- Good Morning NAIA Hoops Nation! As we gear up for the final month of the season, conference races are starting to heat up, so as you probably have noticed on Twitter, we are trying to keep you posted not just for the teams that are atop the conference standings, but for those teams who are battling it out for a playoff spot as well.
- Before we get into our recaps though, I want to talk about Coach Kelly Wells from Pikeville, who announced yesterday that this will be his last season as head coach, so that he can be full time Director of Athletics at UPike. Coach Wells will leave as one of the greatest coaches in NAIA History. Here are a few of his accomplishments during his coaching career:
- Won a KHSAA High School State Championship in 2003
- 2x High School Coach of The Year
- Won NAIA National Title in 2011 (National Coach of the Year)
- 328 wins so far at UPike
- All Time Wins Leader at UPike
- Best Winning Percentage in UPike history
- 24 All-Americans
- 2 NAIA Players of The Year
- 34 All Mid-South Conference Honorees
- Coach Wells has had a heck of a career, and will be missed on the sidelines. My early bet on who replaces him is assistant coach, Tigh Compton. Tigh has worked hard and been on staff now for 11 years. He pounds the recruiting trails, and has helped to bring in a lot of the good talent that UPike has seen over the years. Would love to see him get his shot! Either way, Coach Wells will be hard to replace, and will go down as one of the best coaches of all time!
- Shifting over to our game recaps from last night, there wasn’t much action in NAIA DI, but we did get a Sooner Athletic Conference showdown between Science & Arts (OK) and #2 Mid-America Christian. MACU would cruise in this one as they set a new modern era win-streak with it’s 20th straight win. MACU used a 16-4 run a little past the midway point of the 1st half to blow the game open and take a 47-28 half time lead. USAO showed some fight though in the 2nd half, as they used their own run to close the gap to 68-57. MACU just was too much at home though, and pulled away for the 98-70 win. #2 MACU will have 1 day now to prep for a BIG Thursday matchup between them and #2 John Brown.
- On the DII front we wanted to make point of a big showdown in the Appalachian Athletic Conference between Milligan and RV Montreat as the AAC race is really heating up. Milligan was able to get some revenge though on their earlier defeat to Montreat, as Milligan came away with the 91-79 road win to move into 2nd place in the AAC. The win also moved them to just 1 game back of #19 Union.
- While there were several great matchups in the Crossroads League, we chose the #6 Mount Vernon Nazarene at #2 Indiana Wesleyan game as our circled game for the evening. IWU won this one 93-83 behind 34 points from All-American Kyle Mangas. IWU is playing as well as anyone in the country right now, as they won their 11th straight game. Life in the Crossroads never gets easier though, as they will now travel to #8 Marian on Saturday. MVNU will now head to play the defending national champs, Spring Arbor.
- Our last circled game of the evening was the River States battle that saw IU East knock off IU Southeast 81-73. All-American Bishop Smith had another great game as he scored 30 points to lead the way in the win. After a slow start to the year, the Red Wolves have now won four straight, and eight of their last nine games to stay tied for 1st place in the East Division of the River States Conference.
- Here is a great thread that is worth the read on Central Christian College Head Coach Tony Romero’s 7th grade son who dedicated his game yesterday to Kobe.
- We are working on something special for conference tournaments that should be out by the end of the weekend. We can’t share too much just yet, as someone seems to steal our ideas for their own blog, but it is turning out pretty sweet!
- Before we let you go about your day, make sure you listen to our friends @NAIABall Podcast that comes out later today! NAIA baseball is upon us, and we are pumped!!
