Frontier Conference: Comparing Pre-Season poll to how they finished

The Frontier Conference regular season has rolled to the end of the tracks and I thought it might be fun to compare the preseason picks to things as they stand now.

The preseason poll for the women (as picked by the coaches) looked like this. Each coach picked the teams 1 through 6. A first-place vote counted as 6 points, a second 5, and so on. The total number of points accrued was how the teams were ranked.  The (#) is the number of first-place votes.

Carroll College (5)  25
Western (1)        19.5
Rocky                  18
Providence         12.5
Montana Tech    8
Northern            7

We need this group of coaches to pick our lottery numbers, they picked it spot on. Scarily, spot on.

The top-3, Carroll, Western, and Rocky, really separated themselves from the other schools as the season wore on. All 3 schools are nationally ranked (and should be). I’m guessing Carroll will host a National Tournament ‘Pod’, Western and Rocky will both go on the road (maybe to Westmont or Lewis Clark State?)

The preseason poll also had a preseason Player of the Year and a preseason All-Conference team.

Again, the Women’s coaches are absolutely spot on. Their co-players of the year were Jamie Pickens from Carroll, and Brynley Fitzgerald from Western. These two have had remarkable seasons. Fitzgerald leads the conference at 19 points a game, Pickens is second at 17 ppg. Pickens is second in rebounds (behind Tech’s Tavia Rooney) with 7.1 rpg, and Fitzgerald is fourth with 6.9.

If it’s up to me, they are Co-MVP to start the season, and they are Co-MVP to finish the season as well. If I had to pick one, I’d have to factor in the conference win for the Saints and give the nod to Pickens.

The rest of the women’s preseason All-Conference team reads like this. Sienna Swannack, Carroll. Tavia Rooney, Tech. Dani Urick, Tech. Kloie Thatcher, Rocky. Brooklyn Harn, Providence.

Again, these coaches are wicked smart. We will see all of these names on the postseason All-Conference lists, and of course there will be more players added.

Now, to this coming weekend.

Carroll and Western both earned first-round byes in the Frontier Conference tournament this weekend in Great Falls. They will await the winners of the first-round games on the women’s side:

#5 Montana Tech vs. #4 Providence – 1 pm Sunday
#6 MSU Northern vs. #3 Rocky Mountain – 3 pm Sunday

Carroll will play the lowest remaining seed Monday.
Western will play the highest remaining seed on Monday as well.
You can get the full rundown on the Frontier Conference Website.

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