Going into the 2009-10 basketball seasons, I predicted that our men's team would build on their NAIA National Tournament birth last season by WINNING at least one of the GPAC Championships, either the regular season or the tournament, and return to Branson this coming March.
As we head into Christmas break, my predictions are looking very good as the team has only lost one game so far this season, they are currently undefeated at the Newman Flanagan Center, and as of this afternoon are ranked 10th in the national poll. Even though we lost guards Brett Ratcliff and Kelvin Adams, along with forward Derek Mechaelsen to graduation, the team has filled those gaps with sophomore guards Eric Rohe, and Ben Sitzmann step up after a year on the junior varsity, along with junior transfer Kyle Swanson, and freshman Micheal Collison adding height and strength under the basket to the roster. Along with the guys stepping up, returning starters Chase Vander Feen, Kyle Semprini have picked up where they left off last season. They are draining three-pointers left and right, and we'll have to see if they can break their own BCU records for three-pointers in a season.
As for the women's basketball squad, I really didn't expect anything special. The team was coming off a 13-18 season overall and 6-12 in the GPAC and I didn't really expect anything but minor improvement from that.
But I have never been more happy to admit I was WRONG. Mike Power's squad has exploded out of the gates with a 9-2 record overall and tied at #15 in the nation, which I might add is two spots higher than our crosstown rivals, and defending national champions, the Morningside Mustangs.
The Chargers' resurgence in women's basketball has a lot to do with newcomers Kela Cihak, Kylie Dilla, Britany Below, and Morgan Brown joining up with returning players Megan Salcedo, Christa Stewart, Michelle Determan, and last year's leading scorer Liz Grider.
While the basketball season is far from over, the Briar Cliff basketball as both of our teams appear to be contenders for National Tournament bids, but there is still a lot of work to do. We still have to face our traditional rivals Morningside and Northwestern twice, and are also looking at a rematch with the school that handed both BCU teams their first losses of the season, the Sioux Falls Cougars coming up in the next couple of months.
I'm DK, and that's the 411.
