Frontier Notebook: Jury still out on new Frontier schedule

Frontier Conference play is now going in earnest. And, while it seems like it just started, this winter is in the Frontier is going to fly by.

And one of the reasons for how fast and furious the league will be this season is the schedule. With the departure of Westminster to NCAA Division II, the league was left with just seven basketball members, and a scheduling quandary.

What league members chose to do was to bump the schedule up to 18 league games with each team in the conference playing each other three times. And that meant, some teams would get the luxury of playing certain teams twice at home. It's an usual schedule, and the other option was for the Frontier to go back to the 1980s schedule, when teams in the league played each other four times, and on back-to-back nights.

Of course, there is no way of knowing how the new Frontier schedule will affect certain teams, the league champion, seeding for the Frontier playoffs, or bids to the NAIA national tournament. But, there's no question it will have some effect on all of it, and in some coaches' minds, it probably won't be a positive effect either.

To give one an idea of how crazy the Frontier schedule is this season, the MSU-Northern Skylights and Lights are in the middle of a six-game home stand. And though they played UGF and Carroll just last weekend, when the six-game stretch is over, they'll start a six-game road trip, at UGF and Carroll, which means, Northern will have played the Fighting Saints and Argos twice in one month, and that's extremely unusual.

But again, the season needs to play itself out before the real nitpicking of the Frontier schedule can begin.

Wild Nights

Speaking of Carroll and UGF, on the women's side, last week was certainly topsy-turvy.

On Thursday night, the Argos came into the Armory Gymnasium as one of the most potent offensive teams in the NAIA, but the Skylights blew them out by 20 points. The next night, Carroll came to Havre on fresh legs, and edged the Skylights for the first time in Havre in four years.

But, things were nowhere near done for the weekend, and Saturday night in Great Falls, after UGF had had a day of rest, the Argos shocked the Saints, proving once again that Frontier women's basketball is really, really good.

And, the Argos are certainly really good. In fact, they have a player leading the league in four of the five major statistical categories. Nneka Nnadi leads the league in scoring at 18 points per game, Whitney George leads in the rebounds (8rpg) and blocks (3.2 bpg), and Stephanie McDonagh's two steals per game is also tops in the conference.

Way Back at Tech

It's always interesting when Northern and Montana Tech hook up on the basketball court. For one thing, both programs, men's and women's, are charter members of the Frontier, and both pride themselves on hard-nosed defense.

Also, in recent times, both of Northern's head coaches have deep roots at Montana Tech.

Shawn Huse was once a Frontier MVP for the Orediggers, as well as one of the school's all-time leading scorers. Huse also had a stint as an assistant coach at Tech. Montana Tech was also home to Chris Mouat for a stretch. The Skylights' head coach didn't play for the Orediggers, but, he too was an assistant coach there before heading off to coach at Rocky Mountain College, and eventually, here in Havre.

Of course, both head coaches now bleed Maroon and Yellow, and both will be doing all they can Friday night to beat the program they once coached for. Montana Tech also comes to Havre struggling, as the Oredigger women 1-4 in league play and 5-11 overall. The Oredigger men have yet to win a conference game, going 0-5, and 5-12 overall.

Still, anytime Northern and Tech meet up, it's usually a fierce battle, and neither the Lights or Skylights will be looking past the Orediggers on Friday night, especially with games against nationally ranked Lewis-Clark State Saturday night.

Frontier Honors

This past week's Frontier basketball awards were swept by LC State players.

LCSC's Cammie Lewis was named the Men's Player of the Week. The 5 -11 senior guard began the week with 13 points and seven rebounds in a 100-59 win over Rocky Mountain before netting 16 points while dishing out four assists and three steals in the 78-69 victory over Montana-Western.

LCSC's Caelyn Orlandi was named the Women's Player of the Week. The 5-9 junior scored a game-high 23 points with five assists while going 8-of-11 from the floor, 3-for-3 from long range and 4-of-4 at the line in the upset of RMC on Thursday night, before adding 18 points and eight assists in the 75-67 win over Montana Western. This is Orlandi's second award of the season.