Drury Panthers

[crazznewt]

I saw Drury women are NOT the favorite to with the GLVC this year. Last year I would agree with that assessment. This year, Lewis is again picked to win the conference. I know they did last year, but Lewis' best player from last year is now at Grand Valley. Maybe I am giving the Panthers too much credit, but I think they can win it this year. But as a whole I think the conference will be down in women's basketball compared to where it was just a couple years ago.

Kathryn Schmidt wasn't even close to being the best player for Lewis Last season. She averaged 11.2 points at 39% from the field. Grace Hilber was the clear leader on that team and was a conference player of the year candidate. If Lewis hadn't lost multiple good players to graduation, Schmidt would likely still be a Flyer.

The Lady Panthers have a lot of underclassmen with little collegiate experience. If they dont mesh quickly, the first month of the season will be ugly. I think this team might take some losses, but also believe they will end up in the conference tournament championship game again.... barring injury.

Lord willing, I will be there for every game.

[Bballfan]

Drury's inexperience in part is due to the coaching turnover. A lot of recruits that would be juniors this year never came.

Noticed Drury plays Grand Valley in Champagne Illinois this year. Are they piggy backing on the Illinois women who play Southern Indiana that day? Better matchups would be Grand Valley and Illinois (for what it is worth Grand Valley does play Ohio State again) and Drury and Southern Indiana. I actually think Drury would do better against Southern!

[crazznewt]

Drury's inexperience in part is due to the coaching turnover. A lot of recruits that would be juniors this year never came.

Noticed Drury plays Grand Valley in Champagne Illinois this year. Are they piggy backing on the Illinois women who play Southern Indiana that day? Better matchups would be Grand Valley and Illinois (for what it is worth Grand Valley does play Ohio State again) and Drury and Southern Indiana. I actually think Drury would do better against Southern!

The way I understand it, Drury set this game up.. Former Lady Panther player Hope (Hunt) is married to the athletic director at Illinois. The Lady Panther program does have experience on that court as they beat the University of Illinois by 6 points in an exhibition a few years back.

[Bballfan]

Nice they can do that. A one year neutral court game I assume? Would love more matchups like this is central Illinois or western Indiana where both teams have to travel, but not travel so far.

[crazznewt]

Some D1 VS GLVC scores:

SBU Men gave D1 Missouri State a serious challenge tonight, losing 72-65 in a game that was never more than 4 or 5 points until the end.

Truman State Women had no clue at Mizzou, losing 112 to 62

Maryville Women (boo) smashed D1 SIUE.

[crazznewt]

Its a basketball Monday for me. The first luncheon of the season for the Drury basketball teams was held today and was well attended as usual. Now, I am getting ready to watch the Missouri State Lady Bears do to the Missouri S and T Lady Miners what the Indiana Hoosiers did to the Maryville Women (95-27).

Former Rockhurst starter and Nixa Lady Eagle, Allie Kamies now plays for Evangel University. The Lady Crusaders were beat by cross town rival Mission University who were led by former Lincoln Blue Tiger and Central Lady Bulldog, Heaven Shockley.

[Bballfan]

Saw Ferris play. Drury could beat them with last year's team in my opinion. But Drury doesn't have last year's team, so that can be a problem for them. I think Ferris will prevail.

Schaaf going to be missed. Didn't play that well for Central Missouri the first game, but had a nice game in the 2nd one. Good addition for Central Mo, but she won't dominate the MIAA like she did in the weaker GLVC.

Clevenger put up 21 in the first game, but not as strong in the second game.

Drury still had those two I obviously would pick them to beat Ferris, but since they don't, they probably won't.

[crazznewt]

Saw Ferris play. Drury could beat them with last year's team in my opinion. But Drury doesn't have last year's team, so that can be a problem for them. I think Ferris will prevail.

Schaaf going to be missed. Didn't play that well for Central Missouri the first game, but had a nice game in the 2nd one. Good addition for Central Mo, but she won't dominate the MIAA like she did in the weaker GLVC.

Clevenger put up 21 in the first game, but not as strong in the second game.

Drury still had those two I obviously would pick them to beat Ferris, but since they don't, they probably won't.

The GLVC might be weaker than usual, but at least they had two teams beat weak D1 SIUE already this season.
Hey, why don't you post who the team is you support? Maybe start a thread for that team. We'll go from there.

[Bballfan]

Don't really support any team, but follow D2 sports in general, particularly women's basketball. The GLVC got weaker in women's basketball, IMHO, when they lost Southern Indiana. Lindenwood not so much. Lewis and Drury pretty much dominate the league now. You would think Indy would be better, but they have made bad coaching decisions and can't get out of their own way. They were lucky Indiana State was stupid enough to hire their coach away! Must not have the internet at Indiana State.

Looking forward to Drury playing this weekend to see how they do with this new reconfigured team!

[crazznewt]

Don't really support any team, but follow D2 sports in general, particularly women's basketball. The GLVC got weaker in women's basketball, IMHO, when they lost Southern Indiana. Lindenwood not so much. Lewis and Drury pretty much dominate the league now. You would think Indy would be better, but they have made bad coaching decisions and can't get out of their own way. They were lucky Indiana State was stupid enough to hire their coach away! Must not have the internet at Indiana State.

Looking forward to Drury playing this weekend to see how they do with this new reconfigured team!

There are individual players in this league that are D1 caliber. That being said, it is obvious the entire league is in a down trend. The coaching level overall is not equal to the state universities in other leagues. This is why there is an occasional win against good D1's like with Illinois Springfield against Bradley a couple years back.

As I believe you have mentioned before, the NIL and no fault anytime transfer rule will hurt the smaller programs. Another thing you mentioned was the mass turning to international players in an effort to combat this shift in dynamics. The Drury Men are benefiting from this.

We are looking forward to this new challenge as a fan base for the women. Covid, the coaching change and the NIL have set this program back and overall optimism is down according to word of mouth at the Panther Luncheon, but support for the program and it's progress is still strong.

A late withdrawal by the Kentucky Wesleyan coach resulted in the odd schedule for games at O'Reilly this weekend.

Bballfan, Check your private messages in a few minutes

[crazznewt]

The Springfield sports community is mourning the loss of retired Evangel basketball coach Steve Jenkins, who was a very successful coach for the Crusaders for 39 years. I had a lot of fun playing pick-up games with "Jinx". He was the perfect example that you don't have to be an obnoxious jerk to the players to win games.

[Bballfan]

Kentucky Wesleyan dropped out? That's not a good look. They also have two head coaches on paper, which IDK how they get away with that.

Not a real fan of KWC the school. It's one of those colleges i questions if it will be around for the long haul. But they won't hesitate to brag about all their mens' basketball national championships about 50 years ago.

[Bballfan]

Listened to the Drury/Ferris game. Drury played Ferris tough and got Blanchard in foul trouble. They just couldn't get the last foul on her. Good effort by Drury for their first game. It was Ferris' fourth game of the year already, so I am sure that helped them in some respect.

Ferris is most likely the second best team in the region. Nobody is going to stop Grand Valley this year (well probably Ohio State but that game doesn't really count). Ferris' win over Drury gives them an edge when it comes to seeding, as I am sure everyone is trying to avoid the 4/5 spot this year so you don't have to deal with Grand Valley in the semis.

Curious how Drury will fare against Missouri Southern next week. Missouri Southern is off to a bit of a rough start, but that includes losses to Texas Women and Ashland. Besides that game, there is the Grand Valley game in December. Can Drury keep that game to less than a 20 point loss? In five games only one team has lost to Grand Valley by less than 20 points and their average margin of victory (including two top 10 opponents) is 35. That's just crazy!

[crazznewt]

Missed free throws killed Drury. 12 of 23 overall including 5 straight missed in crunch time. I still think it will be ugly for a while as most on this roster don't appear ready for prime time. Aiden Moxness missed three weeks of practice due to mono. The coaching staff is high on her saying she has improved. They sorely need her to play at a high level.

Blanchard is tough. She can score from anywhere on the floor and has one of the best mid range shots you'll see anywhere. Strong and athletic also. Anna Hitt shut her down when matched up with her one on one. I met her mother who appeared to be the only fan that traveled with the team.

On the subject of fans, the attendance was barely over 900. The women's soccer team was in action across the street playing in the conference semi finals which contributed a little to the low numbers as their attendance was 273. Hopefully the resurgence of the men's team will help attendance numbers on GLVC game dates.

[crazznewt]

Listened to the Drury/Ferris game. Drury played Ferris tough and got Blanchard in foul trouble. They just couldn't get the last foul on her. Good effort by Drury for their first game. It was Ferris' fourth game of the year already, so I am sure that helped them in some respect.

Ferris is most likely the second best team in the region. Nobody is going to stop Grand Valley this year (well probably Ohio State but that game doesn't really count). Ferris' win over Drury gives them an edge when it comes to seeding, as I am sure everyone is trying to avoid the 4/5 spot this year so you don't have to deal with Grand Valley in the semis.

Curious how Drury will fare against Missouri Southern next week. Missouri Southern is off to a bit of a rough start, but that includes losses to Texas Women and Ashland. Besides that game, there is the Grand Valley game in December. Can Drury keep that game to less than a 20 point loss? In five games only one team has lost to Grand Valley by less than 20 points and their average margin of victory (including two top 10 opponents) is 35. That's just crazy!

Another thing that is crazy is as successful as GVSU has been, the attendance at their last game was 386. The game before that was their senior day when the attendance was 536. Does anyone outside of the university even care about GVSU sports?