this point in her life.

[Lord Elrond]

Not announced on the SLU athletic department website, but posted on the tournament organizers site is info on our opponents for the Music City Classic in Nashville. According to them, we got a game vs SMU on Tuesday Nov 25th at 1:15pm, then a game vs Stetson on Wednesday Nov 26th at 11:00am. Not sure how set these are in stone, but the event is only 2 months away.  It’s advertised as being on BallerTV, whatever the heck that streaming service is.  

https://www.coast2coastwbb.com/page/show/8731314-music-city-classic

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

8 hours ago, Lord Elrond said:

Not announced on the SLU athletic department website, but posted on the tournament organizers site is info on our opponents for the Music City Classic in Nashville. According to them, we got a game vs SMU on Tuesday Nov 25th at 1:15pm, then a game vs Stetson on Wednesday Nov 26th at 11:00am. Not sure how set these are in stone, but the event is only 2 months away.  It’s advertised as being on BallerTV, whatever the heck that streaming service is.  

https://www.coast2coastwbb.com/page/show/8731314-music-city-classic

How do they not put that on the AD website??? That seems like important information lol.

[Lord Elrond]

4 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

How do they not put that on the AD website??? That seems like important information lol.

No idea. The women’s schedule just says TBA for both games, so I did a google search on the tournament and found the info.

https://slubillikens.com/sports/womens-basketball/schedule

 

[Lord Elrond]

8 hours ago, Lord Elrond said:

No idea. The women’s schedule just says TBA for both games, so I did a google search on the tournament and found the info.

https://slubillikens.com/sports/womens-basketball/schedule

 

Ok, so now the women’s basketball schedule has been updated to show the games against SMU and Stetson in the Music City Classic. Either a huge coincidence, or someone in the Athletic Department does read this message board.

https://slubillikens.com/sports/womens-basketball/schedule

[RiseOfTheBillikens]

Just now, Lord Elrond said:

Ok, so now the women’s basketball schedule has been updated to show the games against SMU and Stetson in the Music City Classic. Either a huge coincidence, or someone in the Athletic Department does read this message board.

https://slubillikens.com/sports/womens-basketball/schedule

They definitely know about it. You should charge them.

[Lord Elrond]

18 minutes ago, RiseOfTheBillikens said:

They definitely know about it. You should charge them.

I’m shocked to learn that they read this board.  Who knew?

[Lord Elrond]

A10 preseason poll is out, SLU is ranked 9th.  Alexia Nelson is the only individual on any preseason team, she was selected to the 3rd team despite not playing last year. Richmond is the favorite.

https://atlantic10.com/documents/2025/9/29//2025_26_WBB_Preseason_Poll_Awards.pdf

[Pistol]

11 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

A10 preseason poll is out, SLU is ranked 9th.  Alexia Nelson is the only individual on any preseason team, she was selected to the 3rd team despite not playing last year. Richmond is the favorite.

https://atlantic10.com/documents/2025/9/29//2025_26_WBB_Preseason_Poll_Awards.pdf

The inclusion of Nelson is surprising to me. I guess they looked at our roster and were like "The points have to come from someone."

9th also seems high.

I hope I'm wrong.

[OkieBilliken]

If we finish 9th with this squad, Tillett is the COY.   

[Lord Elrond]

9th seems wildly, utterly optimistic to me.  I would love to be proven wrong,  my own guess was that we would be 13th or 14th.

[OkieBilliken]

Brooklyn Gray representing Rhode Island at Media Day.  She will score a lot of points from them if she stays healthy.  Maybe they can teach her to play defense.  

[CenHudDude]

2 hours ago, OkieBilliken said:

Brooklyn Gray representing Rhode Island at Media Day.  She will score a lot of points from them if she stays healthy.  Maybe they can teach her to play defense.  

If anyone can do it, Tammi Reiss will.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

Richmond ranked in preseason top 25

 

I have a bad feeling about this season if Richmond is this high up already.

Edited October 14 by BrettJollyComedyHour

[Pistol]

Richmond was excellent last season and brings a lot of those players back. It makes sense.

Mason and Davidson will also be very good. Rhody should be better this season. It gets pretty questionable beyond the top 4, though (and arguably outside the top 3, as URI still has a lot to prove under Reiss).

[Lord Elrond]

6 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Richmond was excellent last season and brings a lot of those players back. It makes sense.

Mason and Davidson will also be very good. Rhody should be better this season. It gets pretty questionable beyond the top 4, though (and arguably outside the top 3, as URI still has a lot to prove under Reiss).

Totally agree, Richmond was 28-7 last year, was a #8 seed in the tournament, beat #9 Georgia Tech in round 1 74-49, but then lost to #1 seed in the west UCLA, who went on to the final four. They brought back a lot of players from last year.  I have to agree they are the #1 in the A10 until someone knocks them off. GM, Davidson, and Rhodey also look good, but Richmond deserves #1 in the A10 until someone knocks them off.