Regionals: WOU wrap-up ... and everyone is good

[tsull]

WOU took a 21-point early lead on Point Loma, hardest I've seen them play all year for the first 10-12 minutes. Seems like they were on a mission. But Point Loma kept chipping away at the lead, cutting it to 5 late in the game. Ziggy Satterthwaite, Point Loma's big 6-7 post, is a load underneath; heck the entire PLNU team is a load underneath, they outrebounded the Wolves 42-29. Western struggled to keep the Lions off the boards. Where the Wolves won was in the turnover dept., pestering the Lions into 22 turnovers while committing only 12 themselves -- but a couple of those 12 were careless, soft high passes near the end. Omlid took over the game, only 1 board on the night (seems like he had more), but 22 points, the ball needs to be in his hands at most times. I see why Malik Morgan got defensive player of the year in the GNAC, just a ball hawk, all over the place, two steals, 10 points, six assists, forced some turnovers on the Lion guards. Wish they had him for another year. Boughman was a load underneath continuing his good play from the GNAC tourney. At one point he was glaring at coaches and players on the Lions' bench, the team he played for last year. To his credit, he got his picture taken with a number of former teammates at the end of the game. I don't think there's any love lost between him and coach Looney, or coach Looney and the WOU program. So be it. A nice crowd of 1,642 showed up for the game ... hoping for more tonight.

* Didn't see the earlier games, but saw St. Martin's fans and players high-fiving in the hallways, figuring they won. They eyeball well, at least when I was walking by, big and tall. You don't get to regionals and win your first game by sucking. Everyone is good here, guy in the stands said Cal Poly Pomona has talent, but looked like they didn't want to be there. Not sure on that, I didn't see the game. Fans were telling me APU and Cal Baptist looked great; a former collegiate assistant at a local D3 school sitting next to me who had watched a few games said, "This is great basketball." Yep, it sure is.

[lv2hoop]

Re: Regionals: WOU wrap-up ... and everyone is good

WOU took a 21-point early lead on Point Loma, hardest I've seen them play all year for the first 10-12 minutes. Seems like they were on a mission. But Point Loma kept chipping away at the lead, cutting it to 5 late in the game. Ziggy Satterthwaite, Point Loma's big 6-7 post, is a load underneath; heck the entire PLNU team is a load underneath, they outrebounded the Wolves 42-29. Western struggled to keep the Lions off the boards. Where the Wolves won was in the turnover dept., pestering the Lions into 22 turnovers while committing only 12 themselves -- but a couple of those 12 were careless, soft high passes near the end. Omlid took over the game, only 1 board on the night (seems like he had more), but 22 points, the ball needs to be in his hands at most times. I see why Malik Morgan got defensive player of the year in the GNAC, just a ball hawk, all over the place, two steals, 10 points, six assists, forced some turnovers on the Lion guards. Wish they had him for another year. Boughman was a load underneath continuing his good play from the GNAC tourney. At one point he was glaring at coaches and players on the Lions' bench, the team he played for last year. To his credit, he got his picture taken with a number of former teammates at the end of the game. I don't think there's any love lost between him and coach Looney, or coach Looney and the WOU program. So be it. A nice crowd of 1,642 showed up for the game ... hoping for more tonight.

* Didn't see the earlier games, but saw St. Martin's fans and players high-fiving in the hallways, figuring they won. They eyeball well, at least when I was walking by, big and tall. You don't get to regionals and win your first game by sucking. Everyone is good here, guy in the stands said Cal Poly Pomona has talent, but looked like they didn't want to be there. Not sure on that, I didn't see the game. Fans were telling me APU and Cal Baptist looked great; a former collegiate assistant at a local D3 school sitting next to me who had watched a few games said, "This is great basketball." Yep, it sure is.

Enjoy the ride Tsull. You've got a great program down there in Monmouth. Omlid will go down as one of the all-time great West Region D2 players for certain. He reminds me of Adam Klie who was a terror at UCSD these past few seasons.