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  • logjam continues in GNAC

    With the three teams who were tied for 2nd in the GNAC all losing last night and WOU beating WWU, now there are 4 teams tied for 2nd place and Central and UAA tied for 6th (and playing Saturday). It'll be interesting to see how it all gets sorted out. Not a great start to a 4 game home stand for UAF last night. Low on energy and not dictating much on defense and the rebounding differential says everything about where the will to win and energy were last night. Central did what they needed to do and as Sparling said in the paper too, UAF just didn't seem to want to put the ball on the ground and dribble-drive. Central certainly was deserving of the win. I was surprised with such poor play on UAF's part that they were still in position to try for a tie and OT at the end of regulation. My guess would be Central will need to have more offensive fire-power to get by Anchorage and games down there always seem to be called quite a bit tighter, so they'll have to keep that in mind both on offense and defense (I thought several times last night UAF defenders could've just put their arms straight up in the air and they would've got the charge several times; Central was doing exactly what UAF needed to do in pushing it hard inside)...

    Anyhow, congrats to WOU.

  • #2
    WOU is excellent when they get out and play defense. They struggled a bit in the first half shooting but still maintained leads because they defended. Low post John Morrill-Keeler had a fine game, he gives them an inside dimension when he plays well, they have enough 3-point bombers. Really enjoy beating WWU, makes my day.

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    • #3
      Sheesh. UAF is back to preseason playing style. They've gotten away from what was working and let CWU and NNU dictate both games at home this week. They had the easiest and clearest path to the GNAC tourney if not a first round bye in snagging the #2 spot and at this point, I am wondering if they are going to make the tournament now. Central seems very hungry for it and the collapse that UAF had today is worrisome of being a season collapse and not just something of a day. We'll see, but they sure as heck did not put themselves in a place to have some confidence going in to Tuesday with UAA. On the other hand, it is hard to see how NNU had such a rough start to the season, they looked like an athletic, physical and deep team that's playing well.

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      • #4
        UAA completely changed the trajectory of their season with 2 come from behind OT victories in a row, they would be done right now without those wins. A very encouraging sign of grit and resolve from those guys. And Brimhall came back! I previously had heard that injuries had shut him down but he was back out there Saturday for the first time in weeks. Good to see these guys fighting and not throwing in the towel when the chips were down.
        Last edited by Anchorage; 02-16-2020, 03:05 PM.

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        • #5
          The league certainly is interesting this year, not many bad teams, perhaps one great team in SPU. I watched the WOU-SFU game online yesterday (great feed, announcing, cameras, very nice) and the Wolves had a tough time winning that home game. SFU has added a lot of talent, they're much better than they've been in the past. WOU's young backups are going to be good in the future, but when veteran point guard Darius Lubom goes to the bench for a rest, things go south in a hurry. Nice game from wing Riley Hamilton, 14 points off the bench. Not sure how good WOU is this year, pleased so far with the record and place in the standings, just curious if they can fight their way through the league tourney.

          * As noted, UAA is a great OT team (beat WOU in OT this year) and almost won all their OT games this month, they will be super tough down the road. Didn't see NNU blowing out Alaska, but when Shabazz goose eggs from the field and 3-point line, they're not going to win. (Happens to everyone, Oregon State as a TEAM went 1-for-26 from 3-point land yesterday in a blowout loss to Colorado ... even those vaunted D-1 guys can't shoot.) NNU is excellent when Bezzant is playing well, and his 25 points, 11 of 14/3 of 3 from 3 performance was excellent. Dude is a great player, maybe the best in the conference, but missed the first half of the season. I'm always surprised when people leave him open. Should be great down the stretch -- except SPU, they've got things locked up.

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          • #6
            Last edited by Anchorage; 02-19-2020, 01:36 AM.

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            • #7
              It's hard to keep pace with UAA if you can't hit at 3 with the same pace. UAF did a nice job getting it inside and recovering from such a shaky showing on Saturday. The upside is they won the turnover battle, points in the paint and fast breaks which were all key to their earlier success this season. I feel like it was a similar story earlier this season in Anchorage when UAA hit even more threes. I personally detest the 3 pointer; not a lot of other sports count more points for certain ways of scoring and I dislike how it changes the game, but I'm fully aware that nothing I think about it is going to change it; it's a part of todays game which means the lows are bricking from 3 and the highs are hitting. I think Rusty found his rotation last night with only playing about 6 guys; they are playing well at the right time.

              I take nothing away from the players and assistant coaches for UAA, but I cannot mention that the real story of the night was Rusty embarrassing himself and UAA during the last 4 minutes of the game and being sent out to a persistent and loud booing from all over the gymnasium. That guy always has to make it about himself rather than let the basketball define the night; at one point he was talking smack to fans sitting behind his bench. I really thought the refs could have taken more control of the coaching staffs and told them to sit down and shut up or get ejected. Again, the majority of the players went out of their way to show sportsmanship at the end of the game last night, but unfortunately Rusty doesn't know what that means. Lots of fans leaving talking about how shameful that was. The rilvary on the floor has digressed to one of toxicity between coaches. Sparling didn't know that harder than recruiting to Fairbanks would be dealing with Rusty... At one point Karlberg looks up into the bleachers while his coach was hollering at UAF's bench and the look on his face said it all; "shut up man; why can't this be about basketball"...

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              • #8
                What happened to Brimhall? Knee injury? He was my pre-season GNAC player of the year.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by tsull View Post
                  What happened to Brimhall? Knee injury? He was my pre-season GNAC player of the year.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by northernGNAChoopfan View Post

                    It's hard to keep pace with UAA if you can't hit at 3 with the same pace. UAF did a nice job getting it inside and recovering from such a shaky showing on Saturday. The upside is they won the turnover battle, points in the paint and fast breaks which were all key to their earlier success this season. I feel like it was a similar story earlier this season in Anchorage when UAA hit even more threes. I personally detest the 3 pointer; not a lot of other sports count more points for certain ways of scoring and I dislike how it changes the game, but I'm fully aware that nothing I think about it is going to change it; it's a part of todays game which means the lows are bricking from 3 and the highs are hitting. I think Rusty found his rotation last night with only playing about 6 guys; they are playing well at the right time.

                    I take nothing away from the players and assistant coaches for UAA, but I cannot mention that the real story of the night was Rusty embarrassing himself and UAA during the last 4 minutes of the game and being sent out to a persistent and loud booing from all over the gymnasium. That guy always has to make it about himself rather than let the basketball define the night; at one point he was talking smack to fans sitting behind his bench. I really thought the refs could have taken more control of the coaching staffs and told them to sit down and shut up or get ejected. Again, the majority of the players went out of their way to show sportsmanship at the end of the game last night, but unfortunately Rusty doesn't know what that means. Lots of fans leaving talking about how shameful that was. The rilvary on the floor has digressed to one of toxicity between coaches. Sparling didn't know that harder than recruiting to Fairbanks would be dealing with Rusty... At one point Karlberg looks up into the bleachers while his coach was hollering at UAF's bench and the look on his face said it all; "shut up man; why can't this be about basketball"...
                    Last edited by Anchorage; 02-20-2020, 06:13 PM.

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