Newspaper story on St. Martin's

[tsull]

Good story here from The Olympian (Olympia, Washington newspaper) on St. Martin's. They're very talented and balanced this year, will be tough to beat for any team:

https://www.theolympian.com/sports/c...223423530.html

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Re: Newspaper story on St. Martin's

Great article on the Saint's. I guess I didn't realize that some of their new players are one year transfers, giving them even more senior's than they had coming back from last year. I do think they are the team to beat in the GNAC, but they are not unbeatable in the league. After most of non-con is done and one week of league play, I think the league is looking a bit different this year. The preseason coaches poll had the teams ranked in this order:

1) SMU
2) SPU
3) WOU
4) WWU
5) UAA
6) MSUB
7) NNU
8) CWU
9) UAF
10) CU-P
11) SFU

I think I'm questioning SPU, UAA, MSUB, & NNU the most... Tending to think that SPU & UAA should be lower in the finishing marks and MSUB & NNU higher. Maybe WWU should be lower too and I think the jury is still out for CWU and UAF. Maybe 5th is about right for UAA though? Rusty usually squeaks them into the top 6 by late February even when his teams struggle, so maybe that's not that off. Don't think SPU is gonna pull off second, but who knows. It'll be interesting to see if MSUB & NNU can go the distance, because it's not that surprising that they've started hot, but going the distance in league play and minimizing bad nights can be hard, but they look like they've got the potential if they can do the things that good teams do when you get tired. I think CWU will probably pull into the finish in better than 8th place, and just like the season is long for those who start at the top, they've got a while to start pulling off wins (although it doesn't start easy for them in 2019 as they will spend New Year's even in Nampa and play on New Years Day against the red hot NNU team...). Not sure about UAF. They've done better in close games to start this year than they have in a long time, finding ways to win down the stretch multiple times and keeping games that seemed out of hand closer even in losses too. They still feel pretty wild though, so I'll probably wait a few more games to see how they stack up against Concordia and Western Oregon next week before really being able to see where their upper and lower limits lie (after all, they played MSUB and UAA thus far and those two teams are still big question marks too, so I think it's hard to say what the games with MSUB, UAA, & UAF really mean yet...). That's my longwinded way of saying I'm excited for the season to kick back up and that the games have to be played because the rankings probably will shuffle! :smile-big: Hope you all have a fun and safe New Year; hopefully there will be some action here next week!

[tsull]

Re: Newspaper story on St. Martin's

When the pre-season GNAC player of the year (Chavez) is the 2nd/3rd leading scorer, your team is good. Chavez is damn tough, too. He was my pick for player of the year. It won't be easy, but I do think St. Martin's is the heavy favorite to win the conference. WOU is better than I thought after losing four starters to graduation, including the West Coast player of the year in Omlid. I do think NNU is the real deal this year, newcomer Adonis Arms (great name) is really tough and it they beat SPU on the road by one and lost by 2 at St. Martin's. Again, as I've said numerous times, I'm in a show-me mode with them as they often have talent but don't close the deal. Newer/stable/excellent coach is the difference now, IMO.

Not sure on the other teams, though despite some early losses, WWU will be tough.