TicketsBy Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – A fifth-place conference finish isn't usually considered a noteworthy achievement, but for the University of Cincinnati women's basketball team, its fifth-place finish in the American Athletic Conference last year represents both a goal reached, and if coach Jamelle Elliott is right, a launching pad for future success.
The Bearcats finished 16-14 in 2016-17, their best record since 2005-06, and were 7-9 in the AAC, tied with Tulane and SMU in the middle of the standings.
"I think we had some things we can definitely build off," Elliott said. "The trajectory of the program has been moving in the right direction, finishing tied for fifth in conference play. That's something that hasn't been accomplished in my tenure here going into my ninth year."
The problem was that after being one of the surprises of the conference during the first half of the season, the Bearcats lost nine of their last 11 games.
"Once we made it to the middle of the pack, as we headed into the second half of conference play we got different competition from the teams that we played," Elliott said. "I don't think we knew how to handle being chased. We were always the team that was looking up trying to gain some ground. Other teams respected us a lot more going into the second half of our conference, but we didn't continue to know what it was going to take to be able to be successful against a team the second time around."
That second-half swoon might be the reason why the Bearcats were picked to finish eighth in the 12-team league this season. But Elliott said her players learned a lesson last year about rising to the level of competition and competing against teams that have more respect for them than perhaps they did before last year's improvement.
"Now we're gonna have that mentality that we'll be expecting the other team's best shot," Elliott said. "We have our leading scorers returning and we have a great freshman class, so our expectations, our hunger, our motivations are different because we tasted it a little bit being in that upper half of the conference for weeks."
The Bearcats' top returning player is senior point guard Ana Owens, a four-year starter who begins her final season at UC with 1,118 points, which ranks 18th on the school's career scoring list. Another senior, 5-11 forward Shanice Johnson, was the unanimous pick for the league's Newcomer of the Year award after transferring from Monroe Community College in upstate New York, where she was the Division II junior college National Player of the Year. She led the Bearcats with a 15.2-point average, which ranked ninth in the American in 2016-17. And redshirt freshman center I'Liyah Green is working her way back after missing last year with a torn ACL.
Sam Rodgers, a sophomore from Cincinnati's Lakota East High School, returns after being named a co-captain last year when she averaged 3.6 points while playing about 14 minutes per game before she suffered an MCL injury. Elliott says Rodgers is a steadying influence on the floor for such a young player.
Among the newcomers is Virginia Tech transfer Genesis Parker, a guard who will become eligible at the end of the first semester, and four freshmen that Elliott is excited about, especially 5-foot-11 forward Iimar'i Thomas from Oakland, Calif., and 5-foot-10 guard Brianna Livingston from Scarborough, Ontario.
"Iimar'i Thomas is not even 17 yet," Elliott said. "But she's probably more steady than any of the freshmen and some of the sophomores. She has confidence in herself as a basketball player. She has a high basketball IQ and she's one of our more mature players. If we played tomorrow, she would be in the rotation."
Overall, the Bearcats have five juniors and seniors to go with nine freshmen and sophomores.
"We have a good nucleus of upperclassmen to give us leadership," Elliott said. "There's a lot of talent there, athletically and skill-wise."
UC will play its home games in 2017-18 at Saint Ursula Academy in Walnut Hills while Fifth Third Arena undergoes an $87-million renovation. The Bearcats will also play two regular season games at Cincinnati State.
"We're gonna use the motto that home is where the heart is," Elliott said. "And our heart is gonna be at Saint Ursula this year. We want to make it an intimate environment with a thousand people. We want to make it to our advantage. We want the other team to know that it's not gonna be easy playing against us even though we're not playing on our campus."
Elliott's teams have gone 94-119 during her first eight years at UC. For someone who won a national championship as a player at Connecticut in 2005 and five more as a UConn assistant under Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, that's been difficult to endure.
But she believes the Bearcats turned the corner last year.
"My mentality is that we're gonna get through this," Elliott said. "I grew up in the inner city in Washington D.C. It was hard. A lot of my friends that I grew up with ended up in jail, on drugs, pregnant or dead. I survived because of basketball. That's why when you ask me if I ever think about giving up, I've been through a lot harder stuff than that, so that's not an option for me.
"This as excited as I've been to coach a team, to mentor a team, to be a part of a team, to grow as a team, as I've been in the eight years I've been here."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January, 2015.
// EXPERIENCE UC
The Bearcats' 2017-18 campaign will, again, be part of the Experience UC initiative which offers free admission to home games. Groups interested in attending can contact Assistant Director of Marketing & Branding Deborah Dixon at dixond9@ucmail.uc.edu for more information.
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI – A fifth-place conference finish isn't usually considered a noteworthy achievement, but for the University of Cincinnati women's basketball team, its fifth-place finish in the American Athletic Conference last year represents both a goal reached, and if coach Jamelle Elliott is right, a launching pad for future success.
The Bearcats finished 16-14 in 2016-17, their best record since 2005-06, and were 7-9 in the AAC, tied with Tulane and SMU in the middle of the standings.
"I think we had some things we can definitely build off," Elliott said. "The trajectory of the program has been moving in the right direction, finishing tied for fifth in conference play. That's something that hasn't been accomplished in my tenure here going into my ninth year."
The problem was that after being one of the surprises of the conference during the first half of the season, the Bearcats lost nine of their last 11 games.
"Once we made it to the middle of the pack, as we headed into the second half of conference play we got different competition from the teams that we played," Elliott said. "I don't think we knew how to handle being chased. We were always the team that was looking up trying to gain some ground. Other teams respected us a lot more going into the second half of our conference, but we didn't continue to know what it was going to take to be able to be successful against a team the second time around."
That second-half swoon might be the reason why the Bearcats were picked to finish eighth in the 12-team league this season. But Elliott said her players learned a lesson last year about rising to the level of competition and competing against teams that have more respect for them than perhaps they did before last year's improvement.
"Now we're gonna have that mentality that we'll be expecting the other team's best shot," Elliott said. "We have our leading scorers returning and we have a great freshman class, so our expectations, our hunger, our motivations are different because we tasted it a little bit being in that upper half of the conference for weeks."
The Bearcats' top returning player is senior point guard Ana Owens, a four-year starter who begins her final season at UC with 1,118 points, which ranks 18th on the school's career scoring list. Another senior, 5-11 forward Shanice Johnson, was the unanimous pick for the league's Newcomer of the Year award after transferring from Monroe Community College in upstate New York, where she was the Division II junior college National Player of the Year. She led the Bearcats with a 15.2-point average, which ranked ninth in the American in 2016-17. And redshirt freshman center I'Liyah Green is working her way back after missing last year with a torn ACL.
Sam Rodgers, a sophomore from Cincinnati's Lakota East High School, returns after being named a co-captain last year when she averaged 3.6 points while playing about 14 minutes per game before she suffered an MCL injury. Elliott says Rodgers is a steadying influence on the floor for such a young player.
Among the newcomers is Virginia Tech transfer Genesis Parker, a guard who will become eligible at the end of the first semester, and four freshmen that Elliott is excited about, especially 5-foot-11 forward Iimar'i Thomas from Oakland, Calif., and 5-foot-10 guard Brianna Livingston from Scarborough, Ontario.
"Iimar'i Thomas is not even 17 yet," Elliott said. "But she's probably more steady than any of the freshmen and some of the sophomores. She has confidence in herself as a basketball player. She has a high basketball IQ and she's one of our more mature players. If we played tomorrow, she would be in the rotation."
Overall, the Bearcats have five juniors and seniors to go with nine freshmen and sophomores.
"We have a good nucleus of upperclassmen to give us leadership," Elliott said. "There's a lot of talent there, athletically and skill-wise."
UC will play its home games in 2017-18 at Saint Ursula Academy in Walnut Hills while Fifth Third Arena undergoes an $87-million renovation. The Bearcats will also play two regular season games at Cincinnati State.
"We're gonna use the motto that home is where the heart is," Elliott said. "And our heart is gonna be at Saint Ursula this year. We want to make it an intimate environment with a thousand people. We want to make it to our advantage. We want the other team to know that it's not gonna be easy playing against us even though we're not playing on our campus."
Elliott's teams have gone 94-119 during her first eight years at UC. For someone who won a national championship as a player at Connecticut in 2005 and five more as a UConn assistant under Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, that's been difficult to endure.
But she believes the Bearcats turned the corner last year.
"My mentality is that we're gonna get through this," Elliott said. "I grew up in the inner city in Washington D.C. It was hard. A lot of my friends that I grew up with ended up in jail, on drugs, pregnant or dead. I survived because of basketball. That's why when you ask me if I ever think about giving up, I've been through a lot harder stuff than that, so that's not an option for me.
"This as excited as I've been to coach a team, to mentor a team, to be a part of a team, to grow as a team, as I've been in the eight years I've been here."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years – 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer – before joining the staff of GoBearcats.com in January, 2015.
// EXPERIENCE UC
The Bearcats' 2017-18 campaign will, again, be part of the Experience UC initiative which offers free admission to home games. Groups interested in attending can contact Assistant Director of Marketing & Branding Deborah Dixon at dixond9@ucmail.uc.edu for more information.