Tuesday, November 24, 2015

IT’S SHOOTOUT TIME: For the 37th year, Alaska Anchorage is bringing a talented field of teams to the north over Thanksgiving for the GCI Great Alaska Shootout. One of the longest running college basketball tournaments in the nation (and of the few true non-classic style tournaments), the men’s portion of the tournament begins on Wednesday with San Jose State vs. Toledo and San Diego vs. Loyola Chicago. The host Seawolves will play at 5:30 p.m. (Alaska time) on Thanksgiving Day against Middle Tennessee State.

The final game on Thanksgiving, completing the opening round of competition, will feature Dexel and UNC Asheville.

All four of the opening round gmaes on Wednesday and Thursday will be aired nationally on CBS Sports Network. The network will also air Friday’s semifinal games and Saturday’s championship game. The remainder of the games, as well as the four games in the women’s portion of the tournament, will be aired in Alaska on GCI.

The Seawolves went 0-2 in last year’s Shootout, losing in the first round 71-62 to Pacific (Calif.) before taking a close 55-51 loss in the consolation semifinals to Missouri State. Travis Thompson was UAA’s selection to the All-Tournament Team. Alaska Anchorage last won in the tournament in 2012 when they beat UC Riverside 66-65 in the second round and beat Loyola Marymount 83-77 in the fourth place game.

HOT STARTS: Over their first two weeks of the season, Alaska and Western Oregon have bolted out to 4-0 starts.

The Nanooks have put their perfect start together while staying in their home state. They won two games in Anchorage last week, beat Cal State Dominguez Hills on Friday, 81-73, and beat Life Pacific on Saturday, 90-75. Three of Alaska’s four games have come by 10 or more points as the Nanooks are outscoring opponents by an average of 13 points per game. Alask enters the week leading the GNAC in assists (19.50 per game) and assist/turnover ratio (1.66) and are second in scoring (94.8 points per game) and steals (8.25 per game).

Junior transfer Travante Williams leads the Nanooks offensively, averaging 20.3 points per game on 57.1 percent shooting from the floor and 46.3 percent from three-point range. Junior foward Bangaly Kaba is averaging 15.8 points and eight rebounds per game and is shooting 61.5 percent from the field.

Western Oregon has also taken advantage of the home floor, picking up an 79-67 win over Cal State Monterey Bay on Friday and an 87-68 win over NAIA Warner Pacific on Saturday in their own WOU Doubletree Shootout. The Wolves sit mid-pack in the GNAC in scoring (82.5 points per game), but are getting the job done on defense. They lead the GNAC in steals (11.25 per game), are second in both turnover margin (+6.5) and assist/turnover ratio (1.55) and third in scoring defense (71 points allowed per game).

Senior forward Andy Avgi, the GNAC Preseason Player of the Year, made his return this weekend after an all-conference season with the WOU football team and immediately vaulted to the Wolves’ lead, averaging 22 points and six rebounds per game. He scored 24 points in the Wolves’ victory over Warner Pacific. Sophomore guard Alex Roth is averaging 13.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game over four games.

ALSO OPENING UNDEFEATED: Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene also enter the third week of the season with unblemished overall records. The Wildcats improved to 3-0 on the season thanks to a 100-87 win over Hawaii-Hilo and a 95-86 win over BYU-Hawaii at the Sodexo Classic at Seattle Pacific. The Wildcats had two selections to the all-tournament team. Senior guard Gary Jacobs was named the tournament’s most valuable player and the GNAC Men’s Basketball Player of the Week. He was joined on the all-tourney team by senior forward Joseph Stroud.

The Crusaders are 2-0 with single home games over each of the first two weekends, the latest an 80-75 win over Cal State LA on Saturday. Northwest Nazarene has the lightest schedule of any conference team prior to the open of GNAC play next week. They will have played just four counting games before opening GNAC play in Alaska on Dec. 3.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES OF NOTE: Alaska’s Bangaly Kaba scored 18 points on 7 of 11 from the field and added 10 rebounds in the Nanooks’ 81-73 win over Cal State Dominguez Hills...Western Washington’s Jeffrey Parker scored 46 points in the Vikings’ two games, paced by a 26-point effort in Wednesday’s loss to BYU-Hawaii...Northwest Nazarene’s Mike Wright scored a career high 28 points to go along with eight assists and two steals in the Crusaders’ 80-75 win over Cal State LA...Montana State Billings’ Marc Matthews scored 24 points and connected on 6 of 7 from three-point range to beat Black Hills State on Saturday, 82-80. He played 38 minutes in the contest...Cole Preston of Saint Martin’s had 28 points and six rebounds and connected on 14 of 17 from the free throw line in a pair of wins over Warner Pacific and Cal State Monterey Bay.

IN THE NCAA DIVISION II STATISTICS: Thanks in part to their nine games played this season, Alaska Anchorage is the national Division II leader in seven statistical categories. The Seawolves lead Division II in three-point attempts (199), free throw attempts (233), free throws made (187), total three-pointers made (70), total assists (157) and total rebounds (361). They are also second in total steals (58). Individually, Sekou Wiggs leads Division II in free throws made (54), free throws attempted (63), total assists (38), total field goal attempts (144), total field goals made (67), total minutes (296) and total points (213). Spencer Svejcar leads Division II in three-point attempts (53) and Corey Hammell leads the division in double-doubles (5) and total rebounds (83), Northwest Nazarene’s Detwon Rogers is among those tied for tops in the nation with a 1.000 free throw percentage.

IN THE NATIONAL POLLS: In the words of the late American Top 40 DJ Casey Kasem, Western Oregon is up many notches with a bullet in both of the national polls. The Wolves jumped 11 spots to No. 10 in this week’s NABC Division II Rankings after being listed No. 21 in the preseason poll. They also leaped up nine spots to No. 11 in the D2SIDA National Poll. Seattle Pacific made their first appearance in a national poll this season, emerging at No. 23 in the NABC Poll. Western Washington dropped out of the NABC top-25 and was the first among teams receiving votes this week.

GNAC PRESEASON POLL - WESTERN WASHINGTON PICKED TO WIN: For the second year in a row, Western Washington is picked as the team to beat by conference coaches in the annual Great Northwest Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll.

The Vikings received five of 11 first place votes and a total of 114 points, finishing just ahead of defending regular season champion Western Oregon. The Wolves netted four first place votes and a total of 106 points.

Seattle Pacific, who finished second in the conference last year and won the GNAC Tournament championship, is picked third with a total of 100 points. The Falcons received the remaining two first place votes.

After a successful start in their non-conference schedule, Western Washington stumbled to lose seven of their first 10 GNAC games. The Vikings rebounded to win eight straight to end the regular season, tying for fifth to claim a spot in the GNAC Tournament. The Vikings went on to beat Alaska Anchorage and Western Oregon to claim a spot in the tournament final, where they lost to Seattle Pacific. Western Washington finished the season with a 20-11 overall record.

PRESEASON ALL-GNAC TEAM, AVGI PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Western Oregon forward Andy Avgi, the defending GNAC Player of the Year, added another award to his preseason arsenal as he was selected by the league’s head coaches as the GNAC Preseason Player of the Year. The senior was a unanimous selection for the honor, receiving 10 first place votes in the balloting (coaches could not vote for their own players).

Avgi was one of eight unanimous selections to the squad and is the only player on the list to be selected for a third year in a row. Joining him as a repeat selection on the 15-man squad were Western Washington forward Jeffrey Parker, WWU guard Ricardo Maxwell, Alaska Anchorage guard Brian McGill and Alaska guard Joe Slocum.

Other unanimous selections to the team include Parker, Maxwell, McGill, Western Oregon guard Julian Nichols, Seattle Pacific forward Mitch Penner, Montana State Billings guard/forward Momir Gataric and Central Washington center Joseph Stroud.

TALKING TURKEY: Thanksgiving will be far from a break for GNAC basketball teams with all 11 teams competing during the week. The week’s events is highlighted by the GCI Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage. The host Seawolves will play on Thanksgiving evening against Middle Tennessee. Seattle Pacific will play at the Chico State Invitational on Friday and Saturday, Concordia will be at the Cal Baptist Thanksgiving Classic and Western Oregon plays at the Notre Dame de Namur Thanksgiving Classic. Montana State Billings will host Dixie State, Alaska and Dominican in their Thanksgiving Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

Western Washington will play a pair of games in Hawaii while Northwest Nazarene will host Eastern Oregon on Friday. Central Washington, Saint Martin’s and Simon Fraser will all host single games.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS: The following GNAC players have been selected to all-tournament teams during the 2015-16 season:
GNAC/PacWest Crossover (Nov. 13-14, Fairbanks): Travante Williams, UAF (Most Valuable Player).
Seawolf Jamboree (Nov. 21-22, Anchorage): Sekou Wiggs, UAA (Most Outstanding Player); Bangaly Kaba, UAF; Travante Williams, UAF.
Sodexo Classic (Nov. 21-22, Seattle): Gary Jacobs, CWU (Most Valuable Player); Joseph Storud, CWU; Bryce Leavitt, SPU.

THIS WEEK'S GNAC MEN'S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Gary Jacobs
Central Washington
G • 6-2• 173 • Sr. • Las Vegas, Nev.

Jacobs was named the most valuable player of the Sodexo Classic after scoring 45 points and shooting 69.2 percent from the field in wins over BYU-Hawaii and Hawaii Hilo. He scored 23 points and shot 8 of 11 from the field in the win over Hawaii-Hilo and then scored 22 against BYU-Hawaii.

Also Nominated: Andy Avgi (Western Oregon), Riley Hawkin (Concordia), Bangaly Kaba (Alaska), Marc Matthews (Montana State Billings), Jeffrey Parker (Western Washington), Cole Preston (Saint Martin’s), Mike Wright (Northwest Nazarene).