Column: Coyotes are off to a strong start in 2012 season
If you’re not paying attention to the University of South Dakota men’s and women’s basketball teams, it’s time to start.
No, I am not joking. Now, stop laughing and read on, I am being totally serious.
This year’s teams are not the same ones we saw last season, depending on which team is being talked about this can be either a good or a not-so-good thing.
Last year, we saw a women’s team that took themselves into the second round of the WNIT Tournament and pumped out a 23-win regular season. However, the program took significant losses over the offseason with the departure of standout seniors Amber Hegge and Jodi Boss and, more importantly, head coach Ryun Williams. The parts left over from these losses, including recently hired head coach Amy Williams via Rodgers State, does not put the team on the same level of competition as the previous squad.
However, the mixture of senior leadership from Alexis Yackley and Tempestt Wilson, and the stellar play from junior Polly Harrington and sophomore Nicole Seekamp has created a much more competitive team than many would have predicted.
With that being said, the team’s lack of experience shows in their 3-5 record, but it is hard not to be excited looking at the promising play of the team’s youngsters. It will be interesting to see how the team’s youth can give it the upper hand against older teams and if it can carry it through the dog days of January and February.
Where the real excitement comes is on the men’s side, in what was once a program dozens of steps behind the rest of the Summit League in 2011, but now looks to be a team on its way up. After a lackluster 1-3 start to the season, the Coyotes have gone 3-2 since then, with an impressive conference win against IUPUI Dec. 1.
The Coyotes showed true potential during an outstanding game against 2011-12 Summit League Tournament runner-up Western Illinois on Nov. 29. What looked like a runaway win for the Leathernecks quickly transformed into a Coyote comeback led by impressive play from Kansas State senior transfer Juevol Myles.
The Coyotes’ willingness and perseverance during the second half brought them back from a 14-point deficit, and after Myles’ sunk three-pointer to tie it up at 71-71 with three seconds remaining, it seemed as if the Coyotes were on to something.
Not only in this game, but as a whole the team seems to have something the 2011-12 did not; a real ability to score the ball in various ways. One possession would find Myles pulling up for the three-pointer, another would see junior Karim Rowson making an acrobatic shot around the hoop and another may see junior Trevor Gruis working in the low post. Watching last Thursday’s game was legitimately exciting basketball, real basketball seems to have arrived in Vermillion.
Nonetheless, in that one game, the team managed to show more promise than it did in an entire season last year. As the season progresses and the Coyotes dig deeper into their conference schedule, the big story will be if USD can continue to elevate its level of play and stay competitive with the monsters of the Summit League.
So, stay tuned USD, the Coyotes basketball season may be more than expected this winter season.
