GNAC Preseason Poll Released

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

http://www.gnacsports.com/mbasketbal...-championship/

Pretty much expect the same 6 teams that are always in the running to be in the running again. I see why UAA is #1 with Wiggs, Hammell, and other good returning starters. WWU should have a rebound year with some good returners and Dickson coming in.

But I am just a bit surprised that CWU and UAF are ahead of WOU and SPU. WOU is super underrated in this poll. Yes they lost Avgi and some other good starters. But they do have significant returners still, and a good group of transfers. And they have Coach Shaw. SPU lost their coach and the UW transfer center, but having both Miller bros is a huge, huge gain. Both those teams will be in the running. CWU is picked to finish 3rd despite losing their 4 best players. They have so many newcomers, it is hard to tell how they will end up playing. Stepney, Hunter, and Niles are all good transfers though.

Also lots of new 6'11" to 7 foot centers, with WOU, CWU, UAA, and UAF all having a new big guy. Should be fun to see Fred Jorg get challenged in the paint.

This season's champ will be a toss up, IMO. Will be very exciting. I will likely be living in Bellingham from Jan thru April, so I will surely be going to lots of WWU games to root on whoever is playing against WWU.

[lv2hoop]

Re: GNAC Preseason Poll Released

They're way off on St. Martin's, who returns everyone from a fairly solid team from last year. They won 6 of their last 7 GNAC games and nobody would've wanted to face them had they made it into the league tourney.

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

Re: GNAC Preseason Poll Released

Here are my rankings. Top 5 or so are tough to predict the order of, but I stand firm on having SPU and WOU in there ahead of WWU, CWU and UAF.

UAA- Wiggs and all those starters returning
WOU- Lost starters, but still good returners with some D1 transfers
SPU- Miller bros
WWU- They gotta do better than last year
CWU- Will be tough to replace those 4 starters, but good newcomers could make instant impact
UAF- Same boat as CWU. Lost starters but a ton of newcomers
SMU- They return most players and with new coach are on the rise
MSUB- Returning lots of starters, but still not on same level as the teams out West
NNU- Lost starters and lots of new faces
CUP- Still transitioning to NCAA D2 level. Losing Hawken was a blow
SFU- No explanation needed here

[tsull]

Re: GNAC Preseason Poll Released

WOU's JC big man signee is not on the roster; my guess is they go with a smaller lineup. Losing Avgi, Alexander, and Nichols is huge. I think the Wolves will be good, but there are a lot of question marks.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Re: GNAC Preseason Poll Released

The interesting thing I see in the poll is the points earned by 3rd - 6th (CWU with 83, UAF with 79, SPU with 73 & WOU with 71). That means, between all the coaches, they really aren't sure about the middle-upper part of the GNAC either. And even 7th and 8th don't drop off much with MSUB @ 63 and SMU with 55. Who knows how much time the coaches put into this vote either. They have a lot better things to be doing than this right now and they all know WWU was voted pretty solidly to win it last year and they struggled to make the GNAC tourney in 6th. I think a lot of us had WOU a bit higher in our minds, but after they put up their roster, a lot of folks might have changed their thinking on them this year. I guess I thought SMU would come in a bit higher, certainly above MSUB, but I'm not sure that I saw them as moving way up into the top 3 either. I'm really not sure about WWU, CWU, SPU or WOU now though, and really UAF either. All those teams have a LOT of figuring out to do (so does UAA, but they know more about their pieces right now than most of the rest of the league, what they do with their pieces remains to be seen). Should be really interesting here soon!

Question... Where did Strickland and Drayton go?

[tsull]

Re: GNAC Preseason Poll Released

Question... Where did Strickland and Drayton go?

Not sure ... I don't usually check Twitter accounts but went to Strickland's to see if he transferred anywhere. The most I could glean was he is living in Portland having girlfriend problems ... and was too proud/aloof to go to the championship ring ceremony at the football game last week. "I don't need a cermony to know what I did." Newsflash: There are very few times in your entire life where you will be recognized for your achievements, show up and accept them. Fine player, dad is an excellent coach, and Twitter doesn't tell the soul of a man, but after reading it I'm not bummed he's gone.

Drayton? A real puzzle. Hopefully he didn't flush a promising college career away. I couldn't find anything recent on him.

[CCAA_Fanatic]

Re: GNAC Preseason Poll Released

Drayton? A real puzzle. Hopefully he didn't flush a promising college career away. I couldn't find anything recent on him.

Drayton is back at Barstow College for his sophomore year. Heard he visited Pomona and a Hawaii school in the last month. Not sure what happened with WOU. Maybe there were academic issues, so he had to go back to JC for another year.

[tsull]

Re: GNAC Preseason Poll Released

Drayton is back at Barstow College for his sophomore year. Heard he visited Pomona and a Hawaii school in the last month. Not sure what happened with WOU. Maybe there were academic issues, so he had to go back to JC for another year.

I was hoping he would return to Barstow, not for my sake or WOU's sake, but for his sake in that he can finish his schooling there and move on. I know in D1 one has to have an Associate's Degree from a JC if a person is not a qualifier out of high school. I don't know D2 rules. As a WOU fan I'm disappointed because it sounds like he's quite a talent. I'm sure he'll land somewhere next year, has excellent size and is a fine rebounder.