Tagged: d2

Conference Tourney Day #1!

Gooood morning! And welcome to Conference Tournament Day #1! It is going to be a positively amazing day of basketball, so let’s jump right in.

All times pacific.

#6 Central Washington @ #3 Saint Martin’s @ 1pm

So these two teams literally just met five days ago and SMU won by seven. Khalil Shabazz was out for CWU and we’re not sure whether or not he’ll be back with them today, but facts are facts and facts include that good teams find a way to win, and that Khalil rarely puts up good shooting percentages anyway, regardless as to how many points he gets, and so from an SMU perspective on Khalil, we’re not particularly concerned. Now, from an SMU perspective on playing CWU again… They’ve already beaten the Wildcats twice, and yet is this the time CWU gets the upset? Maybe. We’ll find out. Our instinct says that SMU is going to win again, but we’ll still say…

Prediction: Pick ‘em.

#5 Alaska-Anchorage “@“ #4 Seattle Pacific @ 3:15pm

The teams split during the regular season, each winning on the other’s home court in the final minutes. UAA beat SPU 67-62 and SPU beat UAA 57-54. If the Falcons want to advance in this tournament, they’re going to need to go back to playing Looney-style fundamental basketball, which they haven’t been consistently. If they do that, they have a good shot at procuring the autobid because one thing is for certain: talent is not a question. As for UAA, it should be amazing. They should have the crowd fully in their favor and it should be a great atmosphere. We believe in Coach Oz, even if we still feel like we have no idea regarding this team’s identity.

Prediction: Pick ‘em.

We’re sooo excited. We’d preview the women’s games, but we’d be talking out of our rear end, and so… Good luck to the women!

Previewing Today’s Games

Is it weird that we dream about figuring out what time games actually are? We had a dream UAF listed a game as being at 9:20, but we were in Fairbanks and mentally going “that’s so late! Why would they play a game that late? Is that pacific time in reality? Is that mountain time? Or is it actually Alaska time?” It was actually Alaska time and it still was late. Fun stuff.

All times pacific.

SPU @ WWU @ 3pm

On the one hand we’re like ‘oooh, intrigue!’ and it’s on Root Sports, which is very exciting, but… Will the game be very exciting? Potentially. Rivalry game. Tons of the guys played AAU together. Even without Tony Miller, we still think SPU has a really solid chance, but… There’s just no telling how this game’ll go. WWU could spend the entire time blowing out the Falcons, it could be close and SPU could win, it could be close and WWU could win, or SPU could even win comfortably. There’s just no telling.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

WOU @ UAA @ 6:15pm

Wolves vs. Seawolves. Another game that WOU needs to stay on their toes for. Yes Anchorage is worse than normal, but they’re used to being good and they play in that fancy arena to remind them that they are the pro sport of Anchorage (aside from the Seawolf hockey team) and so how cool would it be if they could upset the probable #1 seed in the West Region? Answer: Very cool for them, very irritating for us, so stay on it Wolves.

Prediction: WOU wins.

MSUB @ CWU @ 7pm

The Wildcats should win it. MSUB is on a bit of a losing streak, so they will want to come back from that, but… We haven’t been impressed with the Yellowjackets. The guys we expected to come out strong this year haven’t, and the two teams they beat to start off the year (Sonoma and East Bay) have been definitively not good, so our suspicion that their non-con didn’t mean much has proven correct thus far. Second half of conference play though, brand new Yellowjacket team? We’ll see.

Prediction: CWU wins.

SMU @ SFU @ 7pm

SMU is coming off of a fantastic win against the Vikings and the big thing for them is going to be staying on the gas and not having a let down game. The Saints are completely capable of losing this game, but… Hopefully they won’t. Is SFU capable of winning? Yes. Will they? Probably not.

Prediction: SMU wins.

CU-PDX @ UAF @ 8:30pm

We’re curious about this game. This is another game that could be a great opportunity for Concordia to get a win, and yet… UAF just got blown out by WOU, which is completely respectable, WOU is a super good team, but the Nooks are still going to want to get back on the right track and this Cavalier team should be a great way to do that.

Prediction: UAF wins.

Should be a fun day and night of games. We’ll be keeping an eye on all of it. Tweet at us!

Conference Game Day #11

AND WWU GOES DOWN!!!!!!!!!! Big congrats to SMU -we knew you could do it, we were literally wearing an SMU tee shirt yesterday because we believed in you guys so much.

Lots of fun games, really great night of basketball, so let’s talk about it!

CWU 99 @ NNU 89

Had we discussed this game beforehand it would have been a pick ’em and it honestly wasn’t; CWU was in control the whole time. A couple of guys went off and Khalil Shabazz was bumped to the bench but killed it, and so… We’ll be curious to see what the Wildcats do on Saturday. That said: it’s not who starts the game, but who finishes it.

Wildcat highlights: Jawan Stepney had 12 points; Jerome Bryant had five fouls; and Fuquan had yet another quiet game grabbing just seven boards. Off the bench was where the party truly started: Khalil had 21 points and six boards on great shooting; Sage Woodruff had 26 points; and Karsten Chaplik actually did something, scoring 12 points!

Nighthawk highlights: Obi Megwa had 17 points and five boards; Jayden Bezzant had 23 points and a full house on good shooting including being 6-6 from the line; and Maurice Jones had a solid game iwth 18 points and five boards among a full house of stats. Off the bench Nikola Prvulj had eight points and five fouls; and Spider had 11 points and eight boards.

Not a bad game from NNU, but they were never in it, and… This is an underrated rivalry. A lot of the travel partner “rivalries” in the GNAC are forced; this one is one of them, with NNU’s actual rival being College of Idaho & CWU’s rival obviously being WWU, and yet… The Cenazar rivalry is growing. Usually we base it on “chaos that can possibly happen” this was an oddly chaotic result because on paper they’re very well matched and yet CWU has dominated NNU this year. Fun stuff.

MSUB 76 @ NNU 86

MSUB would get back with in a possession and then NNU would pour on the gas and go up by a lot again. The score is pretty accurate; we were never concerned that NNU would lose, but we were questioning why we thought MSUB could possibly win. Go figure. We love and believe in every team, even when we shouldn’t? Probably. But usually we’re still pretty good about living in reality.

Yellowjacket highlights: Kendall Denham had five boards; Zack Rollins had 27 points and five fouls; off the bench Kobe Tereshima had 10 points on good free throw shooting; Zharon Richmond had 14 points and four blocks; and Daniel Shedden had five points.

Nighthawk highlights: Obi Megwa continues his steadfast reliability with 13 points and five boards; Jayden Bezzant started and had 20 points; Spider also started and had 11 boards; MAURICE JONES!!!!!!!!!! Still not as good of shooting as we’d prefer, but he did have a great game for anyone else, finishing with 22 points and fifteen boards among a full house; and off the bench Khalil Thompson had 12 points.

Congrats to the Nighthawks on a great performance -starting to turn up the heat at the right time; good luck to the Yellowjackets on bouncing back against the Wildcats.

CU-PDX 57 @ UAA 62

This was kind of a wacky game. Part of us in hindsight is like ‘we should have just straight-up predicted UAA to win’ because it was completely expected and at one point they led by 10 or so, but… The pace was a little odd. Much as we’re like “WE DON’T KNOW YOU!” about UAA, their response is “WE DON’T KNOW OURSELVES EITHER!” so it is what it is.

Cavalier highlights: Jarrett Gray had a good game with 13 points, six boards, and seven assists; Bryan Michaels had 15 points on solid shooting; Chris Edward had 12 points and nine boards; Taylor Harris had nine points; and off the bench Tyler Wells had four assists.

Seawolf highlights: DJ Ursery was on fire and finished wtih 20 points and six boards among a full house of stats; Jack Macdonald had eight points; nad off the bench Curtis Ryan had six points and six boards; while Josiah Wood had seven boards.

Concordia… Another game they had 4/4 players functioning and yet still couldn’t get the ‘W.’ And honestly: UAA’s numbers were terrible. So congrats to the Seawolves on the win.

SPU 80 @ SFU 81

We really should have made this game a pick ’em, but the fact is: SPU has zero excuse for losing. Yes, we get it: they’re down two starters, boo-frickety-hoo, it was one point and they still have a talent advantage over SFU even without those two starters. They should have won both games easily and yet they didn’t.

Falcon highlights: Coleman Wooten had 13 points; Nikhil Lizotte had nine points; Nathan Streufert had a whopping 16 boards; and Gavin Long had 26 points and seven boards

Clan highlights: Kedar Salam went off with 35 points; Iziah Shermen-Newsome had six boards; Michael Provenzano had nine points; and Tyrell Lewin had five boards. Off the bench Othniel Spence had 12 points and a full house; while Jordan Muir-Keung had five points. Congrats to Alex Vranjes on logging 5 trillion; rarely do you see it go beyond three, so that’s impressive.

Congrats to the Clan on a nice pull-together win against a talented SPU team.

SMU 94 @ WWU 82

WE’RE SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!! Not because we don’t love the Vikings, but because we also love the Saints a TON and we knew and wholeheartedly believed they could do it. Now, remember: ‘can’ and ‘will’ are two very different things and we also maintain that the Vikings are capable of blowing-out the Saints; they just didn’t. Another situation where WWU definitively has the talent advantage, and yet SMU got hot and worked together and got the win in Carver.  And they got the win emphatically. We love it so much.

Saint highlights: Luke Chavez had 23 points and seven boards; Matt Dahlen actually functioned as anticipated when he came into the program, finishing with 18 points, eight boards, six assists, among a full house of stats; Jordan Kitchen was on fire and finished with 11 points; Rhett Baerlocher had eight boards and five fouls; and EJ Boyce had six boards. Off the bench Jared Matthews had 13 points and four boards; BJ Standley had eight points; and Tavian Henderson had 12 points.

Viking highlights: Trey Drechsel did in fact bounce back with 22 points and five boards; Logan Schilder had nine points and six boards; Trevor Jasinsky had nine points and five fouls; and Daulton had a bit of a quiet night, finishing with a mere 13 points. Off the bench Brad Wallace lit up the team of his home residence, dropping 12 points and a smattering of field stats on great shooting; and Siaan Rojas had 11 points.

Great game from the Saints, but honestly not a bad game from the Vikings. On the bright side… The Vikings should now beat the pants off of SPU, we’re stoked to watch Daulton and hopefully Brett Kingma go off, and even if the the Falcons do manage to win they won’t have “streak-breaking” bragging rights.

WOU 81 @ UAF 54

Oh thank goodness, congrats to the Wolves on not overlooking the Nooks. What you’d be overlooking them to, we’re not entirely sure because UAA isn’t as good as they normally are this year… Maybe you’d be overlooking the Nooks to the next day’s practice? Hmmm.

Wolf highlights: Malik Morgan had 11 points; Tanner Omlid had eight points; Vince Boumann had 16 points and seven boards; and Riley Hawken had eight points and seven boards. Off the bench Dustin Triano had 13 points; and JJ Chirnside had seven points.

Nook highlights: Joe Lendway had 18 points and 10 boards for the double-double; Michael Kluting had 14 points and seven boards; and off the bench Jalon McCullough had six points.

Okay, this is admittedly a little bit hysterical because both teams put up completely pedestrian numbers and yet… WOU’s pedestrian numbers > UAF’s pedestrian numbers.

Fun night of basketball. We’re excited for Saturday’s games. Congrats to all on a great first night of the second half of conference play!

Previewing Tonight’s Games

Welcome to the second half of conference play! Lots of fun match-ups tonight, so let’s jump right in.

All times pacific.

MSUB @ NNU @ 6pm

We’re really looking forward to this game. Both teams are going to be looking to bounce back and we feel that they’re fairly well matched. Maurice Jones has been quiet as of late and so it’ll be interesting to see if he can put up some good numbers, especially against a team that has almost no center play anyway.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

CU-PDX @ UAA @ 6:15pm

Another game we think is super well-matched. That’s not an insult UAA -you’ve had some rough breaks too, and we still don’t feel like we know what you’re doing. We know that you’re solid, but how you compare to the Concordia guys… We’ll see. Concordia is a difficult team to prognosticate because we’ve seen so many of those guys play well, far better than we’ve seen most of the UAA guys play, and yet UAA has been able to put it together and Concordia hasn’t. Is this the game that Concordia gets a win? Probably not, but we’ll still say…

Prediction: Pick ’em.

SPU @ SFU @ 7pm

This game should be hysterical. The Falcons capped off their mess of last season with a loss at Simon Fraser, and so you’d think they’d be motivated but we’re not convinced. SPU has the talent to blow the pants off of SFU, but that seems unlikely because we think SFU’ll be gunning for them and SPU is going to be thinking about WWU and then go “oh shoot, we do need to actually pay attention to this game,” and then Nikhil’ll chuck up a bunch of terrible shots and it’ll be way closer than it should be.

Prediction: SPU wins.

SMU @ WWU @ 7pm

Underrated game. We’re excited about it. SMU got a nice come-from-behind win over Billings and the Vikings are probably already looking ahead to their big face-off with SPU on Saturday. Trey Drechsel just had a terrible game and so he’ll be looking to bounce back, meanwhile SMU’ll be looking to force him into difficult spots and contain him. We’ll see what happens. WWU is completely capable of blowing out SMU, but we’ll still say…

Prediction: Pick ’em.

WOU @ UAF @ 8:30pm

We’re excited about this game just because the Nooks are inevitably super excited about this game. They’re facing the best team in the conference on the tundra, it’s a probable overlook game, and they just got a nice win over Simon Fraser, while WOU is coming off of a typical game against NNU. That said, even when you account for the overlook factor, we just don’t see UAF winning. WOU regularly comes out flat and so it won’t surprise us if the game is close at the half, but we fully expect them to put it away at some point.

Prediction: WOU wins comfortably.

Great night of games. We can’t wait! Tweet at us.

Conference Game Day #10!!

WE’RE HALFWAY THROUGH CONFERENCE PLAY!!!!!!! Congrats on everyone for surviving. Yes, we’re behind on player-of-the-week, yes we intend to catch-up on it, yes we’ll see.

Alrighty, jumping right in:

SFU 57 @ UAF 74

The score pretty much tells the picture of the game. UAF went up and stayed on the gas and it was a good afternoon. SFU had turnover issues, although their shooting was largely fine, and the Nooks basically just played super smart. We love these numbers.

Clan highlights: Kedar Salaam had 15 points; Iziah Sherman-Newsome had eight points; Michael Provenzano had 12 points; JJ Pankratz had 11 points and five boards; and off the bench Jordan Mui-Keung had five points and four assists.

Nook highlights: Donny Wilder had 12 points on perfect shooting from the field and the line; Alex Baham had 16 points; Davis Kimble had eight poitns and five boards; Michael Kluting had a double-double with 14 points and 10 boards; and off the bench Joe Lendway had nine points.

Ridiculously proud of the Nanooks on this one -they had almost as many turnovers, but they were spread out and their shooting was solid, they were making lots of really smart choices, and just playing good basketball.

CWU 111 @ CU-PDX 100 in 2OT

HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!!!!! This game saw Concordia come out swinging and they were up by a TON, but CWU just kept swimming, and sure enough by the end of the first half were completely back in it. After that the game was back and forth and back and forth. Interestingly enough the score was in the 70s at the end of regulation; it was in OT and 2OT that shots really started falling and it skyrocketed. Very fun stuff. Amazing game, arguably one of the best of the year so far.

Wildcat highlights: Malik Montoya had 20 points and five fouls; Jawan Stepney had a massive 45 points and seven assists, including being 15-18 from the line; Coleman Sparling started and had eight boards; Fuquan Niles was again contained and had a mere eight boards and four assists; and off the bench Karsten Chaplik had five points; while Austin Houtz had 12 points.

Cav highlights: Jarrett Gray had 27 points including being 10-10 from the line and grabbing five boards and dropping five dimes; Bryan Michaels was out of his mind and had 32 points; Chris Edward had a flawless full house including 12 points, six boards, five fouls, and zero turnovers among other numbers; Taylor Harris had nine points; and Hunter Sweet had 12 points.

We love these numbers if for no other reason than it proves our hypothesis. CU-PDX had four guys firing on all cylinders, they tied the rebounding number of CWU, they had fewer turnovers, they were at home, CWU was missing a starter, and yet the Cavs still couldn’t win. That is really curious. Congrats on a great night Concordia and congrats to the Wildcats on digging deep -we can’t wait to root against you on Saturday.

NNU 64 @ WOU 82

For a bit it was a game and then WOU WOU’d and it wasn’t.

Nighthawk highlights: Obi had five boards; Sam Roth had five boards; and Maurice Jones had 15 points and four boards.

Wolf highlights: Malik Morgan had 11 points and five assists; Tanner Omlid had 10 points, six boards, and eight assists; Vince Boumann had nine boards; Ali had seven boards; and Riley Hawken had 12 boards. Off the bench Dustin Triano had 12 points; and JJ Chirnside had 18 points.

The WOU numbers crack us up because Ali’s shooting numbers are highly questionable, but one of the best parts of being up by so much is that coaches can let guys shoot through slumps and it is productive to do so. It’s not that we disagree with the concept -it’s that the right parameters have to be met in order to make it worth it as far as we’re concerned. Good luck to the Nighthawks in bouncing back against the Wildcats, and congrats to the Wolves on a game well played.

MSUB 69 @ SMU 75

Ridiculously proud of SMU for this one. MSUB was up by a fair amount at the half, but the Saints didn’t panic, kept chipping away, and sure enough got back on top and didn’t let go.

Yellowjacket highlights: Kobe Tereshima started; Kendall Denham had 16 points; Zharon Richmond had nine points; Zack Rollins had 17 points and five boards; and Daniel Shedden also started and had nine points. Off the bench Tyler Green had six points; and Kamal Tall had eight boards.

Saint highlights: Luke Chavez put up incredible numbers including 15 points, nine boards, seven assists, and five steals while playing 39 minutes -um, whoa; Matt Dahlen had 13 points; Jordan Kitchen had 14 points and five boards; Rhett Baerlocher had six boards; EJ Boyce had 11 points; and off the bench Tavian Henderson had seven points.

Again: nicely done to Billings on getting out ahead, but good job to the Saints on persevering to the victory.

WWU 70 @ UAA 61

This game was one of those where you never expected WWU to lose and yet at the same time you wondered if they would just because it wasn’t going as well as it could have and UAA was probably still feeling rather ornery because one win is not enough.

Viking highlights: Trey Drechsel had 10 boards; Logan Schilder shot what a 7 footer in this conference should shoot and ended up with 15 points and nine boards, which is still actually rather unsatisfying; Daulton Hommes had 13 points and five blocks; and off the bench Brett Kingma had five points; while Siaan Rojas had 10 points and seven boards.

Seawolf highlights: DJ Ursery had five boards; Brennan Rymer had six assists; and Brian Pearson had seven boards. Off the bench Kylan Osborne had 10 points; Curtis Ryan had five boards; and Josiah Wood had 11 points.

Pedestrian game on all sides, but congrats to the Viks on getting it done.

Congrats to all teams on making it to the halfway point. As always: drink lots of water, get lots of sleep; it’s what’s gonna save you in this last third or so of the season.

Conference Game Day #7!

What a fun night of games! Don’t let the scores fool you -every game was close.

WWU 69 @ SFU 54

SFU was in it for a good chunk of the first half and then WWU walked it up and walked away and was for the most part able to stay there. Teamwork makes the dream work. Live by the streaky shooter, die by the streaky shooter.

Viking highlights: Trey Drechsel had 13 boards; Siaan Rojas started and had eight boards and 10 points; Deandre Dickson had 13 boards and 17 points -holy guacamole-; Trevor Jasinsky had 13 points; and Daulton Hommes had a “quiet night” with a full house including 11 points and two blocks. Off the bench Brett Kingma had seven points and three steals; and Brad Wallace had six points and four assists.

Clan highlights: Kedar Salam had 26 points and seven boards.

Woof. The fact that the Clan led at one point proves how fickle things were. Once the Vikings kicked into gear it was all over. Congrats to the Viks on a good win and good luck to SFU in bouncing back.

SFU 73 @ MSUB 78

SFU led by 15 at one point. Once again: Live by the streaky shooter, die by the streaky shooter. This is an interesting result because as noted: SFU has better shooters but MSUB has the better fundamentals and… fundamentals won the day. Again.

Clan highlights: Kedar Salam had 22 points and five boards; and Michael Provenzano had five assists; Tyrell Lewin had 17 points and seven boards; and off the bench Othniel Spence had 16 points.

Yellowjacket highlights: Zharon Richmond had 18 points, nine boards, and a full house; and Tyler Green had 22 points and a full house. Off the bench Kobe Tereshima had 11 points and five boards; Kamal Tall had five points; and Daniel Shedden had eight points and five boards.

The “all underachieving team” can basically be made up of players from these two teams. Michael Provenzano, JJ Pankratz, Kendall Denham, and Kamal Tall are all guys we’ve written and highlighted regularly in the past and yet none of them have done much this year. Still -fun game to watch, congrats to both teams on valiant effort.

UAF 80 @ NNU 74

THIS GAME WAS SO MUCH FUN. Despite Maurice Jones being gone, which may or may not have been what made it fun. We’re withholding judgment because you never know and it was still back and forth the whole time. One team would be up for a bit and you’d think “okay, cruise control?” Hoooo no, absolutely not. Went until the final minute or so and then UAF kept the lead, but it was still exciting even then because… Was NNU gonna pull late game theatrics? Didn’t happen, but it very plausibly could have.

Nanook highlights: DONNY WILDER ACTUALLY FUNCTIONED and had 12 points and seven boards; Alex Baham had 17 points, five boards, and four assists; Davis Kimball had 16 points and five assists; and Tre Eisenhut started and had 11 points. Off the bench Amenofis Mitchell had 10 points; and Michael Kluting had six points.

Nighthawk highlights: Obi Megwa had 16 points, six boards, and six assists; Sam Roth had eight boards; and Jayden Bezzant had 24 points. Off the bench Dylan Brink had eight points; Felix White had six points; and Spider Adetunji had five points and eight boards.

Congrats to both teams on a game well played.

UAA 71 @ CWU 72 in OT

What’s funny about this game, is it actually wasn’t that exciting for huge stretches. At one point CWU led by 10 and it was like “alright, they’re rolling.” Nooope. Not with Anchorage around. Poor Anchorage and their growing pains; they’ve lost their last three games by a combined 10 points. Zoinks. It gets better? No, no question: the experience comes and it does get better. While yes,  you’d be winning with Jacob, the thing is we’ve seen you grow so much as a team without him, that it may be painful but it’s probably worth it.

Seawolf highlights: DJ Ursery had six boards; Josiah Wood had five boards and eight assists; Jack MacDonald had 17 points; and Brian Peason had six boards and eight points. Off the bench Malik Clements had 11 points; and Drew Peterson had 12 points.

Wildcat highlights: Khalil Shabazz had five boards; Jawan Stepney had 14 points and six assists; and Fuquan Niles was contained with 11 boards and a mere eight points. Off the bench Naim Ladd had 12 points; Sage Woodruff had seven boards and 13 points; and Cameron Williams had seven points.

Again: fun game and pretty good in terms of not taking mind-blowingly stupid shots. There were definitely some, but it was particular players and not any type of epidemic. Congrats to both teams.

CU-PDX 72 @ SPU 74

Lord knows what went wrong in the final minute, but SMU now knows that they best watch their backs because they’re now the Cavs latest target to get their first GNAC win of the year.

Cav highlights: Jarrett Gray had 27 points and eight boards; Bryan Michaels had nine points; Chris Edward had 13 points and four blocks; Hunter Sweet started and had 10 points and five boards; and off the bench Cody Starr had five boards.

Falcon highlights: Coleman Wooten had five boards; Nikhil Lizotte had 10 points; Gabe Colosimo had 10 points; Nathan Streufert had eight points and nine boards; and Gavin Long had 15 points. Off the bench Braden Olsen had seven points; and Harry Cavell had 14 points and seven boards among a full house.

And another team Cougs it against SPU. SPU was missing TWO STARTERS and the Cavs couldn’t pull it off. Interesting. Or SPU is just that good. Who knows?

WOU 79 @ SMU 71

OH MY GOD!!!!!!! This game was fairly nuts. The Wolves were in fact running and Tanner Omlid played a whopping 34 minutes and was on track for it even before SMU came roaring back from a 17 point deficit. There was some fun play from the Wolves bench, but… Never turn your back on the Saints, even if their numbers are collectively laughable.

Wolf highlights: Tanner Omlid had 19 points and six boards among a full house; Vince Boumann had 10 points and five boards; and Ali Faruq-Bey had 14 points. Off the bench Janvier Alaby had seven points and four boards; and Darius Luborn had five points.

Saint highlights: Luke Chavez had 13 points; and off the bench Jared Matthews had seven points; Jordan Kitchen had eight points and five boards; BJ Standley had 14 points and four boards; and Cameron Chatwin continues to get his legs back with six points.

Really excited about the second match-up for these two teams and it was fun watching Tanner Omlid actually play.

Great night of hoops, congrats to all on a great effort.

Game previews will be up tomorrow at 11am.

POW Noms: Split Play.

These are the Player-of-the-Week nominations from the conference games that were played in the week prior to and after the Christmas break.

UAF: Michael Kluting
UAA: N/A —> Donated to Trey Drechsel of WWU.
SFU: JJ Pankratz
WWU: Daulton Hommes
SPU: Nathan Streufert
SMU: Luke Chavez & Tavian Henderson
CWU: N/A —> Donated to Deandre Dickson of WWU.
NNU: Obi Megwa
MSUB: Zharon Richmond
CU-PDX: Christopher Edward
WOU: N/A —> Donated to Tony Miller of SPU.

A couple of reminders about nominations:

  • One good game does not a player of the week make. We use what’s essentially the production stat and there are minimums for each game that need to be hit. It doesn’t matter how well a guy plays in one game if he doesn’t do anything in the other.
  • We do take into account minutes restrictions and can modify it as needed; in this particular case, Tanner Omlid’s shooting from the field meant modifying the number of minutes played was moot. He’s wholly capable of hitting the minimums even while restricted to 20 minutes a night.

Winner’ll be up in an hour.

Conference Game Day #6

Good morning and what a fantastic night of basketball!

SMU 71 @ UAF 78

We may have been wrong, but the score actually makes us really happy because it is such a good match-up and such a great confidence boost for UAF to win this game. This is the type of team they want to be working toward, and so seeing that you can win that way and beat a team similar to yourselves but farther along in the process is amazing. Never underestimate that home tundra advantage. The score is a little misleading -UAF was leading the vast majority of the way and SMU stayed in it, but never really got close.

Saint highlights: Rhett Baerlocher had a good game, finishing with 16 points and seven boards; Luke Chavez finished with 18 points and seven boards; and off the bench Jared Matthews had five points; and Robert Little had seven points and six boards.

Nook highlights: Donny Wilder had nine points and five boards; Alex Baham had 16 points and five boards while shooting 50% from three; Davis Kimball had 11 points; Tre Eisenhut started and had 11 points and seven assists; and Joe Lendway was lights out going 6-7 and grabbing a full house among 12 points, six boards, and a smattering of other stats. Off the bench Michael Kluting had 14 points and a whopping 12 boards, while Amenofis Mitchell had five points.

So SMU had a bad day while UAF played the best basketball we’ve seen them play so far. That’s great news for both teams -SMU still didn’t get blown out on the road, and UAF was able to win convincingly when they work as a team. All good news. Good job to both teams.

NNU 82 @ SFU 81

Really happy about this game, two insanely well matched teams, we can’t wait for the second round at NNU, although our feeling is that one won’t be quite as close -never underestimate the home nest advantage of NNU.

Nighthawk highlights: Obi Megwa had a good game with 27 points and six assists; Sam Roth shot lights out and finished with 10 points and five boards; Marko Lepovic was cold but productive, finishing with 7 boards and three assists despite zero points; Maurice Jones had a double-double with 24 points and 11 boards. No real bench play, but no doubt some good relief minutes.

Clan highlights: Kedar Salam had 27 points along with six boards and five assists; Iziah Sherman-Newsome had 15 points and 11 boards; JJ Pankratz impressed with 14 points; and off the bench Othniel Spence continued his consistency wtih 13 points.

Really solid game by both teams, we’re super ridiculously pleased with both performances, it was a fun game and we feel like both teams grew from it. This could actually turn into an underrated rivalry -they tend to be around the same location in the conference standings regardless as to how good or bad the year is, and so now that both are good it could be pretty fun.

CWU 67 @ WWU 77

It was a game for SO long and then the Vikings eventually pulled away just enough. But CWU was in it, oh ho ho was CWU in it for an insanely long time, despite atrociously bad numbers. Nicely done Wildcats, you’ll get ’em next time.

Wildcat highlights: Jerome Bryant had 13 points; Fuquan Niles was kept quiet with 12 boards and five fouls. Off the bench was where the Wildcats really saw their big play with Naim Ladd having 14 points and Sage Woodruff 13.

Viking highlights: Trey Drechsel had 18 points and 11 boards while going 8-8 from the line; Logan Schilder had eight boards; Deandre Dickson had 13 boards and a full house; Trevor Jasinsky had 12 points; and Daulton Hommes had 17 points and 10 boards. The Vikings had no real bench play, but did get some good relief minutes especially via Brad Wallace.

Rivalry games gonna rivalry game. Congrats to both teams. Can’t wait for the next one!

MSUB 68 @ WOU 92

There we go. Nicely done Wolves. Minutes restrictionnnn.

Yellowjacket highlights: Zack Rollins had 12 points; and off the bench Kobe Tereshima continues to impress with 17 points and six boards; Zack Lessinger had six points; Hafeez Abdul had seven points and four boards; and Daniel Shedden had 12 points and five fouls.

Wolf highlights: Malik Morgan made noise with 11 points; Tanner Omlid had 10 points, five boards, and a perfect full house; Vince Boumann had eight points; and Riley Hawken had 12 points and nine boards. Off the bench Demetrius Trammell had 14 points (oooh!); Janvier Alaby had 11 points; Darius Luborn had six points; and JJ Chirnside had 10 points, five boards, and five assists.

There we go Wolves, back on it. Big games this week against Spartin, so this is really good to see.

SPU 57 @ UAA 54

So the Falcons get the Alaska sweep. Good times. No Jacob Lampkin. Do they get it if he plays? Probably not, but who knows. UAA put up some really bad numbers and SPU still struggled to beat them, so it is what it is. They got the W and that’s what matters.

Falcon highlights: Coleman Wooten had 15 points and nine boards; Gabe Colosimo had six boards; Nathan Streufert had 10 points and 11 boards for the double-double; and off the bench Hunter Eisenhower had seven points.

Seawolf highlights: Jack Macdonald had 12 points; Brian Pearson had nine boards; and off the bench DJ Ursery had a fantastic game with 23 points and seven boards; while Josiah Wood had five points.

Interesting game of basketball if not a good game. This is youth showing through on the part of the Seawolves. At some point they’ll start winning these close games. Definitely easier to do it at home, but Coach Oz usually likes life on hard mode, so why not do it on the road? Coach Oz is our spirit animal as it comes to GNAC coaches, so we rib him regularly, but he’s bae.

Really fun night of basketball, lots of great moments. We’ll get caught up on POW for the split week of GNAC play and then this week tomorrow, so that’ll be exciting. Congrats to all teams on hard fought games well played.

Previewing Today’s Games

All times pacific.

SMU @ UAF @ 3pm

Interesting match-up in the sense that SMU has done what UAF should be trying to do in terms of type of coaching, recruiting, and execution and all of that, but UAF is definitely far behind where the Saints are now. SMU shouldn’t have an issue.

Prediction: SMU wins big.

NNU @ SFU @ 7pm

We’re sooo curious about this game because both teams are better than normal and both have been really up and down. We think NNU has shown a much better ability as it comes to fundamentals, but we’re not sure that this is the type of game where fundamentals are going to win the day. We think SFU is going to try and push the pace, although not quite to the breakneck pace of the Sango Niang days. Still, it should be an interesting game. The evidence suggests that NNU is capable of blowing out SFU, but SFU is also capable of blowing out NNU.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

CWU @ WWU @ 7pm

RIVALRY GAME!!!!!!! Last year we were on Team Meteor, this year we’re straight up rooting for WWU, although it’s counterintuitive because we really want their 5-0 start ended. We’ll see what happens. Logan getting manhandled by Fuquan? Could be fun. We feel bad for anyone actually attending this game -we’ve been in the new Carver and while the building seemingly got a huge facelift, the gym didn’t really change at all except we’re convinced they did something to make it way louder. When we were there it was maybe 25% full; this game should be packed and hearing damage will probably be the operative.

Prediction: Pick ’em, although WWU should win fairly convincingly.

MSUB @ WOU @ 7:30pm

MSUB got a nice win over CU-PDX, but WOU really needs a bounce back game. Yes, the Wolves need a bounce back game after winning by 11. It’s how it’s done, not what the score is. We used to try and convince our alma mater of that… They never believed us, just told us to stop whining because we’d won by 25. WOU made the Final Four. Our alma mater hasn’t been able to get past the Sweet 16. Hmmm… We think WOU knows what’s up.

Prediction: MSUB hangs around for a while, but WOU ultimately wins comfortably.

SPU @ UAA @ 8pm

This game should be incredible. SPU just killed UAF, UAA just lost a close one to SMU. We’re not sure what’s going on with Lampkin, because frankly every game will be played regardless as to what’s going on with him and so we haven’t looked into the issue, but… It will be seen. SPU’s style is basically to play big, and so not only do they have the talent advantage, while they don’t have a direct counter for him, even if he returns it shouldn’t require any type of game plan shift.

Prediction: SPU should win, but we’ll still say it’s a pick ’em.

Again: it should be a really fun night of basketball and we can’t wait! We’ll catch-up with you guys in the morning.

Be safe, have fun, go GNAC!

Previewing Tonight’s Games

Welcome to the second “real” weekend of GNAC play.

All times pacific.

CWU @ SFU @ 7pm

SFU just Coug’d it against SPU, CWU just beat D3 Linfield. While CWU is the better team, it’s a close match-up and so if SFU can learn from their mistakes and not send 95% free throw shooters to the line while leading by two in the final seconds, we think it could be a super competitive game.

Prediction: Pick ’em.

NNU @ WWU @ 7pm

We’re torn on whether or not this should be a good game. NNU looked good early in the season and they have good players but they haven’t been good as of late. WWU is 4-0 in conference. On the one hand there’s a thought that it still should be a good game if NNU can finally wake up, but on the other hand it’s like “Are you joking? NNU isn’t gonna wake up at WWU of all places.”

Prediction: It’s either a pick ’em, or a blow-out; WWU won’t simply win comfortably.

MSUB @ CU-PDX @ 7:30pm

Concordia is currently 0-5 in conference and while MSUB is back on the upswing… It would be a really good game for Concordia to get back into the groove of things. Concordia is irritating us because we look at where they are in the standings and then we think of their player make-up and we’re like “this can’t be happening, it makes no sense, this is the strongest team they’ve had since they’ve been in the conference,” so… We keep expecting something to happen. As with Simon Fraser in other years: something will happen eventually.

Prediction: Pick ’em, but we also won’t be surprised if MSUB straight-up wins.

SPU @ UAF @ 8pm

Who knows? SPU just had a team Coug it against them, meanwhile having as perfect of numbers as we’ve ever seen. The numbers say they should have won by 30 and yet they still almost lost, and so… On the one hand, it should be hard for UAF to win if the Falcons put up numbers like that; on the other hand, they’re now on the road so why shouldn’t the Nooks get the ‘W’?

Prediction: SPU comes away with the ‘W,’ but no inclination on the margin.

SMU @ UAA @ 8pm

We’re super excited for this game because we think SMU has no real good solution for Jacob Lampkin himself, and yet the overall team should have no problem with UAA. Jacob Lampkin has been singlehandedly carrying the Seawolves and so if he has the type of game we know he’s capable of (30 & 15), we think SMU is going down. If he doesn’t and it’s more teamwork reliant, then SMU shouldn’t have any type of problem with the Seawolves and it should be a great middle-of-the-season “grinding,” game.

Prediction: SMU wins comfortably OR the Seawolves win a close one. We don’t think if it’s close it’ll favor SMU.

Overall it should be a good night. Good luck to all of the teams.

Be safe, have fun, go GNAC!