The Mustangs play a second straight road game in a stretch of three of four games Saturday at Houston at 2 p.m. The game will stream on the American Digital Network, and KAAM 770 AM will carry it live in the Dallas area.
ABOUT SMU
The Mustangs are 10-8 overall, 1-4 in the American Athletic Conference, losing the last two road games by a combined three points.
Alicia Froling is fourth in the NCAA with 12 double-doubles, and needs just four points to become the 23rd player in program history to score 1,000 points during a career. The Australian is averaging 14.9 points and a league-best 10.7 rebounds this season.
McKenzie Adams is scoring 11.7 points per game, coming off a career-high 32-point performance at Cincinnati. The Mustangs are second in the league behind Connecticut in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 36.1 percent shooting. SMU also has a league-high 110 blocks, ranking 12th in the NCAA with 6.1 per game.
SCOUTING HOUSTON
The Cougars are 8-10 overall, 1-4 in The American. Houston has lost five of its last seven after winning three straight. Jasmyne Harris leads the team with 10.3 points per game, and Chyanne Butler is scoring 10.1 per game. The Cougars are scoring 62.7 points per game as a team, while opponents are averaging 66.7 points.
SERIES HISTORY
The Mustangs are 23-32 all-time against the Cougars, including an 11-14 mark at Houston, but SMU has won seven of the last 10 games in the series, including three straight on the road. The series started on Jan. 13, 1981 when Houston earned a 77-71 victory in Moody Coliseum. The Cougars won the first 20 games in the series, but SMU is 23-12 since getting its first win, a 69-66 victory at home on Feb. 5, 1992. The Mustangs are 4-2 against Houston since joining the American Athletic Conference, winning all three road games.
LAST TIME OUT
McKenzie Adams scored a career-high 32 points as the SMU women's basketball team fell 67-65 at Cincinnati Tuesday night. Her 16 points in the fourth quarter led SMU's rally to cut the Cincinnati lead to two, but the Mustangs could not complete the comeback after trailing by 15 points early in the fourth period.
Alicia Froling scored 13 points with 11 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season.
LOOKING AHEAD
SMU returns home to host No. 23/22 USF Wednesday before a road game at Tulsa on Jan. 28. The Mustangs then have consecutive home games on the schedule before playing four of the last six games on the road.
MOODY MAGIC
SMU went 6-0 at home in non-conference games, and opened conference play with a 64-47 win agianst Cincinnati to improve to 7-0 in Moody Coliseum. The Mustangs are 7-2 at home. The SMU men's basketball team also went undefeated at home in non-conference play and won its first two conference home games, improving to 11-0 in Moody Coliseum. The SMU volleyball team went 11-2 in Moody Coliseum on its way to a second straight conference championship. Overall, the tenants of Moody Coliseum are 28-2 this year, a 93.3 win percentage.
UNDER NEW LEADERSHIP
For the first time since 1991, SMU has a new head coach on the sidelines.
Travis Mays was announced as the fourth head coach in program history on April 7, 2016, after the retirement of Rhonda Rompola, who spent 25 seasons as the head coach of the Mustangs. Mays worked for three Hall of Fame coaches during 12 seasons as a collegiate assistant, helping guide teams to eight NCAA Tournament appearances with a trip to the Final Four with LSU in 2008. A 1990 second-round NBA draft pick out of Texas, Mays' staff includes fellow Longhorns
Edwina Brown and
Amie Smith Bradley, and associate head coach
Mike Brandt, who spent 14 seasons as the head coach at USC Aiken.
ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
McKenzie Adams was named American Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year after leading the Mustangs in scoring with 13.4 points per game last season. She scored a season-high 24 points against Kansas, and reached double figures in 25 of 31 games.
Alicia Froling was named to the All-American Athletic Conference Third Team, finishing the year averaging 12.3 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. She set a school record with 22 rebounds at Cincinnati, and also scored a career-high 33 points against the Bearcats. Froling was also named to the All-American Athletic Conference Preseason Team.
THE AMERICAN PRESEASON RANKINGS
SMU was picked to finish fifth in the conference by the league's coaches, behind four-time defending national champion Connecticut, Temple, USF and Tulane, respectively. SMU returns two all-conference honorees among nine returning letterwinners.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS
SMU's football, men's basketball and women's basketball programs had a record-setting fall semester in the classroom. The football and women's basketball teams set program-best cumulative grade-point-averages while men's basketball reached its highest cumulative GPA since 2004.
ANNUAL BLOCK PARTY
As a freshman,
Alicia Froling recorded 54 blocks, surpassing Sarah Davis' mark of 53 blocks during the 2005-06 season. After breaking a record that stood for nine seasons, the Australian's name stayed at the top of the list for only one year. Fellow Australian and sophomore
Stephanie Collins posted 73 blocks in her first full season. Froling is third in school history in blocks with 124, while Collins has 114, fourth at SMU. The duo is the first pair of teammates of the same class to each record 100 blocks in program history. The last player to eclipse the century mark was Janielle Dodds, who finished with 109 blocks from 2004-08. Sarah Davis holds the school record with 180 blocks from 2003-06.
TEXAS TIES
SMU's roster includes 10 of 14 student-athletes from the state of Texas, with nine who have hometowns in the DFW metroplex. Three of the Mustangs four coaches also have roots in Texas with head coach
Travis Mays, assistant coaches
Edwina Brown and
Amie Smith Bradley all attending the University of Texas. The trio all spent time on staff at Texas, and Brown also coached at TCU before coming to the Hilltop.
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Alicia Froling represented Australia at the 2015 FIBA U19 Women's World Championships in Russia, winning a Bronze medal with the team, her second career medal at the World Championships with Australia. A native of Queensland, Australia, Froling averaged 8.1 points per game, reaching double-figures twice, including a tournament-high 19 points during group play. She also averaged 6.9 rebounds, and shot just under 70 percent from the free throw line.
Stephanie Collins also represented Australia at the 2012 World University Games.
DEFENSE LEADS THE WAY
SMU leads the conference in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to a 36.1 shooting percentage. The Mustangs lead the league with 777 rebounds, averaging 43.2 per game, 28th in the NCAA. SMU has a league-best 542 defensive rebounds, ranking second in the conference with 30.1 per game, trailing USF (30.9). SMU leads The American with 110 blocks, ahead of No. 1 Connecticut's 77 blocks and Cincinnati's 76 blocks.
Alicia Froling is tied for second in the conference with 28 blocks, while
Dai'ja Thomas has 24, leading the league with 1.7 per game.
ALICIA FROLING
Alicia Froling is the only player in the conference averaging a double-double with 14.9 points per game (T-10th - AAC) and a league-best 10.7 rebounds per game (14th - NCAA). She has scored at least 20 points four times this season and 11 times in her career, including a career-high 33 points at Cincinnati last season (Jan. 27). The junior has 996 career points, needing four to become the 23rd player in program history to score 1,000 points. She is third all-time with 124 blocks, and ninth at SMU with 738 career rebounds. Froling also set an SMU single-game record with 22 rebounds against the Bearcats last season, the third highest in conference history (24 by UCF's Brittni Montgomery twice). Froling has 29 double-doubles in her career, third in program history.
McKENZIE ADAMS
McKenzie Adams has scored in double figures 12 times this season, including a career-high 32 points at Cincinnati. She is second on the team with 11.7 points per game, and averages 4.5 rebounds per game. She had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds at Colorado.
KIARA PERRY
After missing last season due to a back injury,
Kiara Perry is averaging 7.8 points per game and shooting 38.9 percent from the field. She has reached double figures five times, including a career-high 19 points against Prairie View A&M (Nov. 22). The junior leads the team in assists, 49, steals, 30, and also has 11 blocks. She has two double-doubles this season, scoring 17 points with a career-high 14 rebounds at Kansas (Nov. 16) and grabbing 10 rebounds against Prairie View.
STEPHANIE COLLINS
Stephanie Collins was second in The American and 36th in the NCAA with 73 blocks last season, breaking the SMU single-season record
Alicia Froling set with 54 blocks as a freshman in 2014-15. Collins posted 25 blocks in 20 games as a freshman. She has 114 blocks in her career, ranking fourth at SMU. The junior has blocked at least one shot in nine of the last 11 games.
MORGAN BOLTON
Morgan Bolton was second on the team with 62 assists and averaged 5.7 points per game as the starting point guard in 2015-16. The junior scored at least 10 points seven times, including a career-high 15 points against then-No. 20 USF in the conference tournament. Bolton has 37 assists this season, and is averaging 5.6 points per game, scoring 12 against Tulane on a career-high four made 3-pointers to reach double figures for the fourth time this season.
DAI'JA THOMAS
Dai'ja Thomas has scored at least 10 points five times this season, averaging 7.2 points per game. The sophomore has 27 blocks, leading the league with 1.7 per game, and is averaging 6.3 rebounds. She recorded her first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds against Texas State in the season opener, and had 15 points with 11 rebounds against Grambling State.
RANKED OPPONENTS
SMU defeated No. 19 Texas A&M 54-53 at home on Dec. 3, beating a top-25 opponent for the first time since March 9, 2008, when the Mustangs upset No. 18 UTEP in the Conference USA championship game. After losses to No. 5 Mississippi State and No. 1 Connecticut, the Mustangs have two more games against teams currently ranked in the top 25, including No. 1 Connecticut.
