West Regional outlook

[Goods]

Well, shoot, Billings gets knocked off in the first round by Chico. Kind of back and forth until Chico took control early in the second half.

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

And UAA just lost to San Bernie in a defensive showdown. All up to CWU now!

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

APU nearly choked, but they slip though to the next round and knock out the tournament hosts! Next up is CWU game!

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

Wow what a performance by CWU! 17 3's, 30 FTs.

[tsull]

What a tremendous victory for the Wildcats. Excellent season for them.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

What I'm most angry about? That the NCAA is making us pay for the streams this year. I suppose it's one way to help cover some of the NIL deals, but $10 per game or $30 for everything before the Final Four. $50 if you want both the men and women.

Yeah, I'm frustrated with this too. I know it's the world we live in, but for me... I just like basketball. I've got no connection to any of the teams playing, except that I've seen the GNAC teams play through the season, so coughing up $50 feels like a lot. So I went cheaper and just coughed up $30 for the men's and wasn't able to watch the CWU game last night, due to some conflicts and now there's only one GNAC men's team still in it. I could watch the women, but I'd have to cough up more $ at this point to watch either of their games. And, let's be real, the stream is not that great. For the UAA game, they didn't even have a game score and clock in the feed, so you had to keep track of it via the announcer... The quality of the streams is generally really good in the GNAC now with the Youtube channels and I'm really glad they've all kept it free (and hope they will continue to do so). Okay, getting off my soapbox now.

I was a little worried this might happen to MSUB, as they were sort of doing the "Saint Martin's" fading thing at the end of the GNAC season too. I watched the whole UAA / CSUSB game and UAA was on the way to getting clobbered in the first half, but they managed to keep the score low enough to make it reasonable that they could come back and in classic fashion like we've seen them do this season, they came back and it was a really close finish, they just couldn't quite get over that last hump at the end. But man they played hard in that second half. Really glad CWU came through, because I probably would've been much more grumpy about the cost of the streams situation had they lost too! Perhaps I will cough up some more $ to watch the women's regional championship if either GNAC team makes it through today...

[tsull]

How about $5 a game? Good grief the NCAA thinks so highly of itself. The average fan does not know what the GNAC, CCAA, or PacWest are. The average fan doesn't know what division 2 is. But the average fan if they were sent an email about some games for $5 of the local team in their area, they might buy it.

There are times when I miss the NAIA, this is one of them.

Nevertheless, hoping Central Washington can get to the elite 8.

[Goods]

Hats off to CWU. First trip to the dance since 2011. First win in the dance since 2001. Got better as the season went on. Won the GNAC has a four seed, Won the first round as a five over a four seed. Lost to a very tall and "hot at the exact right time" Azusa Pacific team. Only 8 seed to win in the first round and now those Cougars are in the Sweet 16.

Hopefully CWU can build from this. We have a great core of freshmen, but lose three very key seniors.

I'm pulling for APU to knock off San Bernie.

As for the women, can't cheer Billings enough in their game against San Marcos tonight. Happy that the Yellowjackets knocked off tournament host Azusa on Saturday.

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

Brutal losing Hector to a dislocated shoulder just 3 minutes into the game vs. an APU team with size. CWU just keeping pace all game was a great effort despite the size mismatch. Great year for CWU and a really good young core to build on!

[Inkblot]

This is very similar to what happened with the GNAC and PacWest two years ago, with the roles reversed.

Bump.

[Goods]

I'm calling it an Azusa/Western Washington women's west final...........with Azusa getting the nod.

Well...........I was kinda...........WAY OFF on this one. But I'm glad a GNAC team in Billings made me incorrect!

[SGAstumpJ]

Well, we gave it a go and came up short. Still a crazy run for a team that started 1-8. Congrats to San Bernardino. And congrats to San Marcos. That was a great women's final tonight, and with the carnage we've seen in other regions, they should get a pretty good seed in Missouri

[Inkblot]

That was a great women's final tonight, and with the carnage we've seen in other regions, they should get a pretty good seed in Missouri

Actually, their RPI and PI are low compared to most of the other teams; they'll likely be seeded near the bottom.

[D2Rover]

I think San Marcos is probably middle of the pack for actual quality of team in the Elite Eight, but they'll wind up with the low seed. I think they'd match up with either team from the Gannon/Fayetteville matchup tonight pretty well, those teams won't have seen that level of post play (offense and defense) much this year. If they wind up with Texas Woman's, that's tougher, but a team that was basically level with Billings at the start of the year. Inkblot implied those were the two likely matchups on a different post.

[Goods]

Well, San Bernardino men and San Marcos women both won their Elite 8 matchups as seeded underdogs. As the eighth and lowest seed, San Marcos beat #1 seed Gannon 85-80 in OT and now play fifth seeded Minnesota State today. San Bernardino at the sixth spot beat #3 Gannon 99-85 and now play #2 Nova Southeastern, who won it all last year.

Interesting to point out that the ADs for Minnesota State, Gannon and Ferris State all put some miles on cars and/or airplanes these past couple of days. All three of those schools had both men's and women's teams in the Elite 8 in St. Joseph, Mo; and Evansville, Ind.