ASU women face big WNIT challenge in Rice 6-9 center Nancy Mulkey

The WNIT has never been easy for Arizona State women's basketball, and it won't be this year either.

In five previous WNIT appearances, ASU has not advanced past the second round, making a first-round exit three times.

Three of those appearances were in Charli Turner Thorne's early coaching years at ASU and another during her sabbatical year off in 2011-12.

Now, after missing out on the NCAA Tournament and postseason overall for the first time since 2013, ASU (11-10) is back in the WNIT with a young team that Turner Thorne believably says wants to be there: "They feel they can still play better basketball and have a chance to finish strong."

But Rice (18-4) is a big first-round challenge Friday in a literal sense since the Owls feature 6-9 senior Nancy Mulkey, three-time Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year. Mulkey averages 15.7 points and 8.1 rebounds and is fourth nationally in blocks per game (3.32).

ASU's tallest player is 6-4 Imogen Greenslade while starting posts Maggie Besselink and Katelyn Levings are 6-3. All are freshmen facing the tallest challenge of their still fledgling college careers.

"At least she's 6-9 and skinny vs. thick," Turner Thorne said. "She's really good. Tina (Langley, Rice coach) has done a phenomenal job with her, a lot runs through her. She's a true 6-9, I watched her play in high school. We've just got to contain her, not give herseals and second shots, the easy stuff. Then we've got to work her and make her defend."

Like with Oregon State's centers, Mulkey is a rim protector who doesn't stray from the key. She'll make it tough for freshman guard Jaddan Simmons or anyone else to get to the basket, putting a premium on ASU's perimeter shooting, which occasionally can be good but is far from reliable.

Rice is the significantly better shooting team — 47.8% to ASU's 33.4 overall, 38.2 to 27.5 3-point — although part of that can be attributed to the Sun Devils playing in the powerful Pac-12. ASU went 5-0 in non-conference games including wins over conference champions Stephen F. Austin and VCU.

Since losing 71-65 to USC on March 3 in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament, ASU has made progress in practice while waiting to find out if it would be selected for the 32-team WNIT.

"Our team has gotten tougher, better, closer," Turner Thorne said. "They've really maximized the time together. We've tried to be very creative and purposeful (in practice). I'm excited to see what they can do.

"Are we magically going to become this amazing efficient offensive team? No, we're not. So we really had to get back to what's been our strength all year long, which is our defense and rebounding. We're constantly working on our individual scoring and working to play better together and more efficiently offensively. It's not so much what we run as how we run it. We tried to get better at everything, and I think we did."

Rice also lost its most recent game, 68-65 to Middle Tennessee in the CUSA Tournament championship game last week. That sent the Owls to the WNIT instead of the NCAA Tournament, which conceivably could result in a letdown. 

Rice's most notable performance was a 57-53 December loss to No. 4 Texas A&M. ASU has a win over No. 11 Arizona and close losses to No. 2 Stanford and No. 9 UCLA (twice).

The WNIT is being played at four regional sites due to COVID-19 rather than at campus sites. ASU is playing in Fort Worth, Texas, and assured of a second game win or lose against either Fresno State (16-10) or Missouri (9-11) on Saturday. 

San Francisco (15-10), Houston (16-7), Cal Baptist (24-0) and New Mexico (15-4) also are in the Fort Worth regional, the winner of which advances to the WNIT final four in Memphis. 

Of those eight teams, ASU is lowest rated in RPI at No. 155 and second lowest in NET ranking at No. 95. So on paper, the Sun Devils are an underdog against Rice and probably any ensuing game in the region.

"There's teams in this tournament that are better than teams in the NCAA Tournament," Turner Thorne said. "It's going to be a great test for us and a March Madness setting in regards to the competition. We really hope we can win a number of games, do really well and obviously this is good postseason experience for us."

Up next

Rice vs. Arizona State, 9 a.m. Friday, Wilkerson-Greines Activity Center, Fort Worth, Texas, KAZG (1440 AM) — ASU (11-10) is playing in the WNIT for the first time since 2012, extending its postseason streak to seven years not including 2020 when the season ended without a postseason. Rice (18-4) is 5-3 in its last eight games including a 68-65 loss to Middle Tennessee in the Conference USA Tournament championship. The Owls' postseason streak is up to four (not including 2020 when like ASU they would have been in the NCAA Tournament). Owls graduate assistant Nicole Iademarco played at ASU in 2014-15 before transferring to Rice, where she played through 2019.

Reach the reporter at jeff.metcalfe@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8053. Follow him on Twitter @jeffmetcalfe.

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