The Second Season: Northern Sun Women

The Northern Sun women have thrown a variety of curve balls this fall, rendering a look back at my pre-season picks an acute embarrassment. My picks, as compared to the current standings (1-8), are off by an average of 4 places for every team. Now, in fairness, I will also note that the NSIC coaches are currently off by an average of 3 places. What happened?

Well, nobody saw it coming--that Winona State and Moorhead State would struggle so mightily in 2011-2012. And nobody foresaw that Mankato State, Mary, Bemidji, UM-Crookston and Southwest State would play as well as they have.

Winona State was coming off the post-season championship a year ago with its 2 sparkplugs returning in Michelle McDonald and Katie Wolff. Great things were expected. Instead, the Warriors lost their 1st 2 home games to Bemidji and UMD and have not recovered. They're 3-5 in a tie for 9th place. McDonald has played well enough with 15 ppg and 7 boards on 55 percent shooting. Wolff has not at 10 ppg on 37 percent shooting, with 4 assists and 3 turnovers. Winona has started 11 different players, in no small part due to a variety of injuries. But with a win last night over Concordia (St. Paul) 64-51, there is plenty of time to move from 9th into a playoff position where a repeat of last year's run is not out of the question.

Moorhead entered 2011-12 with the intriguing duo of senior all-conference forward Angie Jetvig and sophomore D1 transfer Angela Christianson. It's all gone south as the Dragons are now 1-7 and in sole possession of 13th place. Christianson did not play until the 4th game and she has yet to start. Rather she's playing 10 minutes per game and scoring 4 points on 30 percent shooting. Not what was expected from a player who scored 8 ppg last year at D1 Drake. Jetvig's shooting has fallen off to 40 percent though she's scoring 17 points with 9.5 boards. Returning starters Haley Thomforde and Marissa Yernatich also missed time to injuries. And suddenly it's too late to think about the 2012 playoffs. The Dragons are now looking ahead to next year. The talent is here but the chemistry is a mess.

Mankato has been in decline since its 2009 national championship--or, had been, right up until 3 weeks ago. The Mavs were picked for 9th place by the coaches and obliged by starting the conference season 0-3. Then came 3 December wins--all at home--and now 3 January wins--all on the road--for a 6-game winning streak, a 6-3 conference record and sole possession of 4th place. Seniors Jenny Noreen and Laura Weber have led the way with 23 points and 13 boards between them. Still, you could characterize the Mavs resurgence as a youth movement. Freshman forward Jamie Bresnahan has moved into starting lineup and is contributing 8 points and 6 boards. Freshman guard Aubrey Davis is scoring 10 ppg and is the team's assist leader with 36. Still the Mavs shoot 39 percent from the field and 64 percent from the line, so how long can this go on? A pair of road trips to Winona, UMD and Bemidji later this month will tell the tale.

Minnesota-Crookston has been a Cinderella story ever since coach Mike Roysland came on the scene. An absolute doormat for too many years, they've become competitive and would be in the playoffs as of today at 4-4 and 7th place. The coaches picked them for 11th. Point guard Brittani Wiese is the tent-pole here with 17 ppg and 4 assists, but Megan Eul adds 13 points and 6 boards. Their 39 FG percentage is pretty typical, but they're a good FT shooting team at 74 percent, but they get out-rebounding. So .500 and 7th place is a worthy goal for this over-achieving program.

Not much was expected of Southwest State, either, and granted, they're only 4-5, so let's not make too much of this. Still, picked for 12th, they're now in 8th place. How did it happen? Can it continue? This is a classic two tent-pole team. Senior post Abby Kenneally and sophomore guard Bree Holleman lead the way, Kenneally with 15 points (and just 4 boards) on 50 percent shooting, Holleman with 11.5 points, 4 boards and 2+ assists. So, no, I don't think the talent runs deep enough to persevere the rest of the way.

Bemidji was picked to finish 13th and right now they're in that logjam for 9th place at 3-5. What's the upside? Well, there's no depth beyond the starting 5. They shoot 40 percent from the field, but a stellar 80 percent from the line. However, they don't get to the line as much as their opponents, they get out-rebounded and they've turned the ball over 4 times per game more than their opponents. So there is no margin of error here. 3-5 and 9th place is pretty representative of the ball they've played.

Finally, the big surprise: Mary, picked for 8th, currently tied for 2nd at 7-2. To tell the truth, I don't follow the non-Minnesota teams so much, so I have no idea how this happened. But I see now that they've won at home (4-2) and away (6-1) and they have a signature win--1st place Wayne's only loss 72-64. And where this is another lousy shooting team (38 percent) they are perhaps the best rebounding team in the league with an average margin of 44-36. 5 players score 8 ppg or more, and Linda Murray, Shauna Knife and Kaitlyn Haag scarf up 20 rebounds a game among them. I think they're for real. Putting the ball in the basket off the offensive glass counts for 2 points, same as your initial offense.

As Expected

So those are your surprises, accounting for about half the conference. Performing more as expected are the following.

1. Wayne State--picked #1 by the coaches, only #4 by me, but 8-1 in 1st place
2T. Augustana--picked #2 by the coaches, only #7 by me, tied with Mary at 7-2
5. UMD--picked #5 by the coaches, #2 by me, 5-3, 5th place
6. Northern--right where the coaches and I picked 'em
9T. Concordia (St. Paul)--picked 7th by the coaches, 5th by me--now 3-5
9T. St. Cloud--picked for 10th by the coaches and 11th by me, also 3-5
14. Upper Iowa--right where picked--0-8

Looking Ahead

Common sense says everybody trends toward the mean. Mankato and Mary aren't as good as they've looked, Winona is better, whereas for Wayne, well, the mean is just that good. And clearly I was way too gung-ho for the Minnesota women's teams in the NSIC this year.

1. Wayne--playoff semi-finalist
2. Augustana
3. UMD--playoff semi-finalist
4. Mary--playoff semi-finalist
5. Mankato
6. Northern
7. Winona--playoff semi-finalist
8. Concordia
9. UM Crookston
10. St. Cloud
11. Moorhead
12. Bemidji

13. Southwest St.

14. Upper Iowa

All-Conference

Ashley Arlen, Wayne
Katrina Newman, UMD
Michelle McDonald, Winona
Brittani Wiese, UMC
Angie Jetvig, Moorhead

2nd Team

Krista Rabenberg, Northern
Molly Hayes, Augustana
Shelley Stemper, UMD
Alex Feeney, Augustana
Abby Kenneally, SW State

3rd Team

Jenny Noreen, Mankato
Megan Eul, UMC
Linda Murray, Mary
Shauna Knife, Mary
Anika Whiting, Concordia

Early Surprises in Northern Sun

We're about 1 month into it and some surprises have begun to emerge in the Northern Sun. But, first, not surprising are the following:

Men--Augustana 2-0, 5-1 and Winona 1-0, 6-1, picked 1st and 2nd in the coaches pre-season poll

Women--Winona 1-0, 6-1 and Augustana 2-0, 5-1 picked 2nd and 3rd, plus Wayne State 2-0, 8-0, picked 1st, not to mention Wayne's Ashley Arlen, pre-season PoY and now twice the weekly PoY

Surprises Among the Men

The three big surprises so far include Moorhead State 2-0, 5-0 and St. Cloud State 2-0, 6-0, picked 5th and 6th, plus Northern State, but as they're not a Minnesota team, I have nothing specific to say about them.

I should add that Mankato State 1-1, 2-4 and Concordia St. Paul 0-2, 3-3, picked 3rd and 4th, have also been surprises of the negative variety to date.

Everybody else is sitting within 2 slots of where the coaches had picked them in the pre-season poll.

Moorhead has almost everybody back from a 15-12 team, but coach Chad Walthall has swapped senior guards D.J. Hamilton (in) and Jake Driscoll (from Glyndon) (out) of the starting lineup, and Hamilton's scoring is up from 11 ppg to 19. Hamilton has been the MVP in the early going of the NSIC with 5 assists and 2 steals to go with a 53 percent FG percentage. He leads the Dragons in minutes played with 30. Guard Jordan Riewer, a redshirt freshman from Staples, is also new in the starting lineup while Charlie Chapman returns as the 3rd guard. Driscoll, again, is the 4th guard in a 3-guard lineup.

Up front, all-conference forward, 6-9 Alex Novak  returns and is contributing 11 points, 8 boards and 2 blocks. Meanwhile, 6-10 newcomer Jake Lindfors has replaced the injured Dennis Williamson and (Lindfors) is contributing 17 points and 8 boards on 59 percent shooting. It is hard to see where the 6-6 Williamson will fit into things when he returns, but certainly would add depth to what, suddenly, is an imposing group of kids.

Now, the truth being told, the Dragons have yet to venture beyond the friendly confines of the Alex Nemzek Fieldhouse. So, no, they're not going to finish the NSIC season undefeated and its unlikely they'll continue to shoot 53 percent as a team. But the addition of Lindfors and the play of Hamilton would seem to make them a contender for conference honors that I hadn't recognized previously myself.

St. Cloud State is very similarly situated--unbeaten, unexpected, untested on the road. But while Moorhead gets another week at home (vs. UM-Crookston) before venturing out to Wayne State and Augustana, St. Cloud will be traveling to Southwest State and Mankato State this coming Friday and Saturday nights. What are we likely to see?

Well, also like the Moorhead Dragons, St. Cloud has started out undefeated with some hot shooting, a little better than 50 percent, collectively, which is all about post Tim Bergstrasser (St. Cloud Apollo) who is at 67.5 percent himself. Meanwhile, the 2 returning starters, forward Theo Rothstein (St. Michael-Albertville) and guard Brett Putz are shooting 54 and 47 percent. Guard Shaun Jensen (Spring Lake Park) and forward Mike Rostampour (Henry Sibley) are shooting 48 and 46 percent. And maybe those percentages can be maintained.

But the main difference between St. Cloud and Moorhead is that the Huskies under coach Kevin Schlagel have a tradition of success, including a D2 Final Four appearance just 2 years ago, that Moorhead hasn't had. So while both of these teams can contend, it would seem to be slightly more likely that St. Cloud might be at the head of the pack come March.

Still, Moorhead's "bigs"--Novak and Lindfors, with Williamson possibly returning--would seem to have a slight advantage over St. Cloud's Bergstrasser ad Rostampour. Meanwhile, I like St. Cloud guards Putz and Jensen a little better than Moorhead's Hamilton, Chapman and Riewer. But there's not much to pick for personnel. So I guess we'll close by just saying that both are early surprises who look like they can contend for NSIC honors.

Then there's Concordia (St. Paul) and Mankato State, 2 teams that were expected to contend but are looking pretty iffy in the early going. Like Moorhead and St. Cloud, you've got one (Mankato) with a tradition of success and another (Concordia) that is still trying to climb that ladder. Does that made Mankato the more likely of the 2 to turn things around yet this year?

Maybe not. But, in fairness, there is this. Mankato State plays a whole different schedule than the rest--just 1 game at home so far, 1-and-2 away and 0-and-2 on neutral courts. And, so, now the Mavericks have 4 straight home games coming up, including games that will help settle the pecking order among St. Cloud and Concordia.

Still, Mankato State so far is a tent-pole team. led by 6-7 sophomore forward Connor O'Brien (New Prague) who scores 11 points per game and adds 10 boards, a block and a steal, all team highs. He is 2nd in assists with 2.5--point guard Jimmy Whitehead leads with 3. This is an inexperienced group--the other "big" is 6-8 true freshman Zach Romashko (Blaine)--and its simply not yet clear what some of these fellows can do. They've been out-shot 44 percent to 37. All of this could just be an artifact of playing all those road games. That could come back as a big advantage later on, for that matter. But the burden of proof is on this young group to show that it is in fact better than what it's shown. In the meantime, its current 9th place would seem to be more predictive than its predicted 3rd place finish in the coaches pre-season poll.

Concordia (St. Paul), meanwhile, got off to a good start, winning 3 games, and looking every inch the contender, before suddenly losing 3 games, unexpectedly. And so their current 13th place (0-2, 3-3) is a fur piece from their predicted 4th place finish. Will the real Bears please stand up? What is most troubling is that, like Moorhead and St. Cloud, they've yet to venture forth from the home Gangelhoff Center court and still they've sustained those 3 losses, and to teams predicted to finish 10th (Northern) and 12th (Mary) in the conference.

The Bears are an experienced group, or maybe not. No, they're young, but with 3 seniors in the starting lineup. Who are they? The Olafeso brothers--Kenny and Peter--are the heart and soul of the team, but they're in their 2nd year of high level play. Previous experience at St. Paul Harding and MCTC does not quite equate to play in the NSIC. And 6-10 senior post Brett Barz is also a JC transfer. The rest of their contributors include a pair of true freshmen--Cole Olstad from Plainview-EM and Terez Van Pelt from Osseo--plus junior forward Isaiah Thomas (Fridley) who, like Barz, is in his 3rd year with the program.

The problems would appear to be on the defensive end, where all but 1 opponent has shot at least 45 percent and the Bears are giving up an average of 78 points. But its been different stuff. Northern dominated inside, but the Bears out-scored Mary in the paint. They out-scored both on the fast break and off of turnovers, but lost the half-court battle. They can score, but a few stops would be good.

And, Among the Women

The pleasant surprises are the Concordia (St. Paul) women, picked for 7th and currently 3rd (2-0, 5-3), and UM-Crookston, picked for 11th but currently 7th (1-1, 4-2). Moorhead is off to a disappointing start. Picked for 4th (higher by yours truly), they're 9th right now (1-1, 3-2).

Frankly, it was a mystery to me why Concordia was picked for 7th by the coaches. And like the Mankato men, at least their 5-3 record comes in part from venturing forth out into the world (where they're 0-and-2). And the only part of their record through 8 games that seems maybe unsustainable is Carissa Wolyniec's 49 percent shooting from beyond the arc. As a team, they're only shooting 43 percent and so it can get better. (Rachel Hansen is shooting 29 percent so far, and will do better. Jodi Batzel is shooting 55 percent but, hey, she shot 50 last year as a freshman.)

Meanwhile, they're holding opponents to 35 percent shooting, and they can keep doing that, I think.

Of course, their 2 conference wins so far came at home, and they're a very young team, having replaced the 3-headed monster--Mauricka Hickman, Jineen Williams and Zoraa Quoie--that was the heart of last year's team. And, so, next weekend they'll be more seriously tested at Mankato and Southwest State. Then come 3 more home games, so it's only in January that we'll really find out what coach Paul Fessler's team is made of. But from here it looks like that 2-0 record in the conference fairly represents what they can do. If Woyniec keeps hitting the 3, they'll be tough to beat.

Then there's UM-Crookston and all one can say is, wow. The Eagles were a total doormat when Mike Roysland took over as coach. Last year, he got UMC to 13-14, but then had to replace stalwarts Jamie Zelinsky and Bri Zabel. But it helps (a lot) that he's got one of the true superstars of the NSIC in score first-ask for forgiveness later-point guard Brittani Wiese (5-7 junior St. Michael-Albertville). Wiese is scoring 20 ppg so far, though it's true that she's only making 36 percent of her shots.

She's got help from a pretty fair pair of "bigs," both out of Rosemount, 6-1 junior Laurie Tyson (7 ppg, 65 percent shooting in 20 minutes) and 5-10 junior Megan Eul (13 ppg, 46 percent in 30 minutes). Meanwhile a pair of freshman guards have stepped into starting roles--5-8 Ashley Martell and 5-9 Ebony Livingston from Hopkins--and they're scoring 15 and 5 points on 47 and 25 percent shooting, respectively. And there are 3 more women scoring 5 to 6 points off the bench.

So, while it still seems almost unthinkable, based on history and tradition, it seems that Roysland has the Eagles almost to where they could contend for a top spot in the NSIC. Of course, they, too, have fashioned their 2-0 record on a pair of home wins, and the going will get a lot tougher with games at Moorhead, Augustana and Wayne in the next 2 weeks (Wayne hammered 'em 87-56 in the playoffs last year). But if they come home 2 weeks from now with a 2-3 record, they'll still be where they are now and where most NSIC teams (men or women) are, and that is--they can win at home. It won't take a whole lot of road wins to differentiate oneself. It's not impossible that this could be one of those teams and, if so, Roysland is coach of the decade.

On the flip side of the coin, then, you've got Moorhead State. Picked for 4th (and higher yet by me), they're off to a 1-1, 3-2 start, which isn't bad, but isn't good either. How you get on this list, by the way, is losing to Bemidji State at home, and Moorhead's already done that, 75-68. Fortunately, they turned things around enough to beat a superior Minnesota-Duluth team (superior to Bemidji) that following night, 63-61.

The other "problem" (for me more than for coach Karla Nelson) is that Angela Christianson was a big reason why I thought Moorhead could contend, and the sophomore transfer has been hurt thus far this year. I don't know if one should be encouraged or discouraged by her 2 point performance against a gassed bunch from Duluth. I mean, encouraged that she's back? Or discouraged that, if healthy, she hasn't shown that she'll be a dominant player in the NSIC, as I for one expect her to be.

The final problem (that I'll mention) is that Moorhead's inside players are not shooting the lights out like some of them that we've seen. Angie Jetvig, my pre-season pick for PoY in the NSIC, is shooting 44 percent, Megan Strese 45 and Morgan Zabel 44. Meaning, they can sustain that, so it's not a matter of any particular concern. The guard play is, so Christianson's return to full strength after her injuries (how quick? how fully?) will be a difference-maker in terms of whether this past season is a good one or not. And I have no clue as to the answers to those questions.

Summary: The Conventional Wisdom

Moorhead State men >>>>> (holding)

St. Cloud State men ^^^^^ (up)

Mankato State men VVVVV (down)

Concordia St. Paul men VVVVV (down)

Concordia St. Paul women ^^^^^ (up)

UM-Crookston women ^^^^^ (up)

Moorhead State women >>>>> (holding but time is running out)

And, Finally, Some Individual Breakouts

The top 5 women so far would seem to be Arlen, who leads the way with 20 ppg and adds 9.5 boards on 58 percent shooting; Jetvig, 17 points and 10 boards; Alex Feeney of Augustana; Wiese; and Katrina Newman, last year's freshman of the year. So now real surprises there, unless it's that Winona's dynamic duo of Michelle McDonald and Katie Wolff doesn't stand out statistically as of yet.

The bigger surprises are Ali Schwartzwald of Wayne, finally emerging as a senior (from St. Francis, MN), 2nd to Wiese with 4 assists; and Claire Duwelius of Winona with 13 ppg on 55 percent 3-point shooting. Also Bree Holleman, the coach's kid from Hancock, MN, at Southwest State, is breaking out with 13 ppg in her sophomore season.

Among the men, I'd call D.J. Hamilton a breakout story--also Connor (don't call me Conan) O'Brien, Tim Bergstrasser and Jake Lindfors. The big surprise is Cody Schilling, pretty much an also-ran in the scoring race at 17 ppg so far. Oh, yeah, I'm worried. Not.

MIAC and UMC Seasons Open Tonight

The D3 season officially opens tonight with non-conference action for MIAC and UMAC teams, some of it against one another. If you're like me--if, when you get in your car to go off and watch basketball, you figure, hey, might as well watch two--then Hamline is the place to be. The Pipers host Northwestern (Roseville) in a women's/men's doubleheader starting at 5:30.

The Northwestern men, in particular, are a team to watch. They're the defending UMAC champs and threw a scare into eventual national champion St. Thomas last spring, and now they've been anointed as the favorites to repeat in the UMAC.

Coaches Faves

Along with the Northwestern men, the University of Minnesota-Morris women and not one but two teams from St. Thomas also have been selected as favorites by the coaches in each of the leagues.

Defending national champs or not, the St. Thomas men got just 6 of 11 1st place votes. I mean, whaddya gotta do to get some respect around here? St. Olaf got 3 such votes and Augsburg a couple.

The St. Thomas women got 11 of 12 1st place votes; Gustavus Adolphus got the other.

Northwestern got 7 of 8 1st place votes in the UMAC, while Bethany Lutheran got the other. And UM-Morris got 4 of 6; Northland and Martin Luther got 1 each.

MIAC Men

The big story is of course the start of the Johnny Tauer era at St. Thomas. Designated as interim coach right now, it's inconceivable that he won't become the permanent coach next March or thereabouts. More inconceivable than the Tommies losing the MIAC. They lost a lot of talent including their 3-headed monster at the guard position--Teddy Archer, Alex Healy and Tyler Nicolai. And of course coach Steve Fritz is gone, as well.

Meanwhile St. Olaf can throw all-conference guards Bobby Fong and Stu Neville at 'em, while Augsburg will have the edge on a lot of MIAC opponents in the paint with Cory Polta leading the way.

The second tier would seem to consists of #4 Carleton, #5 Gustavus and #6 Hamline. The Pipers have everybody back except center Carl Hipp. So, in other words, they're rebuilding. Seriously, they'll shoot 3s with anybody. Gustavus guard Seth Anderson is another one to watch.

Then there's Bethel, St. John's, Concordia (Moorhead), Macalester and St. Mary's, all of whom figure to be building or rebuilding or treading water, but in any event watching the proceedings when playoffs roll around.

MIAC Women

The Tommies, with the likes of Taylor Young, Sarah Smith, Maggie Weiers and an awesome supporting case, will run and hide from the field, trust me. But from whom, exactly, will they run. Well, the coaches had Gustavus 2nd and that sounds right, what with Molly Geske and Abby Rothenbuhler leading the way.

The coaches have St. Ben's 3rd and Concordia 4th, and that would seem to be from habit. The 2 of them lost a vast amount of talent, though the Cobbers' sophomore center Alexandra Lippert could be the best individual player in the entire league.

But who will take advantage of the vacuum just below the top? The coaches have St. Olaf 5th, Bethel 6th, Macalester 7th and St. Mary's 8th, none of whom have a winning tradition to suggest that 2nd or 3rd would be a likely occurrence. And Hamline and St. Kate's, tied for 9th, and Carleton and Augsburg, would appear to have no change of upsetting the favorites, though Carleton seems to be rated a little low considering the talent they bring back. Granted they're lacking in depth, but Akemi Arzouman and Emma Purfeerst are quite a dynamic duo.

UMAC Men

Again, Northwestern (Roseveille) is the prohibitive favorite and I'm not going to argue the point. Bethany Lutheran is 2nd, UM-Morris 3rd, St. Scholastica 4th, Martin Luther 5th, Crown 6th, Presentation 7th and Northland 8th.

UMAC Women

After UM-Morris, Northland and Martin Luther, the coaches have Northwestern, Bethany Lutheran, St. Scholastica, Presentation and Crown following.

Morris brings back just 2 starters--Emily Mehr and Jenny Noordmans--so Northland, with just 1 conference loss the last 2 years and returning 5 seniors and 3 juniors, should be right there. Lulu Seelye, a guard, leads the way with 10 points per game.

Iowa Hawkeyes women 65 Winona State 51

I'm a little late getting to this one, but I wanted to comment on the Iowa-Winona State women's exhibition game in Iowa City on Sunday afternoon. Not only because I have an interest in both of these 2 teams, but also because of all the discussion about what one should think of exhibition games generally.

In the aftermath of the Gopher men's uninspired and uninspiring win over Bemidji State 71-58 last week, of course, Gopher partisans are saying that exhibition game are meaningless. And when somebody posted on the Gopher Hole that Augustana is a lot better than Bemidji, somebody else said that, since exhibitions are meaningless, Minnesota is better than Augustana even if the Augies should happen to win.

Well, I'm seeing the Gophers play the Augies in a couple of hours, but for now...I just couldn't let pass the fact that the Winona State women led Iowa 23-19 at half-time. The Hawkeyes came back to score 46 2nd half points (shooting 56 percent versus 26 percent in the 1st half) to get the win.

You may recall that I picked Winona to win the NSIC title this year, whereas the coaches have picked Augustana. So thanks to Winona coach Scott Ballard and his women for making me look good today. Senior post Michelle McDonald led Warriors scorers with 16 and all players with 12 boards.

But, meanwhile, I was also intrigued by the performance of Iowa freshman point guard Sam Logic. Whereas our own Rachel Banham was rated as the #18 senior in the class of 2011, Logic was rated #10. And like Banham, Logic got off to a fast start--not in the 1st half, so much, but in the grand scheme of things (a 4 year college career) have a good 2nd half in your 1st game will be remembered as a pretty good start. Logic finished with 16 points to lead all scorers with 6 assists, 6 steals and 1 turnover.

All I can say is DAMN it's a shame that Logic and Banham will not meet on the Williams Arena floor as freshmen, though the will play in Iowa City on February 9. I am also heartsick that I won't see Iowa senior (and Crookston, MN, native) Kamille Wahlin play the Gophers for a final time. (Wahlin contributed 10 points and 3 assists in the Winona State win. Meanwhile, last year's prize recruit, Jamie Printy, a pre-season 1st team all-Big 10 selection, scored just 6 points, but added 5 assists and 4 steals, but 4 turnovers as well.

The coaches and media had Iowa 3rd or 4th in the pre-season rankings. I say #2 is as low as I'm gonna go with the Hawks, and a Big 10 title is hardly out of the question. The Hawks have 4 starters back (Kelly Krei and Morgan Johnson joining Wahlin and Printy) plus Logic.

Iowa may not have great depth, however, due to an epidemic of knee injuries down there. St. Paul Central grad Theiarra Taylor had 2 points in 5 minutes as she attempts to come back from her 2nd ACL. Freshman post Bethany Doolittle, from Hill-Murray, had 2 points and 4 boards in 14 minutes in her debut.

College Season Underway

The 2011-2012 college season got underway over the weekend with a schedule of women's exhibition games.

South Dakota State 85 Moorhead State 52

EDIT: Forgot to mention that transfer Angela Christianson (formerly of Alexandria High School and Drake U.) is out with an injury. No word on when she will debut with the Dragons. We will now return to our previously scheduled programming.

I get that the Jackrabbits are D1 and Moorhead is D2. Still, I am shocked at the shellacking taken by the Dragons in this one. The only numbers you really need to know are Moorhead's: 39 field goals attempted, 33 turnovers. The Rabbits' 3 starting (non-Minnesota) guards combined for 11-of-24 shooting, 34 points, 12 assists and 4 turnovers. Moorhead's (Haley Thomforde of Eastview, Marissa Yernatich of Duluth East, and Brittany Mayclin of Benilde went 1-for-10 with 4 assists and 14 turnovers.

But the main interest here is in checking to see how several Minnesota girls are progressing with their college careers. This is of course only one game, and a blowout at that. Still:

Last year I wrote about SDSU's stockpiling of Minnesota 6-footers. Jennie Sunnarborg, a senior from Osseo, is hardly the best known of the group, but she's the best of them at the college level, at least at the present time.

Jennie Sunnarborg, Osseo, 6-foot senior--started, played 18 minutes, 7-of-13 FG, team high 17 points, 6 boards and an assist

Megan Waytashek, Centennial, 6-2 soph--16M, 2-of-5, 6 points, 3 boards, 3 assists

Hannah Strop, New Prague, 6-2 soph--14M, 0-for-2, 0 points, 2 assists

Leah Dietel, Jordan, 6-2 junior--13M, 0-for-2, 3 points, 3 boards, 1 assist

Megan Stuart, Roseville, 6-2 freshman--8M, 1-for-3, 6 points, 2 boards, 1 block

Mariah Clarin, Princeton, 6-1 freshman--7M, 0-for-1, 3 boards, 1 steal

Gabby Boever, Worthington, 5-9, soph, guard--5M, pretty much all 0s except for 1 board

For Moorhead, Angie Jetvig (senior, Hawley) was the only bright spot. My NSIC pre-season player of the year hit 7-of-9 shots for 23 points, and added 4 boards, an assist, a block and a steal. Nobody else scored more than 8 points.

Wisconsin-Green Bay 59 Michigan Tech 39

Meanwhile, the powerful Phoenix of Wisconsin-Green Bay (34-2 last year) opened up with an easy win over D2 Michigan Tech. 2 Minnesotans on the Phoenix roster, inside players Jenny Gilbertson (Winona Cotter) and Stephanie Sension (Hopkins), remain near the bottom of the depth chart. The 2 combined for 13 minutes, 1-of-8 shooting for 2 points, 2 boards, an assist and a turnover.