Fairbanks Beats WWU with 6 Players!

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

https://www.gnacsports.com/mbasketba...ka-02-03-2022/

Wow! Fairbanks upsets Western with just ONE sub! And with no Shabazz! UW transfer Barnard scored 31 points on EIGHT 3-pointers

[tsull]

Props to UAF, which has sort of underachieved this year with all their so-called great D1 transfers, but it is a solid win. That said, this is the worst the league has been in a decade or more. Everyone is mediocre and some (WOU) are really bad. Horrible loss by WWU, make a 6-player team tired, press, run them into the ground.

Not sure what the league needs to do to get better. The D1 transfer thing is hit and miss, mostly miss, because most guys are dropping down to get shots, points, and minutes, not victories. Get some really good preps and JC guys, develop them.

[Anchorage]

[Anchorage]

[tsull]

Some great answer here, thanks Anchorage and Northern. I'm not sure what the answer is. I'll give a few examples and correct me if I'm wrong:

* UAF probably took the wrong guys. Don't get me wrong, I like Shabazz and Sparling's kid sounds like he plays hard. I might have stopped there with transfers.
* St. Martin's took two guys from Portland State, who were hungry to play and win after not playing much for a sub-par program like PSU.
* Anchorage seems to do better with building up preps and adding a few transfers.
* NNU has made a living off of good JC guys, Arms and Ezekiel Alley, but both transferred to D1, at least Alley played his senior year. But NNU's best player this year (IMO) is George Reidy, who will be a 5th year senior eventually.
* Yes, WOU's best years were built on JC transfers (Nichols), some D2 transfers, and D1 (Omlid from Army but he's from Monmouth). Avgi, Wiley, and others were guys who played through the program. They've gone heavy JC of late and look at the results.
* CWU has a mix of D1 transfers and freshman, mixed results.

I thought the magic pill might be the JC route because D1 has pretty much gone away from that area and focused on the portal. But WOU went JC heavy recently and things are sliding fast. There needs to be a combination of transfers and freshmen. I'm starting to believe more in the SPU model -- which I didn't put up above -- and that is to recruit good local prep players and build them up. WOU in many sports has gone away from recruiting Oregon -- football still does a good job there, 25 in-state kids in 2021 recruiting class -- and I think that's a mistake. They've lost their identity ... that's for another post, another day.

I'm not sure what the answer is, I tend to lean towards the SPU model.

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

UAF just beat SFU with 6 men again. Barnard, Huerta, and Sparling stepping it up with Shabazz and Thomas both out

[Anchorage]

WWU and SFU with a rough Alaska trip.

UAA proving to be a different team at home remaining undefeated. Setting up a very important clash with Billings on Tuesday.

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

UAF holds Billings to 36 points. Sparling put up 20/11 for his 3rd consecutive d-d. Shabazz was back. Came off the bench to score 5 points with 5 steals in 24 minutes

[Inkblot]

Man, I go out on a limb and rank MSUB, and this is how they repay me?

[Anchorage]

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Not sure how much you can conclude from these last Fairbanks games. MSUB couldn't hit the broadside of a barn last night. Shadeed struggled mightily, Fairbanks is playing a very different style of ball as of these last 3 games and they don't win without Sparling being an absolute beast on the boards. WWU and SFU had pretty lousy outings too. I think Fairbanks changed their game a bit with the small team and these teams didn't travel well to Alaska... UAF will go out on the road now where it's always much harder to play the game you plan to play. I suspect UAA will throttle MSUB too, pending MSUB's abilities to at least hit the side of the barn tonight. Not sure any of these games in Alaska forecast too much of anything though. Lots of teams don't travel well to Alaska and the tournament is not up here and since everyone is going to the tournament this year, not traveling well in Alaska doesn't matter much, unless you are a Nook or a Seawolf of course.

Not saying I wasn't happy with the games, but WWU, SFU and MSUB all played terribly. UAF's team with those 6 players was a very different style of ball than they have previously played. I really liked that. Shadeed tried to adjust to that style last night, passing when he undeniably had an open lane and layup. I give him credit for trying to fit back into a team that found success while he was out. I'm sure the tides will change at CWU and NNU this week where it will be more about their ability to travel well and stay with the plan than the other team's ability to do so. At this point, the GNAC tourney seems wide open to me; the team that has got it together the most at that time, gets a bit of a lucky bounce here and there will be well-positioned to win it. I can't say I'd eliminate any team from that position at this point and I'd also struggle to name a favorite too.