We have until March 17th when the Gold Pan Giving Challenge ends. Of course, we must give to the cause to ensure certain victory but here are the Big 7 reasons why CC will fall:
7. CC trust funds still depleted from failed Fyre Festival
6. “What’s the big deal – we grew up with gold pans!”
5. ‘Winning’ is seen as offensive in pass/fail CC culture
4. The money will only go to under-the-table payments to the City Council who secretly approved the new hockey arena in CC’s Old North End neighborhood
3. Mom and dad already committed funds to the “Green New Deal”
2. CC grads too busy bussing tables to participate
1. “Really! We have a hockey team?”
You can direct your financial gift to athletics or any number of Denver initiatives. Click here to give and defeat the Kittens. The challenge ends 3/17/19.
Sure, it was a loss to Rice (4-3) and a win against Minnesota (6-1) but the highlight of the weekend for DU Women’s Tennis was off the court. The DU women’s tennis team was in awe when meeting LetsGoDU founder Damien Goddard in his corporate headquarter town of Houston.
Goddard holding court
The Pioneer legend witnessed the Pioneers first-hand against Rice and Minnesota – and provided tennis tips along the way. Goddard was known for a vicious backhand as a student at DU.
Some second hand reports state that some team members were moved to tears – not with the loss to Rice or the big win against Minnesota but with the opportunity to meet the Texas icon.
Goddard invited the team to visit Houston again. And his thought about the weekend? “I can’t believe they fly coach.”
You may have heard about the Gold Pan Giving Challenge. It is a two week giving challenge between the University of Denver and Colorado College. We hate losing to the kittens – especially when it includes a ‘gold pan’. And, you can direct your gift to the Athletics Excellence fund, any number of other designated funds or direct your gift to a specific area of your choice.
Get into the ‘CC Week’ spirit. We gave – how about you? Go here to give and defeat the Kitties. The challenge ends 3/17/19.
Denver’s upset of top-five Stony Brook was a milestone in the Pioneers’ program development. Photo: Marc Piscotty
While men’s hockey and lacrosse take up the lion’s share of fan interest for most Pioneer fans, it’s important to recognize some otherDU athletic teams who continue to climb higher into national prominence and greater conference impact:
The 13th-ranked DU women’s lacrosse team beat its very first top five opponent since coach Liza Kelly took the helm in 2006, upsetting (#6/#4) Stony Brook (N.Y.) University, 11-7, behind Bea Behrins’ three-goal hat trick. This was a statement win for the program. The Pios have been a top-20 program for a while now, but have had trouble beating the very top echelon teams. Sunday’s win over SBU kept DU undefeated at 4-0 and may see the Pioneers knocking on the door of a top-10 ranking. The Michigan Wolverines come to town this Tuesday to face the surging Pioneers for a 12 noon start.
The sixth-ranked DU women’s gymnastics team scored its second highest all-time score (and the highest score of this season) with a 197.725 on Sunday afternoon before over 4,000 fans at Magness Arena, to win the meet over Iowa State and Boise State. This kind of scoring should keep DU in the hunt for a top-five national ranking as the season moves into the stretch run.
The DU men’s (#24th nationally) and (#47) women’s swim teams once again won the Summit League title for the sixth year in a row. DU was so dominant at the Summit League Championships that the DU women set an all-time league record for points, and DU mens and women swimmers won 37 of 38 of the swimming events overall. That’s an incredible achievement – perhaps the swimming equivalent of winning the Summit League basketball title game by 30 points, and repeating the winning margin for six straight years.
DU women’s basketball (15-12, 8-6 Summit league) continued its rise into a winning program with a dramatic road win at North Dakota. Often-injured senior Pioneer Haley Simental hit the long-range three point shot-of-her-college-career to send the game into overtime at the buzzer, in a game that the Pios would later win, 92-91. With the OT win, the Pios’ have earned at least a top-five seed at the Summit League tournament next month.
The DU women’s tennis team, ranked #40 nationally, are 7-2 this year in a sport where 317 teams compete nationally. DU has already defeated brand name schools such as Oregon, Wisconsin, BYU and Colorado this season.
All of these teams deserve our support, and we look forward to seeing how they compete in the coming months.
As a surprise to absolutely no one, Augustana University from Sioux Falls, South Dakota will be joining The Summit League. And we told you it was going to happen well before the announcement yesterday. As any casual follower of the Summit knows, the tiny college located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota will do nothing to elevate the conference competitively or reputationally.
As an insular conference, the Summit League just got more localized with half the conference located in the Dakotas. The move is expected to be made in 2021-22. And then Augustana will join Presbyterian College from Clinton, SC as one of the smallest Division I programs in the country. Continue reading Augustana to go Division I, will likely join Summit League→
DU Junior Lauren Loven led the entire nation in three-pointers as of Nov. 30, 2018 Photo: University of Denver
As Denver Pioneer fans, we’re lucky that we can pop our attention from one successful DU sports program to another. All three fall DU sports (men’s and women’s soccer plus women’s volleyball) earned appearances in their respective NCAA Tournaments this fall. And DU hockey is now ranked seventh in the nation on this bye week, more successful than almost anyone thought they’d be at this point in the season with a young team. Which brings me to the next DU team worthy of more of our attention, the DU women’s basketball team, who have shot out to a 6-1 start to the season and a current national top 40 RPI (#39) ranking, including a current four-game winning streak, as of Sunday, Dec. 2. (Note: Early season RPI rankings are subject to volatile swings, as game data comparisons are still somewhat paltry.)
I would venture a guess that perhaps only 10 percent of our readership here at LetsGoDU have ever been to a live DU women’s basketball game before, and it’s hard to blame them. There is a lot to do in Denver, and the DU women’s basketball teams have been pretty terrible in recent memory, known more for single-digit win/last-place seasons, a fired coach and crowds comprised mostly of friends and family members. Apart from a surprise 2001 NCAA appearance in the early years of the Ritchie Center and a period of decent mediocrity (72-52) under former coach Erik Johnson from 2008-2012, there hasn’t been a lot to cheer about with DU women’s hoops in the last 20 years.
But this year’s DU women’s team is starting to change some of that…
The Pioneers are starting to get noticed in just the second year of the Jim Turgeon coaching era, with home wins over then-#16 RPI Lamar and the latest win, a 29-point win over Loyola Marymount, a top 100 team who had already beaten UCLA and Arizona this year.Moreover, the Pioneers are a very high-scoring bunch, averaging a stunning 90 points per game to date this season, and sport a victory margin of 16 points per game.
And Turgeon, who came to DU from CSU-Pueblo in NCAA Division II two years ago, is doing all this with many of former DU coach Kerry Cremeans’ recruits, who knew only college basketball failure before Turgeon’s arrival. Moreover, he’s done it with a wholly different philosophy of team speed, running the floor at altitude and sharing the ball, instead of Cremeans’ over-reliance on feeding key players, a coaching practice that reportedly lost the locker room and brought an end to her losing tenure at DU. This year, DU has five players averaging double-digit scoring per game, a depth which makes it harder for opponents to key on any one player, and also makes for a much happier DU locker room.
DU’s high scoring attack has been led by Lauren Loven, a junior holdover recruit from Cremeans, who is now flourishing in the ball-sharing Turgeon era, leading the entire nation in made three-pointers (30 in six games through Nov. 30), and is averaging 21 points per game overall to lead the Pioneers in scoring. Additionally, fellow Junior Madison Nelson has exploded recently, with a 20-rebound performance against Lamar and pumping in 28 points in the win over Loyola Marymount. But it’s not just upperclassmen.
Hard-working associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Kayla Ard and the rest of Turgeon’s Denver staff have also brought in some freshmen who are stepping up right away, including Sydney Mech, a local swing player out of Cherry Creek High School who can play either forward or guard, and who is shooting a scorching 50% from the field, averaging 10 points per game. Additionally, talented freshman guard Tsimba Malonga from the Chicago area, who has averaged over 20 minutes per game in the last two games, is being rewarded with more playing time as her contributions increase.
While the 6-1 early record is outstanding, it has been created with a lot of home games, and we’ll soon see what the Pioneers are really made of in the coming weeks. DU is preparing to go on the road for seven of its next eight games, including visits to Wyoming, the University of Nebraska and Colorado State, before heading into the teeth of Summit League play, where top level programs South Dakota and South Dakota State are projected to lead the Summit League.
Want your own Denver Boone pins to display your Pioneer pride? Perfect to pin on vests, blazers, jackets and hats. These high quality pins are 1″ in height and cost only $10.00 a pair on Ebay. $2.00 from each sale will be donated to the new DU Spirit Fund and $4.00 will go to a needy camper(s) at next summer’s Rodney Billups basketball camp.
