Tuesday, December 2, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – Guests for Episode 45 of GNAC Insider included Alaska women’s basketball coach Cody Bench, Western Oregon forward Andy Avgi and GNAC commissioner Dave Haglund.

Bench is in her fifth season leading women Nanooks basketball. Alaska is off to its best start of the season in eight years with a 6-2 record having three wins by over 20 points. Alaska begins conference play on Thursday as it travels to undefeated conference co-leader Seattle Pacific in the first of 10 GNAC games televised by ROOT SPORTS. Bench discussed her team’s start of the season and how the Nanooks are preparing for Thursday's TV game.

Avgi is a redshirt junior forward on the Wolves basketball team. Avgi has helped lead Western Oregon to four straight wins including a 67-52 victory over 2013-14 regional tournament qualifier Dixie State. Avgi, who ranks in the top 10 in the conference in scoring, free-throw percentage and steals, talked about the Wolves upcoming conference matchups against Alaska and Alaska Anchorage.

Haglund is in his third year as the GNAC commissioner. Haglund, along with assistant commissioner Bridget Tetteh, are hosting the “women in Sports” seminar on Jan. 24, 2015 in Memorial Coliseum in Portland. The seminar is designed for high school and college females interested in pursuing a sports related career such as coaching, marketing or sports medicine. Haglund detailed this event and discussed the recently released ROOT SPORTS basketball schedule set to start on Thursday.

GNAC Insider airs live at 7 p.m. Pacific time every Tuesday and is produced by the conference office. All episodes become available as free podcasts via iTunes, and for archived listening via GNAC.TV.