December 11, 2024
The Weekly Fast Break: Say your piece
High on Rocky Top, triple-doubles and Iowa hoops
For over 20 years, there have been more debates than could ever be counted concerning how a national champion would be crowned in Division I college football. Unlike their friends in college basketball (at all levels), the gridiron gang has made it much more difficult. There were metrics used at one point with the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) that began in 1998, but we still had historic and premier bowl games staking their claim, driven by poll voters. Then the College Football Playoff (CFP) debuted with four teams and rotating bowl hosts, adding to the confusion of who got in and why. Fast forward to 2024, and we have a 12-team playoff with the debut of a small, but mighty bracket on Dec. 8.
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The problem we see here at The Weekly Fast Break is not the concept of the 12-team playoff. We would love more teams added to the mix in the future — let us remember that we in college basketball cannot get enough of our 68-team tournament field. The root of the problem is the selection of the teams into the CFP. While we have debated how metrics and human eye tests square together to select the NCAA Tournament bracket, there are guidelines and numbers to drive the process. So, while fans of certain schools in certain Power 4 conferences are furious their teams did not get into the 12-team playoff, what is the basis of that fury? A win-loss record? Strength of schedule? Strength of conference? How badly you won or lost games? With no metrics to guide the process, is the eye test the only thing separating one from another?
Ultimately, fans are speaking their piece, shouting on message boards and ranting on call-in radio shows that they think their team is better, no matter what. Our motto this season, spoken by the great, late Pat Summit of “offense sells tickets; defense wins games; and rebounding wins championships,” is the perfect response. College football, our idea is this: get yourself a metric formula that measures how you do against your opponents, factors in where you played and ranks your wins and losses in categories for the world to see. And when it is all said and done, there is one basic thing that really does help — win games.
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ROCKY TOP on Blast
When the coaching change was made last spring in Knoxville, there was a good amount of skepticism on whether Kim Caldwell was the right fit for Tennessee. The 36-year-old took over the Lady Vols program after just one season as head coach at Marshall and seven at D-II Glenville State.
Caldwell and crew are off to a 7-0 start and have vaulted into the AP Top 25 this week with everyone taking notice and the skepticism waning. Caldwell’s system is fast and furious — pressing full court for 40 minutes, creating chaos and making teams incredibly uncomfortable. They are second in the nation in turnovers forced (28.2) and steals (16.6) per game and are holding teams to 66.6 points per game.
No player on the Tennessee roster is averaging over 30 minutes per game right now, as Caldwell will substitute generously and sometimes even five for five to keep players fresh. Three players are averaging double figures with redshirt-sophomore Talaysia Cooper leading the way at 20.1 points per game.
After defeating (R/V) Florida State at home on Dec. 4 and now No. 21 Iowa on a neutral site on Dec. 7, the Lady Vols were named one of two United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Teams of the Week. If you do not prepare for the Lady Vols’ full-court pressure, it can be a long day. Just ask Iowa — the Hawkeyes had 30 turnovers against Tennessee.
Breaking Records at Big 12 Rates
A wise person once said that records were made to be broken. Some of those records, however, are much harder to break than others. The numbers stand for years and years, with some getting close but never able to overtake the top spot. Last week, two of the Big 12’s very best players in recent years broke significant school records and it will be sometime before those milestones are touched again.
6’6 All-American center Ayoka Lee of K-State became the program’s all-time leading scorer on Dec. 3. The graduate student from Byron, Minn. set the record of 2,336 points on a layup in the third quarter of the Wildcats’ 90-43 win over Eastern Illinois. Lee surpassed fellow K-State All-American Kendra Wecker (2001-05), who held the mark for 19 years, to set the record. Lee became the fifth player since 1980 to hold the K-State career scoring record and now ranks 10th in career scoring for Big 12 history. She also owns the career-records for rebounding and double-doubles at K-State.
Baylor’s Sarah Andrews cemented her name in the history books in Waco by setting the career mark for made 3-point shots, breaking a record owned since 2014 by former Baylor All-American guard Odyssey Sims. Andrews, a graduate student from Irving, Texas, hit her 259th triple on Dec. 1 in Baylor’s 94-58 win over Louisiana Tech. Andrews is a career 36% 3-point shooter, and after starting just one game her first year at Baylor, she’s started all but two contests in the last four seasons. Her current total of 3-point shots made is at 267 and rising.
Poll Watch
Four out of the top 10 spots in this week’s AP Top 25 poll remain unchanged, but there was a wave of movement on many fronts. TCU fell out of the top 10 to No. 12 after its loss to No. 3 South Carolina. The biggest movers of the week are now No. 17 Michigan State and Tennessee, which vaults into the poll at No. 19. The Lady Vols have not been ranked in the Top 25 since Nov. 2023. Georgia Tech lands at No. 25, up one spot, and finds itself ranked for the first time since 2022. Three teams fell out of the poll, including Alabama, which suffered its first loss of the season to Cal, and Louisville, which has four losses to ranked teams. Three mid-majors received votes this week — South Dakota State (8), Richmond (8) and Harvard (3).
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STAR POWER
As we said last week, one of things that we hold true here at The Weekly Fast Break is that star power shines bright on triple-doubles, even if the player doesn’t capture weekly honors. K-State sits at No. 13 in the AP Poll, due in large part to the play of senior guard Serena Sundell through their first 11 games. The 6’1 native of Maryville, Mo. became just the fifth Wildcat to post a triple-double in program history and the first since 2009. Sundell had 26 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds against USC Upstate on Dec. 5 as the Wildcats routed the Spartans 110-24. Sundell went 9-of-14 from the field and 6-of-7 from the charity stripe. Her 13 assists were a career high and school record-tying total. Sundell came into this season with high expectations and is living up to them, finding herself on the 2024-25 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Women’s Player of the Year Watch List and the Nancy Lieberman Award Preseason Watch List, which is awarded to the nation’s top point guard.
The Big South Player of the Week went to Longwood sophomore guard Amor Harris after posting big numbers in three victories for the Lancers. Harris scored a career-high 23 points on 10-of-19 shooting, along with four rebounds, in her team’s 67-60 win over South Carolina State on Dec. 6. The following day, the Alexandria, Va. native had 12 points, four rebounds and two steals in the 53-44 win over William & Mary. Harris wrapped the weekend by posting 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting in an 81-54 victory over McNeese on Dec. 8. She was named the Shirley Duncan Classic Most Valuable Player, a tournament hosted by Longwood that honors the all-time winningest coach in program history, Shirley Duncan.
Oklahoma State sophomore guard Stailee Heard was named Big 12 Player of the Week after a pair of record-setting performances, including back-to-back double-doubles, that carried the Cowgirls to two lopsided wins. The 5’11 guard posted 29 points in OSU’s 93-39 victory over Houston Christian on Dec. 4, which included her making all seven of her attempts from beyond the arc for the best single-game 3-point percentage performance in school history. The 7-for-7 shooting from behind the arc tied for the second-best in Big 12 history, behind only Stacy Frese of Iowa State, who went 8-for-8 in 1999. Heard also grabbed 10 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. On Dec. 6, the Sapulpa, Okla. native had her first career 30-point game with 32, going 11-of-18 from the field in the 125-49 win over Alabama State. She knocked down eight of her 11 3-point attempts along with 10 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season.
Duke’s Toby Fournier was named the ACC’s Freshman of the Week after delivering a huge performance in her first ACC conference game against Virginia Tech on Dec. 8. Fournier logged 24 minutes off the bench and ended the game with a near double-double, pouring in a career-best 27 points on 12-of-17 from the field while matching a career high on the glass with nine boards. It was her seventh double-figure game of the season and the second 20-point game of her young career. The Blue Devils handled the Hokies 81-59 at Cameron Indoor. This is the 6’2 forward’s second league honor in three weeks, having also earned the nod on Nov. 25.
FILM SESSION
We have decided that this week’s film session is not about X’s and O’s necessarily on the floor, but what we find to be an intriguing tradition within women’s basketball in the state of Iowa. For decades, the four Division I programs in the state have agreed to play each other every year — Iowa, Iowa State, Northern Iowa (UNI) and Drake. This means that for Iowa and Iowa State, they have three non-conference games locked into their schedule every season. UNI and Drake are both members of the Missouri Valley Conference, therefore they take the two non-conference games on their schedule each year and then battle each other home-and-home during MVC play.
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The overwhelming consensus has always been that this is good for women’s basketball in the state of Iowa and that always proves to be true with great attendance, exciting games, high interest in girls’ basketball at young ages across the state and school pride spilling over throughout the season. But these coaches also know that their other competitors might be playing easier opponents on the nights they square off with in-state rivals. Case in point, Iowa State, then No. 8 team in the nation, lost at UNI on Nov. 20 87-75. Cyclone head coach Bill Fennelly did not mince words afterwards, understanding the stakes of these games.
“We could have played a little bit better. We’re playing a good team on the road,” he said. “Like I’ve said forever, these in-state games are really hard, that’s why the men don’t play them, and we do. And like I said before the game, this is ridiculously stupid scheduling on my part to play this game. But we want to do it. We think it’s good for basketball in our state.”
No, the men’s teams in the state do not schedule these games by choice, so while it can take a toll on a team’s win-loss record, the history and competition of these matchups is what makes it unique to women’s basketball. Here is a breakdown of the rest of the matchups:
Nov 17 – Iowa 86, Drake 73 at Drake
Nov. 24 – Iowa State 80, Drake 78 at ISU
Dec. 11 – Iowa State at Iowa
Dec. 20 – UNI at Iowa
Feb. 1, 2025 – UNI at Drake
Mar. 1, 2025 – Drake at UNI
And if you did not think rivalries run deep, Iowa leads the Cy-Hawk Series all time 31-23 going into the Dec. 11 match up in Iowa City.
FULL COURT PRESS
If you are still quietly or loudly sulking about your favorite team’s post-season football plans, just remember that it is finals week on most campuses across the country. Students are pulling all-nighters, living on Starbucks and chips and praying the wireless internet does not go out in their apartment complex before they hit ‘save’ on their final project. While games are a bit light during the week, things ramp up this weekend, so grab your own coffee and settle in (check your local listings for game times and broadcast availability):
Dec. 11
UL-Monroe at No. 25 Georgia Tech
Wisconsin at Butler
R/V Texas Tech at SMU
No. 18 Iowa State at No. 21 Iowa
Dec. 12
No. 2 UConn at No. 8 Notre Dame
North Dakota at Drake
Bradley at R/V Illinois
Dec. 13
BYU at Washington State
R/V Stanford at R/V Cal
Dec. 14
No. 13 K-State vs. Middle Tennessee (St. Joseph, MO)
Belmont at Mississippi State
Evansville at R/V Vanderbilt
No. 16 Kentucky at Purdue
R/V Utah at Washington
Dec. 15
No. 21 Iowa at No. 17 Michigan State
No. 22 NC State vs. R/V Louisville
Chattanooga at No. 24 Nebraska
No. 25 Georgia Tech at No. 14 UNC
Fairfield at St. John’s
Oral Roberts at No. 10 Oklahoma
R/V Texas Tech at Arkansas
Penn State at Kansas
Dec. 16
Missouri State at SEMO
UTSA at R/V Stanford
UTEP at Colorado State
Dec. 17
Marist at Holy Cross
Wyoming at R/V Creighton
Purdue at Miami (OH)
No. 18 Iowa State vs. No. 2 UConn (Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, CT)
No. 10 Oklahoma vs. No. 20 Michigan (Jumpman Invitational, Charlotte, NC)
*All statistics cited in this column are sourced from university and conference provided statistics
Written by Missy Heidrick
I am a retired Kansas State shooting guard and spent almost 20 years working in Higher Education and Division 1 athletics. I am currently a basketball analyst for television and radio, contributing correspondent at The Next, Locked on Women's Basketball podcast host, WBB Naismith Award board of selectors member and run my own consulting business. I am a proud mother of two and wife to a patient husband who is almost as big of a sports junkie as I am!