Looking towards the season ahead
My daily coverage of Division III women's basketball is back as the 2024-25 season nears tip-off
I’ve started seeing photos from teams starting preseason practice for the 2024-25 season, and with that, it’s officially time for me to get back to my D3 WBB coverage here. I was more inconsistent this summer as far as writing here, as I focused on continuing to work on my book on Division III basketball, which is still planned to be finished by the end of next summer. Very excited about how that’s coming along, and the programs and institutions I’ve been able to highlight thus far.
We’re back with another season less than 40 days away. That’s hard to believe, but I couldn’t be more excited. There is so much parity in Division III women’s basketball right now…I haven’t even started to look at putting together my Preseason Top 25 ballot, but once I do, I’ll probably come to same conclusion as I did back in summer, when assembling my Way-Too-Early Top 30: there are way more than 25 or 30 elite teams in D3 right now. From the East Coast powers such as NYU, Bowdoin, Smith, and Christopher Newport, to the West Coast contenders led by Whitman, to the Midwest with Illinois Wesleyan, Wartburg, Gustavus Adolphus, and UW-Oshkosh, to the South with Trinity (TX), Mary Hardin-Baylor, and Millsaps, there are top-tier programs nationwide.
And now we have NPI thrown into the equation. Love it or hate it (or neither, since we haven’t actually seen it play out yet!), the new ranking/selection system, for lack of a better term, is replacing the previous way of making Pool C selections, and quite frankly, take a lot of guessing out of the Pool C conversation. No more will coaches and fans be sitting up late on the Sunday night before Selection Monday, watching us on Hoopsville to see if our projections have their team in. It will be fairly cut-and-dry, and there won’t be much gray area as to where any team stands in regards to securing an at-large bid.
Scott Peterson and I will discuss NPI in more detail and depth on our livestream in October (date is currently TBD, but I’ll mention it here once it is decided). But until then, if you haven’t already, check out D3Datacast’s episode on NPI. Matt and Zac Snyder have done an outstanding job not only understanding how NPI will be implemented but using actual examples to explain the process. Whether you’re a fan, a student-athlete, a coach, or parent, you will take away something new from that episode to better understand what this new aspect of Division III looks like and how it is actually applied.
As for my coverage, I figure I’ll lay out a little bit of what you can expect in the coming year. I spent a good amount of time working to find a format that will work well for daily coverage, giving me a chance to provide the most quality information while making it a short enough read that it’s easy to consume each morning. I feel good with the format I have in place, and it’ll be my goal to give attention to the smaller leagues this season on a more consistent basis. It’s easy to get focused on four or five top-tier leagues, but I want to expand beyond that throughout the coming season. My current plan is to do my Top 25 ballot breakdown (an explanation of my own rankings each week as one of 25 voters in the D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll) on Monday mornings as usual. Tuesday-Sunday should be a relatively quick read posted at 8 a.m. CT/9 a.m. ET that highlights some of the most impressive results from the previous day, along with a look ahead to the current day’s slate of games. Ultimately, I hope that you all, as the readers, continue to find value in my coverage of the national scene of Division III women’s hoops. And if you have any feedback, thoughts, or comments, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via email (rileyzayas@gmail.com), via Substack (a direct message button will be at the bottom of every post), or on X/Twitter (@ZayasRiley). I consider it a great honor to be able to highlight D3 women’s basketball in this way, and look forward to continuing that in the year ahead. Hard to believe this will be my third season running this newsletter!
In the meantime? Well, we have several scrimmages/exhibitions coming up in the weeks ahead, and I’ll work to provide scores and updates from those when possible. I’ll keep my tracker of non-D3 vs D3 matchups updated as well, and you can find that spreadsheet here.
Additionally, starting with this newsletter right here, I will be making my pick for the winner of a new conference each day, going down the list of 42 leagues in alphabetical order. I’ll also select my preseason offensive and defensive players of the year for each league. If anything, it’ll be fun to take a closer look at every conference in Division III and get familiar with each league’s top contenders before the season tips off. Hope you enjoy following along, and feel free to submit your picks in the comments section below!
We begin with the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference…
AMCC
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year: Molly Kosmack, Mount Aloysius: The 6’0 sophomore forward was outstanding in her first collegiate season last year, starting 25 games with league-highs in points (18.9 PPG) and rebounds (13.0). She is also a consistent free throw shooter, having shot 82.1% from the line in 2023-24. Her play will be key in helping Mount Aloysius take another step forward after going 13-13 last season.
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year: Sydney Carr, Carlow: Entering her senior year, Carr comes off a season in which she averaged 5.4 defensive rebounds/game and 2.3 steals per game. Carr is the only returning player in the AMCC that averaged over 5.0 defensive boards and 2.0 steals in 2023-24, as the guard tallied eight games of four or more steals.
Pick to win: Penn State Behrend
You can’t go wrong with the team that represented the AMCC at the NCAA Tournament and is returning 86.1% of its roster from 2023-24. Returning production is a good indication of a potential for success, and PSU Behrend certainly has that going in its favor. The three players who started all 27 games last season—Morgan Altavilla, Alexis Furyes, and Rachel Majewski—are set to come back (we haven’t seen the 2024-25 roster released yet). This is a team that comes off a 19-8 campaign, highlighted by a 73-54 defeat of La Roche, who went 17-0 in conference play, in the AMCC Tournament final. Behrend wasn’t far behind La Roche in the AMCC standings at 15-2, but the Lions’ lone two losses in league play during the season both came against La Roche, so winning in the title game was pretty significant. This is a new season, but that appears to be the direction in which things are heading into the AMCC. La Roche certainly returns some talent, including forward Dasja Anderson, who averaged 17.2 PPG in 2023-24, and I won’t be surprised if Behrend and La Roche end up either tied or separated by a single game or two when the regular season is all said and done.
The key for head coach Christine VanHook’s team, especially considering the Lions generally have a small roster, is Altavilla and Majewski. Both averaged above 18.0 PPG last season, and for Behrend to win the AMCC, that duo will need to be just as productive again. Altavilla also had 5.3 rebounds/game, 3.9 assists/game, and 2.0 steals/game. Furyes was Behrend’s leading rebounder at 6.9 boards/game, and she will have a significant role as well. Also look for Madilyn Boyer to contribute in her junior season, as the 5-11 guard started 10 of Behrend’s final 11 games. Boyer didn’t play her first minutes of the year until Jan. 6, and stepped up with 13 points in the AMCC championship. She could definitely add some much-needed depth to Behrend’s rotation, which will be needed to take that next step in conference play. The Lions have never won consecutive AMCC Tournament titles and never won a regular season title, so they are in a quest to make history in the season ahead.
A quick look at La Roche….This is a team that went 17-0 in conference play last season, and returns three of its top four scorers in 2024-25. With an expanded roster—La Roche carries a roster of 17 in this season compared to 11 in 2023-24—I expect the Redhawks will have more depth, which is always an advantage. Kiyanna Dowling and Nautica Burwell add to the backcourt as transfers from W&J, and speaking of the backcourt, Jazmine Dunn, who led the AMCC in steals (2.8/game), is back for her junior season. In the frontcourt, expect Dasja Anderson to take charge as the senior forward averaging 17.2 PPG in 32.4 minutes/game last winter. The biggest loss from last year’s team is undoubtedly Machia Hairston, who graduated after putting up 17.1 PPG in 25 starts.
» Come back tomorrow as I make my pick for the 2024-25 A-R-C champion!
Great article and can't wait to read all the conference breakdowns.