February 10, 2023: Friday afternoon musings as we head into tonight's action
Putting out a short post on this Friday afternoon as we get set for some D3 women’s hoops action in the NESCAC and UAA, amongst other leagues, tonight. Plenty of contests with RRO implications this evening, so it should be a lot of fun.
I got the chance to cover last night’s game between UT-Dallas and Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, as UMHB prevailed, 50-43, in a NESCAC-like battle. The defensive effort from both teams was exceptional, and UMHB’s zone defense (which they hadn’t run much this year) was incredibly effective. The ASC is very deep league this year, so the 6-team conference tournament coming up just about 10 days from now should be a whole lot of fun. Hardin-Simmons locked up the #1 seed and has a quarterfinal round bye, so the Cowgirls will host the tournament semifinals and final in Abilene. There’s at least 5 teams right now with a legitimate shot to take home the crown. Interestingly enough, of those 5 teams (UMHB, Sul Ross, UTD, ETBU, HSU), three are led by first-year head coaches. As a league this season, 7 of the 10 head coaches are in their first or second year guiding their respective programs (included in that is Kendra Foreman, currently the interim HC at UMHB). That’s a pretty high number. Not sure if there’s another conference in the country with that many new faces when it comes to head coaches.
I talked with UTD head coach Joe Shotland for a couple minutes postgame, and I’ve really enjoyed watching his team perform this season. He was at Trinity (TX) for 7 years as an assistant, and has his team in fifth place in the league with a 9-6 record. He’s one of the nicest guys you’ll meet, and truly passionate about coaching his team. You can’t help root for someone like that! And on the other side, Kendra Foreman has done a great job leading UMHB after all the drama that unfolded with coaching situation a few weeks ago. The team has come together and is playing as an effective unit right now. Nice to see.
As for today’s matchups, I think the game you’ve got to have your eye on is Chicago at NYU. Both likely to be #1 in their respective regions at this point, picking up another RRO win for either would only improve their Pool C resume, especially if WashU holds onto this lead in the UAA and ends up taking the Pool A bid. Neither NYU nor Chicago are coming out of an easy region, so RROs and SOS mean quite a bit, even though both are almost guarantees to get into the NCAA Tourney. And not to mention, it’ll be a very competitive matchup (probably a sell-out at the Brooklyn Athletic Facility….which isn’t hard to do haha) between two Top 15 teams, with Chicago ranked #13, and NYU ranked #6.
#12 Trinity (CT) is on the road at Bates, in the second to last game of the regular season. Trinity, still atop the NESCAC standings, is tied with Tufts, at 7-1. Guess who Trinity closes the NESCAC schedule against? Yep, Tufts, tomorrow in a huge showdown at Tufts. But the Bantams can’t look too far ahead. Williams handed them a 49-48 loss exactly a week ago, and in order to generate some momentum for Tufts tomorrow, Trinity needs a strong performance at Bates tonight. I’ll be interested to see how head coach Emily Garner handles her roster tonight, obviously needing a win, but trying to preserve stamina for the quick turnaround tomorrow.
I’d also be paying attention to Emory and Carnegie Mellon in UAA action, as that should be a showdown at CMU. Bowdoin at Hamilton could be interesting in NESCAC play also, especially as Bowdoin seems right on the fringe of being regionally ranked.
I’ll have more first thing tomorrow morning, but those are a couple thoughts as we head into tonight’s action. Have a great afternoon!