Women's hoops releases 2007-08 season schedule
9/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Sept. 4, 2007
FORT WORTH --- TCU Head Coach Jeff Mittie announced the details of his team's 2007-08 women's basketball schedule Tuesday. The Lady Frogs are guaranteed to play at least 32 games during the upcoming season, including 20 matchups against reigning postseason qualifiers.
Mittie's team boasts three returning senior starters from last year's 21-10 edition that tied for second in the Mountain West Conference while also earning a seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament bid: guard Adrianne Ross, who garnered honorable mention All-America honors from the Associated Press; forward Lorie Butler-Rayford; and guard Helen Roden.
"I think we have a good core group of players coming back," Mittie said. "This team should be further ahead than most teams entering the pre-season because of the amount of experience we have. Our expectations are high entering the preseason."
In addition to its always-demanding Mountain West Conference schedule, the squad will feature a challenging non-conference slate headlined by home games against 2007 NCAA Tournament qualifiers California (Nov. 23), Texas A&M (Dec. 2) and Oklahoma State (Dec. 18). The Aggies, who advanced further in the tournament than any other TCU opponent, reached the second round last March before falling to George Washington, while both the Cowgirls and Golden Bears fell during first-round matchups.
Fresno State and 2007 MEAC champion Coppin State also are scheduled to appear at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum during the upcoming season on Dec Nov. 28 and Dec. 8, respectively.
Following a home exhibition game against Lake Truck Lines on Thursday, Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m., the Lady Frogs open the regular season on Friday, Nov. 9, at home with a Preseason WNIT first-round matchup with Radford. Each Preseason WNIT squad is guaranteed a minimum of three games during the tournament, which runs through Nov. 18.
"It's great to be selected for the Preseason WNIT," Mittie said. "The tournament gives our team an opportunity to play some great competition earlier in the season than most other teams. Every game in that tournament will be against a team that is coming off a great year and has a good portion of that talent back."
TCU will only be forced to leave the state of Texas once during the first two months of the season, for a Dec. 16 matchup with Florida in Gainesville. The Frogs defeated the Gators last season, 83-72, in Fort Worth. The squad's other three non-conference road trips will be to face SMU on Nov. 20, Rice on Dec. 6 and Houston on Dec. 21.
"We put our non-conference schedule together every year with two things in mind. First, the schedule must put our team in a position to provide us with the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament at the end of the year, and secondly, it must give our fans the chance to see some great teams from across the nation here on campus. This year's schedule meets each of those demands."
TCU's quest to return to the top of the Mountain West Conference standings begins Jan. 9 at home against San Diego State. The conference featured five postseason qualifiers overall in 2006-07, including NCAA Tournament teams TCU, BYU and New Mexico. The Lady Frogs conclude their league slate on the road March 8 at defending champion BYU.
"This should be an up year for the league," Mittie said. "Most of the Mountain West teams return a good portion of their squads, and there are several programs that seem to be elevating themselves to where we could have several contenders for the conference championship this season."
The annual Mountain West Conference Championship returns to Las Vegas, Nev., March 11-14, while the NCAA Tournament First and Second Rounds will be held March 22-25 at eight predetermined sites. The NCAA Regionals follow March 29-April 1 before the 2008 NCAA Final Four is held at the St. Pete Times Forum April 6 and 8 in Tampa, Fla.
At least seven TCU games from the upcoming season have been scheduled to appear on television, including a pair of national telecasts on CSTV (Jan. 29 at UNLV; March 8 at BYU). Five additional games will be broadcast on The mtn. cable network: Dec 2 vs. Texas A&M; Jan. 12 at Wyoming; Jan. 12 at New Mexico; Feb. 5 vs. BYU; and Feb. 17 vs. New Mexico.
In addition to the extensive television coverage, each of the Lady Frogs' games will be broadcast live over the radio waves in the DFW Metroplex on KTCU 88.7 FM, as well as on TCU's official athletics web site, www.gofrogs.com. Veteran radio play-by-play announcer Jeff Williams and color commentator Marcy Girton will once again call the action this season.
