Back in the 2019-20 season, Texas A&M Corpus Christi won the Southland for the first time, going 17-3 in conference play. That team was led by some of the best players in program history like Dalesia Booth and Alexes Bryant and also featured a freshman who would arguably become the top player in Islanders history, Alecia Westbrook.

A year later, the Islanders were back under .500 in Southland play, making it appear that one big season was an illusion. It wasn't. The team was back to second in the conference standings in the 2021-22 campaign, then tied with Southeastern for the regular season title last year, and now sits in a three-way tie for the conference lead through two games this year, riding a conference-best six-game win streak.

The Islanders have never made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Could this be the year that changes?

Corpus sits at 10-5 on the season and has some pretty notable non-conference wins, beating UTRGV twice and knocking off Texas State. They also took UTSA to overtime before losing, 66-59. The team has opened conference play with wins over Houston Christian and UIW, both teams that were picked to finish in the top five in the conference preseason poll.

Through two conference games, the Islanders have a +19.1 net rating per CBB Analytics, second-best in the conference behind Lamar. The team is second in offensive and defensive rating, behind Lamar and Southeastern, respectively. Corpus looks like the most well-rounded team in the conference right now.

Zooming out to a full-season look at how Southland teams stack up—which is admittedly a flawed thing to draw too many conclusions from since there's such disparate strength of schedule—we find that the Islanders defense has been one of the biggest strengths this year, as the team had an 89.8 defensive rating, a number that leads the conference and ranks in the 69th percentile nationally.

Why has the defense been so good? Because the Islanders still have Alecia Westbrook in the middle of things.

Westbrook, now in her fifth season with the Islanders, is averaging 11.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game. She remains a well-rounded player who does a little bit of everything for Corpus. While she's struggling a bit to finish at the rim where she ranks in just the 31st percentile in field goal percentage, she's made up for that by shooting 52.9 percent percent on non-rim paint attempts, good for the 86th percentile. 

Her impact on the lineup is immense. The Islanders have a net rating of +4.7 in 249 minutes with Westbrook on the floor. That plummets to -18.4 in the 116 minutes that she's sat. The defense in particular has struggled when Westbrook sits. When she's on the floor, the Islanders allow 84.6 points per 100 possessions, which ranks in the 83rd percentile nationally. When she's off the floor, that drops to 101.3 points per 100 possessions, good for just the 18th percentile.

As has been the case for five years now, Alecia Westbrook's presence makes the Islanders a better basketball team.

Of course, she can't do it alone. Head coach Royce Chadwick consistently does a great job surrounding Westbrook with talented players. Paige Allen is averaging 7.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 27.3 percent from deep and 68.2 percent at the rim. Nabaweeyah McGill has bolstered things inside with her 1.6 blocks per contest. 

As a team, Corpus has done a great job creating contact and drawing fouls. They've drawn shooting fouls on 13.9 percent of their field goal attempts, which ranks in the 95th percentile, and have drawn floor fouls on 15.8 percent of total possessions, which ranks in the 99th percentile. This is a team that knows how to get to the foul line, and that ability helps create extra opportunities to score.

The team has also displayed a lot of unselfishness. 95.7 percent of Corpus' 3-point makes are assisted, which ranks in the 92nd percentile, and 53.6 percent of the 2-point makes are assisted, which ranks in the 91st percentile. This is a team that knows how to share the ball, with six players averaging at least one assist per game. It helps when you have a forward like Westbrook who can make plays with the ball so well, as her 2.5 assists lead the team. Guard Violeta Verono is third at 1.8 assists, just behind Tymberlin Criswell at 1.9.

Overall, this is an extremely talented basketball team. While so much of the success starts with Westbrook, a strong bench unit made up of Mireia Aguado and Tymberlin Criswell helps as well. In fact, playing those three together might be a cheat code for the team, as the Islanders have a +21.8 net rating in the 53 minutes they've shared the floor.

The Southland looks really competitive this year. Southeastern and Lamar are both very good teams and there are teams all up and down the conference who can get hot and upset one of those three on any given night. But in Westbrook's final collegiate season, it just makes sense that the Islanders win the conference regular season title, right? A bookending for a stellar career that began with the team's first title and, hopefully, ends with the program's first trip to March Madness.