The 2021-22 season is already turning the calendar to its third full week, putting plenty of concrete plot lines on the table after an offseason of projections and speculation. Here are five players and story lines to keep an eye on after a number of impressive starts throughout the Summit League.
Freshmen come out firing for South Dakota State. There’s been little adjustment period for two Jackrabbit freshmen.
Paige Meyer and
Haleigh Timmer are off to fast starts to their respective college careers, which has been all the more important as SDSU was without preseason Player of the Year
Myah Selland for the season’s first five games. Meyer has been stuffing stats up and down the court, leading the team in scoring (11.7 ppg) and assists (4.0 apg), while trailing only
Paiton Burckhard in rebounding (4.6 rpg). Her all-around effort (10 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds) was part of the team’s balanced approach that toppled No. 15 UCLA on Saturday and gave the Jackrabbits a banner win amid a tough early schedule. For her part, Timmer was in foul trouble against the Bruins, but has been a valuable contributor (7.4 ppg, 3.9 rpg) early in her SDSU career, largely off the bench.
Roos new-look frontcourt performing at all-league levels. Jacie Hoyt has deployed a small but mighty rotation thus far, and it’s been a pair of newcomers down low along with star guard
Naomie Alnatas that have helped Kansas City to a 6-1 start.
Brooklyn McDavid has flourished after transferring from Pacific (14.1 ppg, 6.4 rpg) and had a mammoth 29-point outing in the Roos win over Grand Canyon, a team that received a first place vote in the WAC preseason poll. She’s not been alone as
Kiara Bradley’s Kansas City area relocation has gone just as well. The Division II transfer from nearby William Jewell has averaged a near double double (9.1 ppg, 8.4 rpg) and along with McDavid, has helped the Roos post the 32nd best total rebounding rate in the country per
HerHoopsStats.com. This was an area the team struggled in a year ago, and Hoyt must surely be feeling better about her team’s ability to compete on the glass as conference play looms.
Danni Nichols propels Western Illinois. The Leathernecks are off to a 5-2 start, in no small part because of
Danni Nichols. The senior guard has been aggressive to begin the season, getting to the free throw line at the highest rate of her four-year career, and rarely missing (83.9% FT) while there. She’s averaging a team-high 16.3 points per game and scored 15 crucial points in the Leathernecks low-scoring win at Tarleton State on Saturday. Overall, the floor has widened for Nichols with blistering shooting starts from a pair of sophomore guards.
Mallory McDermott and
Anna Deets are both shooting north of 37.5 percent from distance on the season, and both tossed in four three-pointers apiece in WIU’s win at Butler, a Big East triumph that kickstarted their current winning streak.
Ryan Cobbins pacing the Bison. It’s been a tremendous start for
Ryan Cobbins in Fargo. The North Dakota State junior has scored 14.8 points per game in the Bison’s five outings against Division I competition, and added another 12 in their win over Dickinson State. Those are career-high scoring figures for the Kansas City, Kan. native and are fueled in large part by a sizzling start from the perimeter (11-17 3FG), which is all the more notable as Cobbins had already made strides as a three-point shooter from her freshman to sophomore seasons. The junior wing was at the heart of an early surge in the Bison’s season-opening win at Milwaukee as a playmaker and scorer, and her career start has given NDSU a formidable offensive duo along with
Heaven Hamling (14.0 ppg, 40.0 3P%).
A career night in the Mile High City. “She was just phenomenal, at one point I didn’t even want to sub her out,” Doshia Woods
told the Denver broadcast after the Pioneers win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Saturday. The DU coach was talking about Anna Jackson, and had good reason. The senior guard poured in a program-record 36 points against the Islanders, and tied another record by hitting 10 three pointers. As a team, the Pioneers set another program milestone in hitting 19 long-distance shots, sliding right into the style of play that Woods expects in her attack-minded offense. The win gave DU its first over a Division I opponent this year, and though the Pioneers fell to Wyoming the next day, now head off on a two-game California road trip with that confidence builder in their back pocket.
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