WBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[spfan22]

Ralph:

I definitely agree that if OU wants to win it all they have to get a post who can dominate the paint... thats definitely what they were missing in comparison to all of the other teams at the final four..  I just hear from every coach and every referee that displacement and hand checking were going to be the emphasis this year in the women's game.. but yet very few hand checks were called and not one displacement foul was called in the consolation game.. if its going to be an emphasis then those calls need to be called throughout the duration of the game..

OU is definitely improving its toughness.. they got thorugh two very tough interior teams on their way to the final four in Thomas More and Kean..  but I just think they ran out of gas.. traveling all over the country and only playing with 6 or 7 players can really take its toll on a team that plays the way OU does.. add to that the lack of displacement and hand check calls and its very tough to beat those teams that were in the final four..

by the way.. after watching Howard Payne in the opening minutes of the first final four game I thought they were a little nervous and didnt play particularly well in the first few minutes.. however the rest of the game and in the championship game they looked great.. they may not be the most talented team.. but I think they have all of the pieces..  and they play absolutely perfect together.. plus they have on of the best one on one players in which teams struggled to guard when the shot clock is winding down..  congrats to HPU.. at least a south team took home the title

[Ralph Turner]

I think that OU needs two more large posts to add to the "7-player" rotation to take the pressure of the rotation.  Having a real post allows OU to punish the opponents' posts, and takes that physical job off the "guards" in the rotation.

I can imagine the fatigue might have taken hold by that point in the tourney.

I was happy that we had 3 teams from the South (HPU, OU and DPU -- they don't call it the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference for nothing). 

[pbrooks3]

Again, kudos to Coach Sartelle and the Lady Petrels for representing the SCAC so well this season and reaching the final four. I didn't get many chances to see them play this year, but the times I did were fun games to watch. Had the pleasure of meeting the coaches and some of the players at the SCAC tourney in Conway, and I came away impressed with these young ladies - their skills, poise and manners. 

[Lou_Brown]

Congrats to Liz Campbell for getting the Head coaching job at Colorado College..She has done a fantastic job at OU as Sattele's assistant..

Good Luck!!

[frank_ezelle]

It's a Saturday afternoon and I'm taking a break from working on the Millsaps photos from last Sunday.  You can only crop, edit, enhance, save and delete for so long before your eyes start spinning.  I don't claim to know all the answers or to know the future, but I think I have a reputation on the D3 message boards of being fairly straight forward and honest in my opinions.  With that in mind, here is my opinion on:

The State of Women's Basketball at Millsaps:

Let me start with my conclusion:  I think Millsaps will be a strong contender to win the 2008-09 SCAC championship.  If that strikes you as LOL funny, then I certainly understand you feelings.  When Millsaps beat Sewanee last Sunday, it had been 15 SCAC losses since their previous SCAC win, also over Sewanee, on 1/14/07.  When Millsaps beat Centre on the road last night it was their first SCAC road win since 2/5/06, another win over Sewanee.  This 2-game win streak boosts the Millsaps SCAC record to 6-30 over the last 2 and a half season, hardly a record indicating that a championship season might be on the horizon.

So either I've been drinking, or I have some reasons to back up my conclusion.  I swear I haven't touch a drop of alcohol in days, so let me go back to the beginning of the short Millsaps coaching career of Head Coach Mary Bolton (and let me stress that this is not a comparison of coaches, players or teams from the past vs. the same of today.  This is simply a post about where Millsaps is today, how they got there, and where I think they are headed.)

It's important to remember that Coach Jeffries resigned in May, 2006 and Coach Bolton was hired in August, 2006.  The timing of the change basically meant a year without recruiting players, something that is really evident this season with Millsaps often going into games with only 8 players dressed out.  It's similar to the NCAA penalizing a school by cutting down on the scholarships that can be given out--it creates a trickle down effect that last for several years.

With no chance to recruit, the 2006-07 was played mostly with the players who came back from the 2005-06 season.  Lack of experience characterized that team with just 2 returning starters and the next most experienced players had 138 and 108 minutes of playing time in 2005-06.  There was some talent amongst the inexperienced, with LaReina Adams going from 108 minutes of PT as a freshman to becoming the team's leading scorer and the SCAC's leading rebounder as a sophomore.  Debbie Sturgis went from 72 minutes of PT as a junior to becoming a solid senior starter who had a 24 point, 16 rebound game late in the season.  Still, it was a team with little experience, little depth, and a coach who was trying to put in a different style of play.  Under the circumstance, it's hard to imagine a record much better than the 3-20 that was posted.

That gets us to this year.  With a roster of 10 to start the season, depth is once again a problem.  That roster is now down to 9 and only 8 have dressed out for the last 8 games.  Of the 9 players, 5 players are new to the team (3 freshmen, 2 junior transfers), 3 players played last year, and one redshirted last year with an injury.  This is where the lack of a recruiting class in 2006-07 has really hurt.

With so little depth, the normal things that happen to a team over the course of a season have really hurt and it shows in the record.  Things that have really hurt the win-loss record this year are:
--A freshman recruit enrolled at Millsaps but never played for non-basketball related reasons.  It's not the kind of thing that would hurt an OU, Trinity or DePauw, but those are teams with enough players to actually scrimmage in practice.
--LaReina Adams didn't play to start the season, still rehabbing from knee surgery.  She's just now getting back close to the level of play she showed last year when double-doubles were commonplace.  The 5 Millsaps losses prior to Christmas were all by 9 points or less--a healthy LaReina would have reversed some of those losses.
--Jessica Bowie had a triple-double against OU but she missed the previous 5 games, all losses.  It certainly changes the look of the team when she is not available to play.
--And just in general, not having enough players to scrimmage in practice has to be a problem.  Plus, the lack of subs is often a factor in the last 10 minutes of a game, especially since Millsaps in moving to a more uptempo style of play. 

Even with all of the above problems, it is evident that progress is being made.  The two wins are nice, but just as important is the close game against OU last weekend and the effort against Trinity the previous week.  In one of the games that Bowie missed, Millsaps was within 4 of Trinity with 10 minutes to go.  That hasn't happened very often in recent years.  Millsaps was also within 6 points of local rival Belhaven with a minute to play in a game where LaReina Adams didn't dress out and Crystal Dickerson missed most of the first half with foul trouble.  Millsaps has played a lot of games where just one or two extra players would have turned a loss into a win.

And what does the future hold?  For this year, I won't be surprised if Millsaps misses the SCAC Tournament, but I don't count them out.  Winning at DePauw and Trinity would be very surprising, and winning at Southwestern would be difficult.  Can Millsaps win the 4 home games against Rhodes, Austin, Colorado and Hendrix?  Probably yes to any one of them but winning all four is a tall task.  It's not impossible to win all 4, but that would pleasantly surprise me (remember that I'm trying to give an honest opinion here).

For the 2008-09 season, if they get a recruiting class in like this year's group, then they will be tough to beat since there are no seniors this year.  I hear that the recruiting is going well and I have no reason to doubt that based on what Coach Bolton did in her first year of recruiting.  I have a lot of confidence in the coaching skills of Coach Bolton and her staff based on what I've seen her get out of her players both in 2006-07 and this year.  It gives me hope that Millsaps will soon be returning to the upper level of the SCAC standings, a place they regularly held when the SCAC was first established.

Time will prove me right or prove me wrong.  In the meantime, I guess I need to get back to all of the cropping and editing.  Taking the photos is just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to the finished product.

Yes, it is a little early to be discussing SCAC Women's basketball.  I just wanted to bring this long post forward to start the year since it contained my prediction for 2008-09 regarding Millsaps basketball.  The word I'm hearing is that Millsaps had a very good recruiting year and I'm going to stick with my prediction that Millsaps will be a contender for the SCAC Championship this year.  Obviously that "contender" label applies to several SCAC teams who have the winning records in recent years to justify the label.  Let's just say that I think Millsaps will be in a good position to be a spoiler for sure and a darkhorse to win it all this season.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this season unfolds.

[pbrooks3]

Looking forward to Lady Colonels basketball in November. Think this could be another season of steady improvement. Centre has some solid recruits that will contribute quickly and should gel effectively with a nucleus of returning players. Junior Chelsea Goodman shouldn't be saddled with handling as much of the scoring and   rebounding load in 2008-09. While I don't project Centre to win the East, they will be more competitive and should have a more balanced season.

[Bubba the Petrel]

Preseason Top 25 out - Oglethorpe #2 (woot!), DePauw #3, Trinity receiving votes.

[FlightofthePetrel]

Go Lady Petrels!  #2 preseason ranking.  Granted it's where they finish at the end of the season that counts but it's nice to see that others think so highly of our little team.  It's going to be a little different playing with a bullseye on our back instead of sneaking up on people.  It should be a fun season and I can't wait for it to start!

[vozdelospetrels]

The #2 ranking is quite an honor, but we better play up to it...and I think we can. Should be fun with some great DePauw and OU battles this year, maybe those will go our way this year.

Very excited to see what coach Liz Campbell can do out at Colorado College. Should be fun. But I'm gonna miss my starting second baseman for coed softball.

[frank_ezelle]

In a league that has the #2 and #3 teams in the preseason poll, it would be too much to expect anyone to believe that a Millsaps team could be a factor in the SCAC Championship race since they finished 4-11 in the SCAC last year.  I'll just say that Millsaps will be tremendously improved this season and I think there is the possibility for them to go from near bottom to the top like the football team did between 2005 and 2006.  That's a tall order is such a talented league and several young players will have to contribute right away.  Here's a link to the team preview:

http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/basketball-w/2008-09Season_Preview.shtml

[pbrooks3]

# 2 is strong!  Has Coach Sartrelle found a presence in the middle to anchor this year's squad? 

[FlightofthePetrel]

# 2 is strong!  Has Coach Sartrelle found a presence in the middle to anchor this year's squad? 

Other than 6'3 freshman post Regi Howell coming back from injury Oglethorpe will continue to use its fast paced offense to outscore teams.  We do have about 4 more guards though... so maybe we'll be able to run even more now!

[Bubba the Petrel]

D3Hoops.com Preseason All-Americans:

2nd Team - Katie Kulavic, Oglethorpe (woot!)
3rd Team - Cassie Pruzin, DePauw
Honorable Mention - Melanie Auguste, Colorado College and Krista Prato Matthews, Trinity

[FlightofthePetrel]

D3Hoops.com Preseason All-Americans:

2nd Team - Katie Kulavic, Oglethorpe (woot!)
3rd Team - Cassie Pruzin, DePauw
Honorable Mention - Melanie Auguste, Colorado College and Krista Prato Matthews, Trinity

Congrats to Kulavic.  The SCAC was definitely represented well in the preseason rankings- any of these players could be POTY.

[pbrooks3]

I will predict either Kulavic or Auguste wins POTY in 2008-09.