Lady Frogs open season Thursday with exhibition
10/31/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Oct. 31, 2007
Complete Release in PDF Format
Admission to the game is free to all fans looking to get a sneak peek at the latest edition of the Lady Frogs. For those fans unable to attend, live stats will be offerred on the Internet at GoFrogs.com. Radio will not be available during this week's contest, but coverage will return during the regular season once again on 88.7 KTCU-FM.
The Frogs bring a 7-0 record during exhibition games since 2000 into Thursday's contest. Among the wins was a 76-70 victory last season over The All-Stars, who were previously sponsored by Lake Truck Lines.
The squad returns eight letterwinners and three starters from last year's team that posted a 21-11 overall record and tied for second in the Mountain West Conference with a 11-5 mark. The Frogs were awarded with their seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament bid, continuing one of the nation's longest current streaks. They went on to drop an 88-74 decision to Ole Miss in the first round as the No. 10 seed of the Dayton Regional in Hartford, Conn.
TCU Earns Votes in Initial Coaches' Poll
TCU was among a group of 59 teams to receive votes in the first release of the 2007-08 USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll on Wednesday. The Lady Frogs collected seven points to tie for 43rd with Marist, Montana, Nebraska and Temple. TCU finished last season unranked in the poll while not receiving a vote.
This season's schedule already is shaping up to be another challenging one for the Lady Frogs, as two squads ranked in the top 14--No. 11 Texas A&M and No. 14 California--highlight the lineup. Five additional opponents--Wyoming, BYU, Oklahoma State, New Mexico and Utah--are currently among those teams receiving votes in the coaches' poll.
Ross Leads Preseason All-MWC Selections
TCU landed in second place on the annual preseason Mountain West Conference Poll released on Oct. 17, trailing only 2006-07 WNIT champion Wyoming. The Lady Frogs garnered two first-place votes and 188 points overall, while the Cowgirls were the league's overwhelming favorite with 24 of a possible 30 first-place tallies. The poll compiled from a voting panel consisting of the nine head coaches and select women's basketball media.
Adrianne Ross, the returning co-Mountain West Conference MVP, was chosen by the panel as Top Returning Player in addition to appearing on the Preseason All-Conference Team. A Hobbs, N.M., native, Ross won the MWC scoring title a year ago at 17.3 points per game in addition to leading the league in steals at 2.9 per game.
Five seniors return to lead TCU
An experienced core of players returns for TCU this season led by five seniors: Lorie Butler-Rayford, Moneka Knight, Jenna Lohse, Helen Roden and Adrianne Ross.
Ross shared Mountain West Conference Player of the Year honors a year ago with BYU's Dani Wright after winning the league scoring title with a 17.3-point per game average. A 5-8 guard out of Hobbs, N.M., Ross enters her fifth season at TCU as one of only nine 1,000-point scorers in school history. She currently ranks fifth with 1,226 points. She also ranks second in career steals, and trails No. 1 Rachel Hesse by only 33 with 251 career thefts.
Butler-Rayford is coming off another solid campaign that saw her lead TCU in rebounding average last season with 7.1 boards per game. The 5-11 Butler Rayford joined the Lady Frogs 500-rebound club as a junior and owns 750 career boards. She averaged 7.0 points per game a year ago while making 22 starts at the forward position.
Roden and Knight give TCU a terrific 1-2 punch at the point in 2007-08. The pair combined for 163 assists last season, when they shared duties at point guard. Knight's 243 career assists rank ninth all-time among Lady Frogs.
Lohse will provide leadership and experience for a TCU squad looking to improve its scoring punch in the paint this season. A Fort Worth native, Lohse appeared in 28 games (eight starts) a year ago and averaged 3.4 points and 3.3 boards per contest. She owns 4.0 point and 3.0 rebound averages through her first three seasons with TCU.
Frogs Look to Continue NCAA Streak
Since Head Coach Jeff Mittie arrived in Fort Worth in 1999, the Lady Frogs have transformed into one of the nation's most consistent winners highlighted by a streak of seven consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
While TCU totaled only one winning season in 17 years prior to Mittie's arrival, the squad has since posted a 173-83 record and ranks tied for 26th among all Division I programs in wins over the past seven years.
The program is one of only 12 squads in Division I with at least seven straight Tournament bids. Five times the squad has advanced through to the second round, including four straight years from 2001 to 2004.
Eight Games Slated for TV Coverage
Highlighting TCU's 2007-08 schedule is a collection of at least eight games that have been selected for television broadcast. Included in the group are two matchups that will be seen nationally on CSTV as part of the Mountain West Conference's agreement with the network.
The Lady Frogs' Jan. 29 matchup at UNLV and March 8 showdown at BYU both will appear on CSTV, while additional road contests at Wyoming (Jan. 12) and New Mexico (Jan. 15) will be televised by The Mtn. in select regional markets. Three other home games will also appear on The Mtn.--Dec. 2 vs. Texas A&M, Feb. 5 vs. BYU and Feb. 17 vs. New Mexico.
TCU's lone non-tournament non-conference game scheduled for outside the state of Texas, Dec. 16 at Florida, will be televised by Sun Sports, a FSN affiliate in Florida.
Home Cooking
TCU set a school record in 2007-08 with 15 home wins. The previous record was 14 wins during the 2003-04 season. TCU also set a school record with a 93.7 percent winning percentage at home by winning 15 of 16 home games, including a school-record 14 straight games to open the season.
Counting the 2005-06 season, TCU put together a 19-game home win streak, which was the sixth-longest in the nation, prior to dropping a 61-50 decision to Wyoming on Feb. 22. The Lady Frogs own a 93-21 (.816) home record since Jeff Mittie's arrival on campus prior to the 1999-200 season.
