Both men’s and women’s Sam Houston
State University basketball have wildly over-performed this season. After being
picked to finish sixth in the Southland Conference preseason poll, the men have
posted a 15-1 record, won the regular season and claimed the No. 1 seed in the
Southland Conference (SLC) tournament for the first time since 2010.
The women, predicted to finish dead
last in the preseason, propelled their way to a tournament berth after an
unpredictably successful season playing better than .500 basketball.
It has been a long time since
basketball was this good at Sam Houston State University. For the first time since the 2015-16 season
both the men’s and women’s basketball teams will be in the SLC Tournament in
Katy March 13-17.
Major Success for the Men
This is the school’s fourth overall
conference title and their first under head coach Jason Hooten, who took the
helm in 2011. Over the last six years, Hooten has led the Bearkats to five 20-plus
win seasons and has made the conference tournament in all but one of his nine
years at SHSU.
“Well you know we’ve been really
good and really successful here in my nine years as a head coach,” Hooten said.
“I think when you take a job and you go into coaching, your aspirations are
always to do that. Now I can just tell you how hard it is. We’ve had really
good teams, we’ve won 20 games four out of the last five years, but we haven’t
[won the conference]
and it’s just hard to get it done.”
Senior guard Cameron Delaney and
junior forward Kai Mitchell have led the success. Delaney is having a career
year, which could potentially lead to some postseason honors.
“I got news for you, I think
[Delaney] is going to be player of the year,” Hooten said. “He’s shooting over
50 percent from [three-point range] in conference, and you kind of think when
is it going to end, but he just keeps doing it every night.”
Delaney is leading the team in scoring,
averaging 13.5 PPG overall and 16 PPG in conference play. He is also second on
the team in rebounds, averaging 5.6 RPG on the season and 6.6 RPG in conference
play.
While Delaney has patrolled the
perimeter for the Bearkats, Mitchell has led the team in the paint. A transfer from Hutchinson Community College,
Mitchell has made a huge impact for the Bearkats in his first year on campus. Mitchell
is the team’s second leading scorer—averaging 13.5 PPG in conference play—and
the team’s leading rebounder averaging 7.3 RPG. This season Mitchell has been
the foundation of the Bearkats on both ends of the floor.
Wild Year for the Women
On the women’s side, they are going
to the tournament for the first time since the 2015-16 season when they arrived
at the tournament as the No. 8 seed before making a shocking run to the championship
game. This season the Bearkats will not
be arriving to Katy as the bottom-feeders, but in all likelihood the team will
be the No. 5 seed, the highest since the 2013 season when the ladies were
second.
Powered by the up-tempo style play
employed by first-year head coach Ravon Justice, the Bearkats have turned the
program around in just one season. The
team is number one nationally in free throws made per game (18.2) and number
four in the country in turnovers forced per game (23.4).
The returning player that this
stylistic change has helped the most is junior guard Jenniffer Oramas. Oramas has gone from averaging 10 PPG as a
sophomore and 12.7 PPG as a junior, but the biggest improvements in Oramas’
game has come in other areas. She has 47
steals this season after getting just 23 all of last year. She has also greatly improved her assist
numbers from 3.2 a season ago to 4.8.
A star for the Bearkats this season
has been junior guard Jaylonn Walker. A transfer
from McLennan Community College, she is the team’s leading scorer averaging
15.4 PPG, and coach Justice thinks Walker is deserving of some postseason
recognition.
Both teams will be in action in
Katy over Spring Break. The women will
begin play on Mar. 15 at 11 a.m. when they take on the eight seed which is
still to be determined. The men will
begin play Mar. 16 at 5 p.m. and will take on either the fourth seed, the fifth
seed or the eighth seed. They will need to win just two games in order to take
home the tournament title.