MIAA Recap 10/3 – Mavericks Maintain Momentum!

Football

Well since this is mostly geared towards the Mavericks, let’s start with their game.

UNO went down to Emporia St, probably the 2nd worst team in the league, and won fairly handily 34-13.  Freshman Running Back Levi Terrell had 192 yads on 34 carries with 2 TDs. The Mavericks moved to 3-1 in the MIAA, and now have some home cooking to look forward to as they host Washburn, Central Missouri, and Pittsburg State in the next 4 weeks.  If the Mavericks want to make a push for the post season they will need to take care of business in these games.  Up first is Washburn who…

Knocked off Fort Hays State 28-14 to go  to 3-1 in the MIAA as well.  Washburn will tell us all we need to know about their team in the next 3 weeks as they go to UNO, host Pittsburg State and travel to Northwest Missouri State.  Win the first two and they could be playing for an MIAA title at Northwest.  Lose to UNO and Northwest and they may see their playoff chances slip away.  Huge set of games for the Ichabods.  UNO-Washburn is a mega tilt next week when it comes to the playoff picture.

Then there is Central Missouri who dominated Truman State 38-3 to go to 3-1 in conference.  They have it fairly easy hosting Fort Hays State next week, as well as in their other remaining home game when they host Missouri Southern.  The problem is the 3 road games are trips to Missouri Western and Nebraska-Omaha back to back and a season ending trip to Northwest Missouri St.  Sure if they run the table ’til then they probably would be playing for a conference title, but a much more likely scenario sees them at 7-3/8-2 and playing for any hope of a playoff berth.  With the tough road trips against two teams who are also in the playoff hunt I’d bet AGAINST the Mules making the run they need.

Pittsburg State has hung around in relevance by knocking off Missouri Southern State 21-13 (in Joplin).  First of all look out for Missouri Southern, they look like they could be a spoiler after giving UNO and Pittsburg State some tests in the last two weeks.  Unfortunately those were both at home and their remaining three big games are at Northwest Missouri State, at Missouri Western, and at Central Missouri. So if they do it I told you so, but it probably won’t happen.  But remember I told you so.  Pittsburg State still needs to win out and has it easier next week hosting Emporia St before a big game at Washburn.

And then there’s Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri State who battled for the inside track today in St Joseph. Northwest proved they are still  the team to beat with a 49-35 win.  The Missouri Western defense is now looking very suspect having given up 31,34,40,and 49 in the first 4 MIAA games.  Still 3 of their last 5 games appear winnable (although Truman and Emporia are both going to be eyeing upsets).  If Missouri Western can avoid upset bids there and win one of their two games against Central Missouri and Nebraska Omaha they should be in good shape for the playoffs still. Northwest has easier games the next two weeks before hosting Washburn and Central Missouri in the final 3 weeks of the year.  Northwest has a fairly clear path now and should win the MIAA Title unless someone else (Washburn or Central) can run the table the rest of the way and get the tie-breaker over them.

So looking ahead to next week we have.

Missouri Southern State @ Northwest Missouri State – Should be no problem for Northwest Missouri State at home,  even with Missouri Southern’s play the last few weeks.

Missouri Western @ Truman State – Missouri Western wouldn’t expect to have any trouble against a Truman State team who hasn’t put up a touchdown in 3 of their 4 MIAA games so far (the exception being 31 against Fort Hays State), but Truman knocked off UNO around this time last year and can’t be overlooked… still an upset here would be a big surprise.

Fort Hays State @ Central Missouri – Fort Hays State probably can keep this one close, and Central could overlook them a bit as they look ahead to Missouri Western and UNO.  If Central stays focused though this one shouldn’t be a problem.

Emporia State @ Pittsburg State – Pittsburg State shouldn’t have any trouble with Emporia State on Saturday as long as they don’t overlook them.  Emporia has not shown they can win a game like this.

Washburn @ Nebraska-Omaha – This is easily the game of the week.  UNO would set themselves in front of Washburn with a home win while Washburn would all but finish UNO by knocking them to 3 losses at this point.  If UNO keeps improving like they have been the last few weeks this team should take care of business at home, a place where they are 46-4  in their last 50 regular season home games  and have won 6 straight Homecoming games.

Volleyball

The only conference game this week was Central Missouri traveling to Pittsburg State on Friday night where they avenged their earlier home loss with a 3-0 win.

So my updated standings are (-1 for any loss at a bottom level team, -1 for any home loss to a top level team, and +1 for a road win at a top level team)

Central Missouri and Emporia State (+1)

Nebraska-Omaha and Pittsburg State (0)

Washburn (-1)

Truman State (-2)

Official Standings show Central, UNO, and Emporia near the top.  Pittsburg is a bit futher back at 4-3 but remember 2 of those losses were at UNO and at Truman State, so until the other teams make those trips and try to upset those teams Pittsburg is going to look a bit shakier.

Next week will see Central travel to Truman on Wednesday night, Emporia travel to Pittsburg on Friday night, Truman travel to Omaha on Saturday, and Washburn travel to Pittsburg on Saturday!  So some big games for all 6 of the big teams!  We’ll see if anyone can make a move. Truman needs this home game against Central really bad, and would love to make up some ground with the road upset at Omaha on Saturday.

Soccer

This week in big games we saw Central and Northwest tie in Maryville (meh have fun with that one standing guy!), UNO hold off Southwest Baptist 3-0 at home, and knock of Northwest 2-1 at home in OT,  and  Truman destroyed Southwest Baptist on the road 4-0.

So my updated standings are (-1 for any loss at a bottom level team, -1 for any home loss to a top level team, and +1 for a road win at a top level team, oh and .5 points for a tie.)

Truman State (+2)

Nebraska Omaha  (0)

Central Missouri (-.5)

Southwest Baptist (-2)

Northwest Missouri State (-2.5)

When we look at the MIAA Standings we see Truman and UNO one two, just like this, but these standings show that Truman has pulled off some road upsets, so UNO is going to have to match them to keep pace while Truman has an easier run the rest of the way. Central Missouri is hanging around and gets all 4 of the other big teams in a row at home to end the season.  Their last chances to get a big road win are going to be at Truman and at Southwest Baptist.  If they can’t win those games they are going to need Truman to stumble to have any chance.

Next week we’ll see the Central at Truman match-up on Thursday, and Truman will also host Southwest Baptist on Saturday.

MIAA Review 9/26

Football

Northwest Missouri State – Northwest, who was now won 31 straight MIAA games (last loss Oct 2005 vs. Pittsburg State), has what might be the biggest game of the conference season on Saturday when they go on the road to fellow 3-0 in conference foe Missouri Western.  This game could be for all the marbles.  NW has a fairly easy schedule after that with the best remaining chances to stumble being vs. Washburn and Central Missouri at home. But if they lose to Missouri Western even a 8-1 season might not be enough to win the conference this year…

Missouri Western – Missouri Western, after upseting Pittsburg State on the road this weekend, is now in position to win the conference through some MAJOR home games. It starts this weekend with Northwest Missouri State coming to town.  A win would make them the team to beat in the MIAA and mean if they could go 4-1 the rest of the way they would win the conference.  After Northwest the biggest tests are all at home.  A October 17th meeting with Central Missouri and a November 7th year end game with Nebraska-Omaha.  A game that could mean a conference title with a win for Western and could be UNO’s last chance to reach the playoffs.

Central Missouri – The team that looked like the team on the rise after beating Pittsburg State last week has taken a step back falling on the road @ Washburn. They still are in position for a great finish and a possible playoff berth, but it looks A LOT tougher now.  This team doesn’t look good on the road, barely scraping bye @ Emporia State, and has to go to Missouri Western, UNO, and Northwest Missouri State in 3 of the last 4 weeks of the season.  I don’t see them getting through that stretch any better than 1-2, can they make the playoffs if they finish 8-3?

Washburn – Maybe this is the new team to watch out for? Washburn’s only loss on the year was a tough loss on a FG at the end to Missouri Western last week.  We’ll know all about Washburn after a 3 game stretch in mid October (@ UNO, Pittsburg State, @ Northwest Missouri State).  If they want to make the playoffs they’ll need to avoid slipping up outside of that and go at least 1-2 in that stretch.

Nebraska-Omaha – UNO has looked up and down, and didn’t look at their best vs. Missouri Southern, but got the job done none the less. The Mavericks need to take care of business on the road at Emporia State and Fort Hays State in the next 3 weeks, but the real tests will come at home where they take on Washburn, Central Missouri, and Pittsburg State.  The Mavericks probably need to go 3-0 in this stretch as they already have 2 losses, but if they do they would have the edge on Washburn and Central Missouri, and Pittsburg State would be done.  Can the Mavericks finish 8-3 with a loss at Missouri Western in the final game and make the playoffs or would they need a win to get in there?  If UNO can get rolling they could be an interesting team to watch.

Pittsburg State – I don’t think anyone saw this coming, Pittsburg State with their backs firmly pressed into the wall with 6 weeks left in the season.  They can’t lose again and still have road tests @ Washburn and @ UNO.  The good news is outside of those two games they appear to have 4 very winnable games, but they’ll have to win all 6 to have a shot.

Fort Hays State – Fort Hays looks to be one of those bottom 4 teams, and the schedule does them no favors sending them @ Washburn, @ Central, home with UNO, @ Pittsburg State, and home with Northwest Missouri State in the next 5 weeks.  I imagine they’ll be lucky to emerge from that schedule 1-4.

Missouri Southern State – Missouri Southern has not looked great so far and has only one more chance to get a big upset at home when they host Pittsburg State next week.  If they don’t get the job done there they’ll probably finish 3-6 in conference, 3-7 overall.

Emporia State – Emporia State doesn’t appear to have much bite in them which will hurt their chances with the next 3 games home with UNO, @ Pittsburg State, and home with Northwest Missouri State.  They also host Missouri Western and Washburn, so they’ll have plenty of chances to play spoiler…

Truman State – Truman State should be glad they got to play Oklahoma Panhandle in the non-conference season because I don’t see a conference win coming.  MAYBE at home against Emporia State on October 24th… but that’d be the best chance by far.

Volleyball

This weekend gave us several big games.  Central Missouri went to Washburn and pulled off a win 3-2, giving Washburn it’s second straight loss.  Truman lost at home to Missouri Southern 3-2 in a major let down. Truman did respond however by knocking off Pittsburg State at home 3-1 on Saturday.  UNO went to Emporia State and gave them all they could handle in a 3-2 Emporia win.  The Mavericks are for real, they’ll be in contention for the conference title. UNO had two KEY service errors in the final set down the stretch and still managed to make it 15-13.

So my updated standings are (-1 for any loss at a bottom level team, -1 for any home loss to a top level team, and +1 for a road win at a top level team)

Emporia State and Pittsburg State (+1)

Nebraska-Omaha and Central Missouri (0)

Washburn (-1)

Truman State (-2)

The next big game, and the only conference match next weekend, is when Central travels to Pittsburg State on Friday night as part of the PSU Classic looking to avenge the home loss they had earlier this year.

Soccer

Soccer is probably a 5 taeam race at this point.  Truman State at 5-1, UNO at 4-1, Southwest Baptist at 3-1, Northwest Missouri State at 3-2, and Central Missouri at 3-2.  Central fell @ Washburn 1-0, and Northwest Missouri State fell @ Missouri Western 2-0 on Thursday. Truman had a big win Saturday 1-0 over UNO at home.

I’m going to use the same method as we have for volleyball (-1 for any loss at a bottom level team, -1 for any home loss to a top level team, and +1 for a road win at a top level team) amongst these 5 teams to see where things stand.

Truman State (+1)

Nebraska Omaha and Southwest Baptist (0)

Central Misouri (-1)

Northwest Missouri State (-2)

Northwest is a team to question, they are having a solid year so far but may not be up to the level of competing for the conference title.

Football

Northwest Missouri State – Northwest, who was now won 31 straight MIAA games (last loss Oct 2005 vs. Pittsburg State), has what might be the biggest game of the conference season on Saturday when they go on the road to fellow 3-0 in conference foe Missouri Western.  This game could be for all the marbles.  NW has a fairly easy schedule after that with the best remaining chances to stumble being vs. Washburn and Central Missouri at home. But if they lose to Missouri Western even a 8-1 season might not be enough to win the conference this year…

Missouri Western – Missouri Western, after upseting Pittsburg State on the road this weekend, is now in position to win the conference through some MAJOR home games. It starts this weekend with Northwest Missouri State coming to town.  A win would make them the team to beat in the MIAA and mean if they could go 4-1 the rest of the way they would win the conference.  After Northwest the biggest tests are all at home.  A October 17th meeting with Central Missouri and a November 7th year end game with Nebraska-Omaha.  A game that could mean a conference title with a win for Western and could be UNO’s last chance to reach the playoffs.

Central Missouri – The team that looked like the team on the rise after beating Pittsburg State last week has taken a step back falling on the road @ Washburn. They still are in position for a great finish and a possible playoff berth, but it looks A LOT tougher now.  This team doesn’t look good on the road, barely scraping bye @ Emporia State, and has to go to Missouri Western, UNO, and Northwest Missouri State in 3 of the last 4 weeks of the season.  I don’t see them getting through that stretch any better than 1-2, can they make the playoffs if they finish 8-3?

Washburn - Maybe this is the new team to watch out for? Washburn’s only loss on the year was a tough loss on a FG at the end to Missouri Western last week.  We’ll know all about Washburn after a 3 game stretch in mid October (@ UNO, Pittsburg State, @ Northwest Missouri State).  If they want to make the playoffs they’ll need to avoid slipping up outside of that and go at least 1-2 in that stretch.

Nebraska-Omaha – UNO has looked up and down, and didn’t look at their best vs. Missouri Southern, but got the job done none the less. The Mavericks need to take care of business on the road at Emporia State and Fort Hays State in the next 3 weeks, but the real tests will come at home where they take on Washburn, Central Missouri, and Pittsburg State.  The Mavericks probably need to go 3-0 in this stretch as they already have 2 losses, but if they do they would have the edge on Washburn and Central Missouri, and Pittsburg State would be done.  Can the Mavericks finish 8-3 with a loss at Missouri Western in the final game and make the playoffs or would they need a win to get in there?  If UNO can get rolling they could be an interesting team to watch.

Pittsburg State – I don’t think anyone saw this coming, Pittsburg State with their backs firmly pressed into the wall with 6 weeks left in the season.  They can’t lose again and still have road tests @ Washburn and @ UNO.  The good news is outside of those two games they appear to have 4 very winnable games, but they’ll have to win all 6 to have a shot.

Fort Hays State – Fort Hays probably is one of those bottom 4 teams still despite winning 2 of their first 3 conference games, and the schedule does them no favors sending them @ Washburn, @ Central, home with UNO, @ Pittsburg State, and home with Northwest Missouri State in the next 5 weeks.  I imagine they’ll be lucky to emerge from that schedule 1-4.

Missouri Southern State – Missouri Southern has not looked great so far and has only one more chance to get a big upset at home when they host Pittsburg State next week.  If they don’t get the job done there they’ll probably finish 3-6 in conference, 3-7 overall.

Emporia State – Emporia State doesn’t appear to have much bite in them which will hurt their chances with the next 3 games home with UNO, @ Pittsburg State, and home with Northwest Missouri State.  They also host Missouri Western and Washburn, so they’ll have plenty of chances to play spoiler…

Truman State – Truman State should be glad they got to play Oklahoma Panhandle in the non-conference season because I don’t see a conference win coming.  MAYBE at home against Emporia State on October 24th… but that’d be the best chance by far.

Volleyball

This weekend gave us several big games.  Central Missouri went to Washburn and pulled off a win 3-2, giving Washburn it’s second straight loss.  Truman lost at home to Missouri Southern 3-2 in a major let down. Truman did respond however by knocking off Pittsburg State at home 3-1 on Saturday.  UNO went to Emporia State and gave them all they could handle in a 3-2 Emporia win.  The Mavericks are for real, they’ll be in contention for the conference title. UNO had two KEY service errors in the final set down the stretch and still managed to make it 15-13.

So my updated standings are (-1 for any loss at a bottom level team, -1 for any home loss to a top level team, and +1 for a road win at a top level team)

Emporia State and Pittsburg State (+1)

Nebraska-Omaha and Central Missouri (0)

Washburn (-1)

Truman State (-2)

The next big game, and the only conference match next weekend, is when Central travels to Pittsburg State on Friday night as part of the PSU Classic looking to avenge the home loss they had earlier this year.

Soccer

Soccer is probably a 5 taeam race at this point.  Truman State at 5-1, UNO at 4-1, Southwest Baptist at 3-2, Northwest Missouri State at 3-2, and Central Missouri at 3-2.  Central fell @ Washburn 1-0, and Northwest Missouri State fell @ Missouri Western 2-0 on Thursday. Truman had a big win Saturday 1-0 over UNO at home.  Southwest Baptist dropped a game @ Washburn 4-3.

I’m going to use the same method as we have for volleyball (-1 for any loss at a bottom level team, -1 for any home loss to a top level team, and +1 for a road win at a top level team) amongst these 5 teams to see where things stand.

Truman State (+1)

Nebraska Omaha  (0)

Central Missouri and Southwest Baptist (-1)

Northwest Missouri State (-2)

Northwest is a team to question, they are having a solid year so far but may not be up to the level of competing for the conference title.

Mavericks in the Minors

There’s a few Mavericks floating around in Minor League Baseball right now, so let’s check in and see how they are doing…

2009 Mavericks

Evan Porter:

Former UNO Standout SS Evan Porter’s new team, the Williamsport Crosscutters of the Short Season Class A New York-Penn League started their season tonight with a 15-2 win.  Evan didn’t play tonight, which must be quite an odd feeling.  He started every game UNO played during his 4-year career (239 to be exact) and I doubt he missed many games in HS (including the 35-0 season his senior year at Millard North).  So to not play tonight must have been a very weird experience.  He may not have started in the Summer League he’s played in (I believe in Beatrice).

Evan and his teammates will have 76 games to show their stuff before the season ends on September 6th.  All the games can be heard online at www.crosscutters.com if you’d like, they probably have a game tracker as well.  Additionally you can friend request them on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/people/Williamsport-Crosscutters/1189556076!

Chris Kessinger:

Chris was drafted by the Seattle Mariners.  I haven’t seen any mention of him anywhere online on a roster, and this article says he will be in a rookie camp in July.  We’ll see where he might pop up.

BTW- Both Evan and Chris are represented by Agent J.R. Rickert, who also represents Correll Buckhalter.

2008 Mavericks

Tyler Cloyd:

Cloyd is another member of the Phillies organization and is playing with the Lakewood BlueClaws of the Class A South Atlantic League.  Last year he started 12 games for Williamsport going 5-4 with a 4.57 ERA.  He also started 1 game and appeared in one other for the Gulf Coast Rookie League Phillies, going 2-0 with no runs and 5 hits against in 11 innings.

This year Tyler is 7-3 with a 3.05 ERA in 13 starts at Lakewood.  He won his last game on June 14th going 6 innings giving up 2 runs against the Lake County Captains. In his last 8 games Tyler is 6-1 and hasn’t given up more than 3 runs, going at least 6 innings in each start.

His team was the best in the league in the First Half currently at 41-25, 3 games clear of 2nd place, with 3 to go.

Bryan Frew:

Bryan, like Evan and Tyler, was a member of the Phillies organization.  He played at Williamsport last year hitting .241 in 55 games with 14 RBIs.  I heard he was cut after that, and then played for the Traverese City Beach Bums, in the Frontier League (think like the Lincoln Saltdogs).  He was cut from that team a week ago on June 13th, he was hitting .222 at that point.

Tim Huber:

Tim was drafted by the Kansas City Royals and started off at the Burlington Royals fo the Rookie Appalachian League where he made 3 appearances and had an 18.00 ERA. He then moved to the Idaho Falls Chukars of the Rookie Pioneer League where he made 13 appearances there going 1-0 with a 3.38 ERA.  During that time he also joined the Burlington Bees of the Class A Midwest League where he made 4 appearances going 0-1 with a 10.50 ERA.

Tim is still listed on the roster, so it seems he will be with the Chukars when they start play on Tuesday.

Chris Weimer:

I’ve read in a few places that it appears Chris will be playing for the Arizona Rookie League Cubs.  He played in Extended Spring Training with the Cubs this year, after signing with them in February.

Dustin Koca:

Well Dustin, much like Bryan Frew, has pursued the Independent Leagues.  He’s playing a bit closer to home though with the Evansville Otters of the Frontier League.  Dustin signed with Evansville in January and is hitting .293 with 15 RBIs in 25 games.  In his first game, on May 24th, Dustin went 5-5 with a grandslam in his first at bat! Unfortunately his team is struggling currently in last with a record of 7-18.

If you know of anyone else who is a former Maverick and playing ball, let me know and we’ll follow them as well!

Mavericks vs. Fort Hays State Recap

On the Women’s Side we have some good news!!! The Mavericks defeated Fort Hays 69-60, their first win in 2 weeks ending a 3 game slide.  This game would not have been nearly as close had Fort Hays State’s Naomi Bancroft not gone off for a school record 9 3 pointers on 17 shots.  She scored a career high 33 points overall.  Apart from Naomi… the Tigers shot 28% (7% from 3).  She scored over half their points.  Incredible “one-woman” effort. Morgan Clark added 11 points and 12 rebounds.  apart from the Tigers were a laughable 21% from the field.  They combined for 73% of their team’s points.  Add in Ashley Cornett’s 6 points and we have 83% of the points and the rest of the team shoots 15%.

The Mavericks shot a bit better and spread the wealth some.  Cayla Hargrove came off the bench and hit 3 3’s to lead the team with 22 points.  Amanda Brodsack poured in 19 more and 9 rebounds.  Brodsack hit 3 3’s of her own, now shooting 46% from 3, 55% in conference.  Incredible shooting.  Brodsack lead the team in rebounds for the 6th straight game.  She has led the Mavericks in rebounds in 12 of the 17 games so far.

The Mavericks led 27-13 with 5:38 to go in the 1st half before going cold and watching Naomi Bancroft score 14 straight points to tie the game at the half.   The Mavericks were great however in the 2nd half.  The Mavs shot 50% from the feild and from 3, and commited only 4 turnovers in rolling to 42 points and a 69-60 win.  The Mavericks bench played a large part in this one outscoring the Tigers 37-6.

Next it was the Men’s turn. UNO was expected to have a pretty good chance at a win here after a 3 point win on the road in December.  Well… it wasn’t to be as UNO was beaten handily, 80-61.  It was the only the 2nd time all year that the women’s team has outscored the men’s team (the other being Northwest Missouri State).  The men were ice cold all night, shooting 40% (35% from 3) in the first half and, even worse, 30% (30% from 3) in the 2nd half.  The Mavericks were HAMMERED on the boards being out rebounded by 15.  The Mavericks only turned the ball over 9 times.  This loss can be chalked up to poor shooting and getting beat on the boards.  The Maverick’s seemed to struggle with Fort Hays’ speed, which cut off a lot of penetration and forced the Mavericks into shooting some forced shots from 3.   The Tigers also did a good job of slowing the game up in the 2nd half once they had established a large lead.  The last 3 minutes were painful as the Mavericks fouled the Tigers hoping to get caught back up.  The Tigers controlled the ball for 1:38 straight after a Mitch Albers jumper made it 65-52 with 4:13 to go.  The Mavericks had the lead down to 12 with 2:08 to go.  Jonathan Blake missed the front end of a 1 and 1 but the Tigers got the rebound and were fouled.  It was just the way the night was going. 

One interesting thing I noticed was that Michael Jenkins took a lot of shots Wednesday night.  I’m not sure if Michael felt he had to try and shoot more to make up for the Mavericks lack of scoring or whether he was forced to shoot more because he wasn’t able to get to the line like he wanted to, but his 15 shots were the most he’s taken all year.  Jenkins is at his best when he’s not taking outside jumpers unless he’s open and forcing the defense to foul him on the way to the hole.  He scored 16 points, but on 15 shots.  In comparison his last full game he scored 19 points, on 8 shots.  He also had 4 turnovers.  Just a rough night for Michael.  It was his 2nd worst game of the year (@ Washburn being the 1st) statisically. Jenkins was able to get to the free throw line 21 times against Fort Hays the first go around in route to a 27 point night.  Not this time, as Jenkins only shot 8 FTs, and 4 of those were in the final 2 minutes.

Most of the Mavericks have off night, but two Mavericks actually had pretty good games on Wed.  Matt Akins had 4 boards, 2 blocks, a steal and 2 pts in 13 minutes.  A pretty productive night. His best game since Emporia State statisically.  He also played very well against Fort Hays State the first go around, in fact better, with 11 pts and 8 boards in 18 minutes.  Mitch Albers had 5 boards to lead the Mavericks, along with 4 assists and a steal and 12 points… on only 8 shots.  Mitch has been the opposite of Michael Jenkins in that this was his first game with less than 10 shots since playing St. Mary’s in December.  It was only the 3rd time this year that Mitch has taken less than 10 shots (Michael has taken 10 or more only 5 times).  Statisically it was Mitch’s best game since a road win against Missouri Western in early January, and was a big improvement on his first game against Fort Hays (19 pts, but on 13 shots and with only 1 board).

I was very pleased with the quote I saw from Jenkins after the game in the Omaha World Herald, http://omaha.com/index.php?u_page=3925&u_sid=10550373, ”You should always be able to take care of your home court,” UNO guard Michael Jenkins said. “It’s a setback. But we’ve got eight games left in the conference. It’s not too late, but we’ve got to turn it up. We’ve got a lot of soul-searching to do.”  

“You’re fighting so hard to come back, then a team goes on a run like that and it just drains you,” Jenkins said. “You’ve been fighting so hard to come back. They kept their composure and made shots.” 

“Give them a lot of credit,” Jenkins said. “They knew what we like to do — penetrate and kick it out. Tonight we weren’t making them because they were getting out and contesting us. They came out and played hard from the (opening) tip.” 

Jenkins is right.  It’s not time to panic.  UNO needs to pick up some crucial wins to make the NCAA Tournament, but they still have home games with Central Missouri and Emporia State.  Those games have become much more magnified now on the Mavericks schedule.

I’ll try and update later with some thoughts on what UNO needs to do this weekend @ Ferris State.  Get 2 points.  I also want to share some of the Win Score things I’ve found the last day regarding UNO.  I’ve taken every game and calculated out the win scores for the players.  Some interesting things regarding what the best performances of the year are and which players show the most difference between wins and losses.

Lessons Learned From UNO-Augustana Volleyball

So UNO took on #22 Augustana tonight.  Augustana did not look like the #22 team.  Had a bit of a rough night struggling.  UNO took set 1, and looked poised to win set 2.  They were up 18-11, but started making some mistakes and Augustana ran in to 21-21.  UNO actually got up 24-23, serving for the set, but 3 attack errors gave it to the Vikings.  UNO needed to take this set that they dominated for the most part, but just let things get away from them.  I thought it would come back to cost them at this point.  Augustana is a good team and you need to put this away instead of giving them time to come back.  After winning set 3 and losing set 4, a set which UNO led 14-11 before falling away, it all came down to set 5.  Both teams were pretty even so if ended up tied at 12.  And 13. And 14. And 15. And 16.  All of a sudden the whole match came down to whoever could win 2 points first. When you set up this situation all it takes is a fluke and you’ve got the win.  You could hit the net with a serve and just trickle it over.  You could have a ball deflect wildly.  All of a sudden all your margin of error is gone and you can’t just win it over the long run.  UNO played like the better team for the whole night, but when you leave the game to be decided on two points, you can get beat pretty easily.

So those are the two lessons. 1.) You have to take advantage of your opporrunities.  Especially when playing a better team (because they will fight back at some point).  UNO needed to win set 2 and didn’t get the job done.  2.) When you let a game come down to a “best of” in a short span… you let the team playing worse (usually the worse team… not the case tonight) have a chance to erase everything based on a few flukey moments or a few good plays.  UNO didn’t get beat by flukey plays tonight, Agustana won those points impressively, but UNO was the better team tonight… just not on the last two points.

Oh and if you haven’t seen them yet… this volleyball team is gonna be good when they are a bit older.  Very young team.

UNO Hockey Exhibition Thoughts

Since Cassy mentioned me as a source for analysis, I figure I should probably do so.  

UNO played Manitoba.  Manitoba was a 3-7 Canadian College Hockey Team.  We can’t draw too much from this.  That said, the Mavs looked good in my opinion.  Love to see a clean sheet (there goes my soccer side..), and the penalty kill looked good (even if it was out there all night).

Here’s what I do want to draw on. The following players saw their first ever action for UNO: Defensemen Matt Smith, Defensemen Kyle Ensign, Forward Jordan Willert, Forward Jake Skjodt, Forward Ryan Kretzer, Forward John Kemp, Forward Alex Hudson, and Goalie John Faulkner.  That’s 8 freshman to break in!  

These players started their 2nd season: Defensemen Alain Goulet, Defensemen Nick Von Bokern, Forward Rich Purslow, Forward Joey Martin, Defensemen Eric Olimb, and Forward Matt Ambroz.  That’s 6 more underclassmen, bringing us to 14 and 6 of those are defensemen.

This year’s team has 7 Juniors (Goalie Jeremie Dupont, Defensemen Eddie DelGrosso, Forward Jeric Agosta, Forward JJ Koehler, Forward Nick Fanto, Defensemen Mark Bernier, and Forward Dan Swanson).  These 7 are some big names on this team, and this year will need to step up and start leading.  

There are only 4 Seniors, a Trio of Forwards (Tomas Klempa. J.P. Platisha, and Dan Charleston) and a Goalie (Jerad Kaufmann).  These guys are great and will be good leaders.  The job of these 11 upperclassmen though will be to lead the underclassmen.  To get the Freshman adjusted to college hockey and make sure the Sophomores keep getting better.

On the Blue Line (defensemen) is where this could be the biggest impact.  There are 2 Juniors, 4 Sophmores and 2 Freshman.  The Sophomores are going to be expected to contribute heavily, and are somewhat prepared after getting experience last year.  But we will see some mistakes, make no mistake about that.  The Blue Line will make you groan a few times this year…

Looking at the Forwards we see a trio of seniors and 4 juniors.  They will be expected to bear the brunt of the scoring burden.  The sophomores and freshman will be able to fit nicely into the plan and work hard, but won’t have the same pressure as the defensemen.

Between the pipes, Dupont and Kaufmann are both experienced.  One of the two will play well, if not both (as I expect).  Faulkner will get some time I’m sure, but is there to help spur these two on and learn.

Now what does this mean?  UNO is young.  Very young.  IF, and this is a big if because with the schedule this team has… they have a chance to do some damage, pull some upsets and have a good year, the team struggles this year… don’t fret too much.  This team is built for the future.  For the next few years.  This year is a bit of a building year.  We can see some big results this year as well I think thanks to a great schedule, but this isn’t the year we worry about.

P.S. Sophomore defensemen Mike Phillippi will redshirt and focus on his grades.  A very good idea I think.  I applaud Coach Kemp for making the right choice here and putting Student before Athlete in this case.

Summer League Finale Review

Not as a good a night for UNO fans.  UNO took an early lead on UNK but had their lead trimmed to 1 by the half.  As the 2nd half began UNO again got out to an early lead but UNK came storming back and ran past the Mavericks, winning the game 75-67.  UNO struggled to contain the inside presence of Kearney Grad Nick Branting.  Matt Akins struggled to stay in the game and as a result Kearney was able to dominate the paint.  UNO also didn’t see huge games from several of their bigger players.  Kearney got a huge game again from Junior Drake Beranek.  All in all though the Mavericks still looked good as a team against a Kearney team that is greatly helped from Branting.  I think the Mavericks will be better than Kearney this year, but after losing twice to Kearney in the Summer League, there will be a lot of desire to beat them.

In the second game UNO’s Grads got some leads, but weren’t ever able to put PCS Phosphate away.  Without P’Allen Stinnett, Omar Bynum took over as leader of the team and helped distribute the ball.  Stanley Boateng showed up big time as did Cole Salomon.  UNO had the ball with 40 seconds left and the game tied at 71.  Kelvin Capels drove the lane and tried to hit a layup but it rolled off.  In OT UNO jumped to a lead but PCS pulled away to win 78-74.

In the final, Kearney took on PCS Phosphate.  The obvious advantage belonged to Kearney who had the hour break.  Kearney jumped out to an early lead and it looked like PCS wasn’t going to hang with them but things changed late in the first half when Drake Beranek disloacted his left pinky finger.  He tried to jam it back in but was unable to complete the game.  PCS came back in the 2nd half but was unable to stick with them in the end and faded down the stretch.  Kearney won the game 91-75.

This summer league season was awesome.  Got to see lots of good ball and I feel it really helped these teams.  Can’t wait for the regular season and then next summer league.

I feel good about UNO’s season, but i think it depends on Matt Akins.  It he can’t give UNO 25 quality minutes inside they are gonna struggle to compete.  They just don’t have enough depth to make up for him not playing well.

Summer Leage Playoffs Semifinals and Final Preview

Tonight is the night to end the playoffs.  Semis at 5:30 and 6:30 and Final at 7:45 at Omaha Central.

At 5:30 UNO will take on UNK in a rematch of a regular season game that saw UNK defeat UNO.  UNO will look for their gaurds to light up the scoreboard as they’ve done in previous weeks.  UNO will also look for forwards Dion Curry and Justin Peterson to play hard inside against much older UNK grads who were once All-Americans.  Matt Akins will also play a big role inside (and John Ring if he is playing).  I think if UNO plays like they have lately, they can win this game.  That said, UNK is a VERY tough team with some very good older players and some hard nosed young guys.  That includes a great player in Drake Beranek.  UNO’s biggest advantage is depth.  UNO will have 10-11 available tonight, while UNK will probably play with 6 or 7.  If UNO can keep pace up all game long, it should make it hard for UNK to win.

In the 2nd game at 6:30 the UNO Grads take on P’Allen’s PCS Phosphate… minus P’Allen according to thebluejaycafe.com. PCS is still a tough team with some good graduates, a former NBA prospect in Omar Bynum, and a Husker in Cole Salomon.  UNO’s Grads will face a challenge and must bring a better game then last week.  I have a feling PCS won’t be able to stop UNO’s 3 barrage though and we’ll see a UNO-UNO final tonight.

The prospect of that is… tantalizing.  Grant Neiland being forced to choose between his two teams.  Or does he play for both?  Guys like Mitch Albers going at former teammate Denny Johnston.  Matt Akins taking on former great post players in Ryan Curtis and Tola Dada.  Current 3 point stud Justin Peterson takin on all time 3-point leader Zac Robinson.  Current Mav Jeff Martin taking on his teammates.  That could be fun. I’m not sure who to take in the final, but I imagine conditioning could be a large factor and with a large bench, I have to pick UNO as the favorites to win the league tonight!  They raise a trophy the last time this team was in a tournament, and I think they can do it again tonight (in front of slightly more people perhaps too :-p).

2008 UNO Football Schedule Preview

Sat, Sep 6 Nebraska-Kearney Caniglia Field

Sat, Sep 13 Emporia State * Caniglia Field

Sat, Sep 20 Missouri Southern * Joplin, Mo.

Sat, Sep 27 Northwest Missouri State * Caniglia Field

Sat, Oct 4 Truman State * Kirksville, Mo.

Sat, Oct 11 Missouri Western – Homecoming/Centennial Day * Caniglia Field

Sat, Oct 18 Pittsburg State * Pittsburg, Kan.

Sat, Oct 25 Central Missouri * Warrensburg, Mo.

Sat, Nov 1 Fort Hays State * Caniglia Field

Sat, Nov 8 Washburn * Topeka, Kan.

The first 3 home games are at 6 PM, the rest at 1 PM.

This schedule is interesting for UNO. UNO starts off with what should be an easy game against UNK, but can’t be overlooked. This is a rivalry game, and anything can happen, but UNO handled UNK pretty easily on the road last year to start the year. Next up UNO hosts Emporia State in what should be an easy first MIAA game. Emporia went 3-7 last year with their only conference win over Southern Baptist. Next UNO makes the trek down to Joplin Missouri for what again should be an easier game against Missouri Southern. Southern went 6-5 last year, 4-5 in the MIAA but without a win over any of the big boys (beat Emporia, Southwest Baptist, Fort Hays and Truman). They did give Pittsburg State a great game losing 31-28. UNO will have to be prepared but should dispatch of the Lions.

Then things get a little more interesting. First up is Northwest Missouri State. Northwest barely missed out on a National Title last year, losing to Valdosta State in the title game, but hasn’t won at Omaha in over 10 years, including a loss in week 2 to the Mavericks last year. UNO will have to be prepared for a fight, but should be the favorites in this heavyweight bout. Next UNO will go on the road to Truman State, another of the low level teams in the MIAA. Truman went 6-5 last year, 4-5 in conference. They beat Emporia, Fort hays, Southwest Baptist and Missouri Western. They were destroyed by Northwest Missouri State and Pittsburg State by a combined score of 93-6. UNO should be able to defeat the Bulldogs, but again in this league overlooking anyone would be a mistake. UNO wraps this 3 game set up with a return home for the Homecoming/Centennial game with Missouri Western. Missouri Western went 9-3 overall, 6-3 in conference and won the 2007 Mineral Water Bowl over Wayne State. They were beaten 44-20 last year by northwest, but beat Pittsburg State 39-32 on the road on a touchdown pass with 22 seconds left. UNO should be prepared for this game at home on one of the biggest days in campus history. I can’t see them letting down, but it should be a good game.

So at this point I think UNO should be 6-0, at worst 5-1. Then things get a bit trickier. Next up is a trip to D2 powerhouse Pittsburg State, for their homecoming. This will be the toughest game of the year in my opinion. Pittsburg State went 8-3 last year, 6-3 in conference, but is expected to compete for the conference title with UNO and NWMS. Pitt was beaten by Northwest, Western and Washburn last year. This is probably the best chance any team will have to beat UNO, and I don’t expect the Mavericks to escape victorious. They have a chance but will have to play a great game. Things don’t get much easier the next week as UNO travels to Central Missouri. The Mules were 7-4 last year, 6-3 in conference with a road win over Washburn being the highlight of the season. Don’t let that record fool you though, they lost to Pittsburg 38-31 in 2 OT and 28-26 at Northwest Missouri State. This team was good. They will provide a tough test for UNO after the Pittsburg State game, but UNO should be able to pull it out. Next up is an easier game for UNO as they host Fort Hays State who went 2-7 in conference, 4-7 overall. They defeated Emporia and Southwest Baptist last year. At this point I’d project UNO to be 8-1, but anywhere from 9-0 to 6-3 (losses to Northwest, Pittsburg, Central).

UNO finishes off the regular season with a road trip to Washburn to take on the Ichabods. This won’t be an easy game either as Washburn finished in the top 25 last season and made the playoffs, losing a tight game in the first round to West Texas A&M 40-39. The only other losses on the year were @ Northwest Missouri State and two home games, Chadron State and Central Missouri. UNO will have to bring their best to win this game. In the end I think UNO probably finishes this year 9-1. This team is very talented, played a lot of tough games last year and should be able to win these games. I think they slip up somewhere (Northwest, Pittsburg, Central, Washburn), but they should at the worst split those games to go 8-2. Either one of those results should get them into the NCAA Playoffs. Worst case scenario is a 6-4 year with losses to all 4 of those teams and no playoffs, but I don’t see that happening.

Summer League Playoffs Round 2 Preview

Round 1 went great for the Mavs as both the current team and the grads advanced.  The current Mavs face a steep challenge in the 2nd round while the grads face the “cinderella” of the tournament.

At 5:30 at Omaha Central on Thursday, the current Mavs will battle McGinn Law.  McGinn Law is one of the draft teams consisting of Bruce Chubick, Scot Abels, Charles Richardson, Joe Webb, Earl Mitchell, Chris Kuhn, Bryce Johnson, Evan Lamprecht.  Chubick played for Nebraska from 1991 to 1994… I was 7  when he finished (and so were some of the players he’ll play tomorrow I think)… yikes.  But he was a stud back then.  Scot Abels I have no clue (this is where I wish I hadn’t misplaced my rosters during my move).  Charles Richardson was a Husker from 2004-2007 who never put up gaudy numbers, but at an undersized 5′9″ was a ton of fun to watch.  Joe Webb is a two time all NAIA All American from Bellevue who put up 16 a game as a senior in 2007.  Earl Mitchell is from Alvernia college in Pennsylvania, a small D3 school. No idea on Chris Kuhn.  Bryce Johnson is a Bellevue grad as well… while Lamprecht played at Elkhorn and is now at Midland Lutheran).  The cool matchup to me is going to be Charles Richardson vs. the gaurd combo of Jenkins and Bridger.  Both will be taking him on some I imagine.  Also Bruce Chubick vs. Matt Akins.  Akins will have to play hard to hang with Chubick I imagine, but this will be a good test for him to see how he can stack up.

For the grads, the path appears to be a little easier.  Hastings College shocked the #2 seed EQ School of Hair and are into the quarterfinals.  Hastings can’t be underestimated though of course and I expect the grads to show up and take care of buisness.  They play at 7:30.

The other two games of the night feature Nebraska Kearney playing the Antoine Young led State Farm Insurance at 6:30 and PCS Phosphate (led by P’Allen Stinnett) taking on Narmi Group (led by Josh Dotzler).  That matchup is at 8:30.  I’ll take UNK (they play hard and strong) and PCS (strength of P’Allen) to advance to play the UNO teams of course… That would be a dream final 4 to me.. UNO-UNK rematch and UNO Grads taking on the most exciting Creighton player’s team… we can only hope!  Hope to see you all out there.