Women’s Basketball Welcomes Temple to Alico Arena on Friday

FORT MYERS, Fla. – After cruising to an opening-night victory over Florida Memorial, the FGCU girls’s basketball group takes a step up in competitors, Friday night, after they host the Temple Owls. Tip-off from Alico Enviornment is about for six p.m.

The Eagles reached the century mark for the twenty third time in program historical past in 105-41 victory over Florida memorial, Tuesday night time to open the season whereas the Owls additionally opened up with a win, a 73-53 conquer Saint Francis (Pa.).

FOLLOW ALONG

As each Eagle dwelling sport this 12 months can be, Tuesday’s contest will can be broadcast on ESPN+. Tom James (PxP) and J. Webb Horton (Analyst) can be on the decision.

 

SERIES HISTORY

On this battle of the birds, the Eagles have gained each earlier conferences over the Owls. FGCU gained in Fort Myers, 78-69, final season after downing Temple, 93-67, in Philadelphia in 2019.

RAINING THREES IN ALICO

FGCU is 3,027-for-8,720 (.347) from the 3-point line inside Alico Enviornment all-time. General, the Eagles led the nation in three-pointers made per sport for the second season in a row and fourth time in program historical past, averaging 11.8 per contest in 2020-21. The Eagles have additionally made a three-pointer in 505 straight video games.

 

BEST IN NCAA HISTORY

FGCU entered the 2021-22 season with an all-time profitable proportion of .841, the very best amongst all Division I establishments. The truth is, the Eagles are the one Division I group above .800 as Tennessee sits in second at .799.

 

RING THE BELL
Junior Kierstan Bell (Alliance, Ohio/Canton McKinley/Ohio State) is coming off one of many biggest seasons in FGCU and ASUN historical past and picked up the place she left within the season opener. In opposition to Florida Memorial, Bell scored 22 factors and grabbed 9 rebounds whereas enjoying simply 20 minutes.
 
A 12 months in the past, Bell was named the ASUN Participant of the 12 months, the Becky Hammon Mid-Main Participant of the 12 months, and an Honorable Point out All-American by each the AP and the WBCA after averaging 24.3 factors and 10.6 rebounds per sport
 
To nobody’s shock, Bell entered this season because the ASUN Preseason Participant of the 12 months. She was additionally named to the Naismith Trophy Watch Checklist, the Wood Award Prime 50 watchlist, the Wade Prime 30 watchlist, the Becky Hammon Mid-Main Participant of the 12 months watch checklist in addition to the Ann Meyers-Drysdale Award watch checklist, which acknowledges the highest taking pictures guard in all of faculty basketball.
 
Most Profession Double-Doubles
FGCU’s Division I Period (2007-present)
 

 
MOREHOUSE RECOGNIZED
Senior Tishara Morehouse (Milwaukee, Wis./Rufus King/Western Nebraska CC) joined Bell on the ASUN Preseason Workforce as she was additionally a unanimous choice. She was additionally named to the Becky Hammon Mid-Main Participant of the 12 months watch checklist alongside Bell as effectively. Within the season-opener in opposition to Florida Memorial, Morehouse scored 15 factors and dished out a game-hight six assists.

GRADUATE TRANSFERS SHINE

Graduate college students Kendall Spray (Mt. Juliet, Tenn./Wilson Central/Clemson/UT Martin) and Karli Seay (Flossmoor, In poor health./Homewood-Flossmoor/LSU/Western Nebraska CC) every scored 12 factors of their debuts for the Inexperienced and Blue. Spray made a game-high 4 three-pointers as she now has 367 in her profession, second-most amongst lively gamers.

 

RARE TERRITORY

Tyra Cox (Orlando, Fla./Lake Highland Prep/William & Mary) completed final season with extra steals than turnovers, her third straight season carrying out the feat for FGCU. She grew to become simply the second participant in program historical past with three such seasons, however should do yet one more time to catch her former teammate, Alyssa Blair, who did all of it 4 years for the Inexperienced and Blue.

EXTREME CARE

The Eagles maintain the ball like few else in NCAA girls’s basketball. Each single participant on the group had a optimistic help to turnover ratio because the group ranked third nationally at 1.48 in 2020-21. Emma List ranked forty first within the nation individually at 2.21.

THE WINNING DOESN’T STOP

 

SMESKO’S PREPARATION

Coach Smesko’s sport preparation is among the most vital elements within the Eagles’ all-time success. General, in 20 seasons at FGCU, he holds a document of 195-33 (.855) in video games the place he has 4 or extra days to arrange.

STATE DOMINANCE

FGCU has gained 36 extra video games over the previous seven-plus seasons than another Division I group within the state of Florida.

    
LEGENDARY LEADER
On tempo to achieve 600 profession wins sooner than legendary coaches similar to Pat Summitt (734 video games) and Tara VanDerveer (767 video games), FGCU head coach Karl Smesko has compiled a 581-125 document (.823) in his profession, which ranks him because the third-winningest lively Division I head coach behind Geno Auriemma (1,119-144, .886) and Kim Mulkey (633-104, .859). Moreover, he handed VanDerveer (1,125-255, .815) in 2017-18 to change into the fifth-winningest Division I head coach of all-time – behind Auriemma, Leon Barmore (576-87, .869), Mulkey and Summit (1,098-208, .841). If that is not sufficient, he’s the Tenth-winningest lively head coach throughout all divisions, in addition to the Twelfth-winningest such coach all-time. 
 
AMONG THE NATION’S BEST
Getting into this 12 months, FGCU produced 205 wins over the previous seven seasons, which is essentially the most amongst all mid-majors and fifth-most amongst any Division I program – behind UConn (240), Baylor (228), South Carolina (210) and Maryland (206). The truth is, it places them forward of colleges similar to Louisville (204), Mississippi State (196), Notre Dame (195), Stanford (199), Oregon State (177) and Oregon (172). On high of that, this system is certainly one of solely 5 within the nation on the Division I stage with 4 30-win seasons throughout that stretch – becoming a member of UConn, Baylor, Notre Dame and South Carolina.
 
RARE AIR
The Eagles have registered a stage of sustained success matched by solely two different Division I colleges as Coach Smesko has guided FGCU to 11 straight 25-win seasons. Baylor and UConn are the one different groups to have 11 straight. FGCU has additionally recorded 17-straight 20-win seasons courting again to 2004-05.
 
FUN WITH NUMBERS AND STUFF

RAINING THREES LEGACY
At FGCU, Smesko has turned FGCU into one of many premier 3-point taking pictures groups within the nation as his groups have made a mixed 5,762-for-16,694 (.345) from lengthy vary over his 19+ years. The truth is, the Eagles have made a minimum of one 3-point area aim in 504­ straight video games, which incorporates each sport in this system’s Division I period. In 2020-21, the Eagles led the nation in 3-point area objectives made (343), 3-point area objectives tried (1,030) and 3-point area objectives per sport (11.8) for the second season in a row. In 2017-18, the Inexperienced and Blue made an NCAA Division I single season document 431 3-pointers, which stays a document coming into this season.
 
This is FGCU’s year-by-year 3-point historical past:
 

 
FGCU has additionally made a minimum of 10 or extra 3-point area objectives in a single sport 302 instances, together with a single-season document 25 instances in 2017-18. They’ve a minimum of 15 video games with a minimum of 10 or extra in every of the previous 13 seasons.
 
This is an inventory of FGCU’s all-time video games with a minimum of 10 made 3-pointers:
 

 
On high of that, the 2017-18 group produced three of this system’s seven video games all-time with a minimum of 20 or extra, and the Eagles have added 4 video games with 19 over the previous two seasons. This system’s single-game document of twenty-two was initially set on Jan. 12, 2013 in a 97-60 win over ETSU (22-for-43) on the street, and the 2017-18 group tied the mark at Abilene Christian (22-for-45) on Dec. 3 and at dwelling in opposition to Lipscomb (22-for-44) on March 7. The latter represents this system’s postseason mark, they usually personal three of the highest seven single-game totals in NCAA Division I historical past coming into the 2021-22 season. The truth is, there was solely 32 instances since 1988 that an NCAA Division I group had made a minimum of 20 3-point area objectives in a sport, and FGCU owns seven of these, or 21.9 p.c.
 
In 2020-21, FGCU grew to become the primary group in NCAA Division I girls’s basketball historical past to document six straight seasons with a minimum of 1,000 3-point area aim makes an attempt. Sacramento State achieved the yearly benchmark over 4 straight seasons from 2013-17 whereas DePaul’s three-year streak ended final season. The 2013-14 FGCU squad joined Sacramento State as the primary two groups to try 1,000 in a season.
 
Previous to breaking the single-season document for made 3-point area objectives in 2017-18, FGCU claimed a then single-season NCAA document 342 in 2011-12, which was the primary 12 months they had been eligible for NCAA statistical championships. Had they been eligible in 2010-11, in addition they would have led the nation with 350 – 26 greater than the second-place group. The 2009-10 group would have completed second. The truth is, over the previous 9 years, the Inexperienced and Blue have completed among the many nation’s high 5 in made 3-point area objectives yearly, together with three first-place finishes.
 
This is how FGCU has completed nationally in whole 3-point area objectives made since 2011-12:
 

 
Along with the aforementioned document, the 2011-12 group additionally set a then NCAA single season document for many 3-point area objectives made per sport at 10.7, they usually adopted it up in 2012-13 by making 9.4 per sport, which was essentially the most within the nation. In 2017-18, FGCU joined DePaul as the primary two groups to eclipse 400 made 3-point area objectives in a season in NCAA Division I historical past. The truth is, the Eagles stood out within the NCAA’s deepest 3-point taking pictures 12 months as eight groups averaged 10 or extra made per sport in 2017-18, which was equal to the overall from the earlier two seasons mixed and the identical as 2009-15 mixed. Six groups reached the milestone in 2018-19, 4 extra adopted in 2019-20, and 5 extra a season in the past. Among the many 17 groups to common a minimum of 10 or extra made per sport over a single season, FGCU is the one faculty to do it six instances.
 
This is how FGCU has completed nationally in whole 3-point area objectives made per sport since 2011-12:
 

 
For full protection of the ladies’s basketball program, observe the Eagles on Twitter and Instagram at @FGCU_WBB, on Facebook at /fgcuwbb and on-line at www.FGCUathletics.com. You may also sign-up to have information on FGCU girls’s basketball or different packages delivered on to your inbox by visiting www.fgcuathletics.com/email.

E.A.G.L.E. CAMPAIGN

IT TAKES A TEAM to attain our latest aim – a $10 million marketing campaign to handle student-athlete wants in continued tutorial success, life expertise, psychological well being, diet, and energy and conditioning in addition to departmental wants in facility enlargement and enchancment in addition to mentoring and management coaching for coaches and workers. The identify embodies our mission and the aim of the E.A.G.L.E. Marketing campaign – Eagle Athletics Producing Lifetime Excellence. Be part of Our Workforce and pledge your gift today to assist the Eagles of tomorrow!

 

SUPPORT THE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PROGRAM

Do you get pleasure from watching or following the FGCU girls’s basketball program? Would you prefer to play a job within the progress of this system and assist take it to heights by no means earlier than skilled? If that’s the case, you may attain out to Director of Development, Matt Ring, about alternatives to make an affect on the experiences of our student-athletes. He could be reached by e mail at mring@fgcu.edu or by workplace cellphone at 239-745-4434.

COACH SMESKO

FGCU head coach Karl Smesko maintains a document of 581-125 (.823) general in his profession, which is the third-highest profitable proportion amongst lively Division I coaches behind solely UConn’s Geno Auriemma and Baylor’s Kim Mulkey. He has additionally led the Eagles to a 217-17 (.927) mark in ASUN common season play and a 27-2 (.931) document in ASUN match play. Over the previous 10 seasons, he has guided FGCU to a 153-5 (.968) document in convention play with six undefeated seasons. The 11-time ASUN Coach of the 12 months has led this system to 11-straight 25-win seasons and 17-consecutive 20-win campaigns, together with 30-plus wins in 4 of the previous seven years. On high of all that, the Eagles are 520-98 all-time since Smesko began this system within the 2002-03 season, and the Inexperienced and Blue’s .841 all-time profitable proportion is the very best in NCAA Division I girls’s basketball historical past.

 

#FEEDFGCU

FGCU Athletics sponsors occasions in November and April to learn the FGCU Campus Meals Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Meals Financial institution (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics’ charities of selection. For extra data, together with tips on how to make a contribution, please go to www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and make the most of the hashtag #FeedFGCU to assist elevate consciousness.

 

ABOUT FGCU

FGCU groups have mixed to win an unbelievable 85 convention common season and match titles in simply 13+ seasons on the Division I stage. Moreover, in simply 9 seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a mixed 42 groups or people compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU packages have earned a top-25 nationwide rating of their respective sport – together with girls’s basketball (No. 21, 2020-21), seashore volleyball (No. 20, 2021) and each males’s soccer (2018, 2019) and ladies’s soccer (2018) as three of the newest. In 2016-17, the Inexperienced and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place end within the DI-AAA Learfield Administrators’ Cup and top-100 exhibiting nationally, forward of a number of Energy-5 and FBS establishments. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida finest seven groups earn the NCAA’s Public Recognition Award for his or her Educational Progress Charge of their sport. FGCU additionally collectively earned a document 3.50 GPA within the classroom within the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the final College undergraduate inhabitants for 23 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall, 2020 Spring, and 2020 Fall semesters every noticed one other milestone reached as all 15 packages achieved a 3.0-or-higher group GPA. The Eagles additionally served an all-time excessive 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – being acknowledged as certainly one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Group Service Award offered by the Fiesta Bowl.