1. Western Illinois (3-0, 6-8)
2. North Dakota State (3-1, 8-5)
3. Oakland (3-1, 10-7)
4. IUPUI (2-1, 9-5)
5. Oral Roberts (2-1, 4-11)
6. Southern Utah (2-2, 4-11)
7. IPFW (1-3, 6-9)
8. South Dakota State (1-3, 6-10)
9. UMKC (1-3, 5-12)
10. Centenary (0-3, 2-13)

Highlights

SDSU – 2 days before Christmas the Jackrabbits beat Iowa State on the road by 7. While the Cyclones are anything but a powerhouse team, props to SDSU for getting this win and holding Iowa State’s second leading scorer to 5 points on 2-12 shooting.

IPFW – The Mastodons finally broke through for a W in league play with a 100-66 smackdown of South Dakota State (Jan.2). Former Kansas St. forward Deilvez Yearby scored 19, grabbed 9 boards and swatted 5 shots. Former Oakland forward David Carson scored 24.

UMKC senior guard Dane Brumagin – he was named the conference player of the week for Dec.23- Dec.29 after averaging 30 points and 6 rebounds in 2 games.

IUPUI – Beat Southern Utah by 5 without getting a single field goal from star senior guard Gary Patterson (Jan 2). IUPUI got 21 points from their only 2 bench players to see action in the game, Robert Glenn (13) and John Ashworth (8). Back on December 20th IUPUI beat Seton Hall with a Leroy Nobles layup as time expired.

Western Illinois – Just as likely to be the last undefeated Summit league team left as Eric Gordon is to be the future of the NBA. Senior guard David Dubois doesn’t shoot the 3 ball real well, won’t wow you with his athleticism, gets in foul trouble too much, and probably dances like Elaine, but still manages to cram more than 17 ppg down team’s throat.

Lowlights

Centenary – Losers of 7 in a row, it’s not looking good for the Gentlemen, or for my prediction of Centenary winning 8 games in the league.

UMKC – After drawing their conference record to 1-1 with a 8 point win against IPFW early on in December, the Kangaroos have lost their last two league contests by a combined 6 points. In both of the losses UMKC has been down by double digits at the half.

Oakland senior guard Derick Nelson – Head coach Greg Kampe finally announced (Dec.30) Nelson would be redshirted (medical). Nelson tried to come back from a serious foot injury he suffered in practice the day before the season opener but just couldn’t do it.

Southern Utah got out of the gate quickly with 2 straight W’s but has since dropped 2 in a row. I said it wouldn’t last long.

NDSU @ Oakland (Jan.2)

I was fortunate enough to be in attendance as unarguably the two best teams in the league squared off. Neither team had more than an 8 point lead at any one time. I don’t think either coach sat down the entire game and I know neither was delighted with the officiating. NDSU guard Ben Woodside (23.5ppg) was held scoreless in the first half as was Oakland’s center Keith Benson (12.5ppg). Both stepped up their games in the second half but Keith Benson really woke up, scoring 17 (7-7 fts, 5-9 fg). The unequivocal iron man of the game was sickly 6′6 senior Brett Winkleman who only ate a piece of toast before the game because he was ill all day with a stomach virus. Brett not only played 32 minutes, but scored 33 points (6 treys) and had 3 steals. It was not enough.

Oakland’s Erik Kangas, bothered by a calf injury virtually throughout the whole game, drained a 3 pointer falling away with a little over 7 seconds left to give OU the lead by 1. It was his first 3 pointer of the game and it sent the O’Rena into a frenzy of sorts, yet seconds later Ben Woodside zigzagged his way down the court and got all the way to the hoop to attempt a wild (it was made wild by the stout defense supplied by Kangas, the only OU player who seemed to know the game wasn’t over yet) layup that just bounced off the back rim. If the game had been in NDSU’s place a foul would have been likely called in my opinion, as Kangas challenged him and probably got a little body, but Woodside was going at a hundred miles an hour ( just a tad out of control I’ll say). The refs got off the court in a hurry.

These teams meet again on the 29th of January in North Dakota.

I bet NDSU gets the call at the end. Or else head coach Saul Phillips will be right behind them like a hungry lion.

Post from: EveryJoe

Summit League Update

From Yours Truly:

Summit League 08/09

Predicted Order of Finish:

North Dakota State Bison (19-10, 13-5)
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (20-10, 13-5)
Oakland Golden Grizzlies (18-13, 12-6)
IPFW Mastodons (16-13, 11-7)
IUPUI Jaguars (16-15, 9-9)
UMKC Kangaroos (14-17, 8-10)
Centenary College Gentlemen (11-19, 8-10)
South Dakota State Jackrabbits (13-18, 7-11)
Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks (9-20, 6-12)
Southern Utah Thunderbirds (6-23, 3-15)

What you need to know.

22 out of 31- Conference RPI ranking for the Summit League in each of the last two seasons.

Oregon, Marquette, Oklahoma St., Kansas, Texas Tech, Utah- Casualties at the hands of Summit league teams throughout the past 2 seasons. Does beating Seton Hall count? What about Louisiana Tech, twice? Not bad, not bad. The Summit is not quite knocking on the door of the Missouri Valley in stature as of yet, but at least they’re in the neighborhood. Some will never be in the continent.

Guardplay- Guards rule this conference in more than one way. They not only light up the scoreboard from downtown, but they also grab more than their share of rebounds. Lots. Last season 6′5 Derick Nelson led the Oakland Grizzlies with 7.4, 6′6 Brett Winkelman led the North Dakota State Bison with 8.3, and 6′2 George Hill led IUPUI with 6.8. The big men you will find, and there are some actually, are your rudimentary mid-level giants who usually possess the muscle tone of Kevin Durant and the post-up game of Muggsy Bogues. Besides that, Summit league big men are studs.

Predicted Champion. North Dakota State (#14 NCAA). Coincidentally this happens to be the very first season in which the Bison are postseason-eligible. But the Bison seem to be the consensus these days. And for good reason. The three-headed monster returning for the Bison all redshirted their freshman year so that they would be able to have an opportunity like this. The littlest of the fifth year senior trio, Ben Woodside, scored over 20 ppg last season while also dishing out over 5 feeds. At 5′10, Woodside is a very creative attacker and gauging from the few times I have seen him play in person, he will hoist from anywhere, anytime. The giant of the group is Brett Winkelman, all 6′6 of him. While you already know he’s a terror on the glass, he’s also quite the assassin on the perimeter, hitting 43.8% of his threes last year. Winkleman is an efficient player and one not to shy away from the dirty work. He’d be in any team’s rotation. 6′4 Mike Nelson is the third head of this Bison monster. Often overlooked because of the other two, Nelson just goes about his business, you know, the usual 46.1% from downtown, 13.8 ppg, and 32 mpg. Not a shabby third option. All numbers aside, this Bison squad is downright hungry. They’re ready for the limelight, ready for the Summit league tourney.

Others considered. Oral Roberts, the Summit League representative in the tourney the previous three years, will always be in the discussion for the title. Oral Roberts consistently plays defense year in and year out the way it should be played: stay between your man and the basket. Alright, that may not be their textbook philosophy on defense, but a casual fan watching this team would probably not argue against it actually being THE PHILOSOPHY. Offensively speaking, combo guard Robert Jarvis and forward Marcus Lewis are the only returning players that averaged north of 5 ppg last season. Jarvis is a star though. He’s without a doubt the most streaky player in the conference (16.1 ppg in 29 mpg…off the bench). I’m not real sure Oral Roberts can survive the shoot first mentality of Jarvis as their point guard, but it sure looks like that will be their only chance to make it 4 straight tourney appearances.

Oakland finished third in the conference in 2008. They have one heck of an opening stretch of road games to begin the year. If they can come out of it with an upset or three, it might just be all the confidence this team needs to make a run. Scoring the ball is not a concern for head coach Greg Kampe. Guards Johnathon Jones, Erik Kangas and Derick Nelson all averaged over 14 ppg last season. Nelson has a tendency to try to do too much, but when he plays within himself, he can hurt you in a variety of ways, whether it’s on the offensive glass, in transition, or with an occasional trey. Defense and rebounding seem to be the problem for this team, especially up front. They can usually get away with lackluster defensive lapses against the weaker teams, but losing four out of five to last year’s strongholds IUPUI and Oral Roberts should be an indication of what Oakland must drastically improve on to legitimately be considered a threat . A pair of highly touted freshman (as opposed to lowly touted), 6′9 Jay Thames and 7′0 Ilija Milutinovic, hope to give this lacking front line a boost. Ilija, says coach Kampe, might be just what the doctor ordered: “There is a lot of hype with him and we have never had this much hype about a recruit before. He turned down six figures to play professionally in Serbia because he wants to go to the NBA.” Kampe later referred to Ilija as “very comparable” to Darko Milicic. I’m still not sure what to make of that.

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They have everything covered.

Post from: EveryJoe

Summit League Preview