Last Thursday Texas A&M Corpus Christi beat Lamar 68-61 in the Southland women’s tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Islanders only won 6 games in 2021 but 3 years later they are heading to the NCAA tourney for the 1st time in program history. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Texas A&M Corpus Christi SR Alecia Westbrook about her team’s storybook season.
You were born/raised in Missouri: what made you choose Texas A&M-Corpus Christi? I was actually born in New Orleans but raised in Missouri. I was always in the cold so when I came here in the summer and saw the palm trees/weather I decided “Let’s do it!”
You play for Coach Royce Chadwick: what makes him such a good coach, and what is the most important thing that you have learned from him so far? His patience. I have been around him for 5 years and he makes sure that we understand what he is talking about. He is a great human being as well.
You started 11 games as a freshman and set a school freshman record with 30 BLK: how were you able to come in and contribute right from the start? I just learned from the 8 seniors I had in front of me: they taught me a lot while I got to play against them every day in practice.
Last year you were named conference POY & DPOY: what did it mean to you to receive such outstanding honors? It was amazing: I was the 1st person at my school to ever win both awards. I did not expect it and found out when my teammates told me in the weight room.
In the 2023 WNIT you had a double-double (11 PTS/11 REB) in a loss at Wyoming: what did you learn from that loss that you think will help you next week? Just to go out there and play because you never know if you will have another game. You need to leave everything on the line and play your hardest.
Last January you scored a career-high 27 PTS/9-10 FG in a 2-PT win at Incarnate Word: was it just 1 of those scenarios where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? I think so. They are a great team and every time we play at their place it seems to be a 1 or 2-PT game.
Last Saturday you became the 9th player in Southland women’s basketball history to be named 1st-team all-conference 3 times: how have you been able to remain so dominant throughout your college career? My coaches/teammates put me in positions to be that type of player, and then I just have to do what they expect me to do.
In the Southland tourney title game on Thursday you scored 17 PTS/6-6 FG in a 7-PT win over Lamar: how were you able to play your best when it mattered the most, and what did it mean to you to win a title? It was crazy! Winning the title was unreal: our teammates ran onto the court and Coach Chadwick was able to win another 1 so it was great for our entire community.
You led the league in RPG for 3 straight years from 2021-2023 and FTM for 3 straight years from 2022-2024: what is the secret to being a great rebounder/getting to the FT line? For rebounding it is about tracking the ball early: I know when my teammates will shoot it so I just follow the ball. For FT shooting I try to read the defense, get to the line, and then take my time once I get there.
What kind of seed do you think you deserve, and what kind of seed do you think you will get? I have no idea…but as long as we are playing I am good!
The Hoops HD Selection Committee – Friday, March 15th
Tonight was the second night of our Hoops HD Selection Committee meetings via Zoom conference call; we were able to vote more teams into the field in tonight’s voting as well as to begin seeding the top 6 seed lines in the tournament field. The first order of business was to nominate 8 more teams to add to the field (along with carryovers TCU, Colorado State and St. John’s); in this round of voting we added five more teams – Mississippi State, Seton Hall, New Mexico, Indiana State and Florida Atlantic. After each committee member ranked these teams one through eight, we added Colorado State, TCU, St. John’s and Mississippi State to the field. Seton Hall, New Mexico, Indiana State and Florida Atlantic all carried over to the next round of voting.
While we waited for more results to go final, we began the process of seeding the top 6 seed lines in the process. For the first round of voting, we debated and each individual member would nominate their top 12 teams on the Auto-Bid/At-Large board. We then took the top 12 teams and then ranked the teams 1 through 12. As you can see in the board above, our 1-line included UConn, Houston, Purdue and North Carolina; our 2-line included North Carolina, Arizona, Marquette and Iowa State.
The next step was to again have each person nominate their top 12 teams not yet seeded or carried over (the initial round of carryovers included Baylor, Creighton, Illinois and Duke); the top 8 teams would be added to the four carryover teams and we would rank this group of teams 1 through 12. Our 3-line included Baylor, Creighton, Kentucky and Duke; our 4-line included Illinois, Alabama, Kansas and Auburn. (The four carryovers were South Carolina, BYU, Texas Tech, and Saint Mary’s).
We repeated the process one more time to fill out the 5-line and 6-line; the 5-line had BYU, Texas Tech, Utah State and South Carolina; the 6-line had Saint Mary’s, San Diego State, Nevada and Gonzaga. The four teams that will carry over to the next round of seeding will be Florida, Clemson, Boise State and Texas.
After this, we took a break to watch other games go final; as a result of tonight’s games, we were assured of bids opening up in the Big East and Big 10. There is a possibility of bids being stolen out of the ACC thanks to NC State advancing to the ACC Championship as well as the Pac-12 thanks to Colorado and Oregon advancing to the Pac-12 Championship (even a stronger possibility considering both the Buffs and the Ducks remained Under Consideration at the end of the night). At the time this article was posted, New Mexico was leading Colorado State in the Mountain West semifinals – the Lobos could also steal the automatic bid here. Also remember that a bid will likely be stolen out of the Atlantic 10; there is a remote possibility that they could be a 1-bid league if Dayton is voted off the at-large board.
Therefore, we decided to only add two more teams to the at-large board tonight and vote in any remaining teams tomorrow night after more results go final. Each committee member nominated six teams to add for this round of voting; there was a three-way tie between Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Colorado that was broken when Texas A&M and Oklahoma advanced via roll-call vote. Both teams were ranked along with the four carryover teams one through six; Florida Atlantic was finally added to the field on their fourth attempt and Seton Hall was also added to the field. Texas A&M and Oklahoma will carry over to the next round of at-large voting; New Mexico and Indiana State moved back to Under Consideration after failing ot advance on back-to-back votes. There was also a motion to add Oregon to the Under Consideration board that successfully passed, but it was more of a procedural move since the Ducks are basically playing the role of bid thief tomorrow night.
Tomorrow night will be the busiest night for our Committee; we will do a further scrub of the Under Consideration board and entertain any potential motions to move teams off of the At-Large board (for example, Dayton’s at-large spot could potentially be moved back to Under Consideration if there are enough votes to do so). We will do a final round of voting in teams along with any contingency spots (SEC, ACC, Pac-12, Mountain West, American) that can open along the way. We will also finish seeding the rest of the field and do an initial scrub of the seed list to account for game results and debate from our Committee to make any changes that we feel are necessary.
Stay tuned to the website tomorrow to see how our initial seed list plays out!