Green Bay Phoenix
Overall Rank: #22
Conference Rank: #1 Horizon League
Green Bay Team Page
The second stint as head coach for Kevin Borseth with the Green Bay women’s basketball program has been a very nice one to date as the Phoenix won 28 games last season and another Horizon League Championship. Borseth was wildly successful with Green Bay in his first stint as head coach from 1998-2007 that laid the foundation for this nearly 15 year run of excellence for the Phoenix as a porgram.
2014-15 Record: 28-5, 15-1
2014-15 Postseason: NCAA
Coach: Kevin Borseth
Coach Record: 295-80 at Green Bay, 607-250 overall
Strengths:
Tesha Buck will be back to lead a very balanced offensive attack for Green Bay. Buck averaged 11.6 points per game and is an excellent all-around player as well. She was named the 2015 Horizon League Tournament MVP. Kaili Lukan joins Buck in the backcourt and her experience as a senior is going to be very valuable as the Phoenix will play a tough out of conference schedule once again. Mehryn Kraker is the leading returning scorer from last season averaging 12.5 points per game, while finishing second on the team with 4.9 rebounds per contest. As a whole Green Bay should be excellent once again defensively as opposing teams only scored 56.1 points per game and had to work for everything they got shooting the basketball.
Weaknesses:
Rebounding is going to have to improve as the Phoenix paid the price for losing the rebounding battle in their NCAA Tournament loss to Princeton. The Tigers outrebounded Green Bay 49-22, which negated the 22-6 advantage that the Phoenix had in the points off of turnovers battle. Junior center Lexi Weitzer and redshirt junior forward/center Mariah Monke will be relied upon a great deal to take care of business down in in the post to limit opposing teams second shot opportunities. In addition, if Green Bay can bump up their free throw shooting percentage and three-point shooting percentage that will take the pressure off of them defensively.
Final Projection:
Marquette and Vanderbilt visit the Kress Center in the first two games of the season to provide an excellent opportunity for the Phoenix to make a statement nationally. After that, a trip to the Paradise Jam awaits down in the Bahamas with games against Virginia, Tulane and Rutgers. These are three teams that Green Bay is highly capable of beating if they execute at both ends of the court. On December 30th, Dayton visits the Kress Center in what could very well be one of the better non-conference games in all of women’s college basketball this season. During conference play, a visit from Oakland on January 28th will be a chance for the Phoenix to atone for their only home loss of the 2014-15 season when they were upset by the Golden Grizzlies 70-67. In the end look for Green Bay to take care of business enough in the non-conference portion of its schedule to put themselves in a position to get a single-digit seeding in the NCAA Tournament.
Projected Postseason Tournament: NCAA
Projected Starting Five:
Tesha Buck, Junior, Guard, 11.6 points per game
Kaili Lukan, Senior, Guard, 9.6 points per game
Allie LeClaire, Sophomore, Guard, 7.3 points per game
Mehryn Kraker, Redshirt Junior, Forward, 12.5 points per game
Lexi Weitzer, Junior, Center, 4.5 points per game
By the Numbers:
Scoring Offense: 69.2 (74th in nation, 3rd in conference)
Scoring Defense: 56.1 (23, 1)
Field-Goal Percentage: 43.4 (47, 1)
Field-Goal Defense: 36.1 (24, 1)
Three-Point Field Goals Per Game: 7.0 (50, 6)
Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage: 31.4 (164, 5)
Free-Throw Percentage: 69.8 (145, 4)
Rebound Margin: 1.2 (137, 4)
Assists Per Game: 16.5 (18, 1)
Turnovers Per Game: 13.5 (33, 3)
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