2015-16 Hampton WBB Prospectus

Despite having its run of five consecutive MEAC Tournament championships snapped in 2014-15 with a 52-50 loss to Maryland Eastern Shore in the MEAC quarterfinals, the Hampton University women's basketball team still won 19 games, took home its fifth straight MEAC regular-season title, and advanced to the second round of the WNIT. The Lady Pirates' 45-42 first-round win over Drexel netted the program its first-ever postseason tournament victory at the Div. I level.
 
"We didn't accomplish our goal," head coach David Six, whose seventh season at the helm begins Friday evening at Iowa State, said. "At the end of the day, you want to win a championship. But to win 19 games with the schedule we had and to win the regular season for the fifth time in a row … we missed winning 20 games by one game, with the toughest strength-of-schedule in the country."
 
In addition to even more new hardware, the Lady Pirates also boasted the 2015 MEAC Player of the Year in guard Malia Tate-DeFreitas – marking the second time in three years the conference's top honor went to a Hampton player. Tate-DeFreitas led the MEAC in scoring last season, and she was joined by Third Team All-MEAC honoree Ryan Jordan and post player Kaylah Lupoe, who closed out her freshman season as a force in the paint.
 
All three of those ladies return for 2015-16, headlining eight returning letterwinners and a cast of six newcomers.
 

In the process of being the MEAC's top scorer, and one of the best scorers in all of Div. I last season, Tate-DeFreitas further cemented herself in the annals of the program's history. She became the 27th player in Lady Pirates history to reach 1,000 career points – doing so in just her sophomore season.
 
Heading into 2015-16, Tate-DeFreitas sits 11th in school history in scoring with 1,277 career points.
 
Not only did Tate-DeFreitas rank 14th in Div. I in scoring last season, she was also 15th in the country in steals with an average of three per contest. After locking up MEAC Rookie of the Year honors in 2014-15, Tate-DeFreitas averaged just over 21 points a game last season, with 21 20-point efforts and three 30-points games – including a career-high 39 points at Howard.
 
That effort set a program record for most points scored in a MEAC game.
 
"I think Malia has to take the next step as a leader," Six said. "Leadership doesn't always come from scoring; you have to be able to raise the level of play of people around you. Her defense needs to rival her offense."
 
But the Lady Pirates are more than just Tate-DeFreitas, and they're more than rising senior Jordan, who was a Third Team All-MEAC selection last season after averaging 8.5 points and almost six rebounds a contest. She had 12 double-digits scoring games last season, including a career-high 22 points at South Carolina State.
 
"As coaches, you spend most of your time with the star players," Six said. "But the key is your role players."
 
In that vain, one key role player emerged in the latter weeks of the 2014-15 season was Lupoe. The forward from Phoenix, Ariz. averaged 14.0 points and 7.7 rebounds a contest over the last seven games of the regular season – a stretch in which she recorded three double-doubles – including a 20-point, 13-rebound effort in the Lady Pirates' 106-57 win at Howard.
 
In fact, during those seven games, the Lady Pirates as a team averaged 78.4 points per game – up from their season-long average of 63.3 points per contest. But by Six's own admission, Lupoe didn't have enough touches in the tournament against UMES.
 
"(Lupoe) is a very unassuming … almost like a flower child kind of person," Six said. "We want her to have the understanding and the mentality of going into a boxing match. If she takes that next step, she can be really good."
 
Wing players Areana Davis and Kristine Rose will return this season, and Six specifically mentioned either one of them as potentially taking over the small forward position. Both players are in the 5-foot-11, 6-foot range and like to shoot the ball.
 
Guard Georgianna Gilbeaux also returns for 2015-16 after averaging just under a steal a game last season. In the frontcourt, Mikayla Sayle will return and Six expects Florida Tech transfer – and Virginia Beach, Va. native – Shaleise Boyd to be back after battling injuries for the better part of the past two seasons.
 
"Mikayla is probably the strongest player on our team," Six said. "She can bench-press about 185 (pounds) … if she can find a way to translate that from the weight room onto the basketball court, she has a chance to be really, really good."
 

Dejane' James was a top-10 player in her home state of Connecticut, and Six lauds her ball-handling and passing ability. James was an All-USA selection according to USA Today, and in 2013-14 she led Weaver High School to a 24-3 record and state championship game berth.
 
"She has tremendous wisdom on the court and great poise for such a young player," Six had said back when James signed with Hampton. "She is mature beyond her years on the basketball court. She's a scorer and she shoots the ball well."
 
Other incoming freshmen in the backcourt include K'lynn Willis and Natalie Williams. Willis, from Cass Technical in Detroit, Mich., is a quick and athletic guard who Six describes as "lightning in a bottle" who also has a good shooting touch.
 
Williams averaged 15 points and five rebounds at Columbia High School in Georgia last season, and the coaching staff lauds her defensive ability as well as her athletic prowess. Williams was also on Columbia's track & field team, where she primarily ran the 200-meter dash and the 4x100-meter relay.
 
Chanel Green will be seeing her first on-court action with the Lady Pirates this season after transferring over from East Carolina. She played 49 career games at East Carolina, totaling 45 assists. But Six calls her an explosive guard who is more athletic than former Lady Pirate Kyani White – who had also transferred from East Carolina.
 
"Chanel is the wild card," Six said. "Because if she's good, we have a chance to be really good."
 
Among the other newcomers heading into 2015-16 are incoming freshman Lea Whitehead, a 6-foot-3 forward from Laurel, Md., and JUCO transfer Kennedy Smith out of Arlington, Texas.
 
"We have a lot of big-time freshmen coming in, and the question is … can they do what (Tate-DeFreitas) did, come in and hit the ground running? There are a lot of questions," Six said. "And if those questions are answered favorably, then we're gonna be really good."
 

The Lady Pirates face another daunting non-conference slate this season, which includes a five-game road trip to open the season. That trek includes contests against NCAA Tournament teams Iowa State and Texas, as well as a rematch with WNIT participant Washington State.
 
All told, the 2015-16 schedule features six teams that made the NCAA Tournament last season – including nationally-ranked South Carolina and Princeton – and two WNIT teams. One of those will be a rematch with Drexel, the team Hampton beat in the first round last year.
 
Just three of Hampton's 13 non-conference games will be at home.
 
On the MEAC side of things, Hampton will be at home to play the two Florida schools – Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M – this season, as well as South Carolina State and defending MEAC Tournament champion Savannah State.

The slate also includes a trip to Greensboro, N.C. on Jan. 16 to take on preseason favorite North Carolina A&T, marking the first time Hampton will face the Aggies on the road since the 2010-11 season.
 
"Another challenging schedule," Six said. "We had a challenging schedule last year, and this is more of the same. But I feel like we've shored up some things in the offseason and I think we'll be ready to go and do better.
 
"We're looking forward to the challenge."