2008 Houston Comets season

2008 Houston Comets season
Head Coach Karleen Thompson
Arena Reliant Arena
Results
Record 1717
(.500)
Place 5th (Western)
Playoff Finish Did not qualify
Houston Comets seasons
< 2007 2009 >

The 2008 WNBA season was the 12th and final season for the Houston Comets. The Comets were not able to return to the postseason for the first time since 2006. By season's end, Comets owner Hilton Koch put the franchise up for sale less than two years after he bought it.[1]

Offseason

Expansion Draft

[2]

WNBA Draft

Pick Player Nationality School/Club Team
5 Matee Ajavon  United States Rutgers
17 Erica White  United States LSU
31 Crystal Kelly  United States Western Kentucky

[3]

Transactions

[4]

Preseason

Date Opponent Score Result Record
May 1 San Antonio 74-68 Win 1-0
May 9 Connecticut 80-88 Loss 1-1
May 13 Washington 66-72 Loss 1-2

[5]

Regular season

In a game against the Detroit Shock on July 24, Shock player Nancy Lieberman broke her own record for being the oldest player in the WNBA.[6] Lieberman, a Hall of Famer since 1999, was 39 years old when she played with Phoenix during the league's first year in 1997.

Nancy Lieberman played nine minutes and had two assists.[7] One of the assists included a no-look pass in the closing minutes of the Detroit Shock's 79-61 loss to the Houston Comets on July 24.

Season standings

Western Conference W L PCT GB Home Road Conf.
San Antonio Silver Stars x 24 10 .706 15–2 9–8 10–10
Seattle Storm x 22 12 .647 2.0 16–1 6–11 13–7
Los Angeles Sparks x 20 14 .588 4.0 12–5 8–9 12–8
Sacramento Monarchs x 18 16 .529 13–4 5–12 6.0 9–11
Houston Comets o 17 17 .500 7.0 13–4 4–13 10–10
Minnesota Lynx o 16 18 .471 8.0 10–7 6–11 8–12
Phoenix Mercury o 16 18 .471 8.0 9–8 7–10 8–12

Season Schedule

Date Opponent Score Result Record
May 17 @ Detroit 66-85 Loss 0-1
May 25 @ Washington 66-69 Loss 0-2
May 27 vs. Minnesota 92-98 (OT) Loss 0-3
May 30 @ Sacramento 66-73 Loss 0-4
June 1 @ Seattle 63-64 Loss 0-5
June 3 vs. San Antonio 75-72 Win 1-5
June 6 @ New York 73-81 Loss 1-6
June 7 @ Indiana 75-84 Loss 1-7
June 14 vs. Seattle 68-60 Win 2-7
June 16 vs. Atlanta 88-79 Win 3-7
June 18 vs. Washington 63-67 Loss 3-8
June 21 @ Minnesota 72-65 Win 4-8
June 24 @ San Antonio 82-81(OT) Win 5-8
June 26 vs. San Antonio 77-71 Win 6-8
June 28 vs. Indiana 75-61 Win 7-8
July 1 @ Connecticut 68-78 Loss 7-9
July 3 @ Atlanta 72-65 Win 8-9
July 5 vs. Sacramento 73-65 Win 9-9
July 8 @ Phoenix 94-99 Loss 9-10
July 9 @ Los Angeles 74-82(OT) Loss 9-11
July 12 @ Minnesota 71-85 Loss 9-12
July 17 vs. Minnesota 96-88 Win 10-12
July 19 vs. Los Angeles 75-72(OT) Win 11-12
July 22 vs. Phoenix 94-92 Win 12-12
July 24 vs. Detroit 79-61 Win 13-12
July 26 vs. Chicago 79-65 Win 14-12
August 28 @ Seattle 49-66 Loss 14-13
August 30 @ Sacramento 65-80 Loss 14-14
September 2 vs. New York 87-90(OT) Loss 14-15
September 6 vs. Los Angeles 66-84 Loss 14-16
September 7 @ Phoenix 74-99 Loss 14-17
September 9 vs. Connecticut 75-68 Win 15-17
September 14 @ Chicago 79-76 Win 16-17
September 15 vs. Sacramento 90-81 Win 17-17

[8]

Player stats

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game

Regular season

Player GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
Tina Thompson 30 29 35.8 .412 .403 .859 6.9 2.1 1.1 0.7 18.1
Michelle Snow 34 34 25.2 .529 .500 .697 6.8 1.3 0.5 0.9 9.9
Tamecka Dixon 24 20 26.4 .403 .154 .857 3.2 1.8 1.0 0.1 9.0
Sancho Lyttle 27 9 18.1 .582 .000 .745 6.2 0.9 1.5 1.0 8.2
Matee Ajavon 34 2 17.8 .331 .191 .791 1.8 1.7 0.9 0.2 8.0
Hamchétou Maïga-Ba 26 22 22.7 .492 .500 .692 3.3 1.5 1.3 0.3 7.8
Shannon Johnson 33 32 30.7 .379 .320 .747 3.2 5.1 1.6 0.3 7.7
Roneeka Hodges 15 6 18.3 .418 .366 1.000 2.0 1.3 0.3 0.1 7.3
Mwadi Mabika 20 11 16.4 .303 .274 .714 1.9 0.9 0.5 0.0 4.6
Mistie Williams 32 0 11.4 .505 .000 .549 2.4 0.6 0.4 0.3 3.8
Erica White 34 2 12.5 .284 .143 .897 1.4 1.4 0.7 0.1 3.6
Sequoia Holmes 17 3 11.9 .258 .235 .727 2.1 0.6 0.5 0.1 3.1
Latasha Byears 11 0 4.2 .471 .000 .667 1.1 0.1 0.3 0.0 1.6
Ashley Shields 3 0 4.0 .000 .000 .500 0.0 0.3 0.3 0.0 0.7
Marcedes Walker 2 0 5.5 .000 .000 .000 3.5 0.5 0.0 0.5 0.0

Roster

Houston Comets roster
Players Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Height Weight DOB From
G 1 United States Ajavon, Matee 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) 160 lb (73 kg) Rutgers
G/F 00 United States Byears, Latasha 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) 206 lb (93 kg) DePaul
G 20 United States Dixon, Tamecka 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) 148 lb (67 kg) Kansas
G 15 United States Hodges, Roneeka 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) 165 lb (75 kg) Florida State
G/F 17 United States Holmes, Sequoia 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 155 lb (70 kg) UNLV
G 41 United States Johnson, Shannon 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) 152 lb (69 kg) South Carolina
F 21 United States Lyttle, Sancho 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 175 lb (79 kg) Houston
G 4 Democratic Republic of the Congo Mabika, Mwadi 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) 165 lb (75 kg) Democratic Republic of the Congo
G/F 99 Mali Maïga-Ba, Hamchétou 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 160 lb (73 kg) Old Dominion
C 2 United States Snow, Michelle 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 158 lb (72 kg) Tennessee
F 7 United States Thompson, Tina 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 178 lb (81 kg) Southern California
G 5 United States White, Erica 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) 135 lb (61 kg) LSU
F 8 United States Williams, Mistie 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 184 lb (83 kg) Duke
Head coach
Assistant coaches
Athletic trainer
  • United States Courtney Watson
Strength and conditioning coach
  • United States Virgil Campbell

Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (FA) Free agent
  • (IN) Inactive
  • (S) Suspended
  • Injured

Awards and honors

Final Days

On December 1, 2008, the WNBA announced a plan to fold the team, which resulted in the loss of 37 jobs.[9] A dispersal draft took place on December 8, 2008. Before the team folded, they were possibly going to move to Las Vegas, Nevada, but the plan didn't work out.

What turned out to be the team's final home game in its history was relocated from the Reliant Arena to the Strahan Coliseum on the campus of Texas State due to Hurricane Ike. The game was played on September 15, 2008 as the Comets defeated the Sacramento Monarchs 90-81.

References

External links

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