Free Packets, As Over Bs, Parent Complaints

#2 posting 7.16.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

FREE PACKETS
AAU is giving free packets to college coaches. Some tournament packets can run up to $950. Women's Basketball Online looks at the the issue with coaches discontent at missing, incomplete and wrong information. Where does the money go? Also at the end of that article Helen Wheelock, the author of the article, raises six great questions.

TOURNAMENT NEWS
The Omaha Sparks have a couple of teams in the Tournament of Champions in Atlanta.

ALL STAR GAME
The As used their height to beat the Bs 66-55 in North Dakota's first game in the all star series in Bismarck. Kylie Messer of Bismarck St. Mary's led all players with 12 points. From the Bismarck Tribune.

Tana Trotter of Killdeer gets a feature in the Bismarck Tribune.

Sarah Smith of Grand Forks Red River is playing in the game and is headed to St. Thomas. From the Grand Forks Herald.

COACHING NEWS
Amanda Gorski has been hired at Concordia Michigan. She has been coach at Livonia Ladywood.

Brad DeBeer was not rehired by Sioux Valley, South Dakota due to parent complaints. Sioux Valley finished 3rd in the A state tournament last year. From the Brookings Register.

Breckenridge, Michigan is looking for a head girls basketball coach. From the Midland Daily News.

Mark Dickinson has been hired as girls basketball coach at Port Huron Northern, Michigan. From the Port Huron Times Herald.

ITALY TRIP
The Gophers haven't left yet, but they are blogging about their Italian trip. Kristen Dockery wonders about Vatican City.

Q&A
St. Thomas players Jessica Katch, Sheena Porter, and Jenni Gillard do a Q&A.

POLICE BLOTTER
Oklahoma starting guard Jenna Plumley has been arrested on a petty larceny charge after allegedly trying to steal makeup. From the Norman Transcript.

Next up: Tomorrow unless news breaks

Vendettas, Synergy Part II, More Tourney Results

#2 posting 7.14.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

TOURNEY RESULTS
ADIDAS WOMANHOOD TOURNAMENT COLLEGE STATION
The MN Stars are in College Station, Texas in the Adidas Womanhood tournament. MN Stars Eckmann, DeWitt, Smith, and Borowicz all played in the event that started on Saturday.

PRAIRIE ROSE STATE GAMES
Valley City State went 3-0 in winning the women's A title in the Prairie Rose State games in Minot. From the Minot Daily News (second segment in the story).

VIKING CLUB & THE GREAT LAKES SHOOTOUT
The Viking Club of Wisconsin is featured in the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. Also in the ECLT they look at the Great Lakes Shootout and how the tournament has changed from the 1990s. This is the start of a four part series on summer basketball.

PHOTOS FROM KEARNEY & CHICAGO
Here are some photos from IBCA Select Blue in their recent basketball trips to Kearney, Nebraska and Chicago.

ALL STARS
The North Dakota All Star game takes place tomorrow and Wednesday. The Bismarck Tribune looks at Kylie Messer and her struggles with injuries. Here are the rosters for the event.

COACHING VENDETTA
The Fargo Forum give leafy spurge (their thumbs down) to the Hankinson parents that tried to get the coach fired. (second listing)

SYNERGY PART TWO
Rethinking Basketball looks at ball movement and Team Ranking in part 2 of their Synergy series.

ITALY TRIP
The Gophers are getting ready to travel to Italy and Zoe Harper looks forward to seeing the Colosseum.

Next up: I will be back filling some of the games from yesterday. Next posting should be tomorrow unless news breaks.

Coaches Cleared, Summer Work

#2 posting 7.9.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

COACHING NEWS
Hankinson girls basketball coaches Shawn Gravalin and Mike Loll have been cleared of wrongdoing again. This is a quote from the report that was printed in the Fargo Forum

Part of Sanstead’s report read: “Through this investigation it has become readily apparent that the Geffre family dislikes the girls basketball coaching staff and, in particular, Coach Gravalin. The source of this dislike appears to be the fact that Coach Gravalin does not treat Casey and Cody Geffre as the stars they and their parents believe them to be.”

Jonelle Streed has been hired as an assistant at Miami of Ohio. Streed went to high school at Cambridge-Isanti and played her college ball at St. Cloud State. Recently she was an assistant at Arizona.

GOPHER TRIP
The Minnesota Daily looks at the women's basketball trip to Italy. Boosters will be footing some of the bill.

MORE 12U AAU NEWS
The Rochester Shock lost to a team from Missouri 53-42 ending their AAU tournament. From KAAL (plus video).

Former NBA player Dee Brown is coaching Orlando Edge Red.
You can go to the 12U AAU games in Rochester Friday free. From the Rochester Post Bulletin.

NORTH DAKOTA CHAMPS IN HAWAII
Team North Dakota won the King Kamehameha tournament in Hawaii last week. Here is a more detailed look at the team in the Wahpeton Daily News.

SUMMER WORK
Here is a report from the Beloit Daily News on how four players are working on their game this summer. Here are the four players:
Courtney Crouse, Beloit Turner
Liz Althoff, Clinton
Kristen Ruchti, Brodhead
Jordyn Courier, Big Foot

BRAUN
Jamie Braun has been named one of the 20 scholar athlete Hoosiers to watch (in the entire athletic program). Braun is from Marshfield, Wisconsin.

MOSMAN
Shellie Mosman of Iowa State is also busy this summer interning with an accounting firm. Mosman is from Carroll, IA.

Next up: one more tour of the news

Cotton Country, Italy, Uptown, Draft, & Chemistry

#2 posting 7.3.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

COTTON COUNTRY
According to the StarTribune yesterday, the Gophers have received a verbal from Leah Cotton of Olathe Christian in Kansas. Here is a photo and story when Cotton and her school won the NACA title. Here is last season's game by game schedule of Olathe Christian (32-2) from MaxPreps. Cotton averaged 17 ppg (again from MaxPreps).

Olathe Christian is a school of 220 from preschool to 12th grade. Olathe Christian is not a member of the KSHSAA (their MSHSL). The equivalent schools in Minnesota would be along the lines of Rochester Faith Christian, Immanuel Lutheran in Mankato, Mountain Lake Christian, or Christian Life in Farmington. You haven't heard of these schools? They don't get a lot of publicity. Cassie Busse of Prior Lake Christian (another school way under the radar) went to the Gophers to play volleyball. She ended up to be an All American and is on the Olympic volleyball team. She was 6-3. Cotton is 5-8.

ITALY BOUND
The Gophers' women's basketball team is headed to Italy August 18-28.

UPTOWN YWCA RESULTS
Here are the results from the college league at the Uptown YWCA League
Anoka-Ramsey 48, UW Superior 42
Concordia St. Paul 56, The Mixx 43
MSU Gold 57, St. Thomas #2 42
Bethany Lutheran 66, Sweet Sensation 25
UW River Falls 30, St. Mary's 29
St. Benedict 52, Augsburg 46
St. Cloud State 77, St. Olaf 29
Hamline 62, Northern State 59

SCHEDULE
Ohio State has released their 2008-09 schedule.

FREAKONOMICS AND DRAFT REGRESSION
Here is an interesting story from the Freakonomics blog on the recent NBA draft and whether college stats explain their subsequent performance in the NBA. It is the age old question of numbers vs guts. Numbers wins. If it works for the NBA it can translate to the women's game.

CHEMISTRY, STRATEGY, & STAR DEPENDENT TEAMS
Rethinking basketball touches on all these topics in a look at the LA Sparks.

Next up: later today with the Week That Was (a day early)

Tiger Slam, Battle of the Hardwood Video, Hawaii Final

#1 posting 7.1.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

TOURNAMENTS
MISS BASKETBALL TIGER SLAM
IBCA Select won the Miss Basketball Showcase in Kearney last July, and the Dakota Showcase last weekend. This is their "Tiger Slam" as they won both Miss Basketball Events but not in the same year. (think Woods).
The Des Moines Register has a bit on the IBCA Select Dakota Showcase win along with MVP Katie Schechinger.

BATTLE OF THE HARDWOOD
The NC Heat-Metro Stars 17U title game from the Battle of the Hardwood tournament has been uploaded out. This is when Tayler Hill scored 13 points in a minute late in the game and when Katya Leick scored the game winner at the buzzer. Pull up a chair, the game lasts 1:06. Or you can pull the time bar to the late game heroics.

LUTHER TOURNAMENT
There were 3 teams that stood out during the day in the Luther Tournament Sunday. Neilsville WI, from central part of the state, was 4-0 on the day, they recently moved from class 2 to class 3 and have a nice veteran team.
MFL Mar-Mac finished the day at 3-1. They are the State runner up in Class 2A in Iowa last year and return all of their starters. They looked good most of the day and lost a close one in the last game to Decorah.
Waukon (class 3A in Iowa) also looked good going 3-1 on the day, their only loss came in the last game of the day vs Neilsville. They are a young team with a lot of speed and 5 or 6 really good athletes.

BREAKDOWN TOURNAMENTS
Here are the Breakdown winners so far this summer including all scores in all the tournaments.
The Rogers and Marshall tourneys have the following number of teams so far:
Rogers: 47 girls teams
Marshall: 15 girls teams
Rogers will be the largest single day HS tourney in the state.

HAWAII TOURNAMENT
Team North Dakota won the King Kamehameha Basketball Classic in Hawaii this past weekend. They beat Gulf Coast 56-54 in the final. From the Fargo Forum.

IRISH TRIP
Hailey Hyland, a 2006 Onalaska, Wisconsin grad, recently played with the UW Platteville team in Ireland. From the Onalaska Life.

Thanks to all the readers for their help in providing information.

Next up: more news

College Decisions, Badger 09 Preview, Sex Sells?

#2 posting 6.3.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

COLLEGE DECISIONS
Erin Morstad of Fergus Falls is headed to the College of St. Scholastica to play women's basketball. Right now she is competing in the state golf tournament. From the Fergus Falls Daily Journal.

Janelle Bagneski of Lake Mills is headed to Davenport University. Bagneski finished up her high school track career with a 3rd place finish in 1600 relay in the Wisconsin State Track meet. From the Watertown Daily Times.

2008-09 PREVIEW
The Wisconsin Badgers have some big shoes to fill with Jolene Anderson leaving. Here is their preview of the 2008-09 season.

NSADC CONFERENCE
Minnesota's Tanisha Smith took part of the National Student-Athlete Development Conference in Orlando and blogs about the experience.

ST. THOMAS TO BRAZIL
St. Thomas women's basketball team is headed to Brazil on August 11.

RANDALL IN AFGHANISTAN
New Ohio women's basketball coach Semeka Randall blogs about her first two days on a trip to Afghanistan.

SEX SELLS?
Bob Sansevere the St. Paul Pioneer Press does a Q&A with Minnesota professor Mary Jo Kane on the portrayal of women athletes in the media. Pay attention to question 3.

Next up: even more news reports

2 Coaching Hires, Emerald Isle, Six Rivers

#1 posting 5.21.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

COACHING NEWS
Mike Torgerson will be the new girls basketball coach at Littlefork-Big Falls. From the International Falls Journal.

Patrick Touhey has been hired as the Niles, Michigan girls basketball coach. From the Niles Daily Star.

SPRING TRIPS
The UW Platteville women's basketball team is traveling with the men's team to Ireland. Here is day 1 and day 2 in the Emerald Isle.

AWARDS
Lynn Messer has been named Dickinson Female Athlete of the Year.

ALL STAR GAME
The Six River All Star game in Wisconsin will take place on June 27 at Black Hawk high school at South Wayne, Wisconsin. From the Dubuque Telegraph Herald.

Next up; later today with 17U MYAS semifinal between Southern Minne Magic and the Minnesota Lakers.