The Wednesday Word 2.17.10

by Allan Lewis,  Alestle Sports Editor

Allan Lewis, Alestle Sports Editor

Hey, how’s it going?

Not a whole lot to talk about this week, so upside down smiley faces across the board if you were expecting 3 billion words again. It’s probably not going to happen because there wasn’t much basketball this week aside from the women’s big win against Oakland City in their sweet pink uniforms. But we’ll see how it goes; we play other sports, too, and I might get carried away.

First off, I am going to plug some work I did earlier in the week for the mid-majority, while the website’s author, Kyle Whelliston (a.k.a total badass blogging/journalism role model I met once)  is taking a break from college basketball to cover the Olympics. Basically, he asked readers to submit essays on their non-power conference schools and why they are important to the world of college basketball, so here is my little rant in convenient link form – (my school – SIU Edwardsville)

I am interested to hear any fan stories you may have as basketball season winds down, so if you are one of those die-hards, share your experiences in comment form, or something.

End of self plug.

The big question I have right now in SIUE athletics goes something like this. Is it time for the softball team to panic?

Now, not so fast, the Cougars have only played three games this year, but they sit at 1-2. I wrote last week about this team’s youth potentially being a stumbling block as the season plays out, and while Sandy Montgomery isn’t going to hold any excuses and likely expects another 40 win campaign, it isn’t looking like the Cougars will be crashing the national rankings anytime soon, but that can change.

Here’s why youth could squander a big year: we have seen it before.

Look no further than SIUE volleyball. The Cougars were a .500 team their first year against D-I competition, which is very impressive for a team built during a D-II era. They lost two key contributors from that team to graduation, and had to start all over. Instead of a proven record-setting setter in Mallory Clements, they had to go with a platoon of freshmen. They won three games.

The softball team graduated it’s big gun on the mound in Caitlin Colosimo, as well as a few starting position players.

Not everything is doom and gloom, because Erika Taylor fills the ace role nicely. If she can lead the front-end of the rotation and keep putting her numbers from last year up, which she has done this season with a two-hitter against Western Kentucky everything will be fine from that perspective, the other two pitchers still have to be relied on to provide innings and outs, something they did not do against Samford, with Ali Downing giving up seven runs (five earned) in six innings, and Lindsey Coleman giving up three in her lone inning of work. There is no question about Taylor leading the staff, but she needs help.

Run production throughout the first three games has been at a premium, and this is where SIUE could run into trouble down the road. The Cougars offense produced just one hit in their 4-2 loss to Lipscomb and managed one run in their shutout win over WKU.

It is going to come down to offense and defense for SIUE, and again, it’s too early to tell anything. Lots of games left to be played and plenty of time to grow and make ammends.

We will see.

Other than softball, there isn’t a ton to talk about with SIUE sports. The first pitch of baseball season is Friday. Men’s basketball breaks out a 10-day break that seems like it has been going on forever to play North Dakota again Thursday, hopefully having learned from their mistakes, and the women beat Oakland City, as I mentioned, which really isn’t worth any analysis in victory, as the MIGHTY Oaks are a mediocre at best D-II school and we were a heavily over-matched opponent. I will say this though, it is nice to see new faces and the younger players continually stepping up and providing big numbers for SIUE, with Courtney Kenner scoring 21 in the game.

Told you today was going to be brief.

Let’s step off campus and have a few random thoughts on the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics:

1. The Olympics are awesome.
2. The U.S. Men’s hockey team got underway in preliminary play Tuesday, with a 3-1 win over Switzerland. I’m happy with the way St. Louis Blues property David Backes scored, and Eric Johnson played solid on defense and find it hard to be cheering for Patrick Kane of my hated Blackhawks, but it’s all in the name of the red, white and blue.
3. Women’s hockey – Draw teams out of a hat for the bronze game and just play U.S.A vs. Canada for gold tomorrow and stop wasting our time. I’m already sick of 18-1 and 13-0 bloodbaths already. This isn’t hockey, this isn’t fair. I want U.S.A/Canada NOW!
4. Figure skating – Seriously, I have no idea who is winning or how you lose unless you fall flat on your ass. These athletes are phenomenal, with how they toss each other around like beanbags and catch them and do all this crazy stuff I couldn’t do on dry land.
5. Curling – Fun to watch, er, i guess, but still don’t get it.
6. Ski Jumping – The most dangerous thing ever invented, yet awesome.
7. Luge/Bobsled/Skeleton – Some of the most exciting Olympic action out there, and something I would love to do once in my life. It is sad to note however, the story of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritisvilli and his fatal crash. The guy was living his dream of becoming an Olympic athlete, and you never want to see anything like that happen. Ever. Goes to show how dangerous this sport really is.
8. Cross Country skiing sucks, but biathlon is awesome. Adding a sniper rifle automatically makes skiing long flat distances exciting.
9. Pacific Coliseum still exists?
10. It is 51 degrees in Vancouver. Way too balmy for summer Olympics. Bring them to St. Louis, Eh?

Speaking of St. Louis, watch out for Saint Louis University as the college basketball season winds down. The Bills have four straight wins, an aussie import, a great point guard and a spot on the bubble as we head towards March. At 16-8 coming out of the always tough Atlantic Ten, it wouldn’t surprise me if they make the dance. Their win over Joe Pott’s Dayton Flyers on Saturday was huge.

Lindenwood University is applying for membership with the NCAA and hoping to leave the NAIA for Division II. Apparently, they want to trade land for the Family Arena in St. Charles as a home venue. Good for them I guess.

Congratulations today go out to the SIUE Gold hockey team, qualifying for the MACHA playoffs, with an 11-3-1-1 record. They open up quarterfinal play Friday with who else? Saint Louis University in Peoria.

That just about wraps up this abbreviated edition of the Word.

May the “power of e” be with you all.