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PITTSBURG —
Football season, unless Pittsburg State makes a National Championship run like it did last December, feels like it’s over in a hurry. Time moves fast from mid-August to late November.
Meanwhile, basketball season lasts from mid-November through March and it always seems a much longer time. Perhaps it’s having four game nights a week on average rather than one, perhaps it’s Winter Break for two weeks, perhaps it’s Tournament Week, and perhaps it’s that winter sports take place during, of course, winter, a time period which often forces people inside for longer periods. Basketball season coincides with Thanksgiving (nearly as much as football) and Christmas. We all know what that entails every year.
Granted, I am not complaining because I’m a basketball guy. I used to shoot baskets by the hundreds every day on my grandma’s basketball goal in her spacious backyard. Somewhere on that concrete you can find my 8-year-old handprint and the backboard shows the wear and tear of a good 15 years of constant use and 10 years of rarely being used.
Anyway, the Pitt State women began the season with their own invitational tournament at Whetzel Court/John Lance Arena. The Gorillas opened Nov. 9 with a 97-51 win over Southwest Minnesota — meaning that we already have a month of basketball in the books.
The Gorillas, ranked No. 3 in the nation for a couple weeks, have two home losses — 68-66 to William Jewell and 70-62 to Central Oklahoma. Head coach Lane Lord said this year’s team is not last year’s team and it will take some time for this year’s team to develop into “this year’s team.” The Gorillas do have a core of talented returners (returning starters Alexa Bordewick, Drew Roberts and Lizzy Jeronimus, for example) and newcomers.
The Pitt State men have a diverse mix of newcomers (junior college transfers A.J. Adams, Ethan Cordray and Terrell Eaddy and true freshmen Kaleb Porter, Jake Bullard and Denton Hays) and veterans (seniors JaVon McGee, Marky Nolen, Courtney Ingram and Rico Pierrevilus, as well as sophomore Sam Pugh).
Porter scored a PSU freshman record 34 points in a 86-78 win over Lincoln and Adams provided a thrill with a buzzer-beating tip-in to force overtime against William Jewell, a game Pitt State won 74-69. Head coach Kevin Muff seems to be finding lineup combinations that work.
Conference expansion in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association provides added excitement, as does the revamped John Lance Arena. There’s so many good teams in the MIAA.
Football season, unless Pittsburg State makes a National Championship run like it did last December, feels like it’s over in a hurry. Time moves fast from mid-August to late November.
Meanwhile, basketball season lasts from mid-November through March and it always seems a much longer time. Perhaps it’s having four game nights a week on average rather than one, perhaps it’s Winter Break for two weeks, perhaps it’s Tournament Week, and perhaps it’s that winter sports take place during, of course, winter, a time period which often forces people inside for longer periods. Basketball season coincides with Thanksgiving (nearly as much as football) and Christmas. We all know what that entails every year.
Granted, I am not complaining because I’m a basketball guy. I used to shoot baskets by the hundreds every day on my grandma’s basketball goal in her spacious backyard. Somewhere on that concrete you can find my 8-year-old handprint and the backboard shows the wear and tear of a good 15 years of constant use and 10 years of rarely being used.
Anyway, the Pitt State women began the season with their own invitational tournament at Whetzel Court/John Lance Arena. The Gorillas opened Nov. 9 with a 97-51 win over Southwest Minnesota — meaning that we already have a month of basketball in the books.
The Gorillas, ranked No. 3 in the nation for a couple weeks, have two home losses — 68-66 to William Jewell and 70-62 to Central Oklahoma. Head coach Lane Lord said this year’s team is not last year’s team and it will take some time for this year’s team to develop into “this year’s team.” The Gorillas do have a core of talented returners (returning starters Alexa Bordewick, Drew Roberts and Lizzy Jeronimus, for example) and newcomers.
The Pitt State men have a diverse mix of newcomers (junior college transfers A.J. Adams, Ethan Cordray and Terrell Eaddy and true freshmen Kaleb Porter, Jake Bullard and Denton Hays) and veterans (seniors JaVon McGee, Marky Nolen, Courtney Ingram and Rico Pierrevilus, as well as sophomore Sam Pugh).
Porter scored a PSU freshman record 34 points in a 86-78 win over Lincoln and Adams provided a thrill with a buzzer-beating tip-in to force overtime against William Jewell, a game Pitt State won 74-69. Head coach Kevin Muff seems to be finding lineup combinations that work.
Conference expansion in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association provides added excitement, as does the revamped John Lance Arena. There’s so many good teams in the MIAA.
The last three men’s home games have brought in some talented players with interesting backgrounds: Southwestern College forward William Tisdale (nephew of the OU great Wayman Tisdale), William Jewell point guard Dwight Sistrunk (son of former Iowa defensive back Dwight Sistrunk) and Central Oklahoma forward James Watson (a former player at Washington State and Kansas State).
Speaking of talented players, I received an e-mail the other day from Ed Odeven, chief basketball reporter of the Japan Times, concerning Edward Morris, a former Pitt State basketball player (2006-2007) who earned first team All-MIAA his senior year. Morris was also on the All-MIAA Defensive Team both seasons.
The e-mail contained a link to Odeven’s notebook, where he included Morris.
Morris plays for the Shinshu Brave Warriors, a team in the Basketball Japan League. When I first received the e-mail, honestly I thought it was something that circumnavigated the good old spam blocker and that suscipion was not helped by the fact that I first saw “bj-league” in the handle. Oh no! I read the rest of the handle and realized that it meant Basketball Japan League.
I recently watched “Mr. Baseball,” that 1992 culture clash-sports movie opus starring Tom Selleck as an egotistical American player past his prime and replaced by a phenom first baseman (played by Frank Thomas). Selleck ends up in Japan for some predictable but diverting complications and Hollywood feel-good formulas. I wonder if professional basketball in Japan compares with its professional baseball.
Anyway, back on track now, Morris’ previous teams include Albury W.B. (Australia), Aarhus BC (Denmark), Stirling S. (Australia), Cantabria (Spain) and Merida (Spain). Of course, it seems that most outlets around the world spell Pittsburg with an ‘h’ on the end. Naturally.
Kansas high school basketball teams have completed a full week of games and here are the records of Crawford County teams: Pittsburg boys 2-0, Pittsburg girls 2-0, Colgan boys 2-0, Colgan girls 2-0, Frontenac girls 2-1, Frontenac boys 1-2, Girard boys 2-1, Girard girls 2-1, Northeast boys 3-1, Northeast girls 1-3, Southeast girls 3-1 and Southeast boys 1-3.
That adds up to 23-13, good for a .640 winning percentage.
Before the season, I thought both the Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League and the Southeast Kansas League coaches sold a couple girls teams short — namely Colgan and Pittsburg, both picked fifth in the preseason poll.
Notables: The Girard boys defeated Iola in double overtime. The Colgan girls defeated Frontenac in overtime. Alaura Short scored a career-high 27 points and Lizzy Willis had 13 points and 19 rebounds as the Pittsburg girls defeated Girard in another great contest between the teams. Pittsburg senior Stefon Rich already has four slam dunks. Colgan senior Dyson Dechant and Girard senior Hadyn Herlocker are both averaging well over 20 points.
