First Practice in Hawaii

This is Coach Brady Moore giving a quick check in from Hawaii. We arrived here last night around 4 Hawaii time. The flight was pretty smooth, the landing was a little rough but other then that it was just like riding a bus to Crookston.

Today everyone was up at 7 in the morning. We are staying in downtown Honalulu and the trip to BYU-Hawaii took us about and hour and fifteen minutes but it was well worth it. Now we are here shooting around and getting ready for practice. I think we should have a pretty good one today. The guys are excited to be here, BYU has great facilities, the floor has a lot of spring in it. Coach Leaf mentioned he might be able to get rim here. Well we will keep you all update back home.

After practice we are going to drive up the North Shore and back around to get back to Honalula. This is peak season for surfing so we are going to look at the big waves and hopefully some surfers will be out as well.

Till then. Mahalo!!

Flowers Learning the Ropes of Professional Ball

Jonte' Flowers is off to a good start with the Solna Vikings of the Swedish Basketball League. Through 9 games Jonte' is averaging right around 16 ppg, 6.2 rpg and 3.4 steals a game. (His stats are a little hard to follow as the league web site has his name on their in two different forms, one as Jonte', the other Jermaine) To no surprise Jonte's 3.4 steals per game is good for third in the league. In those who have been in contact with Jonte' he has told them he is getting used to Euro basketball each day. He is getting used to his teammates and coaches each day and that should help him to increase his production numbers as the season goes along. You can keep track of Jonte' and his progress by going to a couple of different websites. The link to those sites are listed below.

Note: You may have to translate those pages to be able to read them. To do so go to Google.com and copy & paste the link into a search, the search should come up with the home pages and will have a "translate page" link next to the title of the page.

Go Warriors!!!

Off to Hawaii!!!

The Warriors head off to Hawaii tomorrow morning for 8 sunny days and 7 warm nights. But this trip will not be for rest and relaxation as the Warriors will play 3 games during the trip. This will be the Warriors second trip to Hawaii. The last time they played out in Hawaii (2004-05) they went 2-2 on the road trip using the trip as a bonding experience for everyone on the team. The idea worked wonders for the team as they won the first of now four consecutive NSIC Conference Championships along with the schools second birth in the NCAA tournament and a upset win in the first round of the tournament over then NCC Conference Champions Nebraska-Omaha.

The goal for this years trip is no different as the coach staff hopes to see the same great results from the players on this trip. Coach Leaf commented on the trip by saying, "This trip is a great opportunity for our players and staff to bond together as a team. This years team is a lot like the 04-05 team, in that we have some great senior leadership to go along with some talented under-class men. Bringing everyone on a trip like this will allow our team to get to know each other on a new level and we are hoping it can spring board us into another great season."

The hope of bonding as a team is not the only reason for the trip. While out in Hawaii the Warriors will face some stiff competition in the form of a tough BYU-Hawaii and Oakland City squad. The Warriors face BYU-Hawaii twice during the trip playing them on Nov. 18th and Nov. 20th. They finish up their play on Nov. 22nd when they take on Oakland City on the campus of BYU-Hawaii. Coach Leaf feels the competition they will be running into is top notch and he expects to learn a lot from his team. "We are not taking this trip for just some fun in the sun. We will be playing some very difficult competition while we are out there. This will give us a great opportunity to see where we are as a team and where we need to improve." Leaf went on to say, "One of our main goal each season as a coaching staff is to find some of best competition that is out their. We feel we have found this by taking this trip. It will prepare for the up coming conference season as well as get us ready for NCAA tournament play."

Go Warriors!!!

Home Opener Preview

The Winona State Warriors will start their defense of the 2008 National Championship when they take on St. Mary's University at 8pm, Saturday night in McCown Gym.

The Warriors won last years contest with St. Mary's 118-53, as 6 Warriors scored in double figures led Josh Korth's career night of 28 points (7-10) on 3's. Joining him in double figures for the game were John Smith (17), Jonte' Flowers (16), Quincy Henderson (16), Brent Riese (11) and Matt Smith (10). The Warriors also enjoyed a huge rebounding advantage on the game collecting 50 rebounds to St. Mary's 32. Quincy Henderson lead all Warriors in the rebound category with 10.

This years contest between the two college town teams should once again be entertaining as the Cardinals return their two top scorers from last season in Sophomores Will Wright and Lukas Holland along with having a new head coach in Tood Landrum. Wright, who was named to the MIAC All-Freshman team last season, averaged 17.3 points a game to lead the Cardinals. He also lead the Cardinals in their contest between the Warriors last season when he put up 20 points on (8-13) shooting. Holland, a point guard from LaCrosse, Wis., averaged 13.8 points last season for the Cardinals which was second on the team. Those two combined to be one of the top back court combinations in the MIAC and they again will be looked upon to lead the Cardinals this season. Also returning for the Cardinals this season will the combination of twin brothers in, Josh and Brad Knights. Both of the Knights saw considerable action last year for St. Mary's and this year should be no different as they will two of the other leaders on the floor for them this season. The rest of the St. Mary's roster is full of new players who are gearing up for their first contest for the season. You can learn more about St. Mary's and this years squad by clicking on this link: http://www.saintmaryssports.com/index.aspx?tab=basketball&path=mbball

Go Warriors!!!!

Smith Signs Deal with NBDL, Allocated to Iowa Energy

Winona State's two time NABC Division II National Player of the Year, John Smith, has signed a contract with the NBDL along with being allocated to play for the Iowa Energy. Smith who reported to the Energy this week will take part in a training camp leading up to opening night on December 4th.

The NBA Development League, or D-League, is the National Basketball Association's officially sponsored and operated developmental basketball organization. Known until summer 2005 as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL), the D-League started with eight teams in the fall of 2001. In March 2005, NBA commissioner David Stern announced a plan to expand the D-League to fifteen teams and develop it into a true minor league farm system, with two NBA teams sharing each D-League team. In 2007-08, the league had 14 teams, with each D-League team being affiliated with 1 or 2 NBA teams. For the 2008-09 season, the league will have 16 teams.

Players for D-League teams do not sign contracts with the individual teams, but with the league itself. D-League team rosters consist of a total of 12 players, 10 (or fewer) being D-League players and 2 (or more) NBA players. The rosters are made up in a number of ways - the previous years' players, players taken in the D-League draft, allocation players (meaning players who are assigned to a team with which they have a local connection, such as John was), NBA team assignments, and local tryouts. Each NBA team can assign two first or second year players to its affiliated D-League team. If more than two NBA players are assigned to a team, the team must reduce the number of D-League players to keep the total roster size to 12.

NBA teams can call up players as many times as they choose, but a player can only be assigned to the NBA D-League three times in a season.

To follow Johns progress you can go down to our link section and click on the Iowa Energy link to keep up on how John is playing. The Warriors wish John the best of luck with the beginning of his professional career.

Welcome!!

Welcome to the Winona State Warriors Men's Basketball Team blog site! This site is the official site of the Warriors and it will be used throughout the 2008-09 season to give updates on the team and other happenings.
The idea behind this site is to bring all the Warriors fans around the world together and allow them to get all the updates they need on our program. Our goal is to bring you the current happenings within our program along with updates on our past players who have been a part of this successful program. Players, coaches, former players, alumni, fans will all have a say on this page. We want this to become part of the Warrior family and with your help we feel we can make this experience a great one.

So check back over the next few days as we will be updating our progress on our season.

Up coming important dates for our program:

Wednesday, November 12th, 7 pm Exhibition Game vs UW Superior
Wednesday, November 12th - National Signing Day!!! (Make sure to check back to see who the future Warriors will be!!!)
Saturday, November 15th - Opening Night - 8pm game vs St. Mary's
Sunday November 16th - Flying out to Hawaii!!!!