Sports Odds & Ends
There are approximately 100 African American and other student-athletes of color this school year at the University of Minnesota. In an occasional series throughout the school year and sports year, the MSR will highlight many of these players. This week: Gopher basketball players Niamya Holloway and Janay Sanders
Role players are very important for team success, especially in college basketball. Each player on the roster once was a former high school starter. But, of course, only five can be starters in college. Therefore, in making the adjustment from regular playing-time to limited playing-time, the flow of the game is so important.
Janay Sanders, a graduate student point guard, leads Minnesota’s upperclassmen in game experience (125 games with 87 starts). Redshirt freshman forward Niamya Holloway has played only 15 games with zero starts thus far in her college career. Both players are key reserves for this year’s Gophers.
The 5’11” Sanders came from App State (2019-23), where she started last season and led them in scoring. She began her college career at La Salle, and started 20 of 26 games there (2018-19). This is her first time this far north of her native Charlotte, North Carolina.
“I’m a little farther from home, which is a little tougher,” Sanders told us just before she left for home during a short Christmas break. “The transition isn’t super easy for me,” she said, but thanks to the support of her teammates and coaches it hasn’t been as bad as it could have been. “They’re loving on me,” she admitted.
The 6-foot Holloway from Eden Prairie was a member of Minnesota’s star-studded 2022 recruiting class. She didn’t play last season due to an injury. “I think any day that I can get any minutes on the floor is a good day for me, and I use them the best that I can.”
“She needs to be someone who can come in and play, and not necessarily be the primary ball handler,” said Minnesota Coach Dawn Plitzweit of Sanders. About Holloway, Plitzweit said, “She has continued to grow and understand how to play both kinds of positions [forward and center].
“I think they’re just doing the little things to understand how to play multiple positions,” said Coach P of the two Gophers. “Even though our offense is positionless, there are different ways, different things you have to do at times in spacing and then guarding different scenarios.”
“I think my role is just to be where my coach needs me to be,” said Holloway. “One of the things I pride myself on is being adaptable.”
“I like being back in my natural [point guard] position,” added Sanders, who has two degrees and is working on a certificate in talent development and gifted education. “I don’t want to be the reason that when I go in, there’s a drop-off in this style of play or what we’re doing as a team. I just want to come in, be consistent, and be what I can for the team.
“Going into the Big Ten,” she said, “it’s gonna be important for our bench as a whole to be able to help our starters out.”
Finally…
Norfolk State forward Kierra Wheeler (Minneapolis, Robbinsdale Cooper) was named the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Offensive Player of the Week last week. The 6’1” junior averaged a double-double with 25 points and 11 rebounds in two wins for the Spartans.
Last week, the Grambling women’s basketball team beat College of Biblical Studies 159-18 in a non-conference game. It was the largest margin of victory (141 points) in Division I women’s basketball history.