AUSTIN, Texas — Making their second straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament when they meet Texas on Friday, the Sugar Bears have their sights set on a first.
In the history of the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, no 14 seed has ever beaten a 3 seed since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994.
Central Arkansas will get its second attempt to be first when the Sugar Bears take on the Longhorns at 1:30pm central Friday in the first round of the tournament. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2, though some regions will get whiparound coverage. The game can be seen uninterrupted on the
WatchESPN streaming service and the ESPN app.
Last season, in their first-ever appearance in the Division I championship event, the Sugar Bears came in as a 14 seed (equaling the best for a Southland team since UT Arlington was a 13 in 2007) and were paired against 3rd-seeded Louisville, which would go on to an 87-60 victory after the Sugar Bears were leading or tied for nearly 10 minutes.
This season the Sugar Bears (26-4) are back in the NCAA Tournament after repeating as Southland Conference Tournament champions – one of just 14 teams to earn its league's automatic qualifier in each of the last two years – and once again are presented with the opportunity to pull off the tournament's first 3-14 upset. It marks the first time a Southland team has gone to back-to-back tournaments with a 14 seed or better since 2001 and 2002.
They'll look to do so with a veteran squad that has won 17 straight games – tied for the fourth-longest streak in the nation – and is 54-8 overall over the past two seasons.
Their adversary is a Longhorns team that is 23-8 and finished 15-3 with a second-place finish in the Big 12 and come into the tournament ranked 14th and 15th in the national polls. Though they come into the tournament having lost four of their last six, the four losses were by a combined 11 points.
The Longhorns feature the Big 12's Player, Defensive Player, Freshman and Coach of the Year in junior guard Brooke McCarty, senior guard Brianna Taylor, freshman guard/forward Joyner Holmes and Coach Karen Aston.
It marks the second straight year the Sugar Bears have drawn the Player of the Year from a power conference in the tournament, having faced Louisville's Myisha Hines-Allen last season.
Aston, a native of Benton, played at Ouachita Baptist and UALR from 1982-86 then began her coaching career as head coach at Vilonia and Fort Smith Northside high schools from 88-94 before entering the college ranks in 1994 as an assistant coach at Baylor.
McCarty is the first Longhorn to be named the Big 12's Player of the Year award, earning the distinction after averaging 14.1 points and 3.4 assists while shooting 43.3 percent from 3-point range. The 5-foot-4 junior guard scored in double figures in 24 games this season, including 16 in 18 Big 12 games.
Taylor, a 5-9 senior guard, averaged 1.4 steals per game and has been a key component to a Texas defense that ranks second in the Big 12 in scoring (61.5 points per game allowed) and field goal percentage defense (.363).
Holmes, a 6-3 center, was the league's Freshman of the Year after leading all Big 12 freshmen with 12.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game and eight double-doubles. Along with McCarty and junior guard Ariel Atkins (13.2 points, 2.1 steals per game), Holmes was one of three Longhorns named to the 10-player First Team All-Big 12.
Texas is 13-3 on its home floor this season, with losses to No. 3 South Carolina, No. 4 Baylor and Iowa State. The Sugar Bears are 28-5 away from home over the last two seasons, losing only at Louisville, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and two-time Southland champion Abilene Christian.
The Longhorns faced three Southland opponents this season, beating Houston Baptist by 52 (98-46), Northwestern State by 47 (86-39) and New Orleans by 33 (76-43). The Sugar Bears beat HBU by 44 and 31 in their two meetings, Northwestern State by 33 and 11, and won by four at New Orleans.
The Sugar Bears, who rank 12th in the nation in scoring margin at +16.8, come in having won by an average of 21.5 points in the Southland tournament – beating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi by 18 in the semifinals before blasting Stephen F. Austin by 25 in the championship game, holding the Ladyjacks to a tournament championship record low 35 points in the third-most lopsided title game in conference history.
The Sugar Bears are 4th nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 52.2 points per game, and are 11th in field goal percentage defense with opponents shooting just 34.7 percent this season. The Sugar Bears are 151st nationally in opponent 3-point percentage (31.2), but the Longhorns rank 312th in the country in 3-point shooting as they make just 4.0 per game. Despite their lack of production beyond the arc, the Longhorns rank 34th nationally in scoring offense at 73.8 points per game.
Friday's game will be the first meeting between the programs. The Sugar Bears are 0-6 all-time against Big 12 teams, while the Longhorns have dropped nearly 16 percent of their meetings against Southland teams, holding a 48-9 record. It is the 30th NCAA tournament for Texas, trailing only Tennessee, Georgia and Stanford on the all-time list. Last season, the Longhorns beat Alabama State, Missouri and UCLA en route to the Elite Eight, where they lost to UConn 86-65.
The winner will go on to meet the winner of Friday's meeting between No. 6 North Carolina State and No. 11 Auburn.
In addition to the ESPN broadcast, the game can be heard on
91.3 FM The Bear, with pregame beginning at 1:10.
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Pre-Tournament Press Conference Quotes
Thursday, March 16 2017
Austin, Texas
Central Arkansas Sugar Bears
Sandra Rushing
Maggie Proffitt
Brianna Mullins
Q. You get the distinction of playing the host team on their host floor. What do you expect that to be like with the crowd against you and stuff in the first round of the NCAA Tournament?
BRIANNA MULLINS: I mean, we're just excited to be here. It's been a pretty long season, but it's been a very rewarding season, too. Playing on the home court, I feel like we're just going to have to come out focused and ready to execute our game plan. Like any other gym, any other court, we're just going to have to come out and play basketball just like we've done the rest of the season.
Q. Maggie, you guys played in the NCAA Tournament last year; how can that benefit you this time?
MAGGIE PROFFITT: Yeah, I think it's definitely going to be beneficial to us. Kind of going back to Bri's question, we played Louisville on their home court last year with a bunch of their fans. That was a fun experience, and I felt like maybe we were a little kind of nervous last year, but since we've been there, coming into this year we kind of know what to expect, and maybe we can come out and play better than we did last year.
Q. If I remember, you guys were leading that game in the second quarter. Does that give you not hope but a thought that you can go here, you can go anywhere and win?
MAGGIE PROFFITT: Yeah, I think that definitely gives us some confidence. Coach always tells us, last year we got too shot happy against Louisville. Maybe like I said if we can come in a little more relaxed and just play our game and try to execute on offense and get stops on defense and see where we are at halftime and then maybe be able to come out better in the second half than we did last year.
Q. Looking up and down the roster, Texas has a lot of size on you; how do you deal with that? How do you play against that kind of stuff?
BRIANNA MULLINS: I mean, as far as the size, I feel like my teammates and I, we can play with anybody. I feel like we have the confidence to go out and just play the game that we've been playing all season.
Q. Brianna, what challenges does playing against somebody that's four to five inches taller than you, what are the challenges for you?
BRIANNA MULLINS: I mean, they're bigger, like you just said. I'm sure they may be a little stronger, maybe a little quicker. But regardless of all that, I feel like my teammates and I have the heart to come out and just play basketball.
Q. Do you feel like it's a David versus Goliath, you go in there and want to take down the big man, the host school, coming into a game like this?
MAGGIE PROFFITT: I'd say, yeah, definitely. Probably last year nobody heard of the Sugar Bears. Nobody knew who they were, and we got picked to play Louisville, and there's probably still people out there who have no idea who we are now, and they all know who we are coming to play Texas, and obviously Texas in the Big 12, they're a big school, obviously the bigger conference, like Bri said, bigger, faster, but that's not going to stop us from come out and playing basketball and just giving it all that we have.
Q. Maggie, they've got a lot of good players, but any particular players that you really have to focus on? I know, for example, Brooke is a great three-point shooter, but any one or two players that you have to shut down?
MAGGIE PROFFITT: I would definitely say Brooke McCarty. She's one that we're really focusing on. Even all their bigs inside, like we're undersized, but I know KJ is going to come out and she's going to play like she's 6'5", too, isn't though she isn't her size. We've just really got to stop, like you said, Brooke from just being able to shoot the three whenever she wants, and if we can stop some of their other quicker guards from getting to the rim and just be able to really stop the post from just shooting over the top, then I think we'll have a good shot.
Q. How different is your program now than when you first arrived as freshmen?
BRIANNA MULLINS: It's extremely different. We were the first group to ever even come to the NCAA Tournament. We were the first group to win the regular season and the conference tournament, so we're a group of firsts, and I feel like we had a big part of where our program stands today.
MAGGIE PROFFITT: I'll just agree with Bri. I feel like we were Coach Rushing's first true recruiting class coming in, and I want to say there was -- how many of us, seven freshmen? And we always joke me and Bri and Raquel Logan were the three that made it all four years. We've just really grown so much together, and I feel like that shows on the court with how well we play together. We're just excited. You never know what can happen. It's kind of bittersweet being our senior year, but we're just ready to go give it all we have.
Q. I was asking the players, Texas's size, they've got a lot on you up and down the roster. How do you neutralize that, play against that sort of size?
SANDRA RUSHING: That's a good question. I can guarantee you we're not going to grow 12 inches by tomorrow, okay. But Texas is Texas, and Karen has done a great job, and they're loaded with talent, and we're just excited about having the opportunity to play the caliber team of Texas, and being back here at the NCAA.
My players have played extremely hard this year, worked hard, showed a lot of pride, and I'm just proud of them. But that's a good question. You know, I'm hoping that Texas has a bad game, but I can promise you, we're going to go in and we're going to fight it and we're going to try to do a couple things to disrupt them, and I don't know if we can disrupt them, but I just want my players to go out and not be scared and not be intimidated. I heard you ask them about the crowd, and I know there's going to be a great crowd, and it's going to be a great atmosphere to play in front of.
Q. Going off of your comments there, what are the challenges that come with playing Texas, not just the height and the size and all that stuff, but the fact that you're playing them on their home court and they don't have to travel anywhere, you guys are out of your element, what are the challenges that come with that?
SANDRA RUSHING: Well, also with that, a lot of teams are having to do that. That's why you want to host it, and Texas is hosting it, and somebody has to play Texas, and it's us.
But you know, again, it's going to be exciting. I want us to play on the big, big stage, and we're having the opportunity to play on the big, big stage. Especially I'm happy for my seniors. I think you heard Bri and Maggie talk about the first -- this was my first recruiting class that's getting ready to graduate, and they've been able to go back-to-back. I'm really proud of them, but I'm also, on the other hand, excited that my young kids, the ones that are going to be returning next year, they get to experience this. Nothing takes the place of experience, and you can always bring this up: Remember, win. And this is what we want to do every year to continue to get back to the NCAA and have an opportunity to win a game in the NCAA.
Q. Last year here in the NCAAs you played Louisville, actually had the lead in the second quarter. How much does that game -- is that relevant at all for your players that are back, to come into this game here?
SANDRA RUSHING: Well, I think it helps. Last year we were nervous, really nervous, and I'm sure we're going to be nervous tomorrow. But that just goes along with the game. But we had the chance to experience that last year, and it's something we talked about all season long, about getting back to the NCAA and wanting to experience this again.
Like I said, I'm sure there will be some nerves tomorrow, but I just want to go out and let's play hard, let's compete, and this is great exposure for us, our program, our university, and just have an opportunity to play on the big stage on national television and everybody is watching and seeing. Of course we want to go in and represent the Southland very well.
Q. Maggie was saying nobody knew who the Sugar Bears were last year. Maybe they still don't. You said it's a great opportunity for your program. For the folks in Austin, who are the Sugar Bears? What are the Sugar Bears all about?
SANDRA RUSHING: Well, I think we've got the best mascot in the country, all right, and I get asked that all the time, the Sugar Bears. Somebody asked me where did it come from, and I said, it's just because we're sweet, Sugar Bears.
We're a program that really does the right thing. Our kids graduate. They work hard. They represent the community and our University well. They're gaining a whole lot of experience on and off the floor. I've got a great group of young ladies that, like I said, I'm really proud of, and just to watch them experience this and go through this really -- it warms your heart as a coach because you keep telling them hard work is going to pay off, and they're seeing the end result. It keeps them hungry to go back and want more.
Q. I was asking your players the difference now in your program compared to the first time -- I didn't know you had seven freshmen at the time. The biggest difference with your program now as opposed to --
SANDRA RUSHING: I didn't know I had seven, either, sorry. I was just thinking -- I had to think back. Sorry, go ahead.
Q. The biggest difference between their freshman year and their senior year with your program.
SANDRA RUSHING: Maturity. Absolutely, maturity. When you have freshmen coming in, of course they're superstars, and they're used to playing and shooting a lot, and I emphasize defense, and they bought in. That's the thing, you've got to have your players buy in if you're going to be successful. I've been very fortunate that this senior group has bought in, and Maggie and Bri, they have a very special chemistry on the floor, and that has come over time by them coming in and having to play.
They've been starting since their freshman year, and that just -- that says a lot about this program and where we started and then we've been able to bring people in to help contribute and help get us where we are.
