WBB: Postseason Awards and Notes
The final regular season awards have been released, home teams dominated the final regular season, and more in this edition of the WAC Hoops Nation Women's Basketball Notebook
A very unique regular season has come and gone with CBU cutting down nets as regular season champion for the third time in Division I program history. On this Monday let’s take a look at the postseason awards, a postseason primer on the national women’s basketball postseason tournaments, the NCAA leaderboards and more in a pre-WACVegas notebook.
Postseason Awards:
Regular season champion CBU won four of the five yearly awards and took four of the 11 first or second team selections as the WAC released yearly awards on Tuesday evening.
Player of the Year» Payton Hull, ACU
Coach of the Year» Jarrod Olson, CBU
Freshman of the Year» Lauren Olsen, CBU
Defensive Player of the Year» Emma Johansson, CBU
Sixth Woman of the Year» Khloe Lemon, CBU
First Team All-WAC»
Payton Hull, ACU
Filipa Barros, CBU
Lauren Olsen, CBU
Ava Uhrich, SUU
Kaylee Borden, Utah Tech
Second Team All-WAC»
Erin Woodson, ACU
Emma Johansson, CBU
Grace Schmidt, CBU
Sierra Chambers, SUU
Brooklyn Fely, SUU
Jakoriah Long, Tarleton State
Cambree Blackham, UVU
All Defensive Team»
Payton Hull, ACU
Emma Johansson, CBU
Elodie Lutbert, Tarleton State
Brie Crittendon, Utah Tech
Cambree Blackham, UVU
All Freshman Team»
Reyleigh Hess, CBU
Lauren Olsen, CBU
Devyn Kiernan, SUU
Elodie Lutbert, Tarleton State
Kira Reynolds, UT Arlington
WAC Teams/Student-Athletes on the NCAA Leaderboard:
*All rankings are as of Wednesday morning
Utah Valley (25.55) and Abilene Christian (21.55) both remain in the national top-20 for turnovers forced at fourth and 16th respectively.
The Wolverines (15.5) and Wildcats (11.3) are also in the national top-25 for steals per game at third and T24.
UT Arlington is T26 in 3-point percentage defense, holding opponents to 27.5% shooting from beyond the arc.
Southern Utah is 17th in rebounding margin with a +8.3 mark. Tarleton State is just inside the top-100 with a +3.4 mark.
CBU (72.6) and ACU (72.4) are both in the top-75 for scoring offense at T64 and T67 respectively. Southern Utah (72.3) is 70th.
CBU (28.3) and Utah Tech (27.1) are among the national leaders in 3-point attempts per game at eighth and 12th. ACU (25.4) is T28th.
The Lancers (5.5) and Lady Mavs (4.9) are both in the national top-25 for blocks per game at 12th and 25th. Tarleton State is T47 at 4.2.
Utah Tech’s Chardonay Hartley is T33 for assists per game at 5.1. CBU’s Filipa Barros is T58 at 4.6. Utah Valley’s Cambree Blackham is just inside the top-100 at 4.2 (T91).
CBU’s Emma Johansson is 3rd nationally in Blocks per Game at 2.74 with UT Arlington’s Kira Reynolds not far behind at 2.37 (9th). Tarleton State’s Elodie Lutbert is 18th at 2.07 and Utah Tech’s Lauren Crocker is T32 at 1.75.
Barros is T21 in double-doubles with 14. Southern Utah’s Ava Uhrich and Brooklyn Fely have 10 double-doubles and are T50 nationally.
Payton Hull is T38 in scoring at 18.5 points per game.
Uhrich is T28 in rebounds per game at 9.9 with Barros T36 at 9.8.
In Steals per Game, Blackham is 27th at 2.79 with Barros T31 at 2.74, Hull 32nd at 2.71, Halle Nelson at 2.5 (T52), and Saige Gibb at 2.33 (T76).
Utah Valley’s Amanda Barcello is 24th in 3-point percentage at 41.46%.
Barcello is also 42nd in free throw percentage at 86% with Tarleton State’s Gia Adams 53rd at 85.06%. Souhern Utah’s Sierra Chambers is just inside the top-100 (T96th) at 82.76%.
Home Teams finish the regular season with impressive winning mark:
Home teams completed the triple-round robin with a 40-23 mark in this final campaign of the WAC.
CBU led the WAC with nine road wins, accounting for 39.1% of wins by visiting teams.
WACVegas Broadcast Crews Announced:
Broadcast crews for this year’s WAC women’s basketball tournament have been announced.
Calling the final on Saturday, March 14 from Orleans Arena will be Krista Blunk, returning for a second straight year as Play by Play voice, and Layshia Clarendon (former Cal Golden Bear who played in the WNBA for 13 years). ESPNU has the championship game with a 12:30 P.M. Pacific Time tipoff.
Handling the rounds leading to Saturday’s final will be Chris Mycoskie (one of a rotating stable of PxP voices calling Lady Mavs women’s basketball this year) and Brandi Poole (former UT Arlington analyst who is currently a WNBA assistant with the Atlanta Dream but previously called Lady Mavs games while a Dallas Wings assistant).
Women’s Basketball Postseason Tournament Primer:
For those folks new to women’s basketball there are three or four (depending on if the WBI is held) national postseason tournaments teams can go to.
In Las Vegas this week the WAC will determine its automatic representative to the NCAA tournament.
Also available for teams to play in are the WBIT (another NCAA operated championship), WNIT (operated by Triple Crown Sports), and WBI (operated by Sport Tours International).
WBIT:
The regular season champion of every Division I conference (as determined by their tie-breaking protocol) that does not win their tournament earns a bid to this tournament. The remainder of the 32-team field is filled with at-large entries. As the regular season champion, CBU has the WAC’s automatic bid if they were to fall in WACVegas.
If the Lancers advance to the NCAA tournament the WAC’s auto-bid is returned to the at-large pool.
Games are played at campus venues until the Final Four. Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas serves as the Final Four host this year.
WNIT:
This is a 64-team tournament that gives an automatic bid to the highest ranked team in each conference not selected for either the NCAA or WBIT fields. Last year the WAC got four teams (ACU, UT Arlington, UVU, and Tarleton State into this field). Three won an opening round game with ACU making a run all the way to the Super 16.
ACU has the WAC automatic bid if they do not prevail in WACVegas based on their runner-up regular season finish with CBU in the WBIT.
The WNIT takes at-large entries based on the following criteria…
A. An overall record of .500% or better
-Teams may ask for consideration if they are under this threshold, providing they have a minimum of 13 wins against Division I opponents and finished between 1-120 in the NET.
Southern Utah and Utah Valley have enough wins over Division I opponents to meet the 13-win threshold but are outside of the 120 NET number as of Monday morning.
Games are played at campus venues.
WBI:
CBU won the WBI in 2023 with Grace Schmidt earning Most Outstanding Player honors, defeating New Mexico State in Transylvania, Kentucky. The 2024 edition was cancelled after tournament operators were unable to fill a field, with UT Arlington having qualified and 2025’s tournament was not held. If this tournament is held it’s an 8-team tournament that guarantees three games in bracket play.