I figured after about two months after the Women's College Summer League ended that I'd better get my butt back on my blog and dust things off as we're edging closer and closer to that magical date of October 15 when practices start for DIII teams. And even though the summer is over and I'm busy on weekends rooting hard for my LA Rams and UCLA Bruins (and Iowa too), I thought it only appropriate to get some things out as we near that magical date.
First, a big shout-out to UW-Superior AD Nick Bursik for snaring former Yellowjacket standout and recent grad Emily Carpenter as interim Head Coach for the Yellowjacket program after Zach Otto-Fisher resigned this last May. Given the timing and how everything transpired, it would be safe to say this is about as close to a homerun hire there is. Carpenter had tremendous success in her playing days at UW-Superior and there's no question that she'll inject a lot of enthusiasm and loyalty to the program and athletic department. Now, to be sure, there's always a little bit of a learning curve when it comes to taking the reigns of a program - especially at such a young age. I've been covering the DIII women's hoops scene for a while now and I know firsthand that it's always a challenge dealing with parents. That's just one of the realities of the situation for any head coach. Then there's the recruiting aspect as well. Granted, I think one could probably safely say that the shores of Gitche Gumee (aka Lake Superior) isn't at the top of the list for a lot of potential recruits. So, when you're a new (and young) head coach, you've got to go out and make that hard sell; that pitch to HS players that UW-Superior is a place you'll want to be at - never an easy thing to do. But if her prowess on the basketball court is any indication, she won't back down from any challenges presented to her and I think she'll do better than people think.
Bringing up another topic that's irritated me for a while now (at least since this last March anyway) is the scheduling aspect as we've already seen a number of programs release their 2022-23 schedule. The MIAC, as you probably well know, is playing a full round-robin schedule with each team playing each other twice for a total of 22 conference games. Considering the fact that each team has a 25-game regular season limit, that's a problem for MIAC teams as they only have room for three-non-conference games. To point out a couple of examples, let's take a look at the schedules for two potential MIAC top-tier teams - GAC and Bethel. GAC will play UW-Stout out of the WIAC and Simpson out of the ARC on successive weekends in November and will also take a trip down to Luther just before the first of the year. While Luther has fallen off the radar as of late, both UW-Stout and Simpson are top tier teams. Bethel meanwhile will travel over to Eau Claire, WI in November to take on UW-Oshkosh (b'gosh) and host UW-Eau Claire on successive evenings and will also make a run over to UW-Whitewater just before the first of the year to take on a Warhawk team out of the WIAC that made it to the National Championship Game last season. And while those are certainly quality opponents that do make your schedule stronger, your margin for error is relatively small because you have to hope that you steal a W in at least one of those games to boost your hopes come NCAA Tournament time (assuming, of course, you've got a reasonably decent shot of getting in). If you don't, you risk being left out in the cold like Augsburg has been the last few seasons and you've got to pin your hopes on getting the AQ from the MIAC Championship Game.
Now, let's take a look at the schedule that Wartburg out of the ARC has. To highlight their non-conference schedule, they have the following: @ Edgewood 11-8, @ UW-Eau Claire 11-11, vs UW-Oshkosh (b'gosh) 11-12, Cornell 11-16, @ Westminster 12-3, vs Scranton (@ St Petersburg, FL) 12-19, vs Trine (@ St Petersburg, FL) 12-20, vs Northwestern (Wartburg Holiday Tournament) 12-29 and vs Bethany Lutheran (Wartburg Holiday Tournament) 12-30. Uh, needless to say, THAT'S a (expletive deleted) schedule. Now sure, their conference schedule consists of 16 conference games versus 22 for the MIAC. But, this at least gives them a considerably larger margin for error than any of the MIAC teams. They'll likely get some Ws out of that non-conference schedule alone and they'll undoubtedly be a strong contender for ARC honors and even if they should falter in the ARC Championship game, with a non-conference schedule like that, they'll easily get to the table and get in. No way the NCAA Tournament Committee can overlook that schedule. Yet the MIAC, for whatever reason, seems to be bound in chains with its current round-robin set-up and until things change on that front, it'll be tough for anyone save for the MIAC AQ to sneak into the Dance.
Okay, so enough ranting for now. My near-term plan is to hopefully visit some early practices this next month to get an idea of what some of the MIAC teams have and their outlook for the upcoming season. I hope to have some more details soon.....
