First Defensive Player of the Year at JMU?

Nikki Newman, #30, a 6’ 2” Junior at James Madison University (JMU), plays for the women’s basketball team. Nikki is one of the three team captains; playing Guard and Forward. In her college career so far she has received many awards. In her 2009-2010 season as a freshman she received the JMU Athletic Director Scholar Athlete, JMU Team’s Most Improved Player Award, and was among CAA leaders in blocked shots (11th). In her sophomore season 2010-2011 Nikki again was among CAA leaders in blocked shots (10th), and rebounding (20th). She was also second on the team in steals and third in assists and blocked shots, and got the school record for games played by a sophomore (34/tied). More recently, her current season as a Junior 2011-2012 Nikki was named All-CAA Defensive Team of the Year, and named Conference (CAA) Defensive Player of the Year. She is the first player named Defensive Player of the Year in the schools history.

Recently, JMU’s Women’s Basketball team has been playing in the WNIT tournament. They are currently in the semifinals, they will play Syracuse on Wednesday the 27th. Now back to Newman; not long ago Nikki made a amazing shot from WAY behind the 3 point line, draining it! And is now a ECAC Play of the Week Nominee. There was 6 seconds on the clock and they were down by 3, and Nikki tied it up bringing JMU to Overtime. During Overtime JMU scored 14 points winning the game with 84-76 vs. Wake Forest.

~Jenny Vignola

From Champions to Shambles

The UConn Huskies men’s basketball team was the NCAA champions last year, but now it looks like they won’t even get a shot at the title. The former champs have not shown their talent this year as the team struggles to a 17-14 record.  The question has been tossed around frequently but I feel it is time to give an answer to the decision of if the UConn huskies should make the NCAA tournament.  They are a decent team I will give them that but since 2012 they have gone 5-11 almost putting their record below 50 %. You can say that the losses have occurred because they are playing without their head coach Jim Calhoun for multiple games due to his health issues.  However, even though I love UConn, and even though they have been at a disadvantage for most of the year, I still think they shouldn’t make it to the NCAA Tournament.

This is my decision because they can’t win big games.  A lot of people will argue that they are playing like a championship team but, if they were wouldn’t they be winning games?  Syracuse, Kentucky, and UNC play like top competitor teams. Let’s face it if UConn played one of them they would be destroyed, not to mention they lost to Syracuse 2 times already.  I believe making it to the NIT tournament will be good for UConn and they can work on their game for next year.  Alright you’ve heard my opinion, now leave yours below on whether UConn should be in the NCAA tournament or not.

~Chris Papa