Games tonight

[tsull]

Looking forward to the Western Oregon-Northwest Nazarene game tonight, should be a good one since The Nighthawks play about a hundred times better at home then they do on the road. Crunch time right now in the season. Your takes on the other games?

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Re: Games tonight

Sorry. I've been slacking on posting the weeks games lately... Here's what's up in the GNAC:

Tuesday:

St. Martins pulled out a sweet OT victory over SPU. Nice sweep of SPU this year. They needed that to cement not just their numerical league placing, but the respect that they are a little different than the rest of the middle of the GNAC.

Thursday:

UAA 56 @ WWU 66 - I really can't afford to cheer for UAA at this point, but still I was sorta hoping they would pull the upset, but no...

UAF 51 @ SFU 83 - Nooks are crashing hard now-oh boy. SFU put on a clinic. They played too good to be upset for too long. They've endured a lot of chaos and losses in recent years, but that one they clearly deserved. The game on Saturday should be good with UAA, but now that I'm pointing it out, it probably won't be.

SMU 77 @ MSUB 60 - I'm adopting SMU as my dark horse for GNAC tourney at this point.

CU 76 @ CWU 80 -

WOU 70 @ NNU 67 - Yeah, I bet the Omlid/Jones match up was good Tsull.

Saturday:

UAF @ WWU - for WWU's senior night.

SPU @ MSUB -

WOU @ CWU - For CWU's senior night-ikes!

CU @ NNU - for NNU's senior night

UAA @ SFU - for SFU's senior night.

Billy~I'm wholeheartedly in agreement with the committee on ranking SMU way higher than WWU. SMU has got the team vibe to beat teams more talented and WWU has the team vibe of almost anybody beating them on a good night. Year after year after year WWU oozes talent and does so little with what many regard as region-contending talent. A lack of organization, defense, and underperforming have defined them for a number of years now. I don't think any GNACers were surprised last year at regionals when as our only representative, they lost pretty hard in the first round of regionals. The problem with their underperformance is that on any given night, they can light it up due to their talent, so they are still a major threat to throw a monkey wrench in the conference tourney-they've got the talent, so if they get hot, it's hard to stop them, but if they play mediocre, there are tons of region teams that can get them. Look at SMU's non-con record compared to WWU's non-con record and you can see exactly where value is placed in regional rankings... Look at SMU's league losses-mostly on the road, reasonable deals. WWU's league losses are mostly at home again. I've seen it a few times now, where some bad league losses can be overlooked by some stellar non-con schedules and wins. Not sure that's the perfect way to do it, but you can't just look at the league record either, cause each league is different from year to year... Would love to see SMU make the conference championship game and get a good first round game in at regionals. Pribble and those boys have worked hard for it and play fun ball.

[BillyBronco]

Re: Games tonight

Western Oregon should win easily this week. It's all about the regional rankings now. I'm curious to see what you guys think about st Martin's ahead 5 spots in the regional rankings above Western Washington even though Western ahead by 2 games in league. I posted my thoughts on the regional rankings in the previous thread. Huge game tonight in the CCAA with Chico st. Last stand tonight against#5 UCSD and #8 San Marcos Saturday. I'll try to update the blog as soon as chico game ends.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Re: Games tonight

Okay, for Saturday this is how we finish:

UAA 66 over SFU 64 - pretty sure this was the score, but forgive me if I'm off... I just saw the last minutes and know that UAA squeaked it out, with a strange ending of the refs trying to figure out when the clock actually starts on an intentionally missed FT by a team with 1.something seconds left on the clock...

NNU over CU 68

WOU 89 over CWU 59 - I think it's fair to say that the field drops off pretty significantly after WOU in the GNAC. Funny when you think about the preseason non-con schedule in which the GNAC did pretty good against the CCAA and PW.

SPU 74 over MSUB 60

WWU 70 over UAF 60

If you're into watching the homestretch of the GNAC before focusing on regionals, there are some interesting scenarios setting up for the 4th through 6th seed with many of those teams playing each other this week. Pressure-cooker situations for CWU, SPU, NNU, UAA, and UAA. CWU, NNU, and UAA need to win on the road. SPU needs to win at home. UAF has rival UAA at home for pressure cooker enough, then MSUB on the road. I still really don't like the fact that MSUB never has to play a Tuesday game and they get to sit home and scout their week's opponents every Tuesday night. It's brutal for every school having to do the 4 games in 8 days week in the GNAC, which everyone except for MSUB has to do. I especially don't like it for the Alaska schools because of the nature of their games against each other with the added factor of having to get from Alaska to Montana one day later. I would like to see Montana pull a Tuesday night game against the Alaska schools in order for the Alaska schools to get a Saturday night rivalry game back (Tuesdays suck for getting crowds out) and would ease some of the travel challenges for the Alaska schools, which have, by far, the most difficult travel in the league.