{"id":5230,"date":"2021-02-10T14:51:21","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T20:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/?p=5230"},"modified":"2021-02-11T11:40:55","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T17:40:55","slug":"basketball-other-sports-return-to-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/2021\/02\/10\/basketball-other-sports-return-to-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Basketball, other sports return to action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Griffon basketball returns; men reclaim national spotlight<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 2020-21 basketball seasons began as scheduled, with MIAA-only contests slated for the season. First-year head coach Will Martin, who took over the program in March after the departure of Sundance Wicks, has guided the Griffon men\u2019s return to prominence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Griffons, who finished the 2019-20 season with their first winning season in a decade, closed the 2020 calendar year with a 5-1 record, their best MIAA start in 22 years. The\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">program also earned its first national ranking since 2002, when they debuted at #19 in the NABC Division II poll in mid-December.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Griffon women, coming off a 21-8 record in 2019-20 in Coach Candi Whitaker\u2019s first year at the helm, entered the 2020-21 season with a drastic youth movement and a roster consisting of 12 new players, including six freshmen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Other sports return in 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If 2020 taught us to never take anything for granted, 2021 should provide a follow-up lesson in gratitude.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">All Griffon sports programs are slated to return in some form or fashion this spring, including soccer, volleyball, track, golf, tennis, baseball and softball. 2021 will also mark the debut of the Griffon women\u2019s lacrosse program. Missouri Western is the first public institution in the state to field a lacrosse team.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Griffon basketball returns; men reclaim national spotlight The 2020-21 basketball seasons began as scheduled, with MIAA-only contests slated for the season. First-year head coach Will Martin, who took over the program in March after the departure of Sundance Wicks, has guided the Griffon men\u2019s return to prominence. The Griffons, who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5232,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions\/5232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}