No. 1 Pittsburg State at Northeastern State, 6 p.m. — The Gorillas begin their national-title defense on the road against Northeastern, which is playing its first MIAA game. Pittsburg State junior linebacker Nate Dreiling, a national player of the year candidate, enters his third year as a starter with 299 career tackles and is the reigning MIAA defensive player of the year. Northeastern quarterback Johnny Deaton threw for 2,520 yards and 26 touchdowns last year, but faces a secondary led by Keeston Terry, who started 10 games for Kansas last season.
Nebraska-Kearney at No. 20 Washburn, 6 p.m. — It’s the first MIAA game for Nebraska-Kearney. The Ichabods must try to replace Harlon Hill Trophy runner-up Dane Simoneau at quarterback with redshirt freshman Mitch Buhler, a Rossville product.
Fort Hays State at Emporia State, 7 p.m. — Emporia State quarterback Tyler Eckenrode is the top returning passer in the MIAA, and an All-American safety in senior Derek Lohmann. The biggest talk about the Hornets in training camp was a water-balloon fight that ended up on YouTube.
Other games
Truman at Southwest Baptist, 6 p.m.
Central Missouri at No. 18 Missouri Western, 6 p.m.
Missouri Southern at Central Oklahoma, 7 p.m.
East Central at No. 3 Northwest Missouri, 7 p.m.
KCAC
Southwestern at Northwestern (Iowa), 6 p.m. – Southwestern gets a tough test in its opener against No. 14 Northwestern, which went 9-2 last season. The Moundbuilders have two quarterback options in sophomore Brady May and senior Jordan Barrett, who has been an on-again, off-again starter since his freshman year but has battled injuries.
WELCOME TO MINNESOTA (PHOTO COURTESY DWIGHT NEIBLING)
The MIAA has shifted regions – going from the South Central region with the Texas-based Lone Star Conference to the Central region with the newly-formed Great American Conference and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
A pair of MIAA standouts signed free-agent contracts with NFL teams Tuesday – right after the lockout came to a close – and will be in camp with those teams within days.
And one of them’s a Wichitan.
Washburn wide receiver Joe Hastings, a Bishop Carroll product, signed with the San Francisco 49ers and will head to Santa Clara, Calif., for camp starting on Thursday. Hastings led the MIAA in receiving yards (1,546) and receptions (87) last season, setting his school’s single-season records for both. He had eight 100-yard games in 2010 and tied a Washburn single-game record with four touchdown catches against Nebraska-Omaha … a game in which he only played the first half.
Also signing on Tuesday was Fort Hays State wide receiver O.J. Murdock, who will start camp with the Tennessee Titans on Friday. Murdock set the single-season record for the Tigers this year with 1,290 receiving yards and holds the MIAA career record for yards per catch at 20.9.
I had the opportunity to speak with Emporia State hurdler Andrew Etheridge on Tuesday evening – Etheridge, a true freshman, won the 110-meter hurdles at the NCAA Division II Championships on Saturday in Turlock, Calif., with a time of 14.02 seconds, just 1/1oth of a second faster than the runner-up as the Hornets finished fourth as a team, their best finish in school history. Etheridge, who is 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds, also plays safety for the Hornets and is a Wichita Northwest grad.
Sunflower Slate: So what’s life been like since Saturday? Lots of pats on the back, I’m sure.
Andrew Etheridge: It’s been quite a few days and kind of crazy but well worth it.
SS: So you go out to California as the 17th seed … honestly, did you think you could win a national title?
AE: I have a lot of confidence in myself so I’m not going to say I thought I was going to lose … but I definitely didn’t think that I’d ran the type of race that I was capable of all year. And once I made it through the prelims and into the finals I narrowed my focus and kept re-watching my race from the prelims and critiquing what I was doing wrong.
SS: And you won. But not by much. Did you know you were the champ right away?
AE: I knew coming off the last hurdle that it was going to come down to that last sprint and I knew that I’d leaned pretty hard at the end … but I didn’t know that I’d won until my name came up on the board.
SS: Did you just go crazy or what?
AE: Well, yeah, I kind of threw my hands up and then I just hit the ground. I looked up in the stands and I could see my teammates yelling for me.
SS: Who did you call first to tell that you’d won?
AE: Well it was streaming online so my family and my girlfriend and a lot of my friends actually watched, so by the time I got back to my phone it had just completely blown up.
SS: I saw on Twitter that Chris Harper and a lot of other people were giving you shout-outs. Are you on there?
AE: I’m on there as @hurdleboy28 … I could see all the mentions and stuff and that was pretty cool.
SS: How did you celebrate when you got home?
AE: My mom threw me a barbeque yesterday. I’m headed back to Emporia tomorrow to start training for football.
SS: That’s not much of a break.
AE: (Laughing) No, it’s not. But I missed spring football so I’ve got some catching up to do. Right at the end of track season I could kind of feel myself getting back into that football mindset. Coach Higgins (ed. note – ESU football coach Garin Higgins) actually called to congratulate me after I won.
Wichita native and Arizona assistant Chance Lindley has been named the women’s basketball coach at Nebraska-Omaha. A month ago, kind of a big deal. Now? A huge deal, because the Mavericks are now a Division I basketball program. They announced the hiring on Saturday – just last month UNO dropped a bombshell on the MIAA by jetting to the D1 Summit League and dropping football and wrestling.
I talked to Lindley on Saturday afternoon, and he was … psyched. Can’t blame him. He’s 35 and he’s reached a major career goal.
“I’m a midwest guy so getting to come back home is a huge thrill,” Lindley said. “Honestly, this did happen for me a little sooner than I thought it would … I’m fortunate to have moved up so quickly.”
“We had strong interest in this position from coaches around the nation, and there were many strong candidates,” said UNO AD Trev Alberts in a statement. “In the end, we were impressed by Chance’s energy and passion as well as his proven track record as a head coach. We think he will be a significant asset in our transition to Division I.”
Lindley won a Region VI title at Barton CC in 2008 and came there after winning a Class 3A state title at Collegiate in 2006. He told me he’s going to aggressively pursue Jayhawk Conference and Wichita-area recruits. With that kind of background here and a Division I program to sell … he could make life hard on the three in-state schools pretty quickly.
Saturday, his phone was ringing off the hook with calls from well-wishers.
“It’s an exciting time,” Lindley said. “And it’s cool for me that people back home, where I grew up, get to hear about this and know what I’m doing. That’s huge for me.”
Interesting bit of hiring news today out of the MIAA today as Emporia State names Boise State assistant coach Shaun Vandiver as its new men’s basketball coach. For those of you who have been around these parts long enough, that name might be familiar because Vandiver helped lead Hutchinson Community College to a national championship in 1988 and then was a star player at Colorado for the next three years, earning Big Eight newcomer of the year honors his first season and All-Big Eight kudos the last two.
Vandiver was a first-round pick by Golden State in 1991, but never played in the NBA, instead spending nine seasons playing for some of the top-level clubs in Europe. He’s been back in the states coaching for the last 10 years, including stints as an assistant at Wyoming, Bowling Green State University, and Northern Colorado.
I just spoke with Vandiver a few minutes ago and he told me he’s already been on the phone recruiting today. Big props on that, because the Hornets will need it. ESU has been stuck in the middle of the pack in the MIAA the last couple of years, and with the MIAA reforming into what should be the premiere NCAA Division II conference in the country by expanding to 16 (er, 15 right now, but that’s another subject) teams. There’s no dominant men’s basketball program in this league, unlike some other sports. And at ESU, with the football team as bad as it has been, there’s an impetus on sports like baseball, softball and basketball performing at high levels. Helps make those ugly, ugly falls a little easier to deal with, I’d guess.
I’d hesitate to even say there is a hierarchy in the MIAA in men’s hoops because the teams at the top are so different from year to year. So it’s anybody’s game. What Vandiver has working for him is a massive network of connections plus his own experience as a player and a coach. What he’s got working against him is he’s never been a head coach before. Which can be a bigger deal then you think. I don’t care what level you’re at, once you become The Man things change. Check Tuesday’s Eagle for our article on the hiring.
I’m out.
TA
PS. One month away? Had to hit it right on the dot, I guess.
Washburn senior Logan Stutz became the first 4-time recipient of the MIAA’s player of the week award Monday, which means there’s no better time to give the senior from Kansas City his due here at Sunflower Slate. The brother of WSU center Garrett Stutz, he’s torn up the MIAA this year to the tune of 20.2 points and 6.9 rebounds per game and seems like a lock for All-MIAA honors and has a definite shot at being an All-American. The 6-foot-9, 225-pound senior played his freshman year at Butler Community College and, while he was a solid player his whole career, I don’t think anybody expected what he’s done this season. He’s been phenomenal.
Also, we’ve got the Turnpike Tussle tomorrow in Topeka. ESU vs. Washburn is always fun, and especially when there’s something on the line like this year — the Ichabods have a real shot at second in the MIAA if they can beat the Hornets and close out with a win over Lincoln.
Just looked at five years worth of MIAA football schedules – crazy to think that they’ll have 16 teams playing in 2012. Also got to speak with Pittsburg State coach Tim Beck for a little bit about the new look – he gave the MIAA props on what was going to be a very difficult task. Not everybody was going to be happy with this, but they did the best they could. What will most likely be the most controversial part of the new 16-team schedule, which starts in 2012, are the designated “rivalries” that have been assigned by the MIAA because of geography or … what the league says should be a “natural” rivalry. One cool thing I like that they’ve done is they’re having the rivalry game be the last of the regular season. That’s pretty neat.
Here’s a few thoughts on those “rivalries”:
Central Missouri-Nebraska Omaha – Shove this one down our throats and I guess eventually we’ll buy it. Until 2015, we don’t have a choice.
Central Oklahoma-Northeastern State - The two Oklahoma schools. Of course they have to play each other.
Emporia State-Washburn - Good choice. Now if either school could ever get good at football we’ll be good to go.
Fort Hays State-Nebraska Kearney - Yeah, they played in the RMAC against each other. Can you just see the powers-that-be high-fiving each other over the ingenuity? Good for them.
Lincoln-Southwest Baptist – Who cares.
Lindenwood-Truman – Who cares.
Missouri Southern-Pittsburg State - I turn this one over to Wayne Gilmore, who runs www.teamkong.net – a great PSU fan site … he posted this on Twitter Monday night: “it’s a proximity thing. Natural rival. Also now have “Sonic Trophy” competition b/w school overall athletics each yr” … enough said. My only thought is one of them is going to have to get good for it to mean anything at all in the scheme of things. Pitt State closer to that than Mo. Southern.
Missouri Western-NW Missouri - Missouri Western can go ahead and tell themselves they’re NW Missouri’s rivals. They’re not. When you don’t lose a conference game in five years nobody is your rival. Unimaginative.
On June 25, 2009, I was having a pretty good day, mainly because of a killer interview I’d done with former Butler and current Fort Hays State quarterback Mike Garrison. I knew it was killer not because of any great question I’d asked, but because Garrison opened up that day. I’d talked to him a few times before and it had been pretty standard. But on that day, for some reason, he let it fly. And I tricked out the post with some pics, a Disturbed video … made it look good.
I remember the post well only because I got some props for it. Our sports editor, Kirk Seminoff, sent me an e-mail and said he liked it. Fort Hays State SID Ryan Prickett did the same, and also linked it to FHSU’s site. It got decent traffic for a few days … and then it faded out of our daily reports and into Sunflower Slate history. Garrison played really great to good football the next couple of years and that was that.
Then a couple of months ago, something happened.
Our daily report that track hits to our blogs, stories, galleries and videos started to register the post was getting hits again. Between 60-80 per day. And it has never stopped. That is, in my estimation, close to 5,000 hits in the last two months. That’s a lot for my little blog.
And I have no idea why. Comments were closed on the post a long time ago, otherwise I’d just ask on the comment section. Is it because of the Disturbed video? Is it because Garrison, who is 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, is an NFL prospect? Is it because of former WVU president Mike Garrison?
This post is about as Encyclopedia Brown as I’m going to get. I’d really like to know what the deal is. If you have any idea, either comment below or shoot me an e-mail at tadame@wichitaeagle.com … until then, happy trails, and here’s a video of Garrison in action.
I’ll never understand why Butler coach Troy Morrell abandoned his kicking game in the national championship against Navarro. Neither will Grizzly fans. And then there was this disaster.
The MIAA became NCAA Division II’s superconferencemegasupreme by expanding to 16 teams, bringing two Oklahoma schools into the fold in Central Oklahoma and Northeastern State along with Lindenwood (Mo.) and Nebraska-Kearney.
It starts with football, where an undefeated McPherson team lost in the first round, but it extends to every other sport, where postseason success is a mythical thing in this conference. Thanks to the KCAC’s Sports Regulation Initiative – an effort to bring the KCAC up to level with the rest of the NAIA – these postseason problems should be a thing of the past. Just one of many steps forward the league is taking behind KCAC commish Scott Crawford, who has done a lot for this league in just a short time in office.
It was the worst year for D2 football in Kansas that I can remember. Not one of our four teams was at all competitive in the MIAA, and that’s with WU as a preseason top 10 team in the nation.
It was a down year for Region VI basketball, sure, but the Grizzlies were still fun to watch because of how well they played the game and because you knew Mike Bargen had put together the team the right way.
Jaime Green brought a Region VI title to Labette Community College in women’s basketball and then got them to 3rd in the NJCAA Tournament. Parsons, my friends, is not an easy place to win. Newman AD Vic Trilli scored big when he landed her to come take over his program.
The Jayhawk Conference got a double dose of tragedy in June, when former Garden City Community College defensive end Brett Spresser and Hutch CC outfielder Sean Banks both died in accidents at grain elevators in Kansas. Don’t know what else to say about this other than it sucked and their deaths left a big hole in a lot of peoples’ lives.
Former Fort Scott Community College defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul spent one year at South Florida and then was the No. 15 pick in the 2010 NFL Draft by the NY Giants. I think it’s the start of a trend – the talent coming out of the Jayhawk is skyrocketing and the NFL Draft is going to be dotted with these kids in the near future.
If I missed something, just let me know.
Now …
THE FUTURE
Just a few things to keep an eye out for in 2011 …
Steve Eck and his Blue Dragons - Hutchinson men’s basketball coach Steve Eck may have put together one of his best teams, ever, and he seems like he’s got a great shot at winning his first Region VI title and second JuCo national championship.
Estadio de Butler – Ground should break on the long-awaited football stadium for Butler Community College. And it’ll be a dandy. Should begin playing games there in 2012.
Clarence - Ottawa wide receiver Clarence Anderson will be a senior this fall, and he’s put up over 2,000 yards of all-purpose yards the last two years. His final act will be one to remember.
What will Newman do? – Newman is a terrible fit for the Heartland Conference, if only because it is completely disconnected from the rest of the schools in its league geographically. On the outside looking in at the MIAA, I think they need to come up with some type of long-term plan.
On a personal note, I got this beat and this blog late in 2008. If you’ve been coming here since the beginning or this is your first time … thank you. You rock.
