December 16, 2022: A few thoughts on this Friday morning

Welcome back to another Friday edition of The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops! A couple outstanding games on the slate are set for this evening. This will be a short post, as I’ll have more coming tomorrow morning. But, here’s a quick look at a few of my thoughts from around the nation….

• Watching a bit of Greensboro’s 76-51 win over Ferrum yesterday night, I really like what I saw from the USAC’s first-place team. Four starters scored in double figures, they shot 75 percent from FT line, and forced 31 turnovers. Of course, the 21 turnovers of their own were are downside to that performance. But overall, I think Greensboro will have enough to make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014-15, through winning the USA Souths automatic bid. That is, as long as the Pride finds a way to beat Brevard, who is also 4-0 in conference play. Greensboro has jumped 29 spots in the Massey ratings to #182, and Brevard is nearly 100 spots back. Neither are national contenders, but sometimes its fun to dig into the lesser-known conferences from time and time.

• The terrible situation at Rose-Hulman continues to unfold. As you might remember, RHIT cancelled the remainder of its season a couple weeks ago, due to low roster numbers. Well, now head coach Jon Prevo (who had been there 17 years), has retired as of Dec. 14, though it certainly feels that the cancellation of the season plays into this somehow. The press release (linked here) stated that the administration will begin a national search for a new head coach after the holiday break. Whoever takes that job will be literally building up a program from the ground level, and will have some major challenges ahead of them. For those of you on D3boards.com, the RHIT parent who had previously broken the news of RHIT canceling the remainder of the year has come out with a few more long posts detailing the situation within the administration and the program. It seems this is not a problem just related to women’s basketball, but across the entire athletics department. There is way too much to include in this post, but if you are interested, it’s worth checking out. You certainly hope that a new coach can come in and build back this program. There’s no reason why RHIT shouldn’t be competitive. But as we know with the great programs out there in D3 sports, having a supportive administration is incredibly key. It does not sound like that is the case right now.

• Getting to some more positive news, #19 UC Santa Cruz is back in action, hosting Linfield this afternoon at 4 pm EST. Linfield is a respectable opponent, at 4-4 on the year, and more importantly this will be a chance for UCSC to get back into rhythm after a 12-day break between games. Because UW-Whitewater comes to town on Dec. 20 in what should be an excellent Top 25 showdown.

• Antoher matchup I’m keeping an eye on is #20 Puget Sound’s matchup against Redlands. A non-conference contest, Redlands is off to a 2-0 start in SCIAC play, and 5-1 overall, while PS is 6-1, 2-0 in the NWC. This is the game of the day in my opinion. It will also be the first game in a four-games-in-five-days schedule for PS, so it’s critical they take advantage of this opportunity tonight. 9 pm EST tip-off.

I’ll end it there. Like I said, short post today, but much more coming tomorrow with Hope/Trine, Transy/JCU, Millikin/Carroll, and others. Have a great Friday!