RAINEY NICKEL

So I’m back from my mid-week weekend. I went and saw “Notorious” — the Biggie biopic — Tuesday night at Northrock. I didn’t really like the way they glamorized his death and tried to make it seem like he resolved (amazingly) every conflict in his personal life right before he died. But when his mom says she wants to take his body back to Brooklyn after his funeral and somebody in the crowd plays Hypnotize … chills, dude.

But I digress.

Newman’s Rainey Nickel put on a show last week — a good enough performance to earn her Heartland Conference player of the week honors after the 5-foot-8 sophomore from Augusta hit for a career-high 28 points in a 74-61 win over Oklahoma Panhandle State last Thursday.

You can read about her exploits here thanks to the Newman SID and his staff of … wait I think he works by himself.

JC 3: STILL THE MAN

JACK CROWDER III

The No. 6-ranked Cowley College men bounced back pretty quickly from an upset loss to Coffeyville in Ark City, taking down No. 10 (DII) Johnson County 84-65, on the road. That’s impressive. What’s more impressive is the way that Jack Crowder III seems to put this team on his back when they need a lift. The Tigers improved to 6-1 in league play and 17-2 overall with the win and Crowder had 36 points/15 rebounds. This is very good. And I will end this on a question: If he’s not the Jayhawk East MVP, who is?

Coach Eck is gonna kill me for that one.

P.S.

The Hutch men beat No. 11 Barton on Wednesday — and 6-10 Blue Dragon big man Cliff Dixon had 17 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. And I thought I had the West figured out. Guess not.

STERLING HOOPS: WOMEN STAY PUT IN RANKINGS, MEN DROP

First off, Sterling freshman Megan Patrick is from Hutch Central Christian H.S., not Hutch High as previously reported. I went back and fixed the earlier post that mentioned Patrick, so all is well. But Sterling’s site still says she went to Hutch High. I’m just saying.

Anyways … the Sterling women stayed put at No. 7 in the latest NAIA DII rankings and the men’s team dropped one spot from 24 to 25.

MIAA ALL-AMERICANS

ALEX KUHLMAN

Do football awards ever stop? This one just came in: Don Hansen’s Football Gazette Division II All-Americans. I know that’s a mouthful. But he did put a bunch of Kansas MIAA guys on there — including a pair of second-team picks from Pitt State, OL Kendall Molz and DB Alex Kuhlman. That’s a big deal for Kuhlman, who is only a sophomore and will need to take on a leadership role next year. And they’re both Kansas natives, BTW. PSU RB Caleb Farabi was a third-team all-purpose selection, Fort Hays State DB CJ Lovett was an honorable mention pick, and PSU also put a trio on the HM team, FB Brandon Clark, LB Rusty Morgan and QB Mark Smith.

I think that’s about it.

I’m out. TA