Checking in on the… Summit League
Posted by rtmsf on January 19th, 2009Ryan Pravato of College Fast Break is the RTC correspondent for the Summit League.
North Dakota St. 12-5 (7-1)
The Bison have not lost since falling to Oakland at the beginning of the month. Senior guard Ben Woodside is averaging 26ppg and 5 assists in the last 3 games. Even though senior guard Mike Nelson’s shooting %’s are down from previous year’s, he’s still the team’s 3rd leading scorer at almost 12/gm. This team may run away with the regular season crown.
Oral Roberts 8-11 (6-1)
Oral just lolls teams to sleep with good team defense and a deep but largely unspectacular scoring attack (5 players averaging at least 8ppg). A 5 game winning streak in which only one of their opponents scored more than 60 has allowed them to keep on the heels of NDSU. Something this team lacks is consistent outside shooting. No regular rotation player is shooting better than 33% from downtown.
Oakland 11-9 (4-3)
The Grizzlies picked up a much needed win against IPFW on Saturday evening (Jan.17th), thus ending their 2 game skid. Both teams shot 58% from the field and over 50% from downtown. Oakland’s senior Erik Kangas drained 8 threes en route to a career high 39 points. Back on January the 8th Oakland traveled to Centenary for the Gentleman’s home opener in front of 775 people. Despite the daunting atmosphere only hundreds of fans can produce, Centenary crushed Oakland by 20. A usually calm Oakland basketball forum poster had this to say about the performance, “This loss should be unbearably excruciating for Kampe and the players. They got BENT OVER AND SODOMIZED by a weaker, inferior team. To be fair, you have to give credit to Centenary, because they were the ones who threw up the shots that went in the basket, but our guys have to be absolutely humiliated after a performance like this. Kampe, too. Stop all the chatter about how much progress OU is making as a program if you’re going to lose by 20 to Centenary College.”
Southern Utah 6-12 (4-3)
Big overtime win against SDSU on Saturday. Junior guard Davis Baker continues to play great basketball, possibly the most underrated player in the conference. Southern Utah is 4-1 in league play when Baker scores 20+.
Western Illinois 6-12 ( 3-4)
The Leathernecks have been the Sarah Palin of the conference so far. And no, I’m not saying any of the Western Illinois players are good looking or anything. To be fair, Saturday’s home loss versus Oral Roberts was played without the services of leading scorer David Dubois. I expect Western Illinois to continue to stagger back into oblivion as well.
Centenary 5-14 (3-4)
Winners of 3 out of the last 4 league games, the Gentlemen are certainly doing their best to make my early prediction of 8 league wins for Centenary a reality. 5’10 Chase Adams and 6’1 Nick Stallings are proving to be an explosive pair. Cententary’s last 2 wins have been by a total of 4 points (both road games). Fluke or a sign of a team coming together?
South Dakota State 8-12 (3-5)
Losers of 2 in a row, the Jackrabbits are teetering on the edge of falling out of contention for a top 4 seed in the league tourney. This team is not short on talent, but something is holding this team back. Kai Williams’ drop in productivity could be the reason. Kai is averaging 4.1 ppg less and 1 rebound/gm less than last year.
IUPUI 9-9 (2-5)
The current 4 game conference slide is the longest for IUPUI since the 1999-00 season. Ron Hunter, head coach of IUPUI, certainly has his priorities in order though. His contribution to Samaritan’s Feet (donate new shoes or $ here) has been nothing short of heroic.
IPFW 7-11 (2-5)
The Mastadons can put up some nice numbers from time to time, but they often just don’t play enough defense to consistently compete. Junior guard Nick Daniels is currently shooting 50% from downtown (31-62).
UMKC 6-14 (2-5)
This team is failing to do the little things that make all the difference.
