Western softball plans even-keel approach
Monday, May 4, 2009
Missouri Western might have dropped two straight on Saturday to bow out of the MIAA tournament ahead of its hopes, but the team remains upbeat and confident. Their national tournament berth — up in the air after the early MIAA exit — is literally a second lease on life.
“I don’t really feel like we lost our swagger at all,” said pitcher Allison Jones, who is 25-4 with a 1.38 ERA. “We just had a couple of bad games.”
And now the Griffons know exactly who they’ll have to get through in order to advance.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
On a campus with All-Americans and All-Region performers, conference championships and national championship contenders, one player has stood out in my mind over the past two years.
He doesn't wear a jersey. Heck, he might not be able to bench press half his own weight. He is quiet, almost to the point of being timid, and frankly he looks rather bookish.
It is unlikely you've ever heard of him.
But boy, is Jared Verner a great team player.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Like a midnight snack, spring football is here to tide us over until August brings the dawn of a new season.
But without knowing which juco transfers will make an impact, which reserves are set for breakout seasons and how far underclassmen starters will progress, spring projections are just debate fodder until something more tangible comes along.
And since that’s six months away, let’s project away. Until someone actually beats Northwest, the Bearcats are my No. 1. Two through six is really a crap-shoot at this point.
Friday, April 10, 2009
It didn’t take Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum very long to throw down the gauntlet with assistant coach Austin Meyer.
Let’s just call this coaching combination a Bearcat players’ reunion. McCollum was a guard for the Bearcats for two seasons from 2001-03, and his Bearcat career overlapped that of Meyer, a sharpshooting forward.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The wait was well worth it Tuesday — not necessarily for the football, but the sunny weather in the mid-50s. Standing on the sideline in Sunday evening’s nasty, frozen drizzle seemed about as desirable as driving to Fort Hays on a Vespa. Thankfully, the Bearcats pushed back their annual spring scrimmage until Tuesday, and Mother Nature cooperated this time.
Final grades for the Western menWednesday, March 25, 2009
This blog entry is long overdue, but I decided to wait until after my annual ski trip to hand out the grades. So while the hoops season has given way to hardball in every MIAA locale except Warrensburg, I’ll devote a few more words to the Western men’s team before putting a wrap on the 2008-09 version of West by Northwest.
Resiliency was the buzz word to describe this Western team, which lost five games by a basket.
Monday, March 9, 2009
This was just an incredible contest. Neither team made many mistakes. Neither team ever had control, and the game sat on a razor's edge throughout.
It was the great plays, not the absence of, that made this game arresting from opening tip to ending buzzer. I thought Western got caught up in the first half trying to match Central shot for shot from the perimeter. But from in the final 25 minutes, both teams stuck with what they did well. The Mules have shooters all over the floor and continued to hit shot after contested shot. Western appeared to be the quicker, more aggressive team and continually got to the rim.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Western still dancing One day these are the run-and-gun Griffons. The next, they're playing something resembling the grinding pace of the Big 10. And it's all been gravy in K.C.
The Griffons beat Baptist at the Bearcats' high-octane game on Thursday and then beat Fort Hays at the Tigers' half-court style Saturday. Now, Western is one win away from something seemingly unthinkable at any point in the past three years – an NCAA tournament berth.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
MIAA Tournament blog: Day 2 running diary For the first round of the women's tournament, I took a stab at a running diary, which seemed to be going well until I actually had to do real work during the second session. Here are the mixed results.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Matt Rogers' contributions Thursday amounted to the all-everything center getting down on his hands and knees to wipe up sweat on the Municipal Auditorium floor during a timeout.
Friday, March 6, 2009
As the dust settled on the best game of the day – Central Missouri's 77-76 overtime win over Missouri Southern – the Mules coaches and players stepped to the podium to dissect two hours of drama. And through the exhaustion and relief, one sound cut through – Darth Vader's theme song.
Monday, March 2, 2009
From the 10-minute mark of the second half on, the Western women never looked like their were going to win at Southwest Baptist. For the record, the Griffons led three times after that point but just went into a shell, throwing the ball away indiscriminately, forcing bad shots and generally looking lost in a season-ending 76-66 loss.
It was a fitting way to end a dismal season. The startling thing is that 1,050 minutes into the campaign, the Griffons still looked as if they had no idea what they were doing on the floor, how to run the offense properly, or even what defense they were in and who they were guarding. This season was a failure on just about all counts, but I think this particular detail falls on the coaching staff.
Friday, Feb. 27, 2009
With Wednesday’s trip to Warrensburg, I’ve now been to 10 of the 11 hoops arenas in the MIAA. Fort Hays is the lone exception, and I have no intention of changing that any time soon. Western assistant Mike Nicholson told me ole Gross Memorial is one of the league’s best venues when full, so we’ll let his opinion stand for the Tigers.
From the blog that brought you the MIAA’s best football stadiums, media guides and uniforms, here are the league’s best basketball venues — based on facilities and atmosphere.
Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009
After most of Western's losses this year, you could identify turning points that had they gone the Griffons' way, it was easy to see the result following. Not the case Wednesday in Warrensburg.
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009
Unless you've been living in a cave the past two days, you no doubt have heard Northwest Missouri State football coach Mel Tjeerdsma is a finalist for the Texas-San Antonio head coaching position and will interview with the Roadrunners next week.
The announcement surprised many of us who just assumed Tjeerdsma, 62, would retire a Bearcat. And he still might because I believe the Roadrunners will hire former Miami coach Larry Coker over Tjeerdsma.
JOB SEARCH
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