WBB: Tarleton Texans 2024-25 Team Preview
Texans show progress under Brock a season ago, winning a game at the WAC tournament for the first time in program history.
Bill Brock’s first year in Stephenville showed a five win improvement in conference play, which included a win on the regular season’s final day in Seattle to earn a tournament spot.
It was an opportunity they capitalized on. Tarleton picked up its first postseason win in the Division I era by knocking off I-20 rival Abilene Christian in the first round of the WAC tournament. A day later the Texans ran out of gas in a season-ending 70-58 loss to SFA.
With several of their top scorers back and a nice portal class Brock and the Texans look to continue that upward trajectory in their first post transition season of full eligibility.
Head Coach:
Bill Brock (2nd year, 11-20 overall, 7-13 WAC)
Last Year:
11-20 overall, 7-13 WAC (reached WAC tournament quarterfinals)
Key Losses:
Lexi Bull (portal-Southern Utah)
Teresa Da Silva (Eligibility Completed)
Key Returners:
Jakoriah Long
Faith Acker
Elise Turrubiates
Miannah Little
Notable Portal Additions:
Arieona Rosborough (Mary Hardin Baylor)
Kyriana Jones (Dodge City JC/Miss. Valley State)
Niki Van Wyk (Black Hills State)
The Texans return their top four scorers in Long, Acker, Turrubiates, and Little. Adding in Tyler Jackson’s return Tarleton also brings back four players who shot greater than 30 percent from beyond the arc and three who hit 25 or more 3-pointers.
Brock’s portal class is pretty solid with a D-III Conference Player of the Year and 1,000-point scorer in Rosborough and Jones, making a return to Division I after spending a year at Dodge City Junior College in which she averaged 11.9 points and 5 rebounds per game.
Rounding out the class is Van Wyk, an All-RMAC selection, who averaged 12.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.7 assists a game in 2022-23.
“It wasn’t until the second week in January that we were able to get our full squad together in practice and that lack of depth hurt us,” Brock said on the Straight Outta WAC Podcast. “Our additions in the portal definitely make us deeper and if we can stay healthy throughout I like our chances of being more competitive than we were last year.”
Scheduling Tidbits:
Tarleton’s second schedule under Bill Brock is highlighted by a trio of games against power conference opponents with trips to Arizona (November 7), Texas (November 20), and Nebraska (December 11).
In the WAC/CUSA Scheduling Initiative, Tarleton is at UTEP to begin the season. They’ll host New Mexico State on December 16.
Tarleton will also travel for an MTE over the Thanksgiving break to New Orleans where they’ll face Delaware and Texas State.
Delaware, as recently as 2021-22, was an NCAA tournament team after defeating Drexel 63-59 in the Coastal Athletic Association tournament championship. Texas State had a solid non-conference schedule record last season but struggled to just four SunBelt Conference wins.
The Texans will play four of their final six games away from Wisdom Gym to finish regular season play.
That stretch run includes visits to Phoenix, Seattle, Abilene, and Orem.
“We have a very challenging first semester schedule that will test us and get our team prepared for WAC play,” Brock added.
Outlook:
Tarleton was second in scoring defense a season ago, fourth in the percentage categories, and third in rebounding margin which kept them in a lot of games.
The question mark going into this season is offense. The Texans were ninth in scoring and eighth in field goal percentage but a bright spot was 3-point shooting where they finished fifth.
Brock has added some veterans with collegiate experience who he believes will help an offense that does return a lot but loses Teresa Da Silva.
Keep an eye on Faith Acker. In her first year at the collegiate level, Acker averaged 9.0 points and 5.8 rebounds. Bill Brock said the biggest thing for Acker was to get in better shape so she can play more minutes. The 6-2 sophomore started in 25 games in 2023-24 and will be the focal point of the Texan offense in 2024-25.
If the end of the 2023-24 season was any indication of the growth under Bill Brock, imagine what having a full offseason together will do for a squad wanting to take a significant step up in year two under Bill Brock.