Jumping Through Hoops

One Jackrabbit basketball team proved that they could be a threat for the Summit League Tourney and another one did anything but over the weekend.

The men showed up long enough to score the first basket before falling into oblivion for the rest of the night, losing 84-61. NDSU dominated the glass much like they did in the first meeting in Brookings and turned it into a dunk contest at the Bison Sports Arena. Add in the fact the Jacks didn't shoot the ball well at all and it was a pretty deflated SDSU club after the game. The Jacks didn't put up much of a fight and that was likely the most disappointing thing to take away from the night's proceedings. The Jackrabbits will likely make a statement at the Summit League Tournament this weekend and what their statement will say is still up in the air. Nevertheless, much of their season will be defined by these next few days.

For the SDSU women, it is really all coming together right now. They've been victors in eight of their last nine games and five in a row, capped by a 64-51 win at NDSU. On Saturday, they saw their veterans in Kristin Rotert, Macie Michelson and Jill Young carry the load and out-dueled the Bison combo of Danielle DeGagne and Abby Plucker. Frankly, this is what was expected at the beginning of the season but really nothing has gone as planned this season. With the strong play of Jennie Sunnarborg and Katie Lingle, this could be a good formula for success in Sioux Falls. I won't call them the favorite to win it but the Jacks could ride the momentum and the partisan crowd to the finals.

Player of the Year? Not so fast.

After the game on Saturday, one of the Fargo TV reporters asked SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston if he thought that Plucker was the best player in the Summit. Johnston wisely ducked around the question and talked about how she is plenty talented and how SDSU has some pretty good players too. Now, I have asked some pretty dumb questions in my short time and not that this wasn't a decent question, because Plucker is pretty good, but really? She's probably a 1st-team All-Summit pick but I would put three or four players ahead of her. Maybe, I'm wrong and maybe she'll win Player of the Year but I don't see it. (Sidenote: Don't get me started on the Fargo TV stations at press conferences.)

Marcus' Marks

• T. Denny Sanford's cash can't come fast enough for the Bison Sports Arena. I was very unimpressed after my first experience in there for a basketball game. Also, why is it so cold in there? Is it because it looks like ice arena from the outside? (Can you believe I considered going to NDSU? Holy cow, I'm glad I made the choice I did.)

• This is awesome.

• I recently dusted off the SNL Harry Caray vault and it is still beautiful. Here and here. 

• I'm unbelievably pumped for the Summit League Tournament. Free food and great seats!

• Spring Training baseball is starting to move the meter for me on the "Pumped-up for baseball scale." But only a little.

• Let the crazy plugging begin: Stay tuned to sdsucollegian.com all week, especially starting on Friday for coverage from Sioux Falls.

Fargo Filler

The Jackrabbit basketball teams are headed north to the one of the Dakotas (although January Jones wouldn't be able to tell you which one) Friday and Saturday for some important matchups with the NDSU Bison.

As seems to be the theme for the second half of the season, both squads will try to earn back victories that were lost earlier in the season at Frost Arena. I'm a believer that both teams can earn wins but it really depends on which teams show up at the Bison Sports Arena. Will the men and women defend the respective areas that cost them in the first meeting (for the men: rebounding, for the women: defending the Bison guards)? Can the men snap the long-standing streak that is in their way? Does any of the momentum from recent wins carry over into the rivalry game?

I can't answer any of those but I will give you one definite answer to this question: Will I be in Fargo Friday for the NDSU-SDSU men's showdown? Magic 8-Ball says YES!

That leads to this: an awesome preview video that has an terrific opening at The Collegian's sports page. Also, stay tuned with this blog and that Collegian page next week when we go all out from Sioux Falls for the Summit League tournament. 

Shoutout Time

• Congrats to the Centenary men, who picked up their first win of the season against Western Illinois Thursday. It has been a long road for the Gentlemen (1-28), who have taken some flak on a national level and most of it has not been warranted. They'll move down to Division III and I respect them even more that they have Division III kids playing a Division I schedule.

• Some people get rowdy about NBA's trading deadline and I'm not one of them. It will be interesting to see what comes of the new collective bargaining agreement, because teams like the Heat, Knicks, Lakers, with groups of high-priced talent coming together might be coming to an end. (P.S: Just when you think things couldn't get anymore weird in Utah with Jerry Sloan leaving, the foundation is traded to New Jersey.)

• David Kahn will keep you guessing.  It is weird to see the T-Wolves linked to Steve Nash. In any manner.

• Brookings, S.D. is a deceptively cold place. I will stay with my statement from last year saying this is the windiest place on Earth, as well.

• The NFL Scouting Combine. Late winter's mirage that football is near again.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/marcustraxler 

"South" and Stuff

With their 50-47 difficult road victory over IPFW, the Jackrabbit women seem to be finding their stride at perfect time. The most promising part of their win Monday night was their ability to win even though they put up one of their worst shooting nights of the year, shooting 33 percent. SDSU's strongest links in Jennie Sunnarborg and Katie Lingle combined for seven points on the night, but veterans Jill Young, Macie Michelson, and Jennifer Schuttloffel came through with big plays to pace the Jacks, ending the five-game win streak of the Mastodons. An ugly win will surely sit better than a pretty loss.

I was worried about this team when they lost to IPFW and Oakland at Frost Arena earlier in the year but avenging the those same losses on the road is reassuring. They'll head to Fargo with a chance to finish the season winning eight of their final nine conference games.

In listening to IPFW coach Chris Paul after the game, Link Here (Click on video on the right side of the page) it was interesting to hear him say that "South" is still chasing IPFW and that the Jacks finally had to respect going into Fort Wayne for a win. To an extent, he's right because IPFW is 18-8 this season but SDSU has the experience of winning in March. Frankly, IPFW does not. Paul hopes to see SDSU again and I hope the teams meet in Sioux Falls.

*For those of you looking for a "South" count by Paul, I had six. I'm pretty sure he had eight after the first meeting*

Another SuperFriends Team Is Created

I won't talk much NBA, but ESPN will pound this story into submission for the next three days, so I feel obligated. Carmelo Anthony finally was traded to the New York Knicks but so was the rest of the Denver Nuggets for an appropriate share of the Knicks heading to the Rockies. Yes, Anthony and Chauncey Billups will make an immediate impact but I'm not going to put them in the NBA Finals, simply because the East is good and the Knicks haven't proved they can compete with the Celtics (who must be rivals with the Knicks by law), Heat, Magic, etc.

Of course, no NBA trade would be complete without a David Kahn appearance. He gets his foot in by acquiring young talent Anthony Randolph and salary-cap lug Eddy Curry. Kahn will probably make two more trades before the deadline, just because he can. Thankfully, the Wolves traded Corey Brewer. He never excited me and Knicks fans can have him. Brewer comes with: one (1) awesome dunk per season and three (3) defensive stops per season. Use them wisely.

Leftovers

•  That was a ton of snow. 'Nuff said.

• Why will it take until June for the Twins to find out that they don't have anyone in the bullpen other than Morales, Capps, and maybe Nathan?

•  A very entertaining Daytona 500 with the two-car drafting and created some interesting pairings. NASCAR is likely going to try to change that setup because some of those crashes were pretty easy to see coming. Not to mention, a 20-year-old in his second career Cup race won.

• The NBA All-Star game was actually entertaining too. LeBron James could have had a quintuple-double and it wouldn't have mattered because that MVP award was going to Kobe Bryant. (Okay, you got me...I watch a fair share of the NBA. But, I've probably watched more NBA this year than I have in the last five years combined.)

• JaVale McGee had awesome dunks that were probably good enough to win the dunk contest, but there was no way he was going to beat the "Blake Show." (Blake, come on. Jump over the roof of the car! If he would have done that, we would have known if the Clipper Curse was real.)

• Don't even have a No. 1 in college basketball this week. Duke can have it for now, but you can't convince me they're the best team in college basketball.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

Nate the Great

The Jackrabbit men's basketball team came through with another convincing win last night against IPFW and Nate Wolters is sealing up a spot on the All-Summit League 1st Team. With his 30 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists against the Mastodons, the sophomore is quickly making his case for Summit League Player of the Year. I'd venture a guess that he would be the favorite, if not for a NBA prospect in Oakland's Keith Benson. I've said it before and I'll say it again; Wolters is as smooth and effortless a player as you will see at any level. Scary good.

That segues to tomorrow's huge doubleheader against the aforementioned Golden Grizzlies, who are more vulnerable than ever on the men's side. That said, they are the top team in the conference and have already sealed the No. 1 seed in the Summit Tourney. Oakland is so balanced and well-coached that sometimes you forget about Benson, who averages 17 points and almost 10 rebounds a game (9.9, so I'll round up for you, Kito). This is a winnable game for the Jacks if they find a way to defend and rebound inside. Expect a high scoring affair, much like the last meeting, with both teams holding the top two spots in the points per game category in the conference.

SDSU's women are playing well, winning 5 of their last 6 games and have two winnable games against Oakland and IPFW. The Jacks lost to both in overtime in late January and this would be a good opportunity to get those two wins back. I think Oakland is the better of the two teams that SDSU will play this weekend and the Jacks have improved their defense. That will be the key this weekend. The women are playing their best basketball right now and with the conference race starting to open up, it's a good time to be peaking.

Time for some random comments because that's what I'm all about and that's why I have a blog:

• Special shout-out to whoever is behind this terrific fake Twitter page. Very cool.

• Enough with the Albert Pujols talk for a while. He's made it clear that he's not interested in signing a new deal during the season and you have to respect that. The earliest you can fire up the rumors now is July, if the Cardinals are out of it. Michael Wilbon brought up the Cubs signing him; Could you imagine that? I've also heard the Nationals, Angels, Yankees, and Red Sox, among others. Don't ask me where he's going, that's for another blog post.

• To Tubby Smith: You need a point guard, because Blake Hoffarber won't cut it. I refuse to call you petty or whiny (like Jim Souhan did), but the Gophers should be better than this.

• Credit DeMar DeRozan for generating some buzz for the dunk contest Saturday. He probably has no chance of winning because of the media machine that is following Blake Griffin but it should be fun anyway. Remember, many of the best dunks don't win anyway.

Well, that about wraps it up. Thanks for reading and come back again.

Welcome

The title says it all. Welcome to my new blog, which will be a work in progress until I find what I like. Until then, I'll tell you a little about myself.

I'm a freshman Journalism major at South Dakota State University in Brookings, S.D. I write for SDSU's newspaper, The Collegian and serve as the Assistant Sports Editor. Many of my blog posts will be Jackrabbit-centric but there will be a certain focus on Minnesota sports, as that is my homeland. One can probably venture a guess that my topics will fly all over the place as well.

I'll try to stay with this blog at least every other day, if not more often.

So now that you know a little about me, I'll jump into a little Jacks coverage.

It's all about basketball squads, who have wrapped up their home season and will hit the road for their final three games.

The men (17-9, 9-6 Summit) sit in fifth place and will play fourth-place IPFW Thursday night. SDSU stunned the Mastodons with a blowout win earlier this season but I don't think the margin will be near the same. IPFW has strong players, led by Ben Botts and Frank Gaines, each scoring 14 points per game. The two teams are also the top two squads in the Summit League in turnover margin.
If it makes a difference, IPFW is 10-2 in home games this year (losses to Oakland and IUPUI).

Both the men and women will be Rochester, Mich., for a doubleheader against Oakland on Saturday and both squads will try to atone for prior losses. More on that in the next few days.

If you've made it this far, you must be somewhat interested in me as a writer. Go ahead and check out sdsucollegian.com/sports or my Twitter page at http://twitter.com/marcustraxler