2006-2007 Women’s Basketball Preview

BILLINGS, MT – Nobody would blame the Montana State-Billings women’s basketball team for being anxious to start the season.  It would be easy to think that Coach Kevin Woodin’s Lady Yellowjackets would be eager to erase the bitter taste of last year’s first round loss in the Heartland Conference playoffs.  However, Woodin says the new season will bring a fresh start with no looking back.

“I think at the beginning of the year you have to wipe the slate clean, whether you end the previous season on a positive note or happen to struggle at the end.  Last year we started slow then gained some momentum.  Sure it was disappointing to lose a home playoff game, but we’re going to move on.  I expect our team to improve throughout the year, and our goal is to advance to the NCAA Regional Tournament.”

MSU Billings was the top seed in last year’s conference playoffs after posting a 9-3 regular season conference record.  But an 80-71 home loss to fourth-seeded Oklahoma Panhandle State in the Heartland playoffs eliminated any chances the Yellowjackets had of reaching the NCAA Tournament for the eleventh time. 

In 2006-2007 Woodin will face the first reloading task of his three-year tenure after graduation claimed five players, including three starters.  Most notably missing will be perennial starters Lisa Jellum (point guard), Jenny Langford (shooting guard), and Tanya Petersen (forward).  Petersen and Langford finished their careers ranked tenth and twenty-first respectively in school history for points scored while Jellum holds the school career mark for free throw percentage.

Despite the losses, the Yellowjackets won’t be completely starting from scratch.  They will build around senior forward Michelle Lieber (Gillette, WY), last year’s Heartland Conference co-player of the year.  Lieber led the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 15.6 points and 10.2 rebounds a game.  She was second in the nation for field goal percentage (67.1) and seventeenth for rebounding average.  Lieber should also benefit from the addition of assistant coach Natalie Visger, one of the Lady Jackets’ best power forwards in recent years who just recently completed her third professional season in Europe.

“Michelle is going to play a major factor,” Woodin says.  “She’s the best returning post player in the conference; she was voted by the other coaches as the co-player of the year.  I thought we really saw a more complete player in her last year.  She was always a great defender and rebounder, but she became much more offensive minded.  One of Michelle’s tasks this year will be to become a more vocal leader for her team.”

Two of the Jackets’ three double figures scorers will return for ’06-’07.  Joining Lieber is sophomore guard Alira Carpenter (Lewistown, MT) who averaged 11.7 points a game in her rookie campaign.  Carpenter made an immediate impact as a freshman, starting 23 of 27 games.  She led the Heartland Conference in 3-point percentage and ranked twelfth in the league for scoring.

“From the time Alira stepped in as a starter last year, she really played consistently,” Woodin says.  “She was a solid scorer and shot a good percentage.  This year I need her to increase her offensive repertoire.  She has to be better off the dribble, and she has to continue to get better defensively.”

Despite having five seniors on the squad last year, the supporting cast of primarily underclassmen gained plenty of experience.  Along with Carpenter, freshmen Jen Smith (Belgrade, MT) and Kayla McPherson (Glendive, MT) saw action in 27 and 26 games respectively.  Smith provided a defensive presence in the post, averaging almost 13 minutes a game off the bench.  McPherson was an instant scoring threat, knocking down 20 3-pointers and shooting 40 percent from behind the arc.

“Jen was a pleasant surprise for us last year,” Woodin says.  “She’s undersized for a post player, but she’s a true competitor.  I look for her to improve.  Kayla will be a lot more comfortable this year.  Last year she had to practice a lot in the post.  This year she’ll concentrate on her natural wing position, and I think that will help her.”

Adding more experience to the lineup will be senior guard Jennifer Skrifvars (Brea, CA).  She has played in 82 games in her three-year career.  Known for her perimeter defense, Skrifvars averaged just less than 13 minutes a game off the bench last year. 

“Jennifer had a stronger second half of the season last year,” says Woodin.  “She does a lot of things well.  She’s a slasher on offense, and she’s a very good defender.  Being a senior guard definitely puts her into a leadership role.  I’m expecting her to have her best season as a Yellowjacket.”

Unlike last season when the newcomers were able to ease into the lineup, there will have to be early contributions from the new players in ’06-’07.  Lieber and Carpenter are the only two returning players who started any games last year, and just five returning players saw the court in more than 15 games.

The most urgent hole that needs to be filled is at the point, where Jellum spent the last two seasons as Woodin’s floor leader.  In fact, the Jackets’ top three assists leaders from last year (Jellum, Petersen, and Langford) are all gone.  Skrifvars could step into the point, or it could fall to one of the younger players.

Rachel Hansen (Lolo, MT), who redshirted last season, had experience at the point in high school.  Sophomore Jetton Meadors (Billings, MT) saw limited action in 15 games last season, but most of her 4.7 minutes per game were at the point.  Woodin also added Shantell Marquis (Cascade, MT), a versatile 5-10 guard from C.M. Russell High School.

“A big key to our team’s success this year will be the point guard position,” says Woodin.  “Before the season I don’t know if there will be one or two players who take that position by storm, or if we’re going to play it by committee.  Jennifer Skrifvars could play a 1-3 combination.   I’m expecting a big step from Jetton.  We tried to bring her along in practice last year, and I like the way she has worked in the off season.  I think she has the necessary skills to be a successful point guard.  Rachel is a versatile guard.  We’re still experimenting as to which is her best position.  She can play one, two or three.  Shantell is very athletic and competitive.  She played some point in high school.  I look for her to play any of the three guard positions.  She gives us a guard with size that has the athleticism to become a stopper on the perimeter.  I expect her to make a push for playing time right away.”

Hansen and Marquis are the only guards that will be new to the lineup this year.  The rest of Woodin’s recruits are forwards and centers.  Laura Beach (Baker, MT) is a 6-2 all-state player from Baker High School who Woodin believes will continue the tradition of great post players at MSU Billings.  Joining Beach as incoming freshmen will be Dani Henderson, a 6-0 forward from Reed Point, and Mandy Jacobs, a 5-10 forward from Shepherd.  Jacobs will redshirt after having knee surgery in January.

“I’m very excited about the four players we brought in,” Woodin says.  “We definitely needed size, and we achieved that with Laura and Dani.  They give us the size we needed, but they’re also very athletic.  I think each of them will play prominently in our future.  Dani will fit in the four position when Michelle is playing the five, and we will experiment with her on the perimeter.  Her outstanding passing ability will help us immediately.  Laura will play the five spot when Michelle is at the four.”

The Jackets are playing their last season in the Heartland Conference.  Next year they’ll move to the ultra-competitive Great Northwest Athletic Conference, which placed four teams in the NCAA Tournament last season.  In comparison, only the Heartland Conference’s league champion qualified for the Big Dance last year, and that team was the No. 8 seed in the South Central Regional.  The reason for the weak representation at the NCAA Tourney was the weak strength of schedule in the Heartland.  The bottom three teams in the league last year had a combined record of 15-62.

So, this year Woodin has scheduled another strong non-conference slate to counterbalance the potential pitfalls of playing each Heartland team three times.  Last year’s combined record of the nine potential NCAA non-conference opponents was 153-109.  (The Yellowjackets will play eight of them with one team to be determined by results at the Holiday Grand Montana/Chinook Wireless Yellowjacket Classic.) 

After an exhibition schedule that will include Montana State, Montana, and Rocky Mountain, the Yellowjackets open the 2006-2007 schedule at home on November 17 with the second annual Holiday Inn Grand Montana/Chinook Wireless Yellowjacket Classic.  The opening game of the tourney will pit North Dakota (34-1) against Metro State (18-9).  The Yellowjackets will play the nightcap against Western Oregon (0-27).  The first night’s losers will meet on Saturday at 5:00 with the winners playing in the championship game at 7:30.

The Yellowjackets will play the first of six NAIA games on November 28 when they host Rocky Mountain.  They will kick off the road schedule just two days later with a tough trip to Missouri to face Northwest Missouri State (22-10) and Missouri Western State (19-10), both important in-region games.

“I definitely believe in playing a strong early season schedule,” Woodin says.  “I think you can learn more from a tough November loss than you can from a 35-point win.  I’m not afraid to challenge our team to play tough teams.  Early this year we play two new in-region opponents in Northwest Missouri State and Missouri Western State.  They were both very good teams last year.”

Following the trip to the Show Me State, the Jackets return home to host Montana State-Northern on December 6.  They’ll round out their non-conference schedule at St. Martin’s (9-18) on December 9, at home against University of Mary (23-7) on December 15, and at the Hoop N’ Surf Classic in Honolulu on December 19 and 20.  In Hawaii the Jackets will face South Central Region teams Abilene Christian (12-15) and Missouri Southern (16-12).

“With our 15-game schedule against conference teams plus the games against Northwest Missoui State and Missouri Western State, we had 17 in-region games,” says Woodin.  “We still needed at least one more to reach the NCAA minimum of 18, so that’s the reason we’re going to Hawaii for the Hoop N’ Surf Classic.  We’re able to pick up two region games against Abilene Christian and Missouri Southern.”

The Yellowjackets’ Heartland Conference schedule opens with the team that knocked them out of the conference playoffs last year.  MSUB will play host to Oklahoma Panhandle State on December 30, and the Aggies will undoubtedly come to Billings believing they can win in Alterowitz. 

The New Year will get rolling with three home games between January 4 and January 7.  The week starts with Texas A&M-International visiting Billings for the first, and probably last time.  The Dustdevils are an NAIA school moving up to Division II to join the Heartland.  The Yellowjackets will have to play them twice as well as University of Texas-Permian Basin twice this year.  Unfortunately, all four of those games will be NAIA counters. 

Following the game against TAMUI, the Yellowjackets will host St. Edward’s on January 6 and 7.  Both teams were 9-3 in conference regular season play last year, but both were upset in the opening round of the Heartland Conference playoffs.

The following week the Yellowjackets will make a brutal three-game road trip to places in Oklahoma and Texas that are far from easy to get to.  They will play at Oklahoma Panhandle State in Goodwell, OK, on January 12 and 13 before traveling to Odessa, TX, to face Texas-Permian Basin on January 15.  The Jackets will return from that trip just in time for the start of their spring semester classes.

The schedule makers were not especially kind to the Yellowjackets down the home stretch of the conference schedule.  They will host four games between January 20 and 28 and play at home just once the entire month of February.  Three of the four home games will count in the conference standings, beginning with a January 20 date against Lincoln.  On January 24 the Yellowjackets face St. Mary’s, the defending Heartland Conference champion.  The conference home schedule wraps up on January 27 against Incarnate Word, although the Jackets and Cardinals will meet in a non-conference game on the 28^th.

In February the Yellowjackets will have to make three different flights south for Heartland Conference games.  They will be at Lincoln on February 2 and 3, at St. Mary’s on February 8 and 12, and at Incarnate Word on February 10.  After making a one-game stop back in Billings to face Texas-Permian Basin on February 17, the Jackets hit the skies again to play at Texas A&M-International on February 22 and at St. Edward’s on February 24.

As it was last year, the Heartland Conference title will be determined by a postseason playoff at the beginning of March.  The winner of that playoff will receive an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

According to Woodin, “I think the Heartland Conference race will again be a very exciting one.  Only two games decided first to fourth places a year ago, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it was like that again.  St. Mary’s has to be considered the early favorite based on the fact they won the tournament championship last year and they return several key players.  Last year they played their best basketball at tourney time, and that is what you have to do in order to advance.  St. Edward’s lost co-player of the year Jennifer Knight, but Coach White still has a solid nucleus back.  Both Oklahoma Panhandle and Incarnate Word were very young, and they return a lot of key players.  Lincoln University improved steadily last season, and I look for them to be even better this year.

“In addition, I do believe we will be in the thick of the conference race, too.  With a relatively inexperienced and youthful team, I am sure we will have growing pains, but I think we have the talent to be successful.  It is crucial that we continue to improve throughout the year.  When the Heartland Conference playoffs begin, hopefully we are still playing and we have established ourselves as a title contender.”