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  • How's your team doing?

    My team -- Western Oregon -- sucks big time, dropping 6 of the last 7. They play with no purpose. They lost leading scorer and best player Cam Cranston, but that was just for the last two games, one in which they won. They're not good, I wish they were, but they aren't. Loaded with a lot of returning players and some good talent, I had high hopes. Instead, they just aren't good and I'm not sure why. They turn the ball over a lot and are lost on defense. They try hard, most college teams do, but they just are really, really bad. I want coach Pifer to succeed, good guy, fits our school well. Just not sure what's going on.

    How is your team doing? If you're a St. Martin's fan you're probably loving life ... though I've never seen an SMU fan on this obscure board. Hope your team is doing better than mine.

  • #2
    Ugh.

    They generally keep it close but man the Seawolves make it tough. Weird mix of players. Not enough rebounding…struggle offensively when they can’t get out and run. Slow the game down and you can usually win it down the stretch on them.

    They play a 6’7 forward at center big minutes every game, who constantly seems outmatched but I guess he plays hard and is a pretty good passer. But man can teams score in the paint pretty easily if they can avoid the charge (UAA does have a couple guys that are good at getting that call). Or UAA has to collapse to help leaving shooters open which often burns them. (Which happened tonight, WWU with all its size played inside out and blistered them from 3)

    It really seems like when recruiting, options A, B and C went elsewhere so they just took the best guys they could get. It’s just a hodge podge of players. They have talent, it’s just not a roster that makes sense. And the coaches are overreacting by constantly juggling the rotation and bench. There is no consistency and continuity game in and game out…outside the center spot. Because the 6’7 guy, who averaged 5 minutes a game at Chaminade, is apparently untouchable while two 6’9 guys languish on the bench picking up scraps for minutes. Jesus…at least see what you have there instead of running into the same brick wall over and over. Maybe the 6’9 guys don’t require so much help defensively and less shooters will be open! Novel concept I know.

    Just not really enjoying this season of UAA basketball which is unfortunate because I think the conference is really winnable. I think the coaching staff has botched a lot of things this year, not Osbornes finest hour. And yes losing Wyche sucks…but the coaching staff had to know this was a possibility when they recruited him!

    Ok I’ll step off my soapbox now.

    Comment


    • #3
      Good info Anchorage, I'm still steamed at Wyche getting shut down by the NCAA while D1 football players are opting to get their 9th and 7th years of eligibility, which have been approved. Nevertheless, I hear you on the purpose or lack thereof in recruiting. I've gone to a few WOU games and there are times when their lineup on the floor doesn't have one 3-point shooter. It's just brick city. In today's jack-a-3 game (which I don't like that much), one has to have outside shooters. I do like that WOU tries to go inside-out first with some decent low-post guys, but it's not enough. They need to find shooters, they're out there in numbers in the prep and JC ranks.

      The league is not good, five of 10 teams have losing conference records, 7 of 10 teams are .500 or worse. NNU was picked, I think, as the pre-season favorite. They're under .500. SPU, St. Martin's and MSU-Billings are legit, that's about it. I saw WWU cough up 20+ turnovers in a narrow win at WOU (where the Wolves had 23 t.o.'s), so I'm not impressed with those guys either. CWU is a massive disappointment, I thought their coach by now would have them on track. I thought UAA would be much better.

      Not sure how the league can get better. The schools, IMO (here is my soapbox) needs to promote their product more in their local communities. Like I said before, one year I went to the WOU-SPU game in Seattle, two great teams that year. Had a tough time just finding the gym and parking. Few signs indicating where SPU was located; ZERO sports posters in local Queen Anne businesses. I've noticed most D2 schools do this, expecting the same fans to show up, while not doing anything to get new fans. I don't believe the schools want to work it.

      They also need to recruit better. WOU's emphasis on ignoring the state of Oregon and going to California and Texas for players has resulted in a 9-win season last year and a losing season this year, and in addition a complete lack of local interest from fans. Saint Martin's brought a team with three Salem prep players on it and they brought a bunch of fans. I thought that was embarrassing for WOU, but I'm sure they didn't care or even notice all those fans. I sure did. But we'll go about our way, recruiting all over the map to get marginal players, while ignoring the guys 15 miles away. Makes no sense.

      Standings

      2022-23 Men's Basketball
      MEN'S BASKETBALL CONF PCT OVERALL PCT HOME AWAY NEUTRAL STREAK
      Montana State Billings 7-0 1.000 13-4 .765 4-1 6-2 3-1 Won 5
      Seattle Pacific 6-1 .857 11-5 .688 6-0 3-4 2-1 Won 5
      Saint Martin's 5-1 .833 13-3 .813 8-1 3-1 2-1 Lost 1
      Western Washington 3-3 .500 10-6 .625 2-2 4-2 4-2 Won 1
      Northwest Nazarene 3-3 .500 6-8 .429 5-5 1-3 0-0 Won 2
      Alaska Anchorage 2-4 .333 8-7 .533 5-3 1-3 2-1 Lost 2
      Western Oregon 2-4 .333 5-8 .385 2-4 2-3 1-1 Lost 2
      Alaska 1-5 .167 6-8 .429 4-3 1-5 1-0 Lost 4
      Simon Fraser 1-5 .167 6-10 .375 3-4 1-5 2-1 Won 1
      Central Washington 1-5 .167 5-10 .333 4-3 1-3 0-4 Won 1
      Last edited by tsull; 01-13-2023, 11:26 AM.

      Comment


      • #4
        The CWU Men's team, not so good. The CWU Women's team, quite a bit better.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by tsull View Post
          Good info Anchorage, I'm still steamed at Wyche getting shut down by the NCAA while D1 football players are opting to get their 9th and 7th years of eligibility, which have been approved. Nevertheless, I hear you on the purpose or lack thereof in recruiting. I've gone to a few WOU games and there are times when their lineup on the floor doesn't have one 3-point shooter. It's just brick city. In today's jack-a-3 game (which I don't like that much), one has to have outside shooters. I do like that WOU tries to go inside-out first with some decent low-post guys, but it's not enough. They need to find shooters, they're out there in numbers in the prep and JC ranks.

          The league is not good, five of 10 teams have losing conference records, 7 of 10 teams are .500 or worse. NNU was picked, I think, as the pre-season favorite. They're under .500. SPU, St. Martin's and MSU-Billings are legit, that's about it. I saw WWU cough up 20+ turnovers in a narrow win at WOU (where the Wolves had 23 t.o.'s), so I'm not impressed with those guys either. CWU is a massive disappointment, I thought their coach by now would have them on track. I thought UAA would be much better.

          Not sure how the league can get better. The schools, IMO (here is my soapbox) needs to promote their product more in their local communities. Like I said before, one year I went to the WOU-SPU game in Seattle, two great teams that year. Had a tough time just finding the gym and parking. Few signs indicating where SPU was located; ZERO sports posters in local Queen Anne businesses. I've noticed most D2 schools do this, expecting the same fans to show up, while not doing anything to get new fans. I don't believe the schools want to work it.

          They also need to recruit better. WOU's emphasis on ignoring the state of Oregon and going to California and Texas for players has resulted in a 9-win season last year and a losing season this year, and in addition a complete lack of local interest from fans. Saint Martin's brought a team with three Salem prep players on it and they brought a bunch of fans. I thought that was embarrassing for WOU, but I'm sure they didn't care or even notice all those fans. I sure did. But we'll go about our way, recruiting all over the map to get marginal players, while ignoring the guys 15 miles away. Makes no sense.

          Standings

          2022-23 Men's Basketball
          MEN'S BASKETBALL CONF PCT OVERALL PCT HOME AWAY NEUTRAL STREAK
          Montana State Billings 7-0 1.000 13-4 .765 4-1 6-2 3-1 Won 5
          Seattle Pacific 6-1 .857 11-5 .688 6-0 3-4 2-1 Won 5
          Saint Martin's 5-1 .833 13-3 .813 8-1 3-1 2-1 Lost 1
          Western Washington 3-3 .500 10-6 .625 2-2 4-2 4-2 Won 1
          Northwest Nazarene 3-3 .500 6-8 .429 5-5 1-3 0-0 Won 2
          Alaska Anchorage 2-4 .333 8-7 .533 5-3 1-3 2-1 Lost 2
          Western Oregon 2-4 .333 5-8 .385 2-4 2-3 1-1 Lost 2
          Alaska 1-5 .167 6-8 .429 4-3 1-5 1-0 Lost 4
          Simon Fraser 1-5 .167 6-10 .375 3-4 1-5 2-1 Won 1
          Central Washington 1-5 .167 5-10 .333 4-3 1-3 0-4 Won 1

          The GNAC after the first week or two looked very promising, but yeah it’s not been great after that point. There is a couple teams like you say that could be decent in the western regionals but probably no one that can beat Loma or the cream of the CCCA.

          The thing that really clued me in that UAA was having a rough go of it, recruiting wise, was most of their signings were completed much later than normal. Everyone that came decided late which tells me they missed out on a lot of guys they were going after. I wonder if the team sees a bunch of transfers out after the year is over. This team doesn’t seem to be as tight knit as that 2 or 3 year run of the Oggie/Karlberg team that really stuck together. It feels more like the team from 4 years ago that lost a bunch of dudes to transfers right after the season ended. A fresh start this summer probably won’t be a bad thing.

          Comment


          • #6
            Mid January and it looks like a 3 team race in the GNAC (MSU-B, SPU, and St. Martin's) as these teams have clearly taken the early lead. My guess is that Mick Durham at Billings is going for broke with this squad as I think he's very close to retiring from basketball coaching after a long and successful career as a player and coach. His career as a coach is truly the definition of basketball lifer/journeyman coach. There is probably not a coach out West who has seen more than Mick at this point in his career.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by gratefuldad View Post
              Mid January and it looks like a 3 team race in the GNAC (MSU-B, SPU, and St. Martin's) as these teams have clearly taken the early lead. My guess is that Mick Durham at Billings is going for broke with this squad as I think he's very close to retiring from basketball coaching after a long and successful career as a player and coach. His career as a coach is truly the definition of basketball lifer/journeyman coach. There is probably not a coach out West who has seen more than Mick at this point in his career.
              Mick Durham is an excellent coach. I remember when one of my friends, a Bozeman resident and MSU booster, was complaining about Mick, saying he's not good enough, he's got to go. I told him, "Be careful what you wish for, he's pretty good." He disagreed with me. Two or three coaches later they finally got a guy who can win in Bozeman -- one of Mick's former players. MSU hired some local Montana small college coach after Mick, I think, he was bad. Then they hired an Oregon assistant, and he was horrible. I don't get a lot of these hires. Glad to see Durham doing well late in his career.

              * My WOU Wolves dropped two this weekend, including one to Durham's team today. Wow, WOU really is bad this year. They can't shoot or defend, which is obviously a bad combination. They can win dunk contests, don't care. Win some games, quit thinking your great when you're on two years of sucking.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by gratefuldad View Post
                Mid January and it looks like a 3 team race in the GNAC (MSU-B, SPU, and St. Martin's) as these teams have clearly taken the early lead. My guess is that Mick Durham at Billings is going for broke with this squad as I think he's very close to retiring from basketball coaching after a long and successful career as a player and coach. His career as a coach is truly the definition of basketball lifer/journeyman coach. There is probably not a coach out West who has seen more than Mick at this point in his career.
                I would agree here as well. Durham is hunting a title with his team this year and he's a good coach. I liked him when he was coaching UAF, but it's amazing how we nit-pick our coaches and every decision. I don't think MSUB will remain undefeated in league play, but I see them contending late in the season for sure; they are talented and Mick usually puts together good game plans.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by northernGNAChoopfan View Post

                  I would agree here as well. Durham is hunting a title with his team this year and he's a good coach. I liked him when he was coaching UAF, but it's amazing how we nit-pick our coaches and every decision. I don't think MSUB will remain undefeated in league play, but I see them contending late in the season for sure; they are talented and Mick usually puts together good game plans.
                  I would agree we nit-pick our coaches, I know I do. I don't get returning tons of players and having a bad season, and I think the WOU coach is good, definitely above average. I think something is wrong with the recruiting and philosophy of the program. I'm guessing I'm one of a few or the only one who has an opinion on this, then again I doubt anyone in the athletic dept. is reading this. I think we're a mess recruiting wise, we've ignored our backyard completely when historically we've gotten so many great players from Oregon. Small college sports is hyper-regional, even more so than D1. It's hard to get motivated to watch a bunch of Californians and Texans lose games ... or perhaps that's just me.

                  Overall the school has enrollment issues, they just really don't understand connecting with the locals, zero clue. Maybe the fourth president in 10 years and fourth A.D. in 12 years will steer things differently, but I doubt it. I'm more convinced the president and A.D. offices will vacate sooner rather than later. Men's and women's hoops needs changes ... and I think both coaches are good. Women's program needs more scholarships, I've heard. Not completely upset, just wish WOU would try harder to engage the fan base/alums and in turn study enrollment and what they can do to improve that. Rant over ... talking to myself, doubt anyone here cares and no one at WOU is reading it. Sorry for boring you.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Agree on Durham,

                    Didn’t go to the UAA-SF game, had some plumbing repairs on the house that needed done but I caught a little bit streaming while working. Not a great game. Two bad teams. UAA shouldn’t have struggled that much at home with Simon Fraser but that is just kind of where they are at this year.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      More on Wyche, though I think he should still be eligible, if it was touch and go, why not just hold him out of the first semester. He misses mostly non-con games, the rivalry game with UAF, a couple against some place called Midway, two vs. Portland Bible, and the Hawaii trip. Then UAA would get him for the second semester in important league games. Shouldn't be hard to figure that out, right?

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by tsull View Post
                        More on Wyche, though I think he should still be eligible, if it was touch and go, why not just hold him out of the first semester. He misses mostly non-con games, the rivalry game with UAF, a couple against some place called Midway, two vs. Portland Bible, and the Hawaii trip. Then UAA would get him for the second semester in important league games. Shouldn't be hard to figure that out, right?
                        yes that is how it should have been handled. The coaches obviously thought the appeal was a slam dunk but that’s on them to have done their homework with the NCAA eligibility office. Because if there is any doubt? There is no reason to play him the start of the season. But that’s just one of the many reasons I haven’t been too excited by the decisions of the coaching staff this season. A lot of wrong buttons being pushed in my opinion.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Anchorage View Post

                          yes that is how it should have been handled. The coaches obviously thought the appeal was a slam dunk but that’s on them to have done their homework with the NCAA eligibility office. Because if there is any doubt? There is no reason to play him the start of the season. But that’s just one of the many reasons I haven’t been too excited by the decisions of the coaching staff this season. A lot of wrong buttons being pushed in my opinion.
                          I wonder if it was too many semesters of school attended since his eligibility clock started ticking?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Good win WOU…welp at least the Seawolves showed a lot of heart in the second half but that deficit was too big to overcome. Also glad UAA played bigger tonight. If they are turn this season around at all, that will be a key.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Wolves almost blew a 24-point halftime lead. Happy for the win, but the team has a lot of question marks. Wonder if Cranston will return, our athletic dept. doesn't report on injuries, I guess. I think the pre-season conference player of the year being out is news, but maybe that's just me.

                              Comment

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