Getting to Know the Southland Conference Series
June 28 -
Cross Country
June 26 -
Volleyball
The following is the third in a series of stories surrounding the University of New Orleans's entrance into the Southland Conference. Over the next several weeks, stories will feature introductions to the Southland in a particular sport while also sharing UNO's history in the sport.
The Privateers became an official member of the Southland Conference on July 1, 2013. The 2013-14 academic year is one of change for the Southland, which will also welcome Abilene Christian, Houston Baptist and Incarnate Word as it becomes a 14-member league.
Southland Conference Women's Basketball– Historically Speaking
Women's basketball is one sport where the Southland Conference had truly made its mark. This was particularly true in the late 1980s through mid-1990s as Stephen F. Austin was a constant presence in the national rankings.
SFA was not an initial member of the league, joining in 1988. The charter women's basketball playing institutions in 1983 were Arkansas State, Lamar, McNeese State, Northeast Louisiana (now ULM), North Texas, Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette) and Texas-Arlington- who each competed in a single round-robin.
NLU led by four-time Southland Conference Player of the Year Eun Jung Lee was the dominant team early, winning the first three league titles.
Things changed dramatically in 1988 with the entrance of SFA. Coached by Gary Blair, then Joe Curl and Royce Chadwick, the Ladyjacks won the Southland Conference regular season championship each year from 1988 through 1998 while also adding tournament championships annually from 1988 through 1996.
SFA's success in the league includes 10 NCAA tournament wins over a league-best 18 appearances. No other school in the league's history has appeared more than four times. SFA is also responsible for the league's most recent postseason victory, defeating Xavier 73-72 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Baton Rouge, La. in 2000.
In addition to SFA, the school now known as ULM made its mark by advancing to the 1985 NCAA Women's Final Four. The Indians defeated Missouri, Auburn and Louisiana Tech at their home court of Fant-Ewing Coliseum before falling to Old Dominion in Austin, Texas in the Final Four semifinals.
Southland Conference Women's Basketball – The 2012-13 Season
The 2012-13 Southland Conference season was a successful one as the league put four teams into the postseason.
Co-regular season champion Oral Roberts (13-5) won the Southland tournament title over fellow regular season champion Sam Houston State 72-66 to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, where it fell to Tennessee.
SHSU advanced to the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT), falling to Tulane. McNeese State and Lamar both qualified for the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI). LU reached the WBI quarterfinals, where it dropped a contest to South Dakota. MSU was able to defeat USD in the WBI semifinals before losing 73-62 to Detroit in the finals of the event.
The league was dominated by seniors as Megan Herbert of Central Arkansas was named 'Player of the Year' for a third straight season. The UCA senior was one of the nine seniors to occupy the Southland first and second-teams following a campaign in which Herbert averaged 19.8 points and 11.5 rebounds per game.
The only non-senior was second-team selection Porsha Roberts of Stephen F. Austin, a sophomore.
SHSU placed seniors Sequeena Thomas and Britni Martin on the first-team, the only squad with two first-team selections. Thomas was also tabbed 'Defensive Player of the Year' with the Bearkats Brenda Welch-Nichols receiving 'Coach of the Year' after leading the Huntsville, Texas team to their first regular season Southland title in 26 years as a league member.
New Orleans Privateer Women's Basketball– Historically Speaking
The history of UNO women's basketball started in 1975-76, when the team was a member of the Louisiana Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, part of the AIAW.
UNO did not experience success until Joey Favaloro was hired by then-athletic director
Ron Maestri. Favaloro won 20 games in his first four seasons, including the first two that UNO contested as a member of NCAA Division I.
Favaloro compiled a 382-303 record during his 24-year tenure at UNO highlighted by a 1987 NCAA Tournament appearance and two WNITs (1985 and 1988).
Favaloro's 1985 WNIT squad defeated Texas Tech by a single point in the quarterfinals before adding wins over the next two days against Weber State and Memphis to hoist the WNIT championship.
The top player in the school's history is Sandra Hodge, who played basketball for the team known as the 'Buc-kettes' from 1980 through 1984 and holds virtually every school record.
Hodges' 26.7 points per game career scoring average ranks second in NCAA Division I history behind Patricia Hoskins of Mississippi Valley State (28.4). The 5-foot-9 forward-guard led UNO to an 88-29 record in four seasons, winning 20 games every year. To date, Hodge ranks first in the school record book in field goals (1,179), second in rebounds (948), second in steals (239) and second in free throw percentage (81 percent).
Hodge would later become one of the few women to ever play for the previously all-male Harlem Globetrotters. Additionally, she had her number retired on February 23, 1989.
Other top players over the years include Carvie Upshaw, who would rank amongst the NCAA's all-time block leaders if the statistic was officially kept by the NCAA during her tenure. Upshaw later played professionally overseas and became the first female to play in the all-male Polish League.
The 2013-14 Season – UNO's First in the Southland
Keeshawn Carter will begin her third season at the helm of the UNO women's basketball program in 2013-14. A former member of the program, Carter has worked her way up from student-athlete to graduate assistant to assistant coach and now to head coach.
Popular amongst the program's loyal fan base, Carter has just three wins in 52 games as her team like the other UNO squads has worked without the assistance of a fully-scholarship program and a roster full of players from the program's flirtations with Division II and Division III. All three victories came during the 2012-13 season as the program defeated Arkansas-Monticello, Houston Baptist and Utah Valley.
Carter is determined to turn the ship around and her first recruiting class paid dividends immediately.
Freshmen
Mathilde Fogelstrom (4.6 ppg, 7.7 rpg) and
Yasmin Taylor (5.8 ppg, 6.9 rpg) posted solid performances against Division I competition with numbers on the glass that would rank amongst the Southland's leaders.
Carter's 2013-14 squad will also benefit from Division I transfer
Danielle Davis, a sophomore who sat out last season following a transfer from Central Connecticut State. Other key contributors include redshirt junior
Melissa Jensen, senior forward
Amber Clay and senior guard
Samantha Gray. Carter will look to several talented freshmen that could play immediately.
The 2013-14 schedule will feature an 18-game conference schedule, featuring nine home and nine away games. All Southland contests are scheduled as doubleheaders along with the men's program with a majority of the games occurring on Thursday and Saturday.
An out of conference schedule will soon be announced for the UNO women's squad, with many of the games featuring 'returns' both home and away from contests a year ago.
