Drury Panthers

[unc4life]

Can someone from Drury explain the women's loss to Kentucky Wesleyan? It seems like Drury has a really good team, they have beaten some really good teams already and to lose to Kentucky Wesleyan just seems out of now where. It looks like all the main players played. Something doesn't add up.

[crazznewt]

Big night at the O'Reilly Center last night. 1600 plus fans turned out to see a top 25 battle and honor 2 all time Lady Panther greats.
https://twitter.com/MattVereen/statu...n1AsRMqlA&s=19

[PantherClaws1]

Really not sure what happened to the Lady Panthers today. Kudos to Wesleyan, but that should've been a 15-point win. Findley blows a wide open layup. Robinson looked off all weekend after playing stellar just the week before. Very concerning and disappointing performance.

[crazznewt]

Some notes from the Lady Panther's tournament championship:

*Paige Robinson was named MVP. Again, quite impressive because there were other All-Americans in this event.

*Alana Findley was named All Tourney. It was not hard to see she would be a starter after her play in the summer pro-am. She is so efficient at getting high percentage shots and making them. She is also one heck of an offensive rebounder.

*Kaylee DaMitz was also named All-Tourney. Her court vision and composure combined with her skill level is elite.

*The three other teams in this field all finished with one win and two losses while Drury finished at 3-0.

[crazznewt]

The Lady Panthers beat Central Missouri to complete the round robin sweep. This, despite committing 79 fouls and sending the opposition to the line 103 times in the three games. Once this is corrected, barring injury or illness, this team is going to have a phenomenal season. Despite the fouls, they still averaged 87 points a game in this classic.

Eagan has a lot of talent and athleticism on her squad. Against three of the best teams in the country, Paige Robinson scored 79 (unofficial) points, displayed prolific ball handling, facilitated the offense and played good defense. She showed her National Player of the Year honor was no fluke. Kaylee DaMitz was the best point guard in this classic. Payton Richards, Alana Findley and Azia Lynch are efficient scorers. Terrion Moore and Anna Hitt showed their exceptional athleticism.

They get beat inside at times, but the points off of turnover margin is still greatly in their favor. If things get back to normal and area fans see the product, I think they'll bring in 2000 fans a game.

[crazznewt]

Drury Men, who are beginning a rebuilding phase, play at Drake Thursday night. The Bulldogs won 26 games last year and return a bunch of good players, including all five starters. Hopefully this will not be as ugly as it sounds.

[crazznewt]

The Lady Panthers with another impressive win. This one against West Texas A&M whose home court record over the last 19 years was 242-34.

Robinson led the way with 20 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals. She had a lot of help as 5 teammates were also in double figures.

Drury's defense is so physically demanding. Hopefully, they'll have enough energy left for another tough one tomorrow.

[crazznewt]

The Lady Panthers defeated fellow national power Southwestern Oklahoma State 92-79. SWOS returned all 5 starters and their conference POY, while Drury has 10 newcomers, including 3 new starters. D2 Player of the Year, Paige Robinson had 29 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks and went 6 of 11 from 3. Some of those threes were absolute daggers.

Tomorrow, Drury plays another traditional national power in West Texas A&M on their home floor in Canyon, Texas. This is an incredible way to get into game shape this early in the season.

[crazznewt]

Lofty goals for the Lady Panthers as usual:

https://twitter.com/MattVereen/statu...Xi83U-cQQ&s=19

With their tough schedule there will likely be some losses, but they will be prepared for the post-season.

Eagan is already loading up on some excellent talent for next season. I saw this girl play in the Summer Pro-Am and she excelled against the college teams:

http://www.hudl.com/v/2FQ5J0

A more tempered approach to the season for the Panthers:

https://twitter.com/MattVereen/statu...6TOgLDZiA&s=19

New faces and a new approach. Also, looks like the Creighton transfer, Jett Canfield is not on the roster.

[crazznewt]

The world exposure report released their preseason division 2 women's basketball rankings.

1. Drury
2. Lubbock Christian
3. Alaska Anchorage
4. Nebraska-Kearney
5. Ashland
6. Central Missouri
7. West Texas A&M
8. Azusa Pacific
9. North Georgia
10. Lander
11. Fort Hays State
12.Texas A&M Commerce
13. Daeman
14. Barton
15. Michigan Tech
16.Hawaii Pacific
17. Arkansas Tech
18. Charleston
19. Georgia Court
20. Emporia State
21. Southwestern Oklahoma State
22 Pittsburg State
23. Adams State
24. Glenville State
25. Valdosta State



The Lady Panthers open play in the D2CCA Classic one week from Friday and every team in this event is nationally ranked. Drury opens play with Southwest Oklahoma, a team that made it to the South Central Regional Final last year and have been tabbed to finish on top of the Great American Conference this season.

There are a lot of teams besides Drury that benefited from the extra year of eligibility rule, and SW Oklahoma is one of those as they bring back all five of their starters, including the reigning conference player of the year.

The competition in this classic might be stronger than what the postseason regionals will feature in March. Hopefully this event will be streamed

[crazznewt]

In less than a month, The Lady Panthers will play their first game of the season. They open at the prestigious D2CCA Tipoff Classic at host West Texas A&M University In Canyon, Texas.

This classic features four of the premiere programs in the country. The host team went 11-1 at home last season and will be joined by National Runner-Up Drury, National Semifinalist Central Missouri and South Central Regional Finalist Southwestern Oklahoma State. The four teams combined to go 80-17 with three regular season conference titles during the 2020-21 campaign.

This will be a huge test for all involved as this is a three game in three day format. This classic, combined with the other early season games, will again give the Lady Panther's one of the strongest strength of schedules in all of D2.

[crazznewt]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but it feels like a big deal for both basketball teams. Apparently Drury's athletics videographer is being headhunted by both Auburn and Oregon at the moment and there's a real threat of him leaving. If you're close to the programs, you know how important video work is to their recruiting efforts, particularly the women. I know Molly tried to pry him away to GCU but Drury matched their offer. A non-player post, but certainly one to monitor.

This is big. Anyone who has ever seen this guy's work knows he is second to none in college sports media. Drury's basketball YouTube channel consistently has better content and graphics than what most D1s have. I hope Bobby stays at least through this season.

[PantherClaws1]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but it feels like a big deal for both basketball teams. Apparently Drury's athletics videographer is being headhunted by both Auburn and Oregon at the moment and there's a real threat of him leaving. If you're close to the programs, you know how important video work is to their recruiting efforts, particularly the women. I know Molly tried to pry him away to GCU but Drury matched their offer. A non-player post, but certainly one to monitor.

[crazznewt]

A three hour wait for a transmission flush! Times like this makes me appreciate my cell phone.

Drury is retiring Daejah Bernard's and Hailey Diestlekamp's uniform numbers during a halftime ceremony at the Lady Panther's first home game this season.

These two started every game they played in as the Lady Panthers went 128-8 overall, 72-2 in the GLVC and were conference champions all 4 seasons.

Lady Panther fans knew they would be great after these two were instrumental in Drury's exhibition win over the University of Illinois Fighting Illini in the pair's 3rd game in a college uniform. As true freshmen, Bernard had 14 points and Diestlekamp had 8 points and 14 rebounds in that game and they were the best athletes on the floor.

On the subject of athleticism, these two were amazing. Because of Bernard's lack of a consistent perimeter shot, opposing defenses would back off of her 3 to 4 steps and she still would dominate.
Diestlekamp easily could have averaged 30 points a game if she was on a weaker team. They were so much fun to watch.


Covid cost them a great chance of winning the national championship in their senior season as Drury was 32 and 0, ranked number 1 in the country and was awarded the Midwest Regional for the second straight season.

Hopefully, there will be 2,000 plus (Including my acquaintances with season tickets at the top of section 102) in attendance for this game and induction ceremony.

[crazznewt]

The Drury basketball teams have released very ambitious schedules.

The women have 31 games scheduled beginning on October 29th. This has to be one of the toughest non conference schedules (with games that actually count) that's loaded with perennial national powers. This includes road games at Emporia State and West Texas A & M.

The men open at Drake on November 4 and have 27 regular season games on the challenging schedule. The Drake game is pretty ambitious considering all the new faces in the program. It will be fun regardless. The neighborhood rivalry with Evangel is rekindled after a 20 year hiatus and it will be a raucous atmosphere at the "O" for that one.