GNAC complaints about West Region rankings and a few other thoughts...

[northernGNAChoopfan]

So, I've heard some griping within the GNAC about the west region rankings this year. From the UAA Seapups, they quoted this statistic; the bottom three GNAC schools went 9-6 in non-con play against the West Region and went 10-50 in league play. Breaks down like this:

Concordia beat Academy of Art, San Fran SU, Bernadino, and Monterey Bay and they lost to CSLA and San Marcos. MSUB beat Cal State East Bay, Sonoma, and Hilo while losing to Chaminade and HPU. SFU beat Hilo and Notre Dame de Namur and they lost to APU and PLNU.

Is this cherry picking stats or is it interesting? Is non-con play over-rated in regional rankings or under-rated? Is the GNAC getting snubbed?

Just saw the PacWest all-conference team announcements. Seems like they are not afraid to give both POTY and DPOTY to the same guy; Hill of Dixie. Meanwhile now the Seapups are complaining that Ursery didn't get DPOTY too. Sheesh. Same thing as the Niles thing-maybe he was on the long list, but not on the short list. They shoulda just gave it to Omlid, who is the best defender and silenced everyone from this complaining.

http://thepacwest.com/news/2018/2/28...st-awards.aspx

Just throwing this out there. I don't have a strong opinion on the regional rankings, but have heard enough griping that maybe it would interesting to see what others thought?

[BillyBronco]

Re: GNAC complaints about West Region rankings and a few other thoughts...

I believe 7 teams are in the NCAA's. Western Oregon, cal Baptist, cal poly Pomona, Dixie St, st Martin's, pt Loma, ucsd and then the committee is gonna have to decide between Chico st or Azusa Pacific. I think they will choose Chico

[tsull]

Re: GNAC complaints about West Region rankings and a few other thoughts...

UAA played defense this year? :) Omlid should've got the award, I thought Ali was Western's best perimeter defender.

[Rob_AK]

Re: GNAC complaints about West Region rankings and a few other thoughts...

You guys are getting a little annoying. Enough of the Seapups nickname, or I will start talking about the last time the Nonooks beat us, except I can't remember that far back. Not sure who you were talking to from Anchorage that would be complaining with the rankings as UAA wouldn't have been ranked anyway (unless they were talking about women's basketball and that really isn't an issue anymore). And to answer the question, I thought the GNAC was down this year, but so is the rest of the region. Not sure where the GNAC should end up but the record of the bottom tier teams does illustrate how teams in the PacWest get to play a lot of cupcakes during the conference season, while the GNAC teams have a more difficult road to a similar record. Theoretically that should help in the performance Indicators I believe.

tsull, you are wrong as usual. UAA allowed 5 points per game fewer than your beloved Wolves, even with a nearly completely new roster and losing two of their better players. Not saying Usery deserved DPOY, but yes UAA played better defense than WOU (even though you think WOU had the two best defenders in the GNAC - were the rest of the guys really that weak?).

[tsull]

Re: GNAC complaints about West Region rankings and a few other thoughts...

You guys are getting a little annoying. Enough of the Seapups nickname, or I will start talking about the last time the Nonooks beat us, except I can't remember that far back. Not sure who you were talking to from Anchorage that would be complaining with the rankings as UAA wouldn't have been ranked anyway (unless they were talking about women's basketball and that really isn't an issue anymore). And to answer the question, I thought the GNAC was down this year, but so is the rest of the region. Not sure where the GNAC should end up but the record of the bottom tier teams does illustrate how teams in the PacWest get to play a lot of cupcakes during the conference season, while the GNAC teams have a more difficult road to a similar record. Theoretically that should help in the performance Indicators I believe.

tsull, you are wrong as usual. UAA allowed 5 points per game fewer than your beloved Wolves, even with a nearly completely new roster and losing two of their better players. Not saying Usery deserved DPOY, but yes UAA played better defense than WOU (even though you think WOU had the two best defenders in the GNAC - were the rest of the guys really that weak?).

I had a silly smiley face on my post, meaning I was joking. Seapups needs to go, of course. I'm still trying to figure out two years later how a limited UAA role player was deemed better than Avgi ... not by you, Rob. Again. :)

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Re: GNAC complaints about West Region rankings and a few other thoughts...

Okay. You're right. I've been a brat for a little longer than necessary. I will use the term Seawolves when referring to UAA again, at least in type on here.

I heard both the complaints about the lack of respect for the GNAC as well as the complaining from the Seawolves twitter feed. I went on there before the tournament started because they do a fair amount of PR outreach there. I was greeted to a video of coach Osborne stating said statistic about lack of respect for the GNAC this year. There were several comments about how Ursery got robbed of that award on the twitter feed as well.

I wonder which defense the rest of the West Region would rather try to score on to get into regionals; UAA or WOU? I gather the unanimous answer would be UAA.

The statistic about the bottom three GNAC schools is interesting though. I think it's worth considering that on the whole, the CCAA & PacWest have better non-con schedules. The Alaska schools don't do much of anything in non-con from a regional point earning perspective these days-there just is no money for it. The CCAA often stays at home in California and plays the better PacWest schools. Volleyball has a really great preseason tournament where the top 2 teams the previous season from each conference get together and play a preseason conference. Teams 3 & 4 do the same and on down the line. The end result is that all teams get some quality games, regardless of travel budgets or coaching preferences. Would be great fun to see that in basketball too?

Okay-good luck to all the teams today!