Coming Attractions

I will be doing team previews as we get closer to the 2009-10 season of Big Sky WBB, but MSU has some great You Tube videos, so I thought I would wet your appetite a bit. If you are like me, you are going through withdrawls at this point in the calendar anyway.

The Cream of the Crop?

Charlie Creme at ESPN.com wrote a column lining out the top 64 teams to watch for the 2009-10 season. The only Big Sky team he listed was Portland State at number 53.

"53. Portland State: While the Vikings say goodbye to perhaps the school's all-time best player in Kelsey Kahle, they do return two of their top three scorers to make a run at the top spot in the Big Sky."

I am inclined to agree that the Viks should be the early favorites in the BSC next season. With Mandy Morales out of the picture at Montana, Claire Faucher is probably the most electric player in the conference. As Creme said, the Viks will return 2 of their top 3 leading scorers (Faucher and Kelli Valentine)and will have plenty of other contributors like Kelly Marchant, Kate DePaepe, and Eryn Jones. So, on paper, the Viks look good.

I do think that they will have a big hole to fill with the graduation of Kelsey Kahle. She had a work ethic that ranked in the top 2 or 3 in the conference, and was a leader-by-example for PSU. How the Vikings respond to a leadership void created by Kahle's absence will be the biggest question they must answer in the off season.

The Return of the Jedi (or Blogger)

Hello everyone! I haven't died, there hasn't been any accident, I just was taking some time away from the blog after the season ended. There have been a few happenings since the end of the season that I need to catch you up on. So here it goes:

Sac State coach (and TW Courtside COY) Dan Muscatell took an assistant coaching job at Oregon under the Ducks' new coach Paul Westhead. The Hornets promoted Associate HC Jaime Craighead to the Head Job. Technically she is an interim, but I imagine it is a trial run to see how she handles being in control of the program. I think "interim" is the most damaging word possible to a program. It hurts recruiting because players are unwilling to commit to a coach that may not be there by the time they set foot on campus, donors are unwilling to make donations to the program because the future is murky, and players under scholarship don't work as hard because they are unsure of the future of the program. I hope the Sac AD does the wise thing and removes coach Craighead's "interim" tag soon.

Idaho State is suffering from the normal defections that occur when a program is in transition. Freshman guard Sheila Adams, veteran post Verity Peets, and freshman post Jeni Guertin have all pulled the plug and asked for transfers. Adams is probably the biggest loss of the three. She showed tremendous poise and potential after being forced into the starting lineup due to injuries. She had a great freshman year. Guertin also showed potential off the bench. Check out Kelvin Ang's reporting on these developments over at his blog.

As for this blog, I will continue to update throughout the off season on happenings throughout the conference. Soon, I will look at incoming freshman and transfer classes, have my pre-pre season rankings, and also hopefully do some interviews of BSC news makers. Stay tuned!