Let the Allison Pohlman era begin, although of all the coaching changes this doesn't really feel like a change.

The women have a very interesting non-conference schedule once again, with home games with Creighton, South Dakota, Iowa State, Northern Illinois, and Minnesota. Road trips against Iowa and Nebraska will also be of interest.

Drake has been picked #2 in preseason polls for the conference season behind Missouri State.

For the roster, if you didn't know Maddie Monahan tied the knot over the offseason and is now Maddie Peterson. Maddie and Hannah Fuller are using the extra year of eligibility due to COVID to come back. Grace Berg is on the preseason mid-major player of the year watch list. Long term we also have 5 freshmen on the roster. I don't know how many if any are planning to redshirt this year, and transfers are always a possibility, but if they can grow together we could have a very exciting and powerful roster in a couple seasons.

Taylor McAully out for the season with undisclosed injury.

Anybody go to the exhibition against Grand View last night? How'd the team look compared to previous seasons?

I went to this one. Team looked solid. If you didn't know we were playing an NAIA team you would say we looked like we did in years past just at a slower tempo. That said, it's always hard to truly gauge anything from an exhibition game. Wednesday's season opener against Creighton will be the true test.

Too bad about Taylor, she seemed to be really coming into her role last year and showed flashes of brilliance while being a normally dependable, solid player. 

Creighton game tonight was a mixed bag. Came out firing on all cylinders and dominated in the paint. Maggie B. scored the first 6 points, then picked up an early foul. Freshman Miller stepped in and promptly went off for 15 pts in the first half. Continuing to pour in bunnies from down low and chipping in a 3 when no one came out to guard her. Blasted the Bluejay's in the opening quarter then stretched the lead through the second. Bluejays made some half time adjustments and absolutely handed it to the Dogs in the 3rd quarter. They shut down the paint to a large degree and it seemed Drake was still trying to force shots that just weren't there. Jays popped in a couple of quick 3's and the Dogs fired off a couple of quick, not very good 3's in an attempt to match them. They looked a bit rattled to me. 4th quarter was tight all the way. Tied up with 20 seconds left Katie D. drained a 3 with 2 seconds left on the clock. Freshman wanted the ball in her hands when the game was on the line -- great competitiveness. Of course the ball was in her hands because she was the point guard, but she drove and dished, then her defender fell down and the ball came back to her. She had the confidence to put it up and make the shot. Assists were high as we have become accustomed to, offense seemed a bit less uptempo (but far from slow) and produced fewer turnovers than have been the norm the past few years. Seems like a deliberate trade off to take slightly fewer risks for a bit more ball security.

Even though a couple of freshmen were significant contributors this team seemed quite mature. Lots of plays have a lot of time in the system between having the extra year and some redshirt seasons. They looked solid and have a ton of upside potential. Should be a fun season.

Well that was rough. We haven't seen a result like this in a while. While 1500 referees in the Knapp Center tonight were critical of officiating, you can't blame a 15 point loss (and the margin was 20-25 most of the night) on the refs.

From my seat, you had South Dakota very poised coming off playing the #1 team in the country last Friday while we were pretty sloppy in the first half. Better second half for sure and we actually won the 3rd & 4th quarters but too much to overcome. Our relatively young inexperienced team showed tonight. We'll learn from this and be better in the long run.

Not sure any team can come back giving up 29 points in the first quarter and they didn't look ready to play.  Played much better in the second half although the turnovers by Drake really thwarted any real comeback.  

I lost count of how many easy buckets were missed by the ladies in the 3rd quarter.   Missed a very good chance to get back into the game.  They showed lots of hustle in the 3rd and 4th quarters.  

BAN THE BALL SCREEN!!! BAN THE BALL SCREEN!! BAN THE BALL SCREEN!!

Another game tonight where the score doesn't tell the full story. Great first quarter before Iowa State's experience took over and won the game. Good things on the floor, Iowa State is #14 for a reason.

A couple questionable officiating calls for sure but officiating isn't to blame for a 22 point loss.

Next up Sunday at #8 Iowa. First road trip for our very young inexperienced team.

Iowa has cancelled their next 3 games, including Sunday's game against Drake, due to COVID.

https://godrakebulldogs.com/news/2021/11/19/womens-basketball-game-at-iowa-cancelled.aspx

A couple of the questionable calls were fouls on Maggie Bair which sent her to the bench for too much of the game.  She only played 12 minutes.  We sorely missed her scoring and rebounding.  

BAN THE BALL SCREEN!!! BAN THE BALL SCREEN!! BAN THE BALL SCREEN!!

What happened to the Drake/Iowa game? ESPN is showing it as cancelled. Covid?

Look 3 posts above yours.

Was hoping the turnover situation would improve with the coaching change. Nice to get a victory today against Nevada but still had 23 turnovers

Escape is more like it, 77-75 final. With 5 freshmen on the roster I'm expecting rough stats and no style points at this point.

San Francisco tomorrow.

What prompted the 2 technicals late in the 3rd quarter? Earlier in the game the radio guys said the SF coach was way out onto the floor during play, but wasn't even warned by the refs.

I just watched the replay on the MTN website. The commentary is impossible to hear, but best I can see on the replay SF committed an over-the-back that was ruled a flagrant 1 technical, then the coach argued with it leading to the second technical.

Bulldogs go 3-0 this weekend. Great to get 3 wins in 3 days.

Another win tonight. Looked like it might be a 101-100 final in the first half but Longwood burned out in the second half and Drake won.

Next game Tuesday against Simpson. Note this was originally a 11:00 AM tip, it's now a 6:00 PM tip. I'm assuming this was supposed to be the Pack the Knapp/Character Counts game and that didn't pan out this year.