Lady Frogs could go far
COMMENTARY
Braden Howell

With a preseason top 25 ranking, last year’s women’s basketball team was out to prove they belonged in the upper echelon of programs in the country. What followed was a sputtering start to the season that included blowout losses to Purdue, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Texas, and a quick fall from the top 25 ranks.

With another preseason top 25 ranking this year, if the Lady Frogs want to make a statement, it will have to come against some of the nation’s best teams.

Warming up for conference play should not be a problem for the Lady Frogs. Before they play their first C-USA game Jan. 19 against St. Louis, they will have played five teams that went to last year’s NCAA tournament, including a home game against last year’s runner up, Tennessee.

The five schools, BYU, Arkansas, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Rutgers and Tennessee, had a combined record of 123-40 last season. It is outlandish to expect the Lady Frogs to cruise through those games without a loss, but if they don’t win at least two or three of those games, their statement to the country will not echo much further than the outskirts of Cowtown.

The Lady Frogs most difficult non-conference stretch starts just two weeks into the season when they play three consecutive games against Arkansas, Wisconsin-Green Bay, and Rutgers, all of whom made it to the NCAA tournament last season. Those three teams had a combined record of 71-23 last season.

The Lady Frogs then get a short break before they take on perennial powerhouse Tennessee at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, Jan. 2. The Lady Frogs could shout their arrival into basketball prominence with a victory over the Lady Volunteers, who won a heartbreaker over the Frogs in Knoxville last season.

If the Lady Frogs are warmed up after playing a viscous non-conference schedule, they will welcome C-USA play with open arms. However, if they are worn out, they may want to run and hide because the C-USA schedule is only slightly less forgiving than the non-conference portion of the schedule.

The Lady Frogs C-USA opponents had a combined record of 202-167 last season; however, more than half of those losses (87) came from just five schools: Memphis, South Florida, Southern Miss, East Carolina and UAB.

Three of the Lady Frogs C-USA opponents made it to the NCAA tournament last season. They will find little relief against Houston, who has one of the nation’s best players in Chandi Jones. The Lady Frogs will face the Cougars twice, including their last game of the regular season, in Houston.

In total, the Lady Frogs play nine teams who went to the NCAA Tournament last season. Two teams, Rutgers and Tennessee, are ranked in the Top 25 in both the Coaches’ poll and the Associated Press poll to start the year, and eight other teams received votes in at least one of the major polls.

Unlike their peers on the football team, the Lady Frogs have a schedule that could work to their benefit. No one is asking them to go undefeated, but if they have a successful campaign with this imposing schedule, they deserve to be considered among the top programs in the country.

To be considered one of the nation’s best, however, you must beat the nation’s best.