Amy Patton

[king]

I just finished watching NAU take down Portland St. in women's basketball on Dishnetwork channel 9411. I was pretty impressed with freshman Amy Patton as she scored something like 25 points and took down 12 rebounds or so. I noticed that she posted back to back 30 point games against Idaho state and Weber st on a recent road trip as well. Is this kid for real? How the heck were we able to land a recruit like this? it seems like she could have easily played for a bigger school like ASU or U of A or any Pac Ten school.

It's too bad NAU doesn't have other players like her to push them to more wins. At 4-14 for the season NAU is not looking like a threat to make the big sky tourney, but this win against pre-season favorite Portland St, might give them some much needed confidence and it might be the game that changes their whole season.

I'm happy Patton chose NAU i really think she is the next Mandy Morales of the Big Sky and will contend for the conference player of the year as a freshman. There is another freshman on the team that seems to be pretty good (stephen-Jenkins) and with a pretty good recruiting class next year this crop of young players could take NAU back to the NCAA tournament in no time.

So discuss, is Amy Patton the next big thing in the Big Sky? Will she be the savior for NAU women's bball? How was Laurie Kelly able to lure her to Flagstaff? Will she be the player of the year? Are there any other freshmen in the conference as good as she is? Will she stick around and come back to NAU next season or is she a bird whose feathers are too bright for NAU and the big sky?

 

[mtjack]

I've watched a few Lady Jacks games on bigskytv.org. It seems there's more talent there than the record suggests but it's a matter of getting all aspects of the game going at the same time.

Patton and Stephens-Jenkins both look like special players. I really hope they keep it up and are happy @ NAU and seem like they could be the type of players that lead a college to greater things down the road. That being said....I've been a teacher in the past and it's hard to know what's going on in an 18 year olds head. Whether they're happy and stay often has more to do than personal or team success on the court.

The "Get to Know Your Jacks" bit done during the half-time broadcast down here in the desert (carried on Fox Sports AZ no less) interview with Amy Patton said she was thrilled to be close to home. Maybe proximity was all it took for NAU to pick her up for hoops? Maybe ASU/U of A dropped the ball on recruiting?

From what I've seen/followed, the Lady Griz are a bit down this season. PSU was preseason number one and aren't blowing everyone out. Eastern Washington was picked at the bottom of the league and are in first. Lots of time to go still and the league seems have its share of parity.

MTJack

 

[dbackjon]

Amy has been great so far