Today's games

[tsull]

I went to the WOU-MSU-Billings game, actually fairly close and entertaining. WOU and their chances. Benzel was great, he doesn't have a ton of help because I think most of it is on the bench.
We'll never know because we don't even have coaches quotes in the WOU in-house stories, everything is top secret. But starting point guard Meyers, key wings Frincke and Moore, not suited up; Cobb and Collins, two of their better players, on the bench and haven't played all year. WOU doesn't have to tell anyone why they're gone, but for the few remaining fans out there (like me) it might help lessen the confusion of what's going on with this program. They could say not available for action are these players ...

I don't care if it's injuries or academics, whatever, just tell the fans what is going on. It might give even a disgruntled fan like me a reason to give the team a bit of a free pass. Today it looked like two good guys, Benzel and Kwananji and a bunch of guys who should be reserves. They still hung in there, I'd just like to know why the team is down to 7 or 8 guys suited up with the rest on the bench. Just say not available instead of the never-ending silence coming from WOU athletics. Sheesh, coach won't even comment anymore.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

I hear the frustration Tsull; me too... Different story with the Nooks, but similar frustration. They came out and played pretty good in Bellingham tonight in the first half although I was skeptical that they could keep up in such an offensive game (57-52, Vikings at half). Then the Vikings started opening it up in the second, similarly to what they did with UAA on Thursday. There were so many fouls being called though that it started getting crazy and then somewhere between 5 and 6 minutes left to play UAF acting head coach Hedman was ejected, as was Mohamed. I'm not really sure what went down, but there was like 6 technicals called and a huge stoppage in play. A lot of frustration from the Nooks and while Mohamed tends to talk to the refs too much, I was a little shocked about how that all went down. Bereal fouled a WWU guy who was going for a dunk (it was a tough foul, but he was going for the ball and there were plenty of hard fouls going both ways the whole game), and then something came from the Western bench that had Mohamed and Hopkins upset and then UAF got 5 of the 6 technicals that were called... Usually I would be hard on them too; it's not a good look to have coaches and players ejected, but on the video and from what I saw while watching the game, I was as shocked as the Nooks were when the ejections started coming... I've only ever seen one other ejection and that was Rusty Osborn (UAA head coach who can be... *intense*), and that would have made coach Hedman and Mohamed look like they were having a casual conversation with the refs about a frustrating call or taunting from the Western bench. Whatever, IDK. And then after Drew was ejected, Milo, who started the year as volunteer assistant was suddenly in charge of everything; probably not the "ease into retirement" volunteer coaching gig he was thinking this season might be!

[tsull]

Weird stuff up at WWU, doesn't surprise me.

I think a college's top 4 sports are football (if you have a team), volleyball, men's basketball and women's basketball. Suddenly WOU is not good at any of them, women's hoops the best at .500 bolstered by some D3 and NAIA non-conference games. I'm wondering if the semi-new president is de-emphasizing athletics because I haven't seen it this bad in awhile.

[Goods]

Hey Northern, you mention Osborne, he was one of my favorite opposing coaches to visit CWU each year. Always intense, always had a great team.

IDK how a team gets multiple techs in such a short period of stoppage. That's either complete lack of control and rage/language OR wimpy refs.

Stat sheet looks like the St Martin's/MSUB Thursday game was a barn-burner. Both Billings men and women are having great seasons thus far.

[D2Rover]

Even a number of WWU fans thought the ejections were an extreme overreaction.

It is keeping in character with the Viking men to let a team hit their regulation season-high by 10 points and still blow them out.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Even a number of WWU fans thought the ejections were an extreme overreaction.

It is keeping in character with the Viking men to let a team hit their regulation season-high by 10 points and still blow them out.

Ha! Validation! Yeah, the ref that ejected Mohamed and Hedman appeared to be very upset and pretty hot and yet everything leading up to that seemed... par for the course in the GNAC??? Mohamed talks too much to the refs (for sure), but in 3 years here, he's also shown a lot of emotional growth, so I hope he will just put it behind him, learn from it and get focused on ball. SMU comes to a frigid Fairbanks this week, so the hurtin for the Nooks is likely to get worse before it gets better. And the ref that tossed Mohamed and Hedman calls games in Fairbanks somewhat regularly, so they better be real careful going forward.

I'm glad Goods has enjoyed when Osborn and team come to town. Osborn has had shouting matches with both Durham and Sparling in the UAF gym in the recent past years and in the case of the Sparling / Osborn shouting match, it was hollering down the sideline at the tops of their lungs with profuse language (like, little kids should not have been there)... And the refs, they just let the guys holler at each other. And Durham; he was never a fighter like that but man, Rusty can get under your skin, particularly if you reside in Fairbanks. Rusty's team is interesting this year though, I am more a fan of what they are doing than I usually am. And Kai Johnson on WWU; whew, that kid is talented. So far, he'd have my vote for POTY, from what I've seen so far. Hope there are some more good games this week!

[Goods]

WOU men beat Anchorage by 2 in Anchorage. Huge win for the Wolves. Same with the WOU women, who dominated the Seawolves in Anchorage by 20.

Looking forward to Saturday's games. WWU women taking on Billings. Both WOU teams going for the very rare Alaska sweep. St. Martin's men at Anchorage. WWU and NNU men trying to stay in the top 6 against each other.

[tsull]

Shocked WOU won both games, women's team's first win in Anchorage since 2003. Anytime the WOU men's team wins this year I'm shocked.

Great win by CWU men.

[tsull]

Back to reality for Western Oregon, they dropped two to Alaska Fairbanks the women and the men. No offense Northern, but Fairbanks had six wins between the two teams. We are just not good in basketball anymore in Monmouth. I'm realizing the decade of excellence under Brady Bergeson and Jim Shaw was lightning in a bottle.

[Goods]

Anchorage gets by #1 St. Martin's. Huge win for the Seawolves.

[Goods]

Looks like it's WWU and Billings at the top of the women's standings (WWU beat MSUB on Saturday). And Billings and St. Martin's on the men's side.

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

Coach Hopkins in the house for SPU vs. CWU https://twitter.com/CWUWildcatNtn/st...MMJ7DC_Tg&s=19

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

Bummer, CWU let that one slip away in the 2nd half. Missed some key shots and couldn't stop Shaw Anderson with his slick mid range jump shot. Not sure why CWU didn't play Dawson or Swillie more in the second half especially in the later minutes. I didn't agree with the lineup choice for CWU late in the game. Also for SPU, Kyle Luttinen also had a good game in front of Coach Hopkins, Keion Brooks Jr, and company, who funny enough were actually sitting right behind the CWU bench.

[D2Rover]

WWU up 4 inside a minute at SMU and blew it. Missed the front end of two one-and-ones, gave up an offensive rebound with a 1-point lead, then still had the ball tied in the last 10 seconds and got stripped at midcourt to give up a last-second layin.

Our women are still dominant.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

So, Simon Fraser just beat Saint Martin's... After watching Saint Martins struggle with Fairbanks a few weeks ago, followed by a loss in Anchorage, I knew they were ranked too high nationally. Now they fall at home to a team tied for the basement award. Not great news for the GNAC in terms of regional respect, but heckofa lot of fun for fans when any team can win any given night!