Yellowjacket Basketball Seasons Just Around the Corner (Nov. 2, 2004)

BILLINGS, MT – The turning of the calendar to November means that the NCAA basketball season is quickly approaching.  At Montana State University-Billings, both the men’s and women’s teams have been practicing for about two weeks with just less than three weeks remaining before their first games.

Yellowjacket fans will see a steady dose of home games in 2004-2005.  From the second week in November to the end of February—nearly four full months—there are only two weeks on the calendar that will not include a Yellowjacket basketball game at Alterowitz Gymnasium.  In all, the Yellowjacket men will play at Alterowitz 20 times with one scrimmage, one exhibition and 18 official contests.  The Lady Jackets play at home 17 times including a scrimmage, an exhibition and 15 games.

For fans who follow both the Yellowjackets and Lady Yellowjackets, there will be ten home men/women doubleheader dates in 2004-2005.  Two of those dates will be for scrimmages or exhibitions and eight will be for official contests.  The first doubleheader will be for the Blue-Gold Scrimmages on November 13.  The women tip off at 6:00 p.m. followed by the men at 8:00.  The official opening night—November 20—will also be a doubleheader with the women opening against Western Washington and the men hosting Minot State.

Yellowjacket Men

The Yellowjackets will feature a host of new faces in a very familiar system.  Head coach Craig Carse enters his tenth season at the helm with only four returning players that have seen action in a Yellowjacket uniform.  He opened training camp with fourteen on the roster and is optimistic about several of the new recruits.

Despite the revamped roster, Carse will employ the same up-tempo system that has been the Yellowjackets’ trademark for the past nine seasons.  The Yellowjackets led the nation in 3-point field goals again last year (12.4 per game), the sixth time since 1997.  They were also fourth in the nation for scoring (93.1 ppg).

Two of the Jackets’ top 3-point shooters from last year return as junior captains this season.  Cameron Munoz (Chino, CA) led the nation in 3-point shooting for much of last season before missing the final seven games with an injury.  He will enter the season ranked sixth in school history for career 3-pointers, needing 93 to move into second place.  In his first two seasons Munoz made 96 and 97 threes respectively.

Buddy Windy Boy (Lodge Grass, MT) was named the team captain in the off season after a breakout year last year.  He made 76 3-pointers, good enough to be ranked 45^th in the nation, and shot 38.4 percent from behind the arc, 58^th nationally.  After two seasons at MSU Billings, Windy Boy already ranks twelfth in school history with 117 career 3-pointers.

The remaining playing experience for the Jackets will come from senior Justin Hassell (Brooklyn, NY) and sophomore Jonathan Wiley (Westlake Village, CA).  Hassell redshirted last season after having surgery in the off season.  He played in all 27 games as a junior, averaging 13.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.  Wiley saw action in all 27 games last year as a true freshman, starting the final eight games of the year.  A solid defender, Wiley averaged 3.1 points per game and was second on the team with 17 blocked shots.

The list of new recruits for 2004-2005 is longer than last season’s final roster.  Because of injuries, the Yellowjackets only suited up eight players for several late season games in 2003-2004, including playing with just five at Hawaii-Hilo.  Nine new names are on the 2004-2005 roster along with redshirt freshman Jason Dembek (Winnett, MT).

Of the nine new players, five are freshman and four are transfers.  Carse’s recruiting class includes three from Montana, two from Arizona, one from Georgia, one from Washington, one from Australia, and one from Canada.  The Yellowjacket transfers are Kerington Youmans (So., Atlanta, GA), Braden Draggoo (Jr., Omak, WA), Cody Samuelson (So., Broadus, MT), and Wacy Weeks (Jr., Wolf Point, MT).  The freshmen are Lucas Walker (Launceston, Australia), Drew Arnold (Tempe, AZ), Jay Jamieson (Big Sandy, MT), Justin Ashbaugh (Scottsdale, AZ) and Brett Weese (Wilkie, Saskatchewan).

The Yellowjackets’ schedule includes the usual 15 Pacific West Conference games, with eight of them in Billings this year.  In a recent coaches poll, MSU Billings was picked to finish third behind 20^th-ranked BYU-Hawaii and Hawaii-Hilo.  The Jackets’ PacWest opener will be at Chaminade on January 4.  The conference home opener will be against BYU-Hawaii on January 18.

The non-conference schedule includes opponents ranging from Division I to NAIA.  The highlight of the non-conference schedule will be the Jackets’ January 11 trip to Brigham Young University in Provo to take on the D-I Cougars.  Also included on the schedule are Ohio Valley College, Chadron State, Northwest Nazarene, Saint Leo University, Haskell Indian Nations, Montana State-Northern, and Johnson & Wales.

Yellowjacket Women

The makeup of the Lady Yellowjackets will be the polar opposite of the men.  A familiar cast of players will return to anchor head coach Kevin Woodin’s first team.  Woodin was hired in July after guiding Billings West High School to back-to-back Class AA State Championships. 

Woodin inherits a solid core of talent that includes eight players who have seen action for the Lady Jackets.  That list includes last year’s “big three” of Robyn Milne (Sr., Richey, MT), Tanya Petersen (Jr., Billings, MT) and Jenny Langford (Jr., Reedpoint, MT). 

Milne was a second-team all-region selection last year as a junior.  She averaged a double-double of 14.4 points and 11.6 rebounds and ranked in the top ten in the nation for both rebounding and blocked shots.  On the career school record list, Milne ranks No. 23 for points scored (705), No. 4 for field goal percentage (52.9), No. 7 for rebounds (667), No. 3 for rebounds per game (8.8), and No. 2 for blocked shots (174).

Petersen was the Lady Jackets’ leading scorer last year at 15.0 points per game.  She had a breakout season, starting all 27 games and scoring in double figures 23 times.  One of the Yellowjackets’ best offensive threats, Petersen also blocked 35 shots to move into the top 10 in school history for career blocks.

Langford has been the Yellowjackets’ most effective outside shooting threat for the past two seasons.  She averaged 10.6 points per game last year, knocking down a team-high 68 3-pointers.  Langford ranked 18^th nationally for 3-pointers per game and 23^rd for 3-point field goal percentage.  Entering the 2004-2005 campaign, she ranks ninth in school history for career 3-pointers and fifth for career 3-point percentage.

Also returning in ’04-‘05 with game experience will be Kayla Frize (Jr., Miles City, MT), Lisa Jellum (Jr., Gillette, WY), Shannon Harvey (So., Billings, MT), Jennifer Skrifvars (So., Brea, CA), and Jessica Bratton (So., Casper, WY).  Frize is returning after missing much of the last two seasons with injuries.

Woodin also expects the Yellowjackets’ three newcomers to contribute significantly.  His most notable signing was Michelle Lieber (So., Gillette, WY) who transferred from University of Wyoming.  Last year she led the Cowgirls in rebounding, ranking eighth in the Mountain West Conference.  Lieber started every game as a true freshman, averaging 6.9 points and 6.6 rebounds.  Also transferring to MSU Billings are Colette Behrent (Fr., Columbus, MT) and Sami Walking Bear (Jr., Billings, MT).  Behrent redshirted at Weber State last year, and Walking Bear played at Casper JC.

The Lady Jackets have one of their best home schedules in recent years with 15 home dates.  Nine of those 15 home games will be West Region contests.  The Jackets will host West Region opponents Western Washington, Humboldt State (twice), St. Martin’s, Western New Mexico (twice), Western Oregon and Grand Canyon (twice).  MSU Billings will also have a home-and-home series with North Dakota State.