Siouxatc Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 "Koupal is national player of the year The University of South Dakota's Mandy Koupal has been named the State Farm/Women's Basketball Coaches Association player of the year for NCAA Division II. The senior from Wagner also was named this week to the first-team Kodak/WBCA All-America team. Koupal will be the only Division II player to participate in the WBCA Night of All-Stars on April 3 in New Orleans. She will play for a team of college all-stars who will take on the USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team. Koupal's teammates will include Naismith Player of the Year Diana Taurasi of Connecticut, Lindsay Whalen of Minnesota, Kelly Mazzante of Penn State and Alana Beard and Iciss Tillis of Duke (providing their teams are not in the Final Four). The 6-foot-1 Koupal averaged 24.2 points and 11.4 rebounds a game for the Coyotes, who finished 25-8 this season. With 2,496 career points, Koupal ranks sixth all-time in Division II scoring. She is the only player in North Central Conference history to earn three straight MVP honors and just the fifth player to be named All-NCC four times." This is quite an honor for her and NCC, but I wish she had not gotten it. Yeah her numbers were very impressive. but that is because she was the team. She did not lead her team to any championships nor to the finals of any championship. I guess IMHO, it is easier to look that good on a team that is loaded with talent. I predict a Sioux will again earn this honor within the next 2 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BisonMav Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 IMO, she was the best player. Good shooter, rebounder, defense. Very active player, always around the ball. She would have had an impact on any team, maybe not the numbers, but she would have stood out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corella Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 Agreed. She is supposedly getting serious interest from the WNBA, true or not she is an incredible player who would've put up 20 on any team she played on, UND, NDSU, SDSU, whoever. Players her height with her skill set don't come around very often. She wa a fun player to watch because of her skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 Koupal is a great player, no question about it. I still think Jenny Crouse was the best women's basketball player I've seen in the NCC since not only could she put up big scoring and rebounding numbers--on teams that didn't need her to do everything unlike what USD needed Koupal to do--but she could also control a game defensively with her shot-blocking ability. Defense was an area where I don't believe Koupal particularly stood out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siouxatc Posted March 30, 2004 Author Share Posted March 30, 2004 Good point about Koupals defense being a weakness. She never guarded the oponents best post. If they switched screens on defense, we tried to match her against Boese b/c she could not stop her. Crouse could have defended Boese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.