Category: regional play
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!
Goood morning and welcome to the first day of the 2024 NCAA Division II WEST REGION TOURNAMENT!!!!!!!!! No we’re not down there with them and we wish we were, but… We get to listen to Mike Baca call the first game of the tournament, that is Chico State vs. MSUB, on the radio, so who’s really winning? We are.
For those unfamiliar with the amazingness that is Mike Baca… He’s Chico State’s longtime play-by-play guy and the best endorsement we can give is this:
Our mom doesn’t like basketball, literally hasn’t attended nor watched a single game in our 13 years, but if SPU is playing Chico State -she tunes in to listen to Mike Baca.
To tune into Mike’s amazing broadcast, simply go to KPAYSports.com… As far as we know, you don’t need to VPN yourself to NorCal to use it, but once it starts, we’ll let you know.
As for the rest of the games… We’ll see what we figure out and let you know. That’s just an easy one because SPU plays Chico State every year.
Logistics aside…
Let’s preview this MSU-Billings game.
Note: all numbers/rankings referred to are seeding… Not anything else, because the national coaches poll has been worthless for most of the last decade. And we’re not saying we would make a better one. It’s just it’s D2. Everything is Regional. The only thing that matters is the Region.
#3 MSU-Billings vs. #6 Chico State @ 12pm pacific/1pm mountain.
We were shocked when Chico got an at-large bid, which… If there are two schools in the CCAA that we’re biased about, it’s Chico State and East Bay. We know Chico State, we love Chico State, and why, why did they get an at-large bid? Truthfully, because they were the best of a bunch of bad options.
Their non-con schedule checks out on paper. They beat Azusa who crashed into the tournament on an autobid; they beat SPU, who beat MSUB recently; they beat Academy of Art, who had their bubble burst despite winning the Pac-West.
In conference play… They have a close loss to #2 San Bernardino early in the season before getting beat by 12 in mid-February. More recently they are similar to MSUB in that they have a close and puzzling loss to Stan State, and then an acceptable-ish? Loss to Cal State LA, before finally succumbing to East Bay in the CCAA tourament.
Acceptable-ish because we’re sure Greg Clink was immensely displeased with the loss, and then the East Bay loss is interesting because we say all the time it’s hard to beat a team three times in a season and that’s a great example. Chico handled East Bay just fine in the regular season and then in the post-season, the Pioneers got their revenge. But the Pioneers had some really good wins down the stretch, so… There are worse losses.
But yeah, that’s how Chico State made the tourney.
Now Chico State fans… It’s easier to explain how MSUB made the tourney: they won the GNAC, and their most recent losses are from two other teams that made the tourney; they lost at Alaska-Anchorage as the final game of the regular season and then they lost to the autobid winning Central Washington Wildcats by 1 in an insane game in a tournament hosted at CWU.
And so… What do we think is going to happen? It’s time to apply some bias, blogger style.
As much as we love Chico… We’re a 7th generation Montanan… And our grandparents tiny town just burned down… So… There’s a lot of fire power floating around the D2 realm in the Treasure State.
As such.
Prediction: MSUB wins. We’re feeling by 5-7.
Because this is going up so late we’re doing this post separate… Anchorage and Central will be on one post up at some point during this MSUB game.
In light of that…
Be safe, have fun, and GO YELLOWJACKETS!!!!!
Non-Con Day #1!
Goood morning and Happy Veteran’s Day.
The first day of real D2 play was on the whole really great for the GNAC, and so… Let’s talk about it.
HPU 64 @ UAF 69
This game in a sense was the perfect way to start off the season for the Nanooks. They were in control for a good long while, then things started to get dicey and they had to battle, and it became very back-and-forth in the second half, but ultimately the ball bounced the right way and the Nooks got it done for a nice first game and first victory of the season.
Nanook highlights: Abdul Mohamed played well and had 18 points and six boards; Paul Johnson came in and made a statement, scoring 13 points; Bryan Nguyen had a whopping seven assists; Trey Anderson had six boards; and Nick Hopkins had 15 points and seven boards. Off the bench Jaycson Bereal Jr. had nine points; and Tyriq Luke had six points.
Not the greatest shooting game, and relatively speaking a lot of turnovers, but… They got the ‘W,’ they have things to work on and fix, but seems doable. No telling what this win actually genuinely means, but it’s a good one to get. It’s GNAC 1, PacWest 0, and that’s what matters to us in non-con.
Congrats to the Nooks on getting out and running. Also, is that a new baseline mat cover? Those things are nice. We loved the polar bear (aka a nanook) but now it’s geometric polar capped mountains, which also look fantastic and are a great aesthetic.
Chaminade 72 vs. UAA 77 @ UAF
You’d think we’d consider this essentially a home game for UAA, but the UAA fans really rarely travel to these games, it’s kind of weird. Like it’s a one hour flight instead of a four hour flight, and so you’d think that UAA would have some type of kinda sort home advantage during these tournaments, but they really don’t.
As for the game… It was a battle, and then UAA pulled away as the first half ended, and then the Silverswords got right back in it in the second half and the Seawolves had to battle, which they did. And these teams fought until the end, but ultimately UAA held on and got the victory.
Seawolf highlights: Sawyer Storms had eight assists and six boards; BISHOP TOSI comes in and makes a statement, scoring 24 points and grabbing 14 boards for the double-double in his inaugural UAA outing; and TYSON GILBERT scored a whopping 27 points. Off the bench Jaron Williams had seven points; and Hasaan Herrington had nine points and four boards.
Maybe the most interesting thing contextually about this game is that Kelton Samore transferred from SPU where he was a starter, to Chaminade and he barely played, so… In context that could mean a lot in regard to how Chaminade projects this year. Because Kelton is a good player and not as soft as you’d think considering he weighs like 200lbs while being 6’9. He battles. Curious to see what he does against UAF, just because again: we’ve seen him in a large sample size of GNAC play, unlike the rest of these opponents.
Congrats to the Seawolves on getting the ‘W.’
SFU 83 @ Humboldt State 75
CONGRATS TO THE CLAN ON GETTING THEIR FIRST VICTORY!!!!!!!!! That sounds sarcastic, but this was their 4th D2 game of the year, so it is genuinely very exciting. Now, what it says about Humboldt, only time will tell, but as far as we’re concerned: The GNAC got a dub against a CCAA team and we’ll take it.
Clan highlights: David Penney scored 19 points including going 8-9 from the line; and Elliot Dimaculangan shot well and scored 18 points, while grabbing six boards. Off the bench Zach Stone had nine points; Tate Christensen had five points; and Nigel Hylton had 11 points and seven boards.
Honestly, these numbers just straight-up confuse us because a lot went wrong. Like a lot of good SFU guys did not have a good game, and yet they still won, so… That’s a little concerning as for the level of Humboldt, but… Who knows. Missing in the stats… Matthys Van Bylandt we’re guessing got injured because he only played five minutes and usually he’s a Mike Hannan type… Defensive guard, solid minutes, and a smattering of field stats. George Lefebvre had a quiet game. Zach Stone usually grabs a bunch of boards but didn’t… WWU destroyed Dominguez Hills… So curious to see what SFU does against them today.
Speaking of which…
WWU 81 vs. Dominguez Hills 58 @ Humboldt
This was a blow-out straight-up, not entirely unexpected, but good to see the Vikings go and do work and get it done. Not a whole lot to say. DH doesn’t tend to be that great, and so the Viks did what they no doubt expected themselves to do, bouncing back from a loss to Hilo.
Viking highlights: Kai Johnson only had to play 33 minutes but scored 22 points and grabbed nine boards on good shooting; Jonathan Ned had 11 points and five boards; Nic Welp grabbed eight boards; and BJ Kolly had 13 points. Off the bench Tijan Saine went 9-9 from the line and finished with 14 points; and Isaac Morrow had seven points.
On the whole, curious to see what this team does against Humboldt. SFU handled them just fine, so curious to see if it is consistent or if Humboldt just had an off day. While on paper it’s not surprising that WWU is better than SFU, but… Games have to play out each year, so it’s curious all the same.
SPU 56 vs. Cal Poly Pomona 50 @ Chico State
SPU was in control throughout the first half and then new teams gonna new team and apparently got a bit cocky because then CPP came back in a big way and the second half was really dicey for most of it, but ultimately the Falcons pulled it out. Good learning experience to come from a win.
Falcon highlights: Trace Evans grabbed 10 boards; Shaw Anderson grabbed five boards; Kyle Luttinen had 17 points; and off the bench Jadin Penigar scored 10 points in just 14 minutes on good shooting.
On the whole not a great performance from the Falcons. They shot terribly, so this is a good win to get under their belts. Shaw Anderson either was having an off-night or was really well contained, so that’s interesting. That’s gonna be a big and on-going question for SPU: how do you respond when Shaw can’t hit. Last week, they collapsed. This week, they did just enough to get it done. Very curious about the Chico game tonight.
CWU 84 vs. Monterey Bay 67 @ San Bernardino
Our first impression of this CWU team is ‘who are these people,’ but beyond that… It was an ebb and flow, but for the most part they were in control. There was one dicey point at the end of the first half, but otherwise they were grinding on, as they no doubt expected themselves to do because Monterey Bay is rarely good.
Wildcat highlights: Seth Dawson had 12 points; Bradley Swillie had 15 points; Camron McNeil had 11 points and a whopping seven assists; Samaad Hector had 11 points; and Maverick Sanders had six boards. Off the bench Anjaylo Lloyd had five boards; Carl Thorpe had seven points; and Mitch Brizee had seven points and five boards.
Ultimately those numbers are kind of concerning because it’s so balanced. If the game had been at all a challenge, the numbers wouldn’t be nearly so spread out, and so… Good chance to get out and run, but not much was learned from this game.
SMU 91 vs. Hilo 80 @ Westmont College (CA)
Oooof. Yes, SMU projects to be good, but… Hilo just destroyed three GNAC teams, and no offense to the Saints, but… This does not make those look like Quality Losses.™ Not sure what to make of it. It would be fine if SMU really is this good, but… Yeah, we’ll see what the Vulcans do against the Yellowjackets of MSU-Billings tomorrow.
Saints highlights: TYKE THOMPSON had a whopping 17 points, 12 boards, and three steals among a boatload of stats; KYLE GREELEY shot well and went 8-8 from the line to finish with 22 points; and Shakeem Alcindor had 11 points and seven boards. Off the bench KADEN HANSEN had 21 points and five assists; Myles Samuels had seven points; and Jayshawn Moore had four boards.
On the whole a really good outing -SMU out-rebounded Hilo 41-28. We’re excited. Tyke Thompson as always looks amazing. They’re not really getting a test because they play NAIA Westmont today, but… Considering the GNAC was 0-3 against Hilo, now at least we’re 1-4. Congrats to the Saints on a good win.
WOU 71 @ San Bernardino 93
Once again: Ooof. But it’s a workable ooof. First game of the season, getting the shooting groove and figuring out the new guys. Getting beat by 22 you can theoretically only go up from here.
Wolf highlights: Qiant Myers had six assists; Jason Gallant went 11-12 from the line and finished with 21 points; and Cameron Benzel had 10 points. Off the bench MEKHI MCINTYRE had 17 points on good shooting; Kris Cook had nine points; and Peter-Kaci Gwananji grabbed four boards.
No idea what this means, theoretically they’ll have a more manageable opponent today in Monterey Bay. Curious to see what the Wildcats do against San Bernardino, so… Lots to discover. Congrats to the Wolves on getting the first game off their back… Onward and upward.
Lots of interesting things, lots of exciting games, and lots of being grateful to be in the GNAC. The other two conferences paywall their videos and it’s just like… No. Please don’t. The GNAC uses youtube and it’s amazing because it’s so easy to access, you can rewatch games, the controls aren’t laggy, and it’s free. It’s incredible. It’s the best thing ever. Sometimes we don’t like this conference, but then we deal with non-con and we’re like ‘You know, the GNAC is really doing something right.’
Tonight SPU takes on Chico State. Even if you’re not an SPU fan, we highly recommend tuning into the game. A friend of ours and Chico’s longtime play-by-play guy, Mike Baca, is absolutely fantastic on the radio, one of the best in the biz, and by far the best D2 play-by-play guy. You can listen to the game through a radio app on your phone… The station is KPAY Sports 1290.
Beyond that… The previews of today will be up soon… and as always:
Be safe, have fun, and go GNAC!
UAF vs. Chico in the Sweet 16!
Gooood morning and welcome to the beginning of the annual post-burn and figuring out our pre-season rankings and all of that good stuff.
D2 play starts tomorrow, we haven’t looked at ANYTHING just yet (in regards to lower division/exhibition games), and so we are flying blind on this, but first and foremost:
UAF lost to Chico in the Sweet 16, but what a run it was.
UAF 52 vs. Chico State 70 @ Cal State San Bernardino
Nanook highlights: Shadeed Shabazz had six assists; and Coleman Sparling had 13 points and seven boards. Off the bench Willie Thomas III had 10 points; and Ty Sturm had six boards.
The basic summary is that while Shadeed could get shots off, Chico did a really good job defending him and the ridiculous shots that Shadeed can often get to go into the basket just didn’t go. Everyone played with really great effort, as much as it’s meme status that we can’t stand Greg Sparling… He’s a good coach, he got the guys to play as a team, it was a blessing getting to watch Coleman Sparling once again, but… Greg Clink is a phenomenal coach, and it’s a lot easier to recruit to Chico than Fairbanks.
Again: really good job and our hugest congrats to this Nanook team on an absolutely nutso run to the Sweet 16. Big time status.
Coming up next is our pre-season previews and rankings, which there’s been a lot of roster movement, hence why we’ve avoided looking at any results from the non-D2 games being played. We want to come into it clean, and… That post is coming up next.
Be safe, have fun, get your flu shot + bivalent booster, and go GNAC!
#8 Alaska-Fairbanks vs. #1 San Marcos!
Goooood evening. Up a little later than intended, but for you late night Hoops junkies: You’re welcome. If you finding this the next morning: you’re welcome too =)
#8 UAF 70 vs. #1 San Marcos 63
This game felt like a GNAC game and we’re not sure if we mean that in a good way or a bad way. The Nooks “led” the whole game except for a brief instance when the teams were tied, and yet we never stopped biting our nails because any given second you felt like things could turn and San Marcos was gonna go on a run and they actually have a bench and then UAF would have to battle back and… There was no security in this game. Not because UAF isn’t an incredibly capable team (reminder: We’ve been shot calling it since early January 2020), but because it’s a GNAG-involved game and this is March Madness to boot.
We’re actually going to go over the San Marcos info just as a tip-of-the-cap to what the Nanooks were dealing with/how much they limited the Cougars capabilities:
Cougar numbers: Jayce McCain had 16 points and three steals on good shooting; BLAKE SEITS was held to a disgusting 4-15 from the field but did manage a full house of stats including five boards; Alex Gil-Fernandez typically averages 25 minutes but saw a mere 15 with a horrible stat line on top of it; Joel had a full house but his biggest highlight was his five fouls; and Greg Milton III was solid with 12 points and four boards while playing 37 minutes, but… March Madness, Baby! Solid doesn’t cut it. Off the bench Lyle Sutton had 14 points among a full house of stats; and theoretical highlight Tyrone Nesby IV was held to 15 minutes and a mere three rebounds with nothing else notable about his line.
Disclaimer: We know the San Marcos guys are all capable players, but this is a GNAC blog and this is March Madness; it’s at this point that we become straight-up homers for all GNAC teams.
Now… Drumroll…
First and foremost the Nanooks out-rebounded the Cougars a whopping 42 to 23, so big congrats to the entire team there -even you Ty Sturm, we see those three rebounds; 39-23 just wouldn’t have the same impact, now would it?
The Shadeed report: He only had to play 38 minutes, and he scored 35 points and grabbed seven boards! They were trying their darndest to shut him down and while they forced him into seven turnovers… He shot well and was never in foul trouble, all against an admittedly slightly undeserving #1 seed; we still think San Bernardino is better and are glad they’re getting to host. We’ll see how it all plays out.
Other Nanooks highlights: Koby Huerta finally had a better shooting game, was also forced into turnovers, but kudos to San Marcos there; Jahvonta Jones had 10 boards; Coleman Sparling had nine points, seven boards, and a full house among a smattering of other field stats; and Abdullahi Mohamed was kept relatively quiet but he played 26 minutes and after he went down he came back in, so that’s the most important part. Off the bench Willie Thomas III had 10 points and five boards among a full house of stats; and as noted: Ty Sturm had three points.
The team together managed to grab eight chaotic rebounds to San Marcos three chaotic rebounds.
Overall the Nanooks numbers weren’t especially great and we love it because that means there’s plenty of room to go up from here. They were up by 7-10 for most of the game while not playing especially well. 19 turnovers? Yikes. But the victory was procured and against the #1 seed to boot.
We have lots of thoughts on their impending match-up against Azusa Pacific and so… That’ll be up at 11am.
Big congrats to the Nanooks on their victory, but… Can’t stop, won’t stop; there’s somewhere in the realm of 225 clock minutes of basketball to be played before the Nanooks want to settle down for hibernation -225 factoring in a potential period of OT in every single game, plus an extra five for a game with double OT. Better safe than sorry!
Be safe, have fun, masks end in Washington state on Sunday night, and go GNAC!!
Previewing UAF vs. San Marcos!
Gooood afternoon.
We’ve been watching the tournament since it started at noon, but now it is time to take a look at the most important game of the day and so… Let’s dive right in.
#8 Alaska-Fairbanks vs. #1 San Marcos @ San Bernardino @ 5pm PST
People around here are familiar with UAF, but we’ll summarize just incase:
Head coach Greg Sparling was the head coach at fellow GNAC school Central Washington for 24 years before moving up north of the arctic circle and taking the reins with the Nanooks. This is his third season up there and his son Coleman is a senior on the team and their leading rebounder.
The Nanooks roster is TINY both in terms of body mass and in terms of usable players. At this point they essentially play six guys: Shadeed Shabazz, Koby Huerta, Jahvonta Jones, Coleman, Abdullahi Mohamed, and Willie Thomas III. If they need additional relief they can insert Ty Sturm, but it’s literally just to give the other guys a breather -his stats are pretty negligible, but hey! A breather is a breather. For most of the year they also had a guy by the name of Quin Barnard, but a torn hamstring near the end of the regular season brought his college basketball career to a slightly premature end.
Somehow despite having only six guys, the Nooks came on strong at the end and paying no attention to their basement finish, proceeded to win four games in four days to get the GNAC’s autobid into the NCAA Regional.
Usually only six teams make the GNAC tournament. This year because of schedule chaos and tons of games being cancelled, all 10 teams were invited to the conference tournament and… Permanent tournament expansion is a conversation for a different day, but this year it was great and worked out well and it’s thrilling that the Nanooks are now in San Bernardino as the sole GNAC representative.
To earn the spot, the Nanooks beat GNAC #7 Simon Fraser, #2 Northwest Nazarene, #4 Alaska-Anchorage, and #5 Central Washington.
Now they take on San Marcos, and so… Let’s learn about about the Cougars of CSUSM:
The Cougars moved up to D2 in 2015 (the same year as the Concordias) and while they’ve made solid progress each year, this is the first time they’ve made the Regional tournament and they’re the #1 seed to boot, so that’s exciting.
GNAC relevant context: The Cougars beat MSUB 69-55 and then 80-72; they beat SMU 76-60, and then they beat PLNU 90-52 (PLNU went to the wire before ultimately losing to WWU and SPU).
During the CCAA season they beat Chico State 87-85, Cal Poly Pomona 65-52, , lost to San Bernardino 64-74 in OT, had other match-ups against San Bernardino and Cal Poly Pomona cancelled, lost to Chico 57-63.
The Cougars then proceeded to win the CCAA tournament with comfortable victories over Cal Poly Pomona, Chico State, and San Bernardino -talk about a gauntlet and peaking at the right time.
We regularly say in March that at this point every team has five good players, but it’s the teams that have six that set themselves apart -San Marcos definitely has six. We’ll spare you the stats run down but will say their six are: Blake Seitz, Greg Milton III, Jayce McCain, Tyrone Nesby IV, Alex Gil-Fernandez, and Joel Mensah.
On the one hand it’s a #1 seed vs. #10 seed turned #8 seed, but… It’s UAF. They have this all world guy named Shadeed Shabazz. While Shadeed is all world, our favorite thing about him is that while he can score just about at-will, he’s still a team first guy and makes his teammates better. Koby Huerta has been struggling as of late and so hopefully he plays better. Coleman Sparling’s rebounding game never has an off night, but he can definitely shoot more and better than he has been.
It’s impossible to count the Nanooks out, but… It’s the #1 seed, and both teams have equally been on an absolute tear.
Prediction: UAF terrifies San Marcos, but San Marcos pulls out the ‘W.’
Post’ll be up with the reactions and analysis of the results later tonight.
Be safe, have fun, does California still have a mask requirement?, and go GNAC!!
Past Games + Previewing Today’s Games!
Yes, we didn’t do the previews yesterday. Boo us, we suck.
That said: We won Apple Cup and got high-fives from most of the men’s soccer team, Myles Bryant, AND UW President Ana Mari Cauce, so it was a big win all around.
And now let’s get into this week’s basketball.
From Tuesday & Wednesday:
Seattle Pacific 75 @ Sonoma State 55
The Sonoma State coach was stunned by the result, to the point that he publicly stormed over to the CCAA’s ref coordinator and blamed bad reffing. Uh, dude: SPU’s lost to four teams and every single one looks decent at the very minimum; their one win came against the team projected to win the Pac-West.
Falcon highlights: Harry Cavell had 10 points and 10 boards for the double-double; Divant’e Moffitt had 14 points on great shooting, along with a plethora of field stats; Shaw Anderson had 20 points on great shooting as well as a bordering on great free throw shooting; and Gavin Long had 10 points. No outstanding bench play, although some good relief minutes.
Overall the Falcons were in foul trouble and it is what it is; it’s funny, Shaw had a great game on paper but in person it felt very riddled with frosh mistakes. #JustShawThings
Northwest Nazarene 70 @ Cal State LA 74
While we picked the Nighthawks to win, the result really isn’t that surprising. Cal State LA has been very 50/50 and while we firmly believe in this year’s NNU team, it is an adjustment in not having Adonis Arms, and this was a road game.
Nighthawk highlights: Sam Roth had a whopping 16 boards; Beto Diaz had 10 points and five boards; and George Reidy had 14 points. Off the bench Cayden Wright had five points; and Ezekiel Alley had a whopping 16 points and six boards.
Overall, some really bad shooting numbers, but holy guacamole Sam Roth! This loss actually might not look atrocious come March, but because of how the Nighthawks scheduled non-con, we think regardless they’re going to need the autobid.
East Bay 89 @ Saint Martin’s 83
We were there for the second half. Yes, we were a turkey. This game went in waves and was tied at halftime. It was a good game, good experience game for SMU because East Bay projects really well and the Pioneers would work their way up but the Saints would reel them back in, and ultimately the score ended up really respectable. We would consider ourselves an East Bay person (because our beloved grad school coach is the head coach) but we found ourselves rooting hard for the Saints just because they’re young and yet made a lot of really good, high effort plays.
Saints highlights: Demonte Malloy was OUT OF HIS MIND with a full house among 14 points, 10 boards, and seven assists; CJ Jennings was impressive with 22 points on good shooting; MARKY ADAMS had a whopping 12 points and 13 boards; and certified sixth man LOGAN ROONEY had 12 points and six boards.
The Saints won the rebounding battle considerably; 43-36, so that’s awesome. We have to say, we’re excited about this team. While they had a rough stretch in Utah, it appears that they’re learning the right things and should be ready to go come conference play. Ridiculously proud of all of y’all, congrats on a well played and hard fought game, Saints.
Now let’s talk about Friday’s games…
Northern Michigan 95 @ Alaska-Fairbanks 45
This game doesn’t count for SOS (lol), but was scheduled because both schools are D1 in hockey and D2 in almost everything else -including basketball.
Nook highlights: Mawich Kachjaani had seven boards. Off the bench Keshaun Howard had six points; Markel Banks had six points; Quinn Daugharty had four boards; and OBG had 10 points.
Congrats on getting to heal yourselves at a Pokemon Center afterward, Nooks. Y’all need it.
Michigan Tech 83 @ Alaska-Anchorage 80
Another game that doesn’t count for SOS but was scheduled because both schools are D1 in hockey and D2 in almost everything else. We’re not going to get into any implications because the fact is: this game doesn’t matter. It’s better prep than playing D1 or lower division, while at the same time truly doesn’t matter and so while we get the sentiment… Just why. What a waste of energy.
Seawolf highlights: DeAndre Osuigwe had nine points and six assists; Niko Bevens had 12 points; and Tobin Karlberg had five boards. Off the bench Amari Hale had 11 points and five assists; Tyrus Hosley had 11 points; Jack Macdonald had nine points and four boards; and OGGIE PANTOVIC had 16 points and nine boards.
Once again: If Yugoslavia was still intact, the YBL would rival the NBA in terms of being the world’s best basketball league. Balkan heritage > your heritage. And we say this as a Norwegian 😂😂 You didn’t see us going on and on about Sjur Berg. Although we did go on and on about Bouna N’Diaye, but that was strictly basketball.
Colorado Christian 69 @ Western Washington 91
The good news is that this game does count for SOS. The bad news is, Colorado Christian usually is really bad and that appears to hold true this year.
Viking highlights: Tucker Eenigenburg had 11 points on great shooting; D’Angelo Minnis had 21 points and five steals; Logan Schilder is off the DL and had eight points and five boards; Jalen Green had 12 points and five boards; Trevor Jasinsky had 18 points, seven boards, and eight assists; and off the bench Luke Lovelady had 14 points and seven boards among a full house of stats.
Congrats to the Vikings on the win.
Adams State 75 @ MSU-Billings 86
Good come-from-behind win for the Yellowjackets. Adams State is in the RMAC, so the game does count in regard to March (not that it really matters), and they tend to sit in about the same range that MSUB does, so good practice.
Jackets highlights: Clarence Daniels had five boards; Psalm Maduakor had five boards; Chrishon Dixon had a full house among 13 points, eight boards, and four assists; Jordan Lehrer had five boards; and Brendan Howard had 11 boards and 17 points. Off the bench TYLER GREEN had 28 points and four assists; and Stevie James had 11 points and seven boards.
Congrats to the Yellowjackets on great rebounding and a really quality overall performance.
Stanislaus 62 vs. CU-Portland 57 @ San Francisco State
Not sure how to feel about this game. Stanislaus had started looking pretty darn good and then… They almost got beat by Concordia. Or does that mean Concordia is actually starting to look decent? We can only hope.
Cavs highlights: Xavier Smith had eight boards; Hunter Sweet had 18 points and went 7-8 from the line; and Dakota Ayala shot well and had six boards. Off the bench Bryce Cheney had five points; and Dom Bradley had five boards.
We definitely feel like the Cavs could/have should have won this game, and so… Is that a moral victory, or a demoralizing loss? It’s one thing to get blown out, but an entirely different thing to have totally been able to win and yet not done it. Hmmm.
Western Oregon 88 @ San Francisco State 76
Good win for the Wolves who are starting to look like an increasingly good team. One of those situations where it was impossible to say before the season, and yet not surprising now that more games have been played.
Wolf highlights: Jaylyn Richardson was lights out and had 17 points and seven boards; Dalven Brushier had 17 points; and Darius Lubom had 20 points and seven boards. Off the bench TYREEK PRICE had 17 points; and Zach Baugher had eight points.
The 17 points thing reminds us of the Jim Shaw days of every player getting 10 points before getting pulled. Such consistency. Congrats to the Wolves on a good win and great shooting.
Previewing Today’s Games!
Yes, the SPU game will have already started by the time this post goes up, but… Whatever. They’ll live.
All times pacific.
Seattle Pacific @ Point Loma @ 2pm
This SPU team is young, this Point Loma team is new. On the one hand, it’s hard to trust the Falcons because their record is so bad. On the other hand, Point Loma really hasn’t played anybody, with the exception of their blow-out loss to UCSD but that’s par for the course.
Prediction: Pick ’em.
Western Oregon vs. Stanislaus @ San Francisco State @ 5pm
We’re actually really curious about this game. Stanislaus beat SPU and we assumed it was a bad loss because Stanislaus usually isn’t that good, and yet they’ve looked better than normal this year. They’re 5-1 with their only loss being to Dominguez Hills and they count a win at Chico State. If WOU gets the ‘W’, we would count it as quality. A loss wouldn’t quite be quality, but it wouldn’t be awful either.
Prediction: Pick ’em.
Colorado Christian vs. Simon Fraser @ WWU @ 5pm
As noted above: Colorado Christian is rarely projected to be that good, and they’re definitely not this year, so…
Prediction: SFU wins.
MSU-Billings vs. Adams State @ 6pm
Yes, they’re playing a second time. It was close yesterday, so let’s see if there’s a different result today.
Prediction: Pick ’em.
Michigan Tech vs. Alaska Fairbanks @ 6:15pm
Tech and Anchorage played close last night and we expect that Anchorage is a lot better than Fairbanks, so…
Prediction: Michigan Tech wins.
CU-Portland @ San Francisco State @ 7pm
While we expect that SFSU is better than Concordia, we’re not sure by how much and thus this could actually be a pretty interesting game. We’ve liked a lot of the numbers we’ve seen from the Cavs, so hopefully Dakota Ayala can/will stay in a bit longer and tonight the Cavs can get the win.
Prediction: SFSU wins.
Northern Michigan @ Alaska-Anchorage @ 8:30pm
Northern Michigan killed Alaska-Fairbanks last night, but UAA and UAF are quite different teams. While UAA registered a loss to Michigan Tech and we vaguely assume NMU is better… Maybe the Seawolves have improved too? There were some bad shooting numbers admittedly, and we think Jack Macdonald needs to see more minutes, so maybe he will.
Prediction: Pick ’em.
All for today. We’ll see you guys tomorrow morning to discuss these games.
Be safe, have fun, go GNAC!
Previewing Today & Tomorrow’s Games!
Sitting at SeaTac waiting to board our flight to… the Bay Area, of course!
And so let’s jump right into previewing the three games.
All times pacific.
Seattle Pacific @ Sonoma State @ 3pm
If there’s one thing that makes us proud to be an SPU alum, it’s how good they are at logistics. Both Sonoma State AND the CCAA website listed the game time as 5pm, when in reality it was at 3pm the whole time. The Seawolves of Sonoma recently got beat by the Seawolves of Anchorage, and while SPU is sitting at a paltry 1-4, those four losses include being to three of the projected top West Region teams, so… More understandable. The big question in this game is how will the young Falcons respond to an upper classmen-laden Sonoma team? We’ll find out.
Prediction: Pick ’em.
Northwest Nazarene @ Cal State LA @ 7pm
Yes, the conference website is listing screwy times again, woo-hoo. According to Cal State LA’s website the game is in fact at 7pm, not 8pm. The Cal State LA team… Is a bit of a mixed bag. They knocked-off the otherwise current Prince of the Region in Azusa Pacific, and then got blown out by East Bay who we’ll talk about in just a sec. We actually think that this NNU team is looking among the cream of the conference, but… What Cal State LA team is going to show up tonight?
Prediction: NNU wins.
East Bay @ Saint Martin’s @ 1pm
East Bay has a good record, but it’s against traditional basement dwellers and includes a loss to traditional basement dweller Academy of Art. They blew out Cal State LA, but… what does that mean? Not sure yet. SMU is brand new and super young, and like SPU they have a ton of losses, but they have been putting up some good numbers and they’re going to be relying on making the conference tournament and getting the autobid, so it’s still hard to say. This game should be decently interesting -and yes, we’ll be there. Maybe wearing a turkey costume, haven’t decided yet.
Prediction: Pick ’em.
It should be a good couple days of games. We’ll be at 2/3 and are super excited to get down to SMU for the first time this year, so definitely come say ‘hi.’
Be safe, have fun, go GNAC!
Non-Con Day 6.
Some surprises and so… Let’s talk about them.
UAF 78 @ Dixie State 90
Not a surprising result and we’re actually more excited about Dixie bouncing back than we are in caring about about Fairbanks losing/how they lost etc. UAF seemed hopeless last year, and then this year… We admittedly like a lot of their players, but Alaskans voted to defend their university system, so if they don’t care, why should we care?
Nook highlights: SHADEED SHABAZZ had 28 points while going 8-8 from the line; Spencer Sweet had 16 points; and Mawich Kachjaani somewhat bounced back with 11 boards. Off the bench Markel Banks had four boards; and Quinn Daugharty had five points.
The defense was lacking and OBJ didn’t play, which seems odd. Wonder if he’s battling an injury of some kind. Congrats to the Nooks on a solid outing.
NDNU 70 @ CU-PDX 71
WHAT. A. GAME. And exactly what we were expecting. Super exciting, super happy for the Cavs procuring the win.
Cav highlights: Russ Tillery had 12 points and five boards; Elroi Butler had 10 boards; Hunter Sweet had a whopping 20 points and six boards; and it appears Dakota Ayala broke his face yet again because he doesn’t have many stats, which is odd. Off the bench Caleb Larsen had nine points; and Dane Agost had four rebounds.
This win is oddly critical in that it was a hard fought victory that should help teach the Cavs how to win close games and instill confidence in them and whatnot. While most of the Pac-West and GNAC will scoff and go “It was against NDNU” you have to walk before you can run; NDNU is a peer to CU-Portland, and regardless as to where you sit in your conference, a victory over a peer is important.
Regis 69 @ WOU 90
A somewhat surprising result; we expected Regis to win, but we’ve also really liked a lot of the numbers WOU has put up, and so… Maybe not as surprising as it could have been? This WOU team is going to be hard to figure out because it’s so brand new. We’re excited to get to take a look at them in person, although it won’t happen until mid-January.
Wolves highlights: Jaylyn Richardson had 14 points; Cameron Cranston had 14 points and six boards; DALVEN BRUSHIER had 22 points on good shooting; and Darius Lubom had 14 points, five boards, and six assists for the all around excellence. Off the bench Tyreek Price shot well and had 11 points; and Zach Baugher lit things up with a full house of stats including 15 points, five boards, and four assists among other numbers.
Excited for the Wolves, not entirely sure what it means, but it is somewhere between a good and great win, none-the-less.
Yes, the posting has been a little bit more lackadaisical in November than we’d like it to be, but that happens every year. It’s especially bad this year because the only teams that are truly known are UAA, SFU, and WWU. Everyone else has some type of major variability, so we definitely feel like we know less this year than we usually would, and that says something because we rarely feel like we have a good grasp of anything during non-con.
The good news is conference play should be interesting and things will calm down and be back to a normal schedule; it’s just chaos right now, because… Nutso November.
We’ll see y’all on Tuesday for the Tuesday/Wednesday game previews.
Be safe, have fun, go GNAC.
Non-Con Day 1 + Day 2 Game Previews.
BASKETBALL IS OFFICIALLY BACK!!!!!!
And we had a blast last night and hope you did as well, so… Let’s talk about it.
CU-Portland 76 vs. San Bernardino 86
Actually not a bad game. Concordia kept it super respectable in the first half, despite breaking in a largely brand new team with a brand new coach. While they did ultimately get blown out, the numbers are largely fine and so at this point we’ll see what happens. No real inclination as to what type of team they are, but they didn’t come out and fall on their faces, which is something.
Cavs highlights: Dom Bradley had six boards; Caleb Larsen had 16 points and five fouls; and Hunter Sweet had 14 points and six boards. Off the bench Russell Tillery had nine points and five assists; Dane Agost had six points; and Barrett Keith had 12 points and seven boards.
Good effort Cavs, today against the Otters should be interesting/better.
MSU-Billings 77 vs. Fresno Pacific 73 in OT
This game honestly isn’t a good sign. Fresno Pacific is usually atrocious and we’re not thinking they’re going to be shooting high this year, so the fact that it was a big battle for the Yellowjackets is a big yikes. Judging by the numbers, not a lot of defense was played, and so to struggle in a game like this is really concerning, but… Ah well. First game of the year and the numbers were solid even if the defense sucked.
Yellowjacket highlights: Clarence Daniels had 15 points and seven boards; Psalm Maduakor had both a double double AND a full house among 11 points, 12 boards, two assists, one steal, three blocks, three fouls, and just one turnover; Jordan Lehrer had 10 boards; Tyler Green had six assists; Brendan Howard is immediately back in mid-season form finishing with 22 points and five boards; and off the bench Stevie James had six points.
Overall not the game they wanted, but they got the ‘W’ and a ‘W’ is a ‘W’ is a ‘W.’
Central Washington 93 vs. Monterey Bay 73
Pretty much as expected. It’s hard to gather really anything from this game because Monterey Bay tends to be so bad, but it was still a good game for the Wildcats to get out and run.
Wildcat highlights: Xavier Smith had 14 points and five boards; Matt Poquette had 11 points; and Tariq Woody had eight points. Off the bench Jeryn Lucas was on fire, going 9-10 and finishing with 24 points; Amari Stafford had eight points; Micah Pollard had nine points in just 11 minutes; and Marqus Gilson had eight points and seven boards.
Really pleased with the Wildcats bench play, curious about the number of minutes Matt Poquette got; he only was on the court for 21 minutes, and was it because he wasn’t playing D or was it because Rinta didn’t want to waste his legs in a blow-out? Matt was super promising last year as a frosh, so we shall see.
Simon Fraser 70 vs. UCSD 95
Not surprising in the slightest, and pretty par for the course. As much as we LOOOOVE SFU and believe in them wholeheartedly, this was the ideal result. Remember, Saint Martin’s got killed by the Tritons last year and still had a perfectly successful season, so really no big deal.
Clan highlights: Wil Balata had 20 points and five boards among a full house of stats; Mike Provenzano had 13 points on great shooting; and Jasdeep Singh was atrocious from the field but went 7-7 from the line. Off the bench David Penney had five points; and Mike Hannan had seven points.
Julian had a rough game, but UCSD has incredibly good post players, so that’s fine. Break in the season, all good. We’re very convinced that UCSD is all-world, so this game doesn’t really tell us much, but that’s a good thing. We’ll see how they do tonight against Dominguez Hills -that’s way more curious.
Western Washington 92 vs. Dominguez Hills 88
Dominguez Hills is supposed to be much improved this year, but that score is really concerning. Western’s numbers against DH were really good and yet it was still incredibly close, so… Let’s all hope that DH is genuinely good this year.
Viking highlights: D’Angelo Minnis had 22 points; Logan Schilder had 17 points; Jalen Green had 20 points and eight boards among a full house; Trevor Jasinsky shot really well and had 17 points and five boards; and Tucker Eenigenburg had six points off the bench.
The good news is that UW upset Baylor last night. The more curious news is that we’re still not sure UW being insanely good has any implication on WWU being atrocious against them. Really curious about the UCSD game tonight.
Seattle Pacific 53 vs. Chico State 75
The bad news is obviously that SPU got killed. The good news is that Chico looks really legitimate, their post is incredible, and as we knew going into the season: SPU is breaking in a brand new post.
Falcon highlights: Gavin Long went 5-7 from the line; and off the bench Jacob Medjo had nine points.
Woof. It was bad. It was really bad. But we’ll see if it actually means anything. The tournament being hosted at SPU this weekend is meant to be a West Region Tip-Off of sorts, and so this game doesn’t really mean a lot in terms of the context that says ‘oh SPU is awful, no way they’re making the Regional.’
Overall an insanely fun night of hoops and we look forward to it continuing tonight, and so… What are we thinking is going to happen tonight?
All times pacific.
Chaminade vs. Alaska-Fairbanks @ UAA @ 3:15pm
As noted in the season previews, we’re expecting that the dumpster fire Fairbanks was last year to continue this year, and so… Not a whole lot to say, but who knows? Maybe they’ll surprise us.
Prediction: Chaminade wins.
Monterey Bay vs. CU-Portland @ CWU @ 4pm
We’re hoping the Cavs get the win, meanwhile the CCAA is hoping the Otters get the win. Both teams are well matched in terms of conference positioning, but… We still think the Cavs hold the edge.
Prediction: CU-PDX wins.
Dominguez Hills vs. Simon Fraser @ WWU @ 5pm
Beyond curious about this game. It should be really good. Mike Hannan was surprisingly productive on the points front, we’re looking for Julian Roche and Jas to both kick into gear, and then Wil Balata and Mike Provenzano to keep it going. It should be a really good game, although we’re not sure on where we stand in regard to hoping Dominguez Hills is good this year vs. hoping Simon Fraser destroys them.
Prediction: Pick ’em.
MSU-Billings @ Point Loma @ 7:30pm
LOL. Good luck Billings! No but seriously, we like a lot of their guys, we just think Point Loma has been really solid every single year and so we’re betting on regeneration. We’re not sure what to think about Fresno Pacific being good vs. Billings being that bad, but…
Prediction: PLNU wins.
Cal Poly Pomona @ Seattle Pacific @ 7:30pm
Cal Poly Pomona lost a super close game to Azusa Pacific last night, but again: it’s hard to know. This tournament is fantastic and all four teams will be rooting for the other three all year, because it’s meant to be an SOS tournament, but… How bad is SPU? How good is Azusa? How good is Chico? How good is Cal Poly Pomona? Those are the questions and the fact is: We just don’t know yet. That said, there was a lot to be concerned about on the Falcon front last night and we’re just not sure how much they can do about it in 24 hours, so…
Prediction: Cal Poly Pomona wins.
San Bernardino @ Central Washington @ 8pm
This should be a good match-up. The teams are peers in their respective conferences and so it should be a super competitive game. Not entirely sure what to expect out of either team just because both were predicted to win yesterday and they did, so… This game should provide good information.
Prediction: Pick ’em.
Hawaii Pacific @ Alaska-Anchorage @ 8:30pm
Another game that projects super well. We’re hoping Anchorage wins, but there are never any guarantees and… First D2 game of the year, so we’ll see what happens. Should be good.
Prediction: Anchorage wins.
Yeah, we know, the game previews were boring. It’s early in the season, give us a break.
Tonight we’ll be at both the APU/Chico and SPU/Cal Poly Pomona game, so come say ‘hi’ if you want.
Be safe, have fun, go GNAC!
Previewing Today’s Games!
Gooood morning and welcome to the first day of the 2019-2020 season!
Despite the fact that of any day of games this year, this is the one we know the least about, let’s talk about it anyway!
All times pacific.
CU-Portland vs. San Bernardino @ CWU @ 2pm
On the one hand, CU-PDX lost Jarrett Gray, Cody Starr, and Jace Cates; on the other hand, they bring in one of the NNU assistants as their head coach. Losing Jarrett Gray obviously really hurts, but we feel okay about this team. CSUSB had a couple of really good years a while back, but since then hasn’t made the tournament nor much noise, so… It’ll be an uphill battle for the Cavs, but is potentially doable.
Prediction: San Bernadine wins a close one.
MSU-Billings vs. Fresno Pacific @ PLNU @ 2pm
This game should actually be really interesting. In terms of where the teams usually sit in their respective conferences, MSUB tends to sit higher, but not much higher. They should be decently well matched, although if Brendan Howard can continue his late season trajectory and Zharon Richmond can click back into gear, the Yellowjackets could look really good.
Prediction: MSUB wins.
Simon Fraser vs. UCSD @ WWU @ 5pm
This is UCSD’s final year of D2 and the entire Region is relying on them for strength-of-schedule, and thus this becomes a Boise State vs. Nevada situation; for the good of their season and strength of their schedule, SFU ideally loses a close one to UCSD. There are other games on the Tritons schedule that could be considered quality losses, but if UCSD loses to SFU right off the bat, our entire Region is going to likely pay for it all year.
Prediction: UCSD wins.
Central Washington vs. Monterey Bay @ 6pm
Monterey Bay was in the basement last year, and CWU should be much improved, so we’re pretty excited about this game. It should be good. Nice game to get the season started off with.
Prediction: CWU wins.
Seattle Pacific vs. Chico State @ 7pm
GAME OF THE NIGHT. Chico wasn’t as good as they normally are last year, and yet… How long will Chico be bad for? Our guess is probably not that long, and thus this game should be really competitive. SPU is a huge question mark, this is the game where that question mark starts to get answered. With how the Falcons schedule, the rest of the conference needs to be pulling for them to win all of their non-con; an SPU win here, helps literally every GNAC team.
Prediction: Pick ’em.
Western Washington vs. Dominguez Hills @ 7:30pm
DH has been getting better but they’re still not that great. This is an important statement win for the Vikings; take care of business, run them into the ground. Dominguez Hills could be seen as middle-pack, while WWU wants to be seen as the top of the pack, so… Go in and leave no doubt.
Prediction: WWU wins.
Not a ton to say in these previews just because it’s the first of the year. We’ll know a bit more tomorrow morning and so we’ll see you then!
Tonight we’ll be at SPU. As always: Come say ‘hi’; we’ll be sittin’ and we’ll be knittin’ =)
Be safe, have fun, go GNAC!
GNAC Men's Basketblog 