As we have had in the past it is time for another post with power rankings for the women's side of the league. Thanks again to the writer who likes to be called bigskywbball.
After the first weekend of Big Sky conference play, I am hesitant to make drastic changes to who I think are the best teams in the Big Sky. Montana State and Idaho State remain in the top spots as the teams with the best inside/outside balance along with some hint of consistency. Road wins are extremely valuable in the Big Sky and MSU (over PSU) and UM(over EWU) both picked up big road wins. Outside of those games, home teams stood firm.
Score in parenthesis is a conference power score (+2 for road win, +1 for home win, -1 for home loss)
1 - Montana State (+2) - 20+ turnovers on the road usually equals a 20 point blowout. The Cats were fortunate to be in the game down the stretch at Eastern Washington, but there is no overcoming giving your opponent that many more possessions. MSU bounced back very well winning at Portland State in impressive fashion.
2 - Idaho State (+1) - I still like their balance, but I also think that a team needs a "go-to" presence. Who will it be for Idaho State? If they can get a split on the MSU/UM road trip, they will be well on their way to being an elite Big Sky team this year.
3 - Northern Colorado (+1) - The Bears have been a bit under the radar during the non conference season, but they are one of 3 teams with 9 wins right now and the only team other than MSU with more than 2 road wins. UNCO has the most dynamic talent in D'Shara Strange and a strong inside presence with Oosdyke and Lockridge.
4 - Montana (+2) - They still can't shoot, but wow they can defend and make the game ugly. If Selvig can dictate tempo and keep games under 60 points, the Lady Griz will be hard to beat. If they can't control the tempo and have to play a game in the 70s, it will be difficult for Montana to be successful. Either way, this is a very similar team to last year's team that played defense and rebounded their way to a Big Sky Tournament Championship.
5 - Portland State (-1) - I mentioned it in every poll... The Viks have no post presence and will struggle with teams that do (MSU, ISU, UNC, UM). Kate Lanz is a force and may be a first team All Conference player, but will it be enough against more balanced teams?
6 - Eastern Washington (0) - A home win and a home loss tells us what we already know about Eastern Washington. They are terribly inconsistent. Brianne Ryan may be considered an MVP front runner, but the Eagles will need to be more consistent as the season moves on for Ryan to achieve the individual awards.
7 - Sac State (+2) - Sac is leading the Big Sky right now at 2-0, but two home wins against NAU and Weber State are to be expected. Sac is definitely improved, but I don't think they are close to the same class as the top 6 teams. (0-6 on the road)
8 - Northern Arizona (0) - Two road losses is par for the course. It doesn't get much easier at home this week as they take on EWU and PSU. (0-8 on the road)
9 - Weber State (0) - The Cats played Sac tough for 35 minutes but couldn't break through on the road. This is a team that will continue to get better as the season carries on and will be a team to not overlook come second round of conference. (0-7 on the road)
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Showing posts with label Guest Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guest Post. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Monday, December 5, 2011
Guest Post: 12-5-11 Big Sky Women's Basketball Rankings
As we have had in the past it is time for another post with power rankings for the women's side of the league. Thanks again to the writer who likes to be called bigskywbball.
Sorry, I took last week off from the poll, non d1 wins and road tournaments had the power poll in shambles. But, after a good week of tough games, I am ready to give the power poll another shot! Score in parenthesis is a power score (+2 for road win, +1 for home win, +1 for neutral win, +0.5 for non D1 win, -1 for home loss)
1 - Montana State (8) - MSU threw away a chance for a big win against a weak Big 10 team last weekend against Wisconsin. Even with that missed opportunity, the Cats had big home wins against Utah State and Colorado State and a road win against a very tough North Dakota. Katie Bussey is the best scorer in the league but the Bobcats have had great balance in all their games.
Best Win - @ Portland, @North Dakota
Key Stat - The Cats have an impressive A/TO ratio of 156/143 while their opponents are struggling 111/166
2 - Idaho State (6) - After a frigid start, Kaela Oakes is back running the show in Pocatello and helped lead the Bengals to a pair of wins at the Air Force Classic this past weekend. Both Oakes and Ashleigh Vella were named to the all tournament team with Vella being named tournament MVP. The Bengals main weakness is Montana State's biggest strength (Turnovers) and that is why ISU is still at #2.
Best Win - vs. South Florida
Key Stat - Not a single player for ISU has an A/TO ratio greater than 1.0
3 - Portland State (3) - The Viks have played a very difficult schedule thus far and have won the games they should have won and lost the games they should have lost. A loss to cross town rival Portland hurts the Viks in this poll. Portland has beating PSU and UM but lost to EWU and MSU. Kate Lanz has stepped up and provided Portland State with the best backcourt in the Big Sky, but will the Viks have any answer for the Big Sky's best bigs (Baker, Semansky, Vella, Oosdyke)?
Best Win - vs. Nevada
Key Stat - Teams are shooting a whopping 53.8% from inside the 3pt arc against the Viks (No post presence)
4 - Northern Colorado (5.5) - Winners of 4 of their last 5, the Bears have turned it around after a slow start. Still having a hard time figuring them out as I am sure Coach White is having the same problem figuring out which team is going to show up each night. The Bears put up 71 points in an impressive road win over Air Force followed by grinding out an ugly 44-39 win at home against UCSB. What I do know is that Strange and Oosdyke are elite players in the Big Sky and that is good enough to keep them in the 4 spot.
Best Win - vs. Colorado State
Key Stat - Take Kaisha Brown out of the lineup and the Bears are a dismal 6-33 (18%) from 3 point range.
5 - Montana (4.5) - It is great to see Torry Hill warming up from 3, but the rest of the Lady Griz are 13 - 98 (13%) from 3 on the season. We will know if Montana is for real Monday night as they take on a very good Denver team in Denver.
Best Win - @ Wyoming
Key Stat - For the first time in forever, the Lady Griz are shooting less free throws (100) than their opponents (123)
6 - Eastern Washington (3.5) - Its been an up and down season thus far for the Eagles. Brianne Ryan had an MVP caliber November but tough games with Gonzaga and Boise State will tell us if the Eagles are for real.
Best Win - @ Portland
Key Stat - Eastern Washington is giving up 14.0 offensive rebounds per game.
7 - Northern Arizona (4.5) - NAU 5 - 0 at home and 0-4 on the road. That kind of pattern is good enough to finish somewhere in the middle of the Big Sky which is more than I am willing to give the Jacks at this point in time.
Best Win - vs. UC Riverside
Key Stat - NAU in Flagstaff: 70.4 ppg NAU on road: 55.3 ppg
8 - Sacramento State (3) - Sac has matched its win total from the 10-11 season. Are things turning around at Sac?
Best Win - vs. SIU - Edwardsville
Key Stat - The Hornets still love to shoot it from deep, taking 36.1% of their shots from beyond the arc.
9 - Weber State (0) - Not a lot to be excited about in Ogden although it appears that Coach Ord is doing some fine work recruiting.
Best Win - San Jose State
Key Stat - The Wildcats are sending their opponents to the Free Throw line an average of 23.4 times per game
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
Sorry, I took last week off from the poll, non d1 wins and road tournaments had the power poll in shambles. But, after a good week of tough games, I am ready to give the power poll another shot! Score in parenthesis is a power score (+2 for road win, +1 for home win, +1 for neutral win, +0.5 for non D1 win, -1 for home loss)
1 - Montana State (8) - MSU threw away a chance for a big win against a weak Big 10 team last weekend against Wisconsin. Even with that missed opportunity, the Cats had big home wins against Utah State and Colorado State and a road win against a very tough North Dakota. Katie Bussey is the best scorer in the league but the Bobcats have had great balance in all their games.
Best Win - @ Portland, @North Dakota
Key Stat - The Cats have an impressive A/TO ratio of 156/143 while their opponents are struggling 111/166
2 - Idaho State (6) - After a frigid start, Kaela Oakes is back running the show in Pocatello and helped lead the Bengals to a pair of wins at the Air Force Classic this past weekend. Both Oakes and Ashleigh Vella were named to the all tournament team with Vella being named tournament MVP. The Bengals main weakness is Montana State's biggest strength (Turnovers) and that is why ISU is still at #2.
Best Win - vs. South Florida
Key Stat - Not a single player for ISU has an A/TO ratio greater than 1.0
3 - Portland State (3) - The Viks have played a very difficult schedule thus far and have won the games they should have won and lost the games they should have lost. A loss to cross town rival Portland hurts the Viks in this poll. Portland has beating PSU and UM but lost to EWU and MSU. Kate Lanz has stepped up and provided Portland State with the best backcourt in the Big Sky, but will the Viks have any answer for the Big Sky's best bigs (Baker, Semansky, Vella, Oosdyke)?
Best Win - vs. Nevada
Key Stat - Teams are shooting a whopping 53.8% from inside the 3pt arc against the Viks (No post presence)
4 - Northern Colorado (5.5) - Winners of 4 of their last 5, the Bears have turned it around after a slow start. Still having a hard time figuring them out as I am sure Coach White is having the same problem figuring out which team is going to show up each night. The Bears put up 71 points in an impressive road win over Air Force followed by grinding out an ugly 44-39 win at home against UCSB. What I do know is that Strange and Oosdyke are elite players in the Big Sky and that is good enough to keep them in the 4 spot.
Best Win - vs. Colorado State
Key Stat - Take Kaisha Brown out of the lineup and the Bears are a dismal 6-33 (18%) from 3 point range.
5 - Montana (4.5) - It is great to see Torry Hill warming up from 3, but the rest of the Lady Griz are 13 - 98 (13%) from 3 on the season. We will know if Montana is for real Monday night as they take on a very good Denver team in Denver.
Best Win - @ Wyoming
Key Stat - For the first time in forever, the Lady Griz are shooting less free throws (100) than their opponents (123)
6 - Eastern Washington (3.5) - Its been an up and down season thus far for the Eagles. Brianne Ryan had an MVP caliber November but tough games with Gonzaga and Boise State will tell us if the Eagles are for real.
Best Win - @ Portland
Key Stat - Eastern Washington is giving up 14.0 offensive rebounds per game.
7 - Northern Arizona (4.5) - NAU 5 - 0 at home and 0-4 on the road. That kind of pattern is good enough to finish somewhere in the middle of the Big Sky which is more than I am willing to give the Jacks at this point in time.
Best Win - vs. UC Riverside
Key Stat - NAU in Flagstaff: 70.4 ppg NAU on road: 55.3 ppg
8 - Sacramento State (3) - Sac has matched its win total from the 10-11 season. Are things turning around at Sac?
Best Win - vs. SIU - Edwardsville
Key Stat - The Hornets still love to shoot it from deep, taking 36.1% of their shots from beyond the arc.
9 - Weber State (0) - Not a lot to be excited about in Ogden although it appears that Coach Ord is doing some fine work recruiting.
Best Win - San Jose State
Key Stat - The Wildcats are sending their opponents to the Free Throw line an average of 23.4 times per game
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
Friday, December 2, 2011
Guest Post: Northern Colorado And The 'Disease of More'
We have another guest blog from poster MP, who last wrote about Northern Arizona. Today, he chimes in on the Bears loss to Westminster College.
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“Success is often the first step toward disaster.”
I am a University of Northern Colorado student. At 2:00 on Thursday afternoon, my roommates asked if we should go to the Bears game that night against an NAIA opponent, the Westminster College Griffins. After a few seconds of deliberation, we all unanimously decided against it. We believed that with the opposition being a school that we had never heard of until UNC’s schedule came out at the end of summer, mixed with final exams starting next week, our time could be better spent.
So I went to the library to study, keeping up with the score on my phone. I noticed at halftime, the Griffins held a 32-29 edge over the Bears. “The Bears just came out sloppy, they will take care of business in the second half,” I thought to myself. About 30 minutes later, I checked the score again, and saw Westminster had taken a 16-point lead with 4 minutes left.
A couple minutes after that, I looked at my phone again, only to see this:
Westminster (UT) 73 Northern Colorado 60 FINAL.
I left the library. I needed to clear my head.
You see, last year’s run of winning the conference and advancing to the NCAA Tournament was the stuff made of dreams. All of it still seems like a blur eight months later. When I decided to come to the University of Northern Colorado in 2008, the school was mired in the middle of their Division I transition. There wasn’t a lot of school spirit on campus, because it’s tough to get inspired over athletic teams that were being beaten handily by opponents that were bigger, faster, and stronger than us.
Flash forward to last season. Tad Boyle had done one of the most incredible coaching jobs in the nation to have Northern Colorado poised to make a big run for the conference title before he left to take the job at the University of Colorado. B.J. Hill, who had been Boyle’s right hand man through the climb from the bottom to the top, guided the Bears to that fairy tale journey that culminated on that Wednesday night in early March at Butler-Hancock, when UNC defeated Montana to take the conference crown, and go to The Dance.
Now, in present day, we are here. A night in which the Bears suffered their most discouraging, most embarrassing loss since the initial days of the Division I transition.
This is where Pat Riley’s “Disease of More” comes in. Life is filled with ups and downs, peaks and valleys. Sometimes those peaks come to us at an early time in our careers, when there is still work to be done in the future. Six players (Mike Proctor, Elliott Lloyd, Paul Garnica, Tate Unruh, Emmanuel Addo and Connor Osborne) all played valuable minutes in last year’s title team. No matter what, they will always have “Big Sky Champions” tied to their name. They could lose every game for the rest of their career, but they will still have that honor tied to them forever.
But, their jobs aren’t done, they still have eligibility remaining. The only thing more difficult in life than reaching success is duplicating that same success all over again.
The “Disease of More” is what keeps coaches awake at night. As Riley put it, after a championship of any sort; guys want more playing time, more shots, more respect. But in doing so, they forget the essence of what made the season prior so special and so successful. I’m not necessarily trying to diagnose this “disease” on this UNC team, but there appears to be early symptoms of it showing up in December.
The six aforementioned returning players can bask in that 2010-2011 season all they want when their careers are over. But for now, there is work to do. There are nine newcomers to this team who want to go through those same peaks that they didn’t get to experience first-hand a year ago, newcomers who are looking for that leadership to take them to the top. Three-and-a-half weeks into the regular season, it has yet to show up.
The veterans on this Northern Colorado team have to ask themselves, how will I be remembered here? As a player who was on that one NCAA Tournament team and settled after that? Or the player who made the University of Northern Colorado a successful, revered program year-in and year-out?
That’s what’s at stake here for these Bears. They will have a few weeks to shake free this debacle and gear up for the official start of conference play, and that is when everyone will find out who they really are. And maybe, just maybe, they can flip some words around in Pat Riley’s iconic phrase around to being:
“Disaster is the first step toward success.”
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
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“Success is often the first step toward disaster.”
- Pat Riley, from his book, “Showtime”, talking about a phrase he coined, the “Disease of More”.
I am a University of Northern Colorado student. At 2:00 on Thursday afternoon, my roommates asked if we should go to the Bears game that night against an NAIA opponent, the Westminster College Griffins. After a few seconds of deliberation, we all unanimously decided against it. We believed that with the opposition being a school that we had never heard of until UNC’s schedule came out at the end of summer, mixed with final exams starting next week, our time could be better spent.
So I went to the library to study, keeping up with the score on my phone. I noticed at halftime, the Griffins held a 32-29 edge over the Bears. “The Bears just came out sloppy, they will take care of business in the second half,” I thought to myself. About 30 minutes later, I checked the score again, and saw Westminster had taken a 16-point lead with 4 minutes left.
A couple minutes after that, I looked at my phone again, only to see this:
Westminster (UT) 73 Northern Colorado 60 FINAL.
I left the library. I needed to clear my head.
You see, last year’s run of winning the conference and advancing to the NCAA Tournament was the stuff made of dreams. All of it still seems like a blur eight months later. When I decided to come to the University of Northern Colorado in 2008, the school was mired in the middle of their Division I transition. There wasn’t a lot of school spirit on campus, because it’s tough to get inspired over athletic teams that were being beaten handily by opponents that were bigger, faster, and stronger than us.
Flash forward to last season. Tad Boyle had done one of the most incredible coaching jobs in the nation to have Northern Colorado poised to make a big run for the conference title before he left to take the job at the University of Colorado. B.J. Hill, who had been Boyle’s right hand man through the climb from the bottom to the top, guided the Bears to that fairy tale journey that culminated on that Wednesday night in early March at Butler-Hancock, when UNC defeated Montana to take the conference crown, and go to The Dance.
Now, in present day, we are here. A night in which the Bears suffered their most discouraging, most embarrassing loss since the initial days of the Division I transition.
This is where Pat Riley’s “Disease of More” comes in. Life is filled with ups and downs, peaks and valleys. Sometimes those peaks come to us at an early time in our careers, when there is still work to be done in the future. Six players (Mike Proctor, Elliott Lloyd, Paul Garnica, Tate Unruh, Emmanuel Addo and Connor Osborne) all played valuable minutes in last year’s title team. No matter what, they will always have “Big Sky Champions” tied to their name. They could lose every game for the rest of their career, but they will still have that honor tied to them forever.
But, their jobs aren’t done, they still have eligibility remaining. The only thing more difficult in life than reaching success is duplicating that same success all over again.
The “Disease of More” is what keeps coaches awake at night. As Riley put it, after a championship of any sort; guys want more playing time, more shots, more respect. But in doing so, they forget the essence of what made the season prior so special and so successful. I’m not necessarily trying to diagnose this “disease” on this UNC team, but there appears to be early symptoms of it showing up in December.
The six aforementioned returning players can bask in that 2010-2011 season all they want when their careers are over. But for now, there is work to do. There are nine newcomers to this team who want to go through those same peaks that they didn’t get to experience first-hand a year ago, newcomers who are looking for that leadership to take them to the top. Three-and-a-half weeks into the regular season, it has yet to show up.
The veterans on this Northern Colorado team have to ask themselves, how will I be remembered here? As a player who was on that one NCAA Tournament team and settled after that? Or the player who made the University of Northern Colorado a successful, revered program year-in and year-out?
That’s what’s at stake here for these Bears. They will have a few weeks to shake free this debacle and gear up for the official start of conference play, and that is when everyone will find out who they really are. And maybe, just maybe, they can flip some words around in Pat Riley’s iconic phrase around to being:
“Disaster is the first step toward success.”
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Guest Post: 11/22/11 Big Sky Women's Basketball Rankings
Just like last week, we have a guest post with rankings of the Women's teams in the Big Sky. The writer identifies himself as bigskywbball.
Week 2 of non-conference play in the Big Sky didn't do much to clear anything up and really, nonconference means extremely little in the big picture for the Big Sky and the NCAA tournament. Still a whole lot of wait and see. There were big home wins by ISU (vs. Boise) and EWU (vs. San Diego) and huge performances by the Big Sky's elite players: Jones, Bussey, Semansky, Ryan, Baker, Jeppeson.
(Number in parenthesis is quality win points. +2 for road win, +1 for home win, +0.5 for non D1 win, -1 for home loss)
1 - Portland State (2) - A close road loss to a Pac 12 team isn't enough to bump the Vikings out of the top spot. Still concerned about post presence for PSU, but wow their guards are good!
2 - Montana State (3) - Two home wins are great but against non division one teams still don't tell us much about the Bobcats. The duo of Bussey and Semansky look to be the most potent 1-2 punch in the league, the question will be bench depth and a consistent #3 scorer.
3 - Idaho State (3) - Great home win and a bad road loss leave us still scratching our heads about my prediction that the BSC Tourney will be in Pocatello in March. It will be interesting to see how the Bengals hold up as they go on the road for the next few weeks.
4 - Montana (1.5) - The Bad News - The Lady Griz are shooting 11% from 3 this season. The Good News - If teams still can't stop Katie Baker when the LG are shooting that bad. What will she be able to do if they start hitting a few 3's?
5 - Eastern Washington (1.5) - Big home win against San Diego has bumped the Eagles up a few spots this week. How will they fair against an Oregon State team that beat down Montana State by 30?
6 - Northern Colorado (2) - Have absolutely no idea about this team. They are talented enough to compete for the Big Sky Championship and inconsistent enough to not make the tournament. Scored 37 points against an average Santa Clara team and 85 two nights later against San Fransisco.
7 - Northern Arizona (1.5) - Two tough road losses don't tell us much about a team. The home game a few nights later does...wait and see Jacks
8 - Weber State (-1) - The hardest early season schedule in the Big Sky could make the Wildcats tough...could also crush their confidence in a new system.
9 - Sac State (0) - They beat Long Beach State 74-67... If they have changed styles, perhaps they have a chance to be competitive.
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
Week 2 of non-conference play in the Big Sky didn't do much to clear anything up and really, nonconference means extremely little in the big picture for the Big Sky and the NCAA tournament. Still a whole lot of wait and see. There were big home wins by ISU (vs. Boise) and EWU (vs. San Diego) and huge performances by the Big Sky's elite players: Jones, Bussey, Semansky, Ryan, Baker, Jeppeson.
(Number in parenthesis is quality win points. +2 for road win, +1 for home win, +0.5 for non D1 win, -1 for home loss)
1 - Portland State (2) - A close road loss to a Pac 12 team isn't enough to bump the Vikings out of the top spot. Still concerned about post presence for PSU, but wow their guards are good!
2 - Montana State (3) - Two home wins are great but against non division one teams still don't tell us much about the Bobcats. The duo of Bussey and Semansky look to be the most potent 1-2 punch in the league, the question will be bench depth and a consistent #3 scorer.
3 - Idaho State (3) - Great home win and a bad road loss leave us still scratching our heads about my prediction that the BSC Tourney will be in Pocatello in March. It will be interesting to see how the Bengals hold up as they go on the road for the next few weeks.
4 - Montana (1.5) - The Bad News - The Lady Griz are shooting 11% from 3 this season. The Good News - If teams still can't stop Katie Baker when the LG are shooting that bad. What will she be able to do if they start hitting a few 3's?
5 - Eastern Washington (1.5) - Big home win against San Diego has bumped the Eagles up a few spots this week. How will they fair against an Oregon State team that beat down Montana State by 30?
6 - Northern Colorado (2) - Have absolutely no idea about this team. They are talented enough to compete for the Big Sky Championship and inconsistent enough to not make the tournament. Scored 37 points against an average Santa Clara team and 85 two nights later against San Fransisco.
7 - Northern Arizona (1.5) - Two tough road losses don't tell us much about a team. The home game a few nights later does...wait and see Jacks
8 - Weber State (-1) - The hardest early season schedule in the Big Sky could make the Wildcats tough...could also crush their confidence in a new system.
9 - Sac State (0) - They beat Long Beach State 74-67... If they have changed styles, perhaps they have a chance to be competitive.
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
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