After their trip to California and a couple more wins under their belt, the Coyote women finally cracked the top 25. When Tuesday’s poll came out, the women were ranked 22nd in the nation. Last week, the women missed the top 25 by 11 votes. The Coyotes trip to California must have swayed the voters, which is strange to me because the Coyotes didn’t even play their best ball out in California.
A weekend after their dismantling of Nebraska-Kearney and the College of Saint Mary’s, the women’s team came out slow in the first half in both games in California and had to overcome halftime deficits. Fortunately, there wasn’t an Adams State let down and the Coyotes prevailed. It is just interesting to me the Coyotes can play at about 75 percent of what they are capable of and make the top 25, but miss out when they are destroying opponents.
There is one thing that does worry me about the women’s team: on the road they have been a different team then at home. Even though that is common for most teams, it worries me because the Coyotes have already slipped up to a region opponent, Adams State, in a game they could’ve easily won. The loss to Adams State could be very costly when the region rankings come out, and even when the regional pairings are announced. The opponents may not seem that tough, but one wrong slip-up on the road is all it takes. After this past weekend in California, I followed a team who didn’t seem to play the same way it did at home. Hopefully this doesn’t come back to bite them.
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As Jeremy Hoeck has commented on a couple times already, the North Central Conference is at it again. For both the men and the women, the NCC decided to split up the award.
First the women: Talisha Barlow of St. Cloud State and Alyssa Green of Nebraska-Omaha received the honors.
Barlow scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 21 minutes in SCSU’s win over previously 13th ranked Glenville.
Green averaged 20.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1.5 blocks over the weekend as UNO defeated Peru State and York.
Now I know the two teams UNO played aren’t of the same quality of Glenville, but Green had a big weekend in two games and not one. Plus Green’s rebound average and point average are more over the weekend then Barlow’s, which is harder to do. I know Barlow played only 21 minutes, but that isn’t enough of a reason to share it with Green.
For the men, Denny Johnston of Nebraska-Omaha and Ervin Youmans of North Dakota split the award.
Johnston scored 23 points, five rebounds, and four assists in a win over previously 7th ranked Emporia State.
Youmans averaged 21.5 points, 3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 2.5 steals over the weekend in wins over Mary and Minot State.
Youmans faced easily competition opposed to Johnston, but you also have to remember, North Dakota wasn’t that good last year. They went 13-15 last season, and this year they started off on a three game losing streak, before winning their next five. UND isn’t exactly a great team. They might actually be climbing into a respectable category so those two wins were actually big wins for them. UNO is nationally ranked so it wasn’t as big of an upset for them over Emporia State. How many times is UND going to get a big weekend out of someone like Youmans?
This just proves the NCC has to grow some cahones and pick a player for the award, or else it won’t mean as much as it used to.
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