The fact that University of Denver junior Nate Rohnert has developed into an all-Sun Belt Conference player comes as no surprise to this reporter. I got that feeling three years ago.
I was sitting with then-Colorado coach Ricardo Patton during a local high school all-star game when he abruptly got up and marched toward one of his assistants. Patton told me afterward that he wanted to know why in the heck that assistant hadn’t given Rohnert a look.
The then-Chaparral star, who had already signed with DU, turned into quite a recruiting coup for the Pioneers.
The 6-foot-5 wing forward, averaging 15.4 points and hitting 50.2 percent from the field as a junior, is my choice for Division I Front Range player of the year.
“Nate does so much for us,” DU coach Joe Scott said. “But his most important role is to make this team and his teammates better.”
Others on my all-Front Range first team are, in alphabetical order: Northern Colorado senior forward Jabril Banks, Wyoming senior guard Brandon Ewing, CU sophomore guard Cory Higgins and Colorado State senior guard Marcus Walker.
My all-Front Range women’s team has Wyoming senior guard Megan McGuffey, DU freshman forward Kaetlyn Murdoch, CU senior center Kara Richards, CU sophomore guard Brittany Spears and Northern Colorado sophomore guard Courtney Stoermer.
Spears (18.1 points, 7.9 rebounds) is my player of the year.
Senior nights.
It’s unfortunate that the only senior on the CU men’s team, 6-6 forward Jermyl Jackson-Wilson, chose his final home game to turn in one of his worst performances. Jackson-Wilson started Wednesday night’s game against Texas A&M but got into early foul trouble and played just 7 minutes, finishing with two points and one rebound in the Buffs’ 72-66 loss.
It’s not uncommon for seniors to struggle on senior nights. Hoping to go out with a bang, they often try to do too much and deviate from the team concept.
“I didn’t feel like (I was pressing),” Jackson-Wilson said afterward. “But numbers don’t lie, so I must have been.”
Jackson-Wilson’s mother, Sandra, flew in from Milwaukee and sang the national anthem before the game, in an R&B style. Nobody I talked to had ever seen a player’s mom sing the national anthem. She drew a rousing ovation.
It’s the women’s turn.
CU seniors Richards, Hannah Skildum and Dina Piterniece will take their bows following today’s 2 p.m. regular-season finale against Kansas State. Perhaps they learned something after watching Jackson-Wilson struggle.
“It’s already been emotional,” Richards said. “The last few games, I’ll be sitting on the bench and they’re about to announce the starters and tears will come to my eyes.”
For the record.
Here’s my ballot for The Associated Press All-Big 12 men’s team, as chosen by writers covering the conference: Blake Griffin, Oklahoma; Sherron Collins, Kansas; A.J. Abrams, Texas; Cole Aldrich, Kansas; and Craig Brackins, Iowa State. I included CU’s Higgins on my second team.
More than bookworms.
While researching a story on former Heritage High School star Jimmy Bartolotta (27.6 points per game), who has led the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to its first-ever appearance in the Division III NCAA Tournament, I was surprised to learn that MIT fields 41 intercollegiate sports.
That’s more than double the number of sports offered by many Division I schools (CU, for example, has 16 sports). Of course, Division III is nonscholarship. And MIT teams don’t have to hop on an airplane to find opponents.
Interestingly, MIT coach Larry Anderson has carved a recruiting niche in the Denver metro area for hoops. Sophomore guard Travis Tucker is from Evergreen High. Earlier this decade, Ryan Richardson (ThunderRidge) and Will Mroz (George Washington) played for the Engineers.
This area has good school systems, Anderson said, “and I’ve developed a good relation with a lot of the high school coaches there.”
Tom Kensler covers college sports. Contact: 303-954-1280 or tkensler@
