Frontier Notebook: Frontier playoff races very tight

Two weeks, and four games is all that stands between Frontier Conference men’s and women’s basketball teams and the 2016 postseason. And it will certainly be a race to the finish line at the top of the stands.

But, the bottom of the Frontier standings has its own battle going on right now, and the pressure is certainly on due to changes in the format to the Frontier schedule, and the Frontier playoffs.

With Westminster College departing the league last summer, the move was made to go a six-team playoff to determine the Frontier’s postseason champion. That means, the top two teams at the end of the regular season will receive byes into the semifinal round, while the next four will battle it out in quarterfinal games.

Ultimately, that format means, that one men’s team and one women’s team won’t make the postseason playoffs, and that’s rough for those teams, considering everybody else gets to play beyond the regular season.

On the men’s side of things, the race to stay in the playoffs is very close. With two weeks to go in the season, Montana Tech is out at the moment with a 2-12 record in conference play. But, the Orediggers trail UGF (3-11) by just one game, and Montana State University-Northern (4-10) by just two games.

Tech still gets to play both the Lights and Argos in the final week of the regular season, while UGF and Northern will go at each other in a critical game Thursday night in Havre.

Montana Tech is also currently in last place in the women’s standings, as the Orediggers are 2-12 in league play. But, Tech’s arch rival, UM-Western is just one game in front of the Orediggers at 3-13, and those two teams will meet Saturday night in Butte, so things could get awfully interesting. With four games left, either Tech or Western could actually still catch Rocky Mountain College for fifth place, but, the Battlin’ Bears would have to lose all their remaining games for that to even be possible.

The Frontier playoffs begin March 1-2.

Polls

In the new NAIA Women’s Coaches Poll, the MSU-Northern women remained at No. 17 this week, which is a solid position for the Skylights to be in as far as an at-large berth in next month’s NAIA national tournament.

Northern has three games remaining against foes who are also in the Top 25, but all four of MSU-N’s final regular season games are at home. MSU-N plays 24th-ranked UGF on Thursday night and 15th-ranked Carroll on Friday night, as well as No. 11 Lewis-Clark State next Saturday.

On the men’s side, only Carroll and LC State continue to be ranked. The Warriors remained No. 3 in this week’s poll, while Carroll dipped two spots to No. 15.

Honors

For the second week in a row, and the fifth time this season, MSU-N junior Natalee Faupel was named the Frontier Conference Women’s Player of the Week.

Faupel averaged 25 points and six rebounds per game in the Skylights’ road split at UM-Western and RMC last week, and she poured in 30 points in the loss at Rocky Saturday night in Billings.

Western’s Dexter Williams Jr., also repeated as the Men’s Player of the Week. Williams Jr. is a 6-foot-4 senior forward from Jacksonville, Florida. Last week, Williams Jr. averaged 20.5 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, one blocked shot and four steals per game. He was 11-of-18 from the field (61 percent) and 19-of-25 from the free-throw-line (76 percent).

NAIA Women's Coaches Poll

Rn. Prv. W-L Pts.

1 1 Our Lady of the Lake 22 2 249

2 2 Westmont (Calif.) 22 3 240

3 5 Columbia (Mo.) (2) 25 1 235

4 3 Campbellsville (Ky.) 22 5 218

5 8 MidAmerica Nazarene 21 4 211

6 9 Vanguard (Calif.) 18 4 207

7 4 Bethel (Tenn.) 22 5 206

8 6 Lyon (Ark.) 22 3 204

9 7 Shawnee State (Ohio) 23 4 190

10 10 The Master's (Calif.) 22 3 184

11 12 Lewis-Clark State 21 4 170

12 11 Freed-Hardeman 19 6 156

13 14 Wayland Baptist 18 4 149

14 15 Talladega (Ala.) 21 3 147

15 13 Carroll (Mont.) 19 5 140

15 16 Central Methodist 22 2 140

17 17 MSU-Northern 19 6 111

18 18 Oklahoma City 13 7 106

19 20 Langston (Okla.) 17 4 103

20 21 Benedictine (Kan.) 22 4 101

21 19 Pikeville (Ky.) 20 5 98

22 22 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) 20 5 86

23 23 LSU Shreveport (La.) 17 6 73

24 24 Great Falls (Mont.) 18 8 68

25 25 Loyola (La.) 17 6 55

Others receiving votes: Xavier (La.) 45, Baker (Kan.) 37, Martin Methodist (Tenn.) 35, Auburn Montgomery (Ala.)30, Georgetown (Ky.) 10, Huston-Tillotson (Texas) 4, Culver-Stockton (Mo.) 3

NAIA Men's Coaches Poll

Rn. Prv. Rec. Pts.

1 1 LSU Alexandria (8) 23-2 219

2 2 Georgetown (Ky.) 23-3 209

3 3 Lewis-Clark State 24-2 206

4 4 Pikeville (Ky.) 23-3 197

5 6 Talladega (Ala.) 22-4 189

6 7 Hope International 22-4 183

7 8 Texas Wesleyan 21-4 175

8 5 Columbia (Mo.) 22-4 169

9 T9 Biola (Calif.) 24-3 162

10 T9 William Penn (Iowa) 21-5 161

11 12 Langston (Okla.) 19-5 144

12 14 Freed-Hardeman 20-5 140

13 11 Mid-America Christ 20-6 137

14 15 William Carey (Miss.) 18-8 124

15 13 Carroll (Mont.) 18-6 121

16 17 MidAmerica Naz. (Kan.) 20-6 118

17 19 Arizona Christian 20-5 104

18 18 Peru State (Neb.) 17-9 90

T19 20 Park (Mo.) 16-7 87

T19 21 Our Lady of the Lake 15-6 87

21 T23 Cumberlands (Ky.) 18-9 83

22 25 William Jessup 17-7 78

23 16 Westmont (Calif.) 17-8 54

24 RV Middle Georgia State 14-6 49

25 T23 Oklahoma City 11-8 48

Others Receiving Votes: Campbellsville (Ky.) 37; Xavier (La.) 37; Dillard (La.) 22; Montana Western 20; Avila (Mo.) 17; LSU Shreveport (La.) 8; Voorhees (S.C.) 7; Bethel (Tenn.) 7.