USD Blog w/ Mick Garry

Men's basketball talk, spring version

Thu, 30 May 2013 15:02:00 -0400

I touched base with Dave Boots late last week about the upcoming season. (Never too early to talk a little ball.)

Nothing earthshaking to relay, other than my guess is at least a few of the incoming players will be redshirted. Obviously those decisions are way off under the best of conditions. Throw in the possibilities of injuries, etc., and any declaration on my part about who will play next year and who will not is meaningless.

Looking at the returning players, however, it seems to make some sense that a few would be on the sidelines.

Let’s begin with a starting line up and work our way backward…..Trevor Gruis and Tyler Flack look like they’re going to start at the four and five spots. It’s a no-brainer on Gruis, who has started for three years, and we can probably expect progress from Flack, who looked better toward the end of the year after a mid-season lull and has the tools to be a physical force.

“Tyler got a little more confident the last part of the season,” Boots said. “It’s a long season for someone coming out of high school. He was better at the beginning, then he struggled then he finished out pretty well. He had a good spring. Now he needs to have a good summer and keep improving. Both he and Casey Kasperbauer got thrown into the heat right away last year, which is tough. We’re getting the program into a position now where we’re hoping we won’t have to do that.”

The three spot would look like a three-year home for Adam Thoseby, the 6-5 Australian who sat out the entire season. He continually impressed coaches in practice last season after transferring from Utah State and looks like the real deal. He’s a rangy kid, jumps well, shoots well and could become a go-to player.

Brandon Bos, who spent a lot of time as an undersized but physical three last year, will return as the very likely choice to start at shooting guard, though he could spend a lot of time at point guard as well. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a kid make a bigger jump from his freshman to sophomore season at USD than he did. He basically went from a guy who was somewhere toward the end of the bench to one of the young stars in the Summit League. He can also play point-guard, which, given the Coyotes’ backcourt depth next year, could be a real plus.

If everyone stays healthy, it will be interesting to see how those backcourt minutes sort themselves out. Tyler Larson, who the coaches were digging prior to a knee injury, returns as a two-guard with two years of eligibility remaining. He appeared to be a very capable offensive player prior to the injury and coaches were particularly impressed with the way he rebounded and played defense from the shooting guard position.

Lost at times last year was the work of Kasperbauer. A 3-point whiz in high school, the kid delivered as advertised, hitting 42 percent on 3-pointers overall and a spicy .486 on 3’s against Summit League foes. Though there’s an obvious glut at guard with Larson, Bos, redshirt Trey Norris and Kasperbauer, it’s going to be difficult to not start a guy who hit almost half his 3-pointers in conference play as a true freshman.

We haven’t seen Norris play, but based on what I’ve seen in practice he’s from the true point guard school. Depending on the opponent, my guess is he’ll be a necessary part of the backcourt in certain games.

The Coyotes also have three guys who are three-four types in Eric Robertson, Karim Rowson and juco newcomer Tavian Pomlee. Robertson shot over 40 percent on 3’s in Summit League play. Rowson lost some confidence on the offensive end as the season went on last year but if he gets it back, he’s going to be a contributor at both ends. Pomlee is a strong player who can shoot it from the outside.

That’s 10 guys who look like they could get 15 minutes a game or more. If high school recruits Rico Thompson, Austin Sparks and Bounama Keita want to get on the floor next year, they’re really going to have to get after it.

At any rate, the battle for minutes within the team will be as fierce as it’s been in a long time. After a 10-20 season, it’s a scenario the Coyotes can benefit from.

“We’re going to have a very competitive situation, which is what we need,” Boots said. “We think we’re going to be better, but we have a lot of improving to do. We have to play better and we have to coach better.”

Herbster discusses his promotion

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:44:16 -0400

David Herbster is now the permanent athletic director at USD. He can have the job as long as they want to have him, or he wants to have them.

His hiring confirms he did his job well enough during the interim period in President Jim Abbott’s opinion to be promoted. The audition isn’t over, of course. It’s just beginning.

His predecessor’s two-and-a-half year tenure at USD was marked by the introduction of the pursuit of a new basketball/volleyball facility. Prior to David Sayler’s getting up in 2010 and telling the world one of his responsibilities would be drumming up support to start building, USD was a little squeamish about even admitting there was a need for such a thing.

When Herbster was named the new guy this week, it changed very little in the way of his responsibilities or that of the athletic department staff. While it’s easy to speculate on the direction of the program after a gaudy personnel change at the top end, in this instance it appears the biggest issue is and will continue to be getting the work done.

Until another person is hired, Herbster is, ironically, still the senior associate athletic director – in addition to being the athletic director. Hiring an additional manager should be a high priority.

“The only thing that was really different today was that I had a lot more emails and phone calls,” the 44-year-old said. “My job really doesn’t change – it’s still two jobs. We’ve been working very hard around here to make sure that we don’t slow down. It’s a little crazy when you think about it but we’re just two weeks away from graduation right now.”

Herbster and Abbott had conversations recently about the future of the program with the president vetting his six-year employee on what needs to happen as USD now continues on as a full-fledged Division I operation.

It’s likely a significant amount of those conversations dealt with fundraising for a new arena and coordinating, maintaining and expanding on present and future relationships with alumni. While the movers and shakers at the school have to deal with the “what” in terms of bringing in money, those interested more casually in the athletic programs at the university are preoccupied with the “when”, as in when do they start spending the money they have on something everyone can see.

“We continue to move forward expecting we’ll have a shovel going in the ground by fall,” Herbster said, summarizing conversations he’s had with Abbott on that topic.

The married father of three has a long background in sports, dating back to his days as a 6-9 basketball player at Chantilly High School in Virginia, then at Virginia Tech. It has been apparent that he is going to be more of a “people” guy with those around him than Sayler was, though I would never classify the former AD as difficult to get along with.

An advantage Herbster should have over his predecessor is in his ability to relate to those deeply involved in their sports, be they coaches or student-athletes. He’s been there, and can talk with the people after victories and defeats knowing to a great degree when it’s like to be in that spot.

His ability to get along with coaches won’t be scale he’s weighed with, of course. The money coming into the program during his time on the job will take that spot.

He sounds like he’s ready to take it all on.

“I’ve always tried to make sure everyone here knows you have to come to work with a sense of urgency,” Herbster said. “With our office space situation, we have to be a family. We share facilities, we share office space. We’ve got a good staff, good coaches, a great campus and a great community – we just have to keep moving forward.”

Herbster talked about walking through the Dome recently and seeing the women’s basketball team playing kickball. Probably not an everyday sight at the Dome, but a cause for some reflection.

“You see something like that and you realize that, in the end, we’re talking about games,” he said. “In our jobs here we have an opportunity to give students a chance to play a game while they’re in college getting a degree. How great is that?”

Coyote men to announce two additions

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:15:00 -0400

Today was the late national signing day for basketball and the Coyotes have been busy in pursuit of players over the last few months. The program will likely announce those signings at the end of the week. A while back, I retweeted what looked to be a commitment to USD from Rashawn Thomas, a 6-7 high school player in Oklahoma. Though Thomas was recruited by the Coyotes and visited Vermillion, his tweet “USD!” was not, it turns out, a commitment. He will not be a Coyote.

USD will likely announce the signing of Rico Thompson, a high school point guard from Stillwater, Okla., however, and Tavian Pomlee, a 6-5 junior college transfer from Iowa Western.

Live chat on Thursday at 3 p.m….USD spring game is Saturday at the DakotaDome.

Coach Morris talks about Pomlee...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:46:24 -0400

Jim Morris, longtime basketball coach at Iowa Western, has seen quite a few really good basketball players go through his program. Some of them have ended up at USD, including men’s assistant coach Joey James.

Last week, Tavian Pomlee, a 6-5, 206-pound forward, verbally committed to the Coyotes and will sign next week. Pomlee follows Charlie Westbrook, who played two years for the Coyotes before moving on to a career in Europe.

Though they’re roughly the same size, Pomlee, who averaged more than 13 points and nearly six rebounds for Iowa Western, is a different kind of player than Westbrook, says Coach Morris.

“He’s really an athletic guy, really put together really well,” Morris said. “Offensively, he’s primarily a shooter. You’re going to see one or two dribbles, then a power forward move — he’s not a slasher like Charlie was. He’s a straight-up shooter who plays hard and makes a lot of baskets.”

Pomlee, who was getting mid-major consideration coming out of high school in Davenport, Iowa, started slow but finished strong with Iowa Western, which went 32-3 this past season.

“He was first-team all-region, which is pretty hard to do around here because of all the good basketball players,” Morris said. “He’s a good kid — he really came on strong for us his sophomore season.”

Sioux Falls USD football scrimmage

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:13:07 -0400

The rain and wind did not make for a real productive morning for USD football team during a scrimmage at the USF complex on Saturday, but you were able to pick up on a few things.

Josh Vander Maten will have a No. 7 on his jersey this year, rather than a 14. That’s one thing I picked up on, being the astute football mind that I am. Several other players, most of whom were redshirted last year, have new numbers as well. Not sure if it’s an attempt to sell more programs next season or not.

Several Coyote players look bigger than they did last fall. Keyen Lage, for instance, looked a little undersized last year on the field as a true freshman linebacker. Now he looks like a linebacker. In addition, running backs Trevor Bouma and Jordan Roberts, who came in at around 200 pounds last season as freshmen, are both genuinely large running backs now. They’re in the 215 range and both, I’m expecting, will be getting the ball next fall.

Other stuff I saw…

Chris Wiseman, like Bouma and Roberts, was one of the redshirted players last fall who coaches expect will contribute this coming season. He looked disruptive coming in from the edge. He had a sack while I was watching and another time hustled Vander Maten out of bounds for no gain on a play where he showed good speed.

Offensively, there wasn’t a ton going on. Passing in the wind and rain proved to be difficult, though Vander Maten showed some spark at times both running and passing and backup Kevin Earl showed that he’s a better runner than you might expect.

When I walked up to Joe Glenn after practiced he joked that leaving the Dome for an outdoor practice in Sioux Falls may not have been the smartest thing he’d ever done, but there were quite a few people – given the conditions – who made the trip out there to watch what was going on.

“Our defense looked way ahead of the offense today,” Glenn said. “The ball was really wet early on – it was hard to hold it, pass it, snap it and kick it. But the defense did play really well and made plays – knocked balls down at the line of scrimmage and didn’t give up big plays. I thought they played with a lot of spirit. The offense started a little slow but Vander Maten had a few plays there once we got going and made some good reads on some of the new things we’re implementing.”

Coyotes getting a pair from Oklahoma

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:16:07 -0400

The Twitter accounts of a pair of highly regarded Oklahoma high school basketball players reveal that the Coyotes will be making at least two additions to next year’s roster on the late signing date.

Rico Thompson is a 6-2 or 6-3 point guard from Stillwater, Okla., who I’d expect will get in there right away next season…..you can read about him here and here and here and watch him play here.

Rashawn Thomas is a 6-7 forward who played at Southeast High School in Oklahoma City. You can read about him here and can watch him play here.

Both are discussed here in a ranking of Oklahoma high school players put together last fall. Late signing day is April 17.

More from today's SDSU and South Carolina press conferences

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:38:00 -0400

Items of interest regarding the South Dakota State – South Carolina game.

Though the Colorado Buffaloes play in the Coors Events Center, it’s the Russell “Sox” Walseth Court. Walseth coached at SDSU in 1956 and 1957. Aaron Johnston was asked about it at the press conference with the question posed as whether the potential was there for the Jacks to pick up on some “mojo”.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t alive in the 1950s,” Johnston said. “Maybe they had mojo back then. It’s a neat history, though. I learned that when we played an exhibition game out here one year. It was an exhibition game, and we were Division II at the time and we cameout here and afan was telling me about some of the history before the game. That’s when I found out about it. It’s a neat piece of trivia.”

I really liked Dawn Staley. Based on her credentials, she’s nothing short of one of the best women’s basketball players who ever lived. I gather that she’s sort of a task-master with her team. Her explanation of her coaching philosophy was telling:

“Defense is all I know as a coach to put yourself in a position to win basketball games,” she said. “Offense can be so unpredictable. It takes talent to be a good offensive team and a good offensive player. To be a good defensive team it is a decision. You are either going to do it or you are not. As a coach you have to put your team in the best possible situation to win basketball games and the way you do that is you defend and you rebound.”

Coaches with well-established reputations – who were also fantastic players themselves – can sell recruits on that philosophy. I’m guessing most coaches have to fancy-up that pitch initially, however.

I was curious about what AJ felt about watching the Jackrabbit men on Thursday. It was just shortly after the chartered flight landed that those on the plane were going to need to find a place to watch the game.

I thought AJ put the whole thing in perspective pretty well:

“We watched the whole thing from start to finish. I think our guys probably left the court feeling like they left some positive plays out there. I think part of why they had some challenges was because they were playing Michigan, and Michigan is pretty good.

“I think it will be the same for us, too. That’s what we felt after the last two tournament games. We walked off the court not feeling great, but we also walked off recognizing that a lot of it had to do with playing Oklahoma, Xavier or Purdue. That’s just how it goes this time of year.

“ We’ve told our team that we’ll have to play great, but we’re capable of playing great. We can’t go out and play an average game and expect to win. If we play a great game, which we’ve done throughout our history, we’ve got a chance to beat a lot of people. I know our men felt that way going into it and they didn’t have a great game and they lost. Our goal is to go out and play good basketball, and I think we’re capable of that. This team has played well all year and we’ve played some really good teams. It will be fun to see how we respond in the game.”

Coyotes win this time

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:42:28 -0400

A few months after collapsing in historic proportions in Logan, Utah., the Coyote women fought through miserably concentrated offensive woes and defeated Utah State on the road on Thursday night to reverse an earlier one-point regular season loss to the Aggies.

Utah State was the second-best team in the WAC this year with a 14-4 record. I submit this as evidence that Utah State got better as the season went along this year, but in this instance, it wasn’t enough to win at home. The Coyotes have won six of their last seven games now, with the only blemish a 56-53 loss to SDSU in the Summit League final next week.

Nicole Seekamp continues her strong finish to the season. Her 33 points was the most since Ol’ Straps McGonagle scored 44 against the Springfield Teacher’s College in 1942. Made that last part up. Seekamp has been performing as advertised in recent days, however. It’s not like she’s winning games all by herself but you’re beginning to see how good a player she really is. The sense of urgency she brings to the big games would be what Coyote fans should find most encouraging. In most instances recently when she’s been putting up big numbers, it’s been because the team needs them.

On Thursday night in the opening round of the Women’s Basketball Invitational, she hit 11-of-16, 4-of-6 on 3’s and 7-of-8 from the line.

You just can’t look past numbers like that if you’re trying to figure out why one team won and the other team lost. Those who are looking toward the future should also have been encouraged by the work underneath from sophomore Lisa Loeffler, who had eight points and nine rebounds, and freshman Margaret McCloud, who had seven points and seven rebounds.

My experience in watching college basketball is that if guards are good, you see it right away. The taller you are, the more time it usually takes to realize potential. In Loeffler and McCloud, the Coyotes have two taller players who play pretty hard and are contributing early in their careers.

Loeffler’s touch from the 10-12 foot range should get her a lot of points in the next few seasons and McCloud’s instincts and aggressiveness under the hoop is distinctive. The Coyotes really haven’t been able to boast their post-play as an offensive strength since Mandy Koupal was a dominating force in Division II. Bridget Yoerger was a very solid offensive player underneath but she was all alone at that spot, even on the Division II runner-up team.

I would guess both Loeffler and McCloud will continue to improve offensively next season. Coupled with presence of Polly Harrington – who scored 15 points against USU – the Coyotes’ post play will be a definite matchup issue for most of the rest of the Summit League next season.

Lamar, which defeated Presbyterian 70-48 on Wednesday night, will be the Coyotes’ next foe. Lamar (22-10) will host USD at 3 p.m. on Sunday. The second-seeded Cards finished 12-6 in the Southland Conference this year. As a point of reference, they lost twice to Oral Roberts, a former perennial Summit League contender.

Their top scorer is Kalis Loyd, a 6-2 native of Sweden who averaged 17.8 points and 7.2 rebounds a game. She pretty much does it all for the Cards and dealing with her offensive skills will play a huge role in whether the Coyotes can win for the second time in a week.

Summit finals

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:41:00 -0400

It was a funny moment on Monday when USD women’s coach Amy Williams was describing watching the Jackrabbits play in the NCAA tournament last year. Williams was the coach at Rogers State and her sister, Emilee Thiesse, was an assistant coach for Aaron Johnston at SDSU.

“When they’d hit a 3 to put it into overtime I was just beside myself,” Williams said. “And now here I am on the other end of it. It’s kind of funny how things turn.”

The Coyotes will be big underdogs going into this game. The manner in which the Jackrabbits dispatched Fort Wayne on Monday afternoon was pretty crisp. Fort Wayne was a little groggy from having played two overtimes the day before, but even so, SDSU was not messing around.

If I thought the Coyotes had played poorly in either of their losses to SDSU during the regular season, perhaps there would be reason to think things could stay competitive today from start to finish, but I thought USD played pretty well in both losses to the Jacks. As such, taking a Summit championship today would be a huge upset.

Certainly in the last few weeks there has been an upswing on the part of the Coyotes in their ability to get their offense rolling occasionally, and you’d have to figure that into what happens today. You also have to figure in, however, how sharp the Jacks looked in two wins in three days so far.

SDSU will be playing three games in four days and USD will be playing three games in three days. As well, the Jacks really didn’t have to go crazy to win those games whereas USD, though they built up comfortable margins in wins over NDSU and IUPUI, had to devote a lot of energy to those projects to do so.

It’s all first-time stuff for USD in the tournament and the players, who have not been in these situations before, have reacted well to it. Most notably Nicole Seekamp has made the most of the opportunity. In both games she got everyone going in second-half surges. I’ve also really been impressed with the work of Sam Mehr. It’s a nice story — Mehr is a senior who hasn’t played a lot. She’s can be a deadeye shooter, something her teammates have been well aware of the last few years, though spectators haven’t seen it quite so much. They’re seeing it this week, however, with seven 3’s in two games.

You’ll see some pretty fierce battles for the basketball underneath today. If USD can hang in there on the boards, they’re going to have a much better shot at staying with SDSU. I think the real key for the Coyotes will be shooting, however. They’re going against a team that has been here before, and a team that will have 80-85 percent of the crowd emphatically on its side. Knocking down a few 3’s early for USD would have a settling effect.

I don’t think the Coyotes can win a grind-it-out 16-for-48 kind of a game against SDSU — they’re going to have score some of their points without having to stand on their heads to do so. On the plus side for USD, I kind of expected the Coyotes to struggle more offensively given this was their first Summit League tournament, but the opposite has been true. In the second half against NDSU and IUPUI they played their best basketball of the season.

Regardless of what happens today, departed athletic director David Sayler — Sayler, how the hell did he get into this blog? — appears to have made a smart decision in hiring Amy Williams, who was coming off a five-year stint running an NAIA program. People I’ve talked to in the basketball business this week have been very positive about what she and her staff have done in getting the squad through the season and prepared for this tournament.

Bison apprisin'

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:39:00 -0500

The NDSU team that the USD women will play on Sunday afternoon has been a very difficult matchup for the third-seeded Coyotes for three of the four halves of basketball they’ve played against each other this season.

In the second half of the first game up in Fargo, the Coyotes overcame a halftime deficit by outscoring the Bison 42-15 in the second half on the way to an easy win. The game was played in early January and is not particularly pertinent to the current situation, though it seemed to hint that if the Coyotes can shoot a little bit, they can overcome whatever it was the Bison were doing to make life so difficult in the second game the pair played, a 57-50 Bison victory at the Dome.

. NDSU guards Dani Degagne and Katie Birkel took 39 of the team’s 59 shots that day and finished with 17 and 24 points, respectively, in NDSU’s surprising win at the Dome.

As I remember it, NDSU challenged the Coyotes to beat them from the outside in that contest and was rewarded for doing so. USD hit 5-of-26 on 3-pointers and, after crushing the Bison on the boards in the first game, actually lost the battle of the glass in the second game 39-38.

I’ve harped a little on shooting being an issue for this squad but statistically they’re the second-best shooting team in the conference, so maybe it’s not a big deal. The Coyotes could definitely use a good shooting night from Nicole Seekamp, however. The Coyotes’ leading scorer for the season hit 8-of-16 shots in a win over Western Illinois in the team’s second-to-last regular season game but in USD’s other five games played since the home loss to SDSU, she’s hit a combined 11 of 52 from the field.

In her defense, she’s been called on to take a lot of the tough shots when the opposing team has taken away the Coyotes’ other offensive options at the end of the possession clock road in half-court situations. Seeing your top scorer knocking down a few shots early would go a long way toward establishing some momentum on Sunday, however.

USD has won its last three games and the Bison have lost four of their last five coming into their 2:30 p.m. contest at the Arena so you’d have to figure momentum is on the Coyotes’ side. My feeling is that they’re going to have to meet the challenge of hitting outside shots often enough to bring the defense out a little bit. If NDSU can pack in its defense without fear in the halfcourt, it’s going to be much more difficult game for USD.

Leathernecks next up -- again

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 01:27:00 -0500

Another close loss to Western Illinois is not anything new for the USD men’s basketball team. The squads had two two-point games this year with the Leathernecks winning both and the second game between the two teams last year was also a two-point USD loss.

All three of those games were tough to deal with – the close losses the last two years keep piling up – but it would also seem to confirm this will not be a standard co-champion vs. also-ran matchup next Saturday at The Arena. Western Illinois is hobbled with power forward Terell Parks suffering a foot injury in a BracketBuster game against Cleveland State. Parks is one of the top rebounders and defenders in the league who also has a strong offensive presence. His status for next Saturday is uncertain and the team isn’t giving out a ton of info on that so far.

Resilience in a losing cause is a tough way to go through a basketball season, but the Coyotes continue to supply it. Juevol Myles missed a shot with six seconds left that could have made things even more interesting but the only reason it was a decisive shot was because the dude had been going nuts up to that point. He hit two 3-pointers and a layup in the last 44 seconds that had an unusually large crowd of 5,089 momentarily wondering whether the Necks were going to be able to secure a co-championship with SDSU in the last regular-season game.

Western Illinois was a surprise championship game team at the Summit tournament last year and nearly pulled off an upset of SDSU in the final. Given the environment and the quality of the opponent in that contest, you’d have to figure the veteran Leatherneck squad will not be fearing the idea that there might be a few people in the seats this year who want the other team to win.

If you look at it from the other side, Western Illinois isn’t enjoying the greatest luck. You earn a share of the title and your reward is that you’re playing a seventh seed that took games down to the last seconds twice with you during the regular season. In addition, you have to play that seventh seed with a home crowd watching them. Plus, your big gun underneath is extremely iffy. That’s what you call a bad hand.

Based on the recent history with WIU, USD has a decent opening-round shot at advancing, though the Leathernecks remain a difficult matchup physically and seem to be conspicuously tough mentally. Ceola Clark, who drove the length of the court at the DakotaDome in the last seconds to beat USD, is a gamer. My feeling is that if USD becomes dependent on Myles, Trevor Gruis and Brandon Bos for all the shots on Saturday, they’re going to lose. If somebody from the second-tier of scorers on the team makes significant offensive contributions, it could be a very good game. At any rate, it’s not a typical 2 vs. 7 matchup.

Coyote seeding

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:44:05 -0500

The women’s basketball team finished the regular season with a 10-6 record in Amy Williams’ first year as head coach. They went into the season picked to finish sixth, so by that measure the Coyotes overachieved. Regardless of what happens in the tournament, the Williams II era has gotten off to a promising start by earning the third seed. They know their first game will take place at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 9 against Western Illinois, North Dakota State or Kansas City. USD has split with Kansas City and NDSU and beat Western Illinois twice.

The Coyotes didn’t shoot the ball very well at Omaha (33.9) but the Mavs weren’t starting the court on fire, either, hitting 18-of-59 shots with an 0-for-8 effort on 3-pointers.

I think the Coyotes have arrived at a sort of inner peace regarding their periodic shooting issues. I think they’ve struggled with it enough to know there are going to be a lot of nights were hitting one of every three shots is how it’s going to go — so there is no reason to let that alone affect rebounding and defense. Perhaps earlier in the year not being able to score points would have altered other areas of their game, but not so much now.

The men are in an interesting spot as they prepare to end the regular season at Western Illinois. The game doesn’t mean anything to the Leathernecks as far as the tournament is concerned given that they’ve locked up the second seed already. A win for USD would secure the sixth seed and a game against NDSU on Sunday night, March 9. A loss would likely mean – assuming Kansas City will beat IUPUI on Saturday – that Coyotes would be the seventh seed and play Western Illinois again in the 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 9.

The tricky part is that based on what has happened during the regular season, earning a sixth seed and an opening game against NDSU doesn’t seem like such a great deal. No. 1, you’re looking at a bi-partisan crowd with scores of North Dakotans migrating this way to get a taste of a spring thaw that won’t work its way to Fargo until sometime in June. Plus, it’s the one school in the conference that twice posted one-sided wins over the Coyotes. In addition, the Bison would likely have Taylor Braun back for that game. Braun, a 6-7 junior, was first-team all-Summit as a sophomore and has been out for more than a month with a foot injury. He’s returning to practice this week. While he might not be 100 percent for the tournament, the Bison were looking like a potential league champion until he got hurt.

On the other hand, winning a pair of road games to end the regular season would be likely mean a lot to the Coyotes, who have lost five conference games by five points or fewer. And ending with regular-season with a three-game win streak would give the program a little mo going into next season, regardless of what happens in the tournament.

Additional recruits...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:05:43 -0500

USD announced the signing of junior college linebacker Auston Johnson on Thursday. Johnson, 6-1, 237, was a three-star recruit who, according to Rivals.com, had been offered by several major colleges including Texas A&M and BYU.

“He’s a very good player,” USD coach Joe Glenn said Thursday. “He just finished his AA degree, which he had to complete before he got a scholarship. He had a really good career at El Camino and in high school. He can do about a 4.6, so he can run — we think we got one with this kid.”

Johnson father is Alondra Johnson, who played 16 years in the CFL and is in the CFL Hall of Fame.

The Coyotes are also expected to announce the signing of Jarrid Bryant, an Arizona State cornerback who has one year of eligibility remaining. Bryant, 6-4, 186, would appear to have immediate starter credentials. He began as a wide receiver at ASU.

“He got got log-jammed — it can happen,” Glenn said. “He’s a tall kid who can run fast. He doesn’t have a ton of experience but when you’re 6-4, you can make up for some mistakes. We’ve watched some of his film from ASU practices — he was covering some pretty talented guys.”

Glenn also said that linebacker Reggie Johnson was leaving the program. Johnson, a Tampa native, arrived at USD as a two-start recruit but injuries slowed his progress both as a redshirt and again in his second year in the program.

More on track

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:44:00 -0500

I wasn’t able to include as many comments from the winning coach in Tuesday’s story about the Summit League indoor track meet as I would have wished, but I will relay along a little more of my conversation with USD coach Dave Gottsleben today….

In my time covering the men’s and women’s programs I’ve always been impressed with the quiet way he’s gone about his business. If you’re going to last as long as Gottsleben (29 years at USD) and women’s coach Lucky Huber (19 years as a coach at USD) have in the college coaching business at the same place, especially in a small town, you have to practice a certain grace in dealing with your responsibilities, otherwise you start wearing on folks.

Winning is obviously a big deal, but winning humbly is almost as important. A little arrogance goes a very long way when you are, as Gottsleben and Huber have been, in for the long haul. Consistently recruiting good athletes who are good students is another high priority in building a program — and re-building it for Division I, as Gottsleben and Huber have. I would add that getting along with all the people who come and go up and down the line in the athletic and academic administrations, not over a period of years but over several decades, is most likely more difficult than the USD track coaches have made it look.

The other element, and this is basic coaching but maybe the most important thing coaches do, is that you have to build up a personal history of helping kids build confidence in themselves.

When the Division I talk got serious at USD and it looked like it was going to happen, I was very curious to hear what the people who’d been there a while would think about it. In Gottsleben and Huber, you had two coaches responsible for building the programs they led. Both have enough Division II NCAA plaques and trophies and awards – national awards – to put together a bonfire. Departing from such a stable situation would be trying for a lot of coaches, especially those have been hanging around for a while.

The thing is, the USD men’s and women’s programs got good at the Division II level precisely because the guys who built them up continued to bring energy to their tasks. And when the jump to Division I became a part of the school’s history they were all in.

“This was the first Summit League title in the history of South Dakota,” Gottsleben said in the moments after the final team scores were announced. “I hope it shows everyone that the Division I move was right and that it can be done.”

When USD learned they’d landed the meet, it became a focal point of sorts both in terms of organization and competition. Injuries can easily unravel the best-laid plans in this sport, so there has to be some luck involved. The USD women were without hobbled Analisa Huschle, for instance. As a freshman she scored 30 team points at the outdoor meet last spring while winning three events.

The men avoided a knee-buckling set back, however, then delivered.

“Our team has been able to do that,” Gottsleben said. “It’s a coaching staff thing — we have great support from our administration, we hosted the meet – we were more comfortable here, we’re very competitive here, this was about all those things. We knew when we were going to host this meet that this had to be a target for us and then it worked out.”

Football awards

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:24:34 -0500

The sports info department at USD released the football team award winners today:

Will Powell was the MVP with 55 catches for 625 yards. Marcus Sims was the Dave Triplett offensive MVP and Tyler Starr was the Joe Salem defensive MVP.

Punter Cole Zwiefelhofer the special teams MVP and linebacker Keyen Lague was the freshman MVP. Jordan Eaton was the defensive lineman of the year and linebacker Tim Marlette won the coaches’ Tim Mojzik Bulldog award winner.

Of note for those looking toward next year, Trevor Bouma, a 5-11, 205-pound fullback, was the offensive redshirt of the year. I’m guessing based on what I’ve heard that if he stays at fullback he’s going to get the ball more than fullbacks have of late in the Coyote system, but that’s just a guess. We’ll see in the spring and on into the fall.

Chris Wiseman, who I heard a lot of good things about from coaches last season, was named the redshirt defensive player of the year. I think it’s very safe to say he’ll see a lot of action next year.

Full list of honorees:

Henry Heider Most Valuable Player: Will Powell
Dave Triplett Offensive Player of the Year: Marcus Sims
Joe Salem Defensive Player of the Year: Tyler Starr
Beanie Cooper Special Teams Player of the Year: Cole Zwiefelhofer
Offensive Scout Player of the Year: Trevor Bouma
Defensive Scout Player of the Year: Chris Wiseman
Tim Mojzik Bulldog Award: Tim Marlette
Harry Gamage Most Valuable Freshman: Keyen Lage
Tim McFarland Lineman of the Year: Jordan Eaton
Coaches Award: Tim Marlette

Last Dome game

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:08:00 -0500

The USD men’s basketball team played its last home game on Saturday with the contest ending up being another in a series with frustrating outcomes. The Coyotes were 4-4 in the Summit League after winning on the road at Oakland on Jan. 19. Included among the four conference losses were a last-second 73-71 defeat against Western Illinois at the DakotaDome, a 90-86 loss to Kansas City and a 62-60 loss at Fort Wayne. If anything, the 4-4 mark at that point was misleadingly poor. USD easily could have been 6-2 with some luck.

The problems since then have alternated between difficulties on defense and difficulties on offense with one or the other or both being sub-par enough on a given night to create a six-game losing streak. If you’d have asked me back in January whether this team would exceed last year’s conference win total I’d said it was a foregone conclusion, even with two fewer Summit games on the schedule. Now, matching last year’s five-win effort is going to be difficult — the Coyotes, after playing the BracketBuster game at Montana State on Sunday, will be playing at IUPUI and Western Illinois the following week.

Just as was the case last season, the absence of a second inside scoring threat in addition to Trevor Gruis – someone who can also rebound and defend at the level Ricardo Andreotti did last year — has made every single thing the Coyotes try to do seem a little more difficult. That includes getting open for inside and outside shots, staying out of foul trouble, rebounding on both ends, defending post players, etc. — you name it, having just one big guy who is ready for 30 + minutes of Summit ball often ends up giving the opposition an advantage in several categories that appear in the boxscore.

A conference tournament is a blessing for a team having a season like the Coyotes are having. With the exception of NDSU, they’ve played every other league team pretty tough at least once. Throw in the local fan base that will show up for an opening game at the Arena and there’s no reason to believe USD couldn’t put in a strong first-round effort, even if they go into the event with the same four Summit wins they have now.

I don’t see the team practice every day, or put the players through weekly psychological examinations, but it seems to me that coaches and players alike are trying very hard to maintain a positive environment as they fight through the final weeks of a season that has had its share of disappointments.

Throughout the season I’ve been impressed with the emotional makeup of guard Juevol Myles. Here’s a guy who grew up near Toronto (the one in Canada, not the one in Deuel County) and is at his third school. If there ever was someone who might not be bleeding red and white at this point in the season, it would be someone like Myles, who has no ties to the area.

Yet at postgame press conferences this year, many of which have included questions where players have to re-hash disheartening details of another game gone bad, Myles has projected both pain and resolve. There is genuine frustration at what just happened, and a genuine commitment to going out on the court next time fully expecting things will be better.

Myles had to sit out last season as a practice player who couldn’t play in games because he transferred from Kansas State. He is already has a degree from USD and will depart from the program appearing to be one who has embraced as much of the school and the program as he possibly could given the comparatively short time-frame involved.

Saturday night, he and Jordan Boots were the lone seniors playing their last home game, which meant there would a little ceremony prior to tip-off with the parents appearing at center court. It happens every season at every school so there is nothing inherently unique about it, other than in this case Coach Dave Boots was one of the fathers on the court.

It can be an emotional experience for kids and parents. You could definitely pick up on that from Myles as he stood out there next to his mom with an applauding crowd that had see him play just one season.

“I’ve never ever experienced what I experienced in the first part of that game,” Myles said after the 64-51 loss to Fort Wayne. “I’m a big family person and seeing my mom almost in tears, with my father figure there, too. I was a little messed up – I was taken aback. It was like ‘Wow, this is really my last home game. It went by so fast.’”

He continued:

“I want to say thank you to the fans. It’s been fun here. I will never forget what they did for me, especially Nancy. I want you to know that Nancy has been like a grandmother/friend to me. I really want to say thanks to her tonight.”

“Nancy” is Dr. Nancy McCahren, a USD graduate who has served as an English professor, alumni director and in several other positions of leadership within the school spanning more than four decades. Now retired, she’s at courtside for just about every home game.

Myles took the time at a press conference after a loss, in front of half-a-dozen media people, to give her a shout-out, so there must be something to it. Being witness to gratitude expressed by college athletes is not unusual but it is always refreshing.

At practice...

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:36:00 -0500

The University of South Dakota men’s basketball team was beginning its preparations for tonight’s game at the Dome against Oakland on Tuesday night. I was down there getting interviews in the afternoon and decided to hang out for a while along press row and watch the team practice.

This is the sort of thing that keeps sportswriters sharp for game days—we try to recreate game conditions when we’re typing out recorded interviews.

OK, so roll back to the week before — I was sitting in the same spot about three hours prior to the USD women’s game with NDSU finishing a story that would go in that Sunday’s paper regarding football recruiting footprints. Adam Thoseby, a 6-5 Australian who transferred from Utah State, was working out that afternoon on the court, putting himself through various drills that combined dribbling through chairs with shooting. He was at it for some time. There was an impressive array of dunks, as well as outside shooting drills where he rarely missed.

You have to remember that most college basketball players look like world-killers when they’re just shooting around. Even guys who don’t shoot from the outside in games can make 3’s at a pretty high rate when there is no defense. Likewise, a lot of guys who wouldn’t dunk in a game can take a run at the basket and get the ball over the rim.

I’ve seen Thoseby practice before and I’ve heard the coaches talk about what he’s going to add to the program when he’s eligible next year, but I didn’t have a real impression of his skills until Tuesday. The Coyotes were involved in an intense half-court scrimmage that was set up to prepare the starters for Oakland, and in particular, Travis Bader, a 6-5 sharp shooter who is averaging 22 points a game.

The scout offensive team included Thoseby, whose assignment was to behave as if he was Bader. This essentially meant shooting a 3-pointer whenever it was physically possible to do so, regardless of how well he was being covered.

And then the 3’s began to fall. On a few of the early ones, he had good looks at the basket, but as the defensive attention intensified, the difficulty increased. During one streak, he hit three in a row, then hit a well-defended fourth on a high-arching bomb from the corner that had a few of us courtside shaking our heads.

“He’s not acting like Bader, he is Bader,” Dave Boots said during a short break. The scout team was also occasionally attempting alley-oop plays to Thoseby. Those weren’t working but it was obvious that they’d worked at least once in a while in the past. The other thing that seemed obvious was that the starters acted as if getting lit up by this redshirt in practice was a fairly common occurrence.

This was not a casual pickup game going on out there — the coaches were constantly yelling instructions to the defense to maintain intensity while the scout offense looked for a shot. With Trey Norris, another gifted transfer who is sitting out this year, running the point, the scouts were giving the first unit all they could handle — and more than they could handle when Thoseby had the ball.

BracketBuster....

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:02:43 -0500

The Coyote men will play Montana State (7-5, 10-10) in Bozeman on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 1 p.m. It’s the first meeting of the schools since 1946.

USD (4-7, 8-15) will face an MSU team that is tied for second in the Big Sky with Southern Utah. Former NCC and Great West rival North Dakota is 6-6 and defeated Montana State 86-73 in Grand Forks this year.

Of note, the Bobcats have an eight-day break going into that contest, which is the last of the scheduled BracketBusters games and is not on national television.

The Bobcats are about as balanced as you can get scoring wise with seven players averaging 8.3 points or more a game. Christian Moon, a 6-2 senior guard, leads the way with 13.6 points a game.

The Coyotes will travel to Bozeman for the Sunday game after an identical eight-day break from the Summit League schedule.

Recruits

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:35:00 -0500

Here’s what I got on football recruits…a few more I expect will be revealed Wednesday:

Quarterback/TE…Aaron Ramsey, 6-3, 215, BlueValley Southwest High School, Overland Park, Kans.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/player/news/_/id/151896/aaron-ramsey

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8023444

Khorey Kilgore, 5-10, 195, RB, Blue Springs South High School, Blue Springs, Mo.

http://www.ncsasports.org/football-recruiting/mo/blue-springs/blue-springs-south-high-school/korey-kilgore

Riley Donovan, 6’1 185, QB/Athlete, Kasson-Mantorville - Committed to South Dakota. For 9-2 team, had 1394 rushing yards and 22 TDs and 120 yards passing and 14 TDs. On offense, had 32 carries for 216 yards and 6 TDs rushing and 26 receptions for 459 yards and 7 TDs. On defense, had 53 tackles, 2 sacks, and 12 PBUs.

Kiefer Ketelhut, 6-5, 255, OT, Plainfield North H.S., Plainfield, Ill.

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1023641/kiefer-ketelhut

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Kiefer-Ketelhut-135497

Jon Maag 6-5, 255, Scottsbluff, Neb.

http://www.ncsasports.org/football-recruiting/ne/scottsbluff/scottsbluff-senior-high-school/jonathan-maag

Stetson Dagel 6-5, 250, OL…Cherokee, Iowa.

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/790633/stetson-dagel

Ed Kennedy Colorado 6-5, 265, guard

http://www.highschoolcube.com/students/edward-kennedy

Sam McLeran, 6-3, 275, Iowa City West

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/604813/sam-mcleran

http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20130111/SPORTS010104/301110015/McLeran-now-headed-South-Dakota

Sean Glenn, defensive end, Windsor HS, Colorado, 6-5, 243

http://www.glennfootball.us/

http://www.denverpost.com/preps/ci_21835213/windsors-sean-glenn-holds-three-offers-seeing-additional

Courtney Wright 6-1, 194 DE/OLB, Coral Springs, Fla. Coral Glades HS

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/player/videos/_/id/129880/courtney-wright

Fred Beaugard, 6-3, 250, defensive end, Lombard, Ill., Montini

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Fred-Beaugard-132337

Garret Wooten, DT, 6-4, 250, Normal Ill.

http://www.ncsasports.org/football-recruiting/il/normal/normal-community-high-school/garrett-wooten

Allen Edwards, 6-3, 225, defensive end, LaSalle High School, Miami, Fla.

http://www.ncsasports.org/football-recruiting/fl/miami/lasalle-high-school/allen-edwards1

John Wessel, Sioux Falls Roosevelt 6-2, 220 LB

http://www.ncsasports.org/football-recruiting/sd/sioux-falls/roosevelt-high-school4/john—wessel

Kyle Staples, 6-1, 230, Fresno Community College (already enrolled)

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Kyle-Staples-137442

Jim Litrenta, 6-2, 215, Saint Laurence High School, Burbank, Ill.

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1354982/jim-litrenta

Tevin Foster, 5-10, 175, Lawton HS, Lawton, Ok

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Tevin-Foster-141149

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/478909/tevin-foster

http://newsok.com/tevin-foster-leads-lawton-to-35-7-win-over-norman-north/article/3622983

Luke Worden, 5-10, 175, Scottsbluff HS, Scottsbluff, Neb.

http://www.ncsasports.org/football-recruiting/ne/scottsbluff/scottsbluff-senior-high-school/luke-worden

http://myhitnews.com/luke-worden-his-fast-40-times-burn-up-turfs-at-college-football-camps/

Miles Bergen 6-1, 205, p/k, Longmont, Colo.

http://hscolorado.scout.com/a.z?s=385&p=8&c=1&nid=5871489

Brandt Van Roekel, 6-4, 180, Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley, Rock Valley, Iowa

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/567698/brandt-van

http://siouxcityjournal.com/sports/high-school/football/siouxland-athlete-leadership-strong-for-b-h-rv-qb/article_3d187d13-c434-5cc9-8416-cdbee8de3e4f.html

Josh Hunt, 6-2, 185, DB, Central Lyon-George-Little Rock

http://siouxcityjournal.com/sports/high-school/football/two-time—yard-back-enjoys-blocking/article_d55cb9c6-1ac3-582a-84a3-231eaadb2e67.html

http://nwestiowareview.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=1521321&CategoryID=60446&view=1

LaSalle Defensive end…

Josh Hunt

Ryan Alger, 6-0, 190, DB, Broken Arrow HS, Broken Arrow, Okla.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Ryan-Alger-135813

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/678833/ryan-alger

Oklahma kid

Marcquice Fletcher, 5-11, 170, DB, Union HS, Tulsa, Okla.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/blogs/sportspost.aspx?/Sapulpa_focuses_on_rivalry_game_after_big_upset;_Unions_Harper_commits_to_Army/26-18810

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=227&articleid=20121006_227_B6_KirkFr128655

Drew Potter, 6-3, 220, DE, Bashor-Linwood H.S., Kan.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/player/news/_/id/167996/drew-potter

Khalid Kornegay, 6-3, 185, WR,

http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-Khalid-Kornegay-128582

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/TU/article.aspx?subjectid=94&articleid=20120609_94_B4_UnionH534113

Summit League road win....

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 03:05:38 -0500

The USD men were overwhelmed a year ago in their first trip to Oakland, losing 101-83. It was the first Summit League weekend in program history and a hint of what was to come during a 5-13 conference effort. A season later, it was a different story.

Two nights after losing yet another tight league game at Fort Wayne (62-60), the Coyotes trailed Oakland 30-16 with 9:40 to play in the first half at the Grizzlies’ gym. Travis Bader, one of the best shooters in college basketball, had hit his first five 3-point attempts.

From that point onward, USD outscored Oakland 81-58 in a 97-78 win. Casey Kasperbauer, who rolled an ankle in practice earlier this week and didn’t play on Thursday night, led the comeback with four 3-pointers in the first half.

Oakland was midst a second-half rally when Duke Mondy was called for traveling on a drive for a layup. Had the shot counted it would have narrowed the margin to 81-74 with 3:16 remaining. Instead, the points were waved off and a fractious Grizzlies coach Greg Kampe was called for a technical foul. Kasperbauer made both the free throws for the technical, then on the Coyotes’ ensuing possession, Trevor Gruis scored. What could have been an 81-74 score was 85-72 and the threat was over.

“We did a great job with the matchup,” USD coach Dave Boots told radio man Joe Van Goor. “We got to Bader off all of his cuts. Our rotations were really good. Obviously we had a big night on the offensive end but we did everything we could to defend them.”

Thursday night had been a difficult evening for the guards. Both Brandon Bos and Juevol Myles ran into foul trouble and Kasperbauer was unavailable because of injury. Against Oakland, the backcourt of Bos, Myles, Kasperbauer and Jordan Boots combined for 64 points.

“Our top two guys played very well no matter who I had in there,” Boots said. “Casey and Jordan were fantastic shooting the basketball tonight and they came up with six steals up on top and we haven’t had that lately. Even Thursday I thought we played well defensively. … Coming off a poor performance with our defense we got two good efforts on the road. And we have a very efficient offense tonight. If we’d have played a little better offensively on Thursday, we could have had a win there, too. “

With Omaha coming to town on Thursday, it gives the Coyotes another opportunity to win two Summit League games in a row, something they’ve not done this year. Momentum has had a short shelf life so far this season. Coming off the biggest Summit road win in Coyote history – albeit a short history – they would like to avoid taking a step backward as they prepare to enter the second half of the season.

“We just can’t let up now,” Boots said. “We have a tough game on Thursday, but we’ve been down this road before. Our kids get a little excited about some things they get done now because it’s all so new to them. We have to get over that. We have to get to where they expect to win and carry some of that burden with them.”