February GNAC games

[tsull]

UAF beats lowly WOU.

[tsull]

WOU takes round two of the futility cup with a 69-68 win over UAA. Good times.

I can't believe Western Oregon men won a game. I'm sure in the athletic director's eyes this warrants a contract extension for the coach. Of course she simply can't handle the women's scandal right now so I don't know what to expect. Good win for the Wolves I guess. I'm pretty impressed with Fairbanks four overtime victory at St Martin's. I wish we could get news on the St Martin's coach, I hope he's okay.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

And for Alaska readers; UAF had 4 Alaskans on the floor at the end of their 4OT win last night. They were from Ketchikan, Shishmaref, Kodiak, and Fairbanks. Yeah, they weren't the stars of the night, but somebody has to be on the floor, holding the line at the end and they did that. There should be a lot of energy in terms of recruiting in Alaska going forward, cause regardless of what happens this year, the future is looking bright and we lose very few seniors at the end of this season.

[Goods]

Western Washington is hot at the right time of the season. Hats off to the Vikings for the win over rival CWU. I watched that game on TV and it seems like they got every loose ball and every board. The stats said otherwise, but Vikes still got the dub.

Hats off to SFU women for knocking off MSUB.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

The Nooks get past Saint Martins, but needed 4 (yes 4!) overtime periods to do it. Lost a lot of guys to fouling out along the way so we finished the game with some pretty deep benchwarmers on the floor and still Saint Martin's could not figure out a way to get past us. They coulda won that game in regulation, 1st OT, and 2nd OT and they didn't get it done. We had a very good chance to win it in the 3rd OT, but didn't get it done and then finally with 1.5 mins in the 4th OT we got some separation and managed to protect it.

• Not sure how long Saint Martin's head coach (Aaron Landon) has been out, but as I suspected a few games back, he was not there, so that's gotta be hampering that team. Sure, they've got other coaches, but Aaron is the driver behind that program's recent success. No idea where he is at or why he's out.
• Nooks still need to win on Saturday (or rely on the Saint's to lose alongside them) to get into the GNAC tourney because the Saint's own the tiebreaker on the Nooks. Hopefully they can get some rest and not get into "overlook" mode against the Wolves.
• The distinct possibility exists now that the Saint's may not (could say probably not, but I don't want to get ahead of myself) play in the GNAC tourney on their home floor. I would imagine not having games next week will see them slide deeply in the regional rankings, but the fact that they've been on such a downhill slide over the last month and are STILL at 5th in the region tells me that other teams cannot rely on them to slide out of the rankings, teams that are on the bubble need to win big.

[Anchorage]

WOU takes round two of the futility cup with a 69-68 win over UAA. Good times.

[Goods]

Inkblot was spot on for the men. St. Martin's is getting mad props for their early season prowess.

1	Point Loma	23-4	22-4
2	Cal State Dominguez Hills	21-5	21-4
3	Chico State	20-5	20-5
4	Biola	18-6	18-6
5	Saint Martin's	16-10	15-10
6	Cal State San Bernardino	19-10	19-10
7	Central Washington	16-7	16-6
8	Northwest Nazarene	16-6	15-6
9	Western Washington	15-8	14-7
10	Academy of Art	16-8	16-8

Inkblot was really close on the women's rankings.

1	Cal State Dominguez Hills	26-1	26-1
2	Cal Poly Pomona	21-4	21-4
3	Alaska Anchorage	21-3	20-3
4	Montana State Billings	22-5	18-4
5	Central Washington	20-6	20-6
6	Point Loma	21-5	21-5
7	Azusa Pacific	19-5	19-5
8	Chico State	20-6	20-6
9	Cal State LA	16-9	16-9
10	Western Washington	16-9	16-8

[Goods]

Nothing against St. Martin's, but what a victory if Fairbanks can knock 'em off on Thursday to get in better position for a tourney berth. And hoping CWU doesn't have a slip against WWU or SFU. No "good" losses at this point of the season. Will be watching Saturday's SPU/Billings contest as well as NNU at WWU. What a great final - and very relevant - weekend of regular season basketball.

Nothing really crazy for Thursday's women's schedule, but Saturday's CWU/NNU and WWU/Billings contests look good.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the GNAC men's schools get a little respect in this week's "real" rankings since last week was just alphabetical order. I'm not sure if everyone follows inkblot on socials, but he's got:

1. Point Loma, 2. Dominguez Hills, 3. Chico, 4. Biola, 5. St. Martin's, 6. San Bernardino, 7. CWU, 8. NNU

To be honest, not sure how SMU is at 5 with its terrible February. But I also know while inkblot is very good at his rankings, he's not the NCAA. Hopefully CWU can keep winning to possibly bump up to 4 or 5 by the time the NCAA tourney starts.

Inkblot's women's rankings: 1. Dominguez Hills, 2. Anchorage, 3. Pomona, 4. Billings, 5. Point Loma, 6. CWU, 7. Azusa, 8. Chico. If it's me, I'm flipping DH with Anchorage.

[tsull]

Our women's team got three technicals in their last game at Northwest Nazarene. Not sure if anyone got kicked out. Our slide continues, what a disaster.

[Goods]

• CWU fans: was Aaron Landon at the game in Ellensburg last night?

Who TF is that? lol I had to go to "The Google" and it brought up some dude who looks 30 years younger than me.

[Anchorage]

[*]I would agree with Anchorage on giving props to Ostanik thus far, but not just because of the comparison between UAF and UAA this year, but just in the culture he's building the foundation on and the clear vision he has for the team. You watch his post game interviews that he does after home games that they win, and he gives a lot of information that the stat sheets don't on where they are at, and where he wants them to go. I know I was luke warm on him as the hire because of the way he left last time, but I'm warming up quick and I reckon that he probably learned a lot from whatever happened then and will do his darndest not to let that happen again.[/LIST]

I can clarify, I’m looking at this from a roster construction perspective. Building a coherent rotation with guys who compliment each other and aren’t redundant of one another. Players that fit the style of play on both ends of the floor. Frank did that better with less time and less resources than Rusty had. It’s absolutely comparable to me because Frank was at a disadvantage in every way imaginable. Especially this season.

And I 100% agree that the culture is very important as well. But you can’t just grab a ton of 6’2 guys and undersized forwards that all play the same way because they are nice guys. UAA has no bigs to rebound and control the paint. They have no wings with size…hell even a bunch of NAIA teams have a couple 6’5 to 6’7 guys playing 2 and 3 spots. You can’t have no quick guys that can get into the paint and force a defense to collapse consistently. Frank has the athletic forwards who can make plays, he has the wings, he has some shooters, he has Chris Lee who can get into paint on drives. He doesn’t have the greatest bigs but his roster checks a lot of boxes in the area of construction. That’s what has impressed me.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Alrighty... As the dust settles on this week in the GNAC, it looks like next week involves a lot of jockeying for seedings in the conference tournament between WWU, CWU, and NNU. And then MSUB and SPU will do some jockeying too. And of course there are some teams that have nothing to lose at this point, and if overlooked, they could also impact the seedings of teams that are already in too. The lone spot left in the GNAC tourney is up for grabs on Thursday night in Lacey as Fairbanks travels down there. No question about it that the Nooks must win that one to stay in contention, and while I believe that while SMU could still get in because they beat Fairbanks in a tiebreaker, (even if they lose to Fairbanks on Thursday), man, they must really want to win this one to keep their heads in this game! A couple questions / thoughts:

• CWU fans: was Aaron Landon at the game in Ellensburg last night?
• Man, Kael Robinson is another really phenomenal rebounder (MSUB). This conference has some good rebounders this year! That guy was hard to keep off the glass yesterday and Fairbanks usually does pretty decent at getting their defensive rebounds. MSUB is really short staffed, with only 8 players traveling to Fairbanks, and they still looked more fit than Fairbanks did. They are a pretty good team, but being that short staffed will be tough for them, with so little room for error, or somebody not playing well. Where are their guys? Injuries?
• Any updates from the CCAA and Pac West on jockeying going on there that might be worth considering before the first regional ranking comes out? I have no idea how these rankings will look with the chaos in the GNAC right now, but I'm happy to see some guesses as to what it looks like! =)
• I would agree with Anchorage on giving props to Ostanik thus far, but not just because of the comparison between UAF and UAA this year, but just in the culture he's building the foundation on and the clear vision he has for the team. You watch his post game interviews that he does after home games that they win, and he gives a lot of information that the stat sheets don't on where they are at, and where he wants them to go. I know I was luke warm on him as the hire because of the way he left last time, but I'm warming up quick and I reckon that he probably learned a lot from whatever happened then and will do his darndest not to let that happen again.

[Anchorage]

Is Aaron Landon (SMU's head coach) on the sidelines for SMU right now? Last time I dropped in on one of their games online, I didn't see him.

Nooks executed a good game plan last night, doubling down on Evans and Nap in the post. While a 15/18 night for Nap isn't exactly containing him that tight, the combined 7 turnovers (and frustration) between Nap and Evans is what really helped the Nooks unravel SPU's usual play, and then they really hustled in a very organized fashion with the help defense out on the perimeter, to not give up open 3s after doubling down in the post. Coach Ostanik was animated, and while they still make a fair amount of mistakes, when they are playing together and executing, they are fun to watch. They will need to continue to do nothing less than this for the remainder to get a chance to play in March. Looking forward to seeing MSUB in person and hoping the Nooks can try on consistency.

Still think CWU is the cream of the crop, but they could be a little more disciplined and consistent too.

First regional "rankings" are out, and, in no particular order, the top 10 teams listed are:

1. Biola (Pac West)
2. Cal St. Dom. Hills (CCAA)
3. CWU (GNAC)
4. Chico (CCAA)
5. CSUSB (CCAA)
6. MSUB (GNAC)
7. NNU (GNAC)
8. Point Loma (Pac West)
9. SMU (GNAC)
10. WWU (GNAC)

Maybe we are being too hard on the GNAC; that's a pretty good showing for the conference for the first week of the regional "ranking". When they actually rank them next week, my guess is that the GNAC will be occupying the 9/10 slots, just based on the inconsistency.

GNAC comes out really really well here. Best that I can remember for a long time.

But man I want to give Ostanik his props. UAA was finished with their recruiting before Frank even got started. And he put together a more balanced, with superior athletes and a better shooting roster than Rusty did. Just a great job up at UAF this season. No one expected them to even be competitive but they have more than held their own.

[Goods]

Frustrating thing about CWU is they have a win over Pac West Point Loma (great), but losses to Pac West Vanguard (third from bottom of standings) and to CCAA Monterey Bay (last in standings). I'm not sure how bad those individual losses hurt when the overall product is pretty good.

You could convince me that Dominguez Hills and Chico will be 1-2 in the "real" regional rankings next week, followed by a mix of Point Loma, Biola, Bernardino and CWU. On the idea SMU loses to CWU, they're out of the top 10.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

IDK WTH is going on in Lacey, Washington, but St. Martin's opened the season with some huge wins and was 16-2 midway through the season. Now they've gone 3-7 in their last 10. Saints lost to NNU last night. Fairbanks got the dub last night as well. They're on the cusp of making the GNAC tourney, which isn't bad considering the road this team's had the past couple of years.

CWU men need to finish the season strong. A win on Saturday vs. SMU would give them no worse than a tie for the GNAC crown. I think Fairbanks at home against Billings might be a good one.

On the women's side, holy smokes, a full strength Anchorage team smacked Billings by 23. Barring an upset Anchorage has that crown. CWU kept ahold of third in the GNAC with a win over Western Oregon. For as bad as the Wolves are, CWU couldn't pull away convincingly, winning by only 8.

Is Aaron Landon (SMU's head coach) on the sidelines for SMU right now? Last time I dropped in on one of their games online, I didn't see him.

Nooks executed a good game plan last night, doubling down on Evans and Nap in the post. While a 15/18 night for Nap isn't exactly containing him that tight, the combined 7 turnovers (and frustration) between Nap and Evans is what really helped the Nooks unravel SPU's usual play, and then they really hustled in a very organized fashion with the help defense out on the perimeter, to not give up open 3s after doubling down in the post. Coach Ostanik was animated, and while they still make a fair amount of mistakes, when they are playing together and executing, they are fun to watch. They will need to continue to do nothing less than this for the remainder to get a chance to play in March. Looking forward to seeing MSUB in person and hoping the Nooks can try on consistency.

Still think CWU is the cream of the crop, but they could be a little more disciplined and consistent too.

First regional "rankings" are out, and, in no particular order, the top 10 teams listed are:

1. Biola (Pac West)
2. Cal St. Dom. Hills (CCAA)
3. CWU (GNAC)
4. Chico (CCAA)
5. CSUSB (CCAA)
6. MSUB (GNAC)
7. NNU (GNAC)
8. Point Loma (Pac West)
9. SMU (GNAC)
10. WWU (GNAC)

Maybe we are being too hard on the GNAC; that's a pretty good showing for the conference for the first week of the regional "ranking". When they actually rank them next week, my guess is that the GNAC will be occupying the 9/10 slots, just based on the inconsistency.