WBB: Northwest Conference

[BruinFan]

Northernstar,

All good - thanks for the reply.

So... do you think there is much chance that either Whitworth or Lewis and Clark will provide an upset and make it to the conference play-off final?

[northernstar]

While anything is possible, I don't believe we will have anything other than a George Fox/Puget Sound Final.

The way George Fox has been playing of late, I don't see anyone from this conference posing much of a challenge for them.  While not quite as strong as last year, they are playing some good basketball right now.

[Handles]

Whitworth has given Puget Sound a pretty good game in both regular season games but LC has not shown up to play Fox either game.  And with Dowling out for LC they don't stand a fighting chance.  UPS being at home will help their cause.  Another George Fox--UPS conference final game is in the  making!  Will that make 4 in the last 4 years??

I too agree that Fox is playing really well right now and truly don't see them getting beat. 

I'm happy to see that you all worked out the team rebounding issue 

[Pat Coleman]

No, in the examples I gave you from the first posting, no player possessed the ball before it was pushed out of bounds.  There cannot be a team rebound in that scenario, unless one team or the other actually gets the ball before going out of bounds.  In this scenario, there should not even be a team rebound awarded, let alone a specific player being awarded a rebound.  A rebound signals player/team control.  You can get a rebound and have it knocked out of your posession by a defender out of bounds, but that wasn't the case from last night.  It went out of bounds with neither side gaining posession, and a specific player was awarded a rebound.   On several occasions as a matter of fact.

A PLAYER should not be awarded a rebound in the instance you describe, but I promise you, the proper stat to award is a team rebound. Every shot must have a rebound.

[Handles]

1st Team:
Keisha Gordon:  George Fox
Jocelyn Riorden: Puget Sound
Cassie Pilkinton: Whitworth
Kristina Williams: Lewis & Clark
Hillary White:      Whitman

POY:  Claire Ely:  Puget Sound

2nd Team:
Hannah Munger:  George Fox
Gretchen Owens: Linfield
Melissa Pixler:      PLU
Alex Zennan:       Willamette
Elise Kuenzi:   George Fox/ Natasha Ludwig:    Puget Sound  I can't decide with these two players.  They both do so much for their teams and its not always about the scoring and the rebounds.

COY:  Suzy Barcomb:  Puget Sounds

Okay....lets hear all the disagreements

[northernstar]

I would think that George Fox might get two first teamers, so I might flip-flop Jocelyn Riorden and Hannah Munger!  I also would take Natasha Ludwig over Elise Kuenzi  However, I think that the best player from Lewis & Clark is Megan Spence.  She appears to have better overall production than Williams.

1st Team:
Keisha Gordon:  George Fox
Jocelyn Riorden: Puget Sound
Cassie Pilkinton: Whitworth
Kristina Williams: Lewis & Clark
Hillary White:      Whitman

POY:  Claire Ely:  Puget Sound

2nd Team:
Hannah Munger:  George Fox
Gretchen Owens: Linfield
Melissa Pixler:      PLU
Alex Zennan:       Willamette
Elise Kuenzi:   George Fox/ Natasha Ludwig:    Puget Sound  I can't decide with these two players.  They both do

[Handles]

The show down.......Another matchup between George Fox and Puget Sound for the conference championship.  Did Fox feel like they needed to run the score up on LC by dropping in 98 points and beating them by 41??  Or were they just working on fine tuning their 3 balls since they hit 15 of them!!

Any predictions on the final outcome on Saturday night??

[hoopnut]

Actually, it probablly doesn't make any difference who wins Saturday, since the game that will really count will be in the second round of nationals. This season is a little like 2 years ago, GFU wins the two conference games and the playoff championship, only to loose to PS in the second round of nationals. I'm kind of hoping for history to repeat its self.

[BruinFan]

Lots of thoughts, so here I go.

I am confident that regardless who wins tonight, that the loser will still get a Pool C bid for the tournament due to the regional rankings.

I think tonight does matter because of momentum and pride. I don't know if regional ranking influences who hosts, but I'm sure both GFU and UPS want to put themselves in the best possible place to be considered for hosting.

There is still talk and hope that just maybe this is the year where the tournament committee does not put UPS and GFU in the same pod. I won't be surprised if they are together, but I don't think it is impossible that it could happen. The tournament committee recognizes the injustice of having 2 teams in a strong conference play each other a fourth time just to get to the Sweet 16.

Congratulations to all the players recognized by the coaches as all-conference. I was especially pleased that BB Gardner, GFU senior point guard, was honorable mention. Her name doesn't come up on this board, but her defense and energy on the court is worthy of recognition.

Gardner, Kuenzi, and Keener as 4 year players at GFU earned there 100th victory as Bruins on Thursday. Wow!

George Fox is really starting to click and I anticipate a double digit win tonight.

[BruinFan]

d3hoops is projecting that George Fox will play Chapman (pool B) and then the winner of UPS and Redlands.

Obviously that bracket is typical of what we have seen in the past and again sets up the possibility of NWC teams playing each other a FOURTH time this season prior to the sweet 16.

More interesting is that the projected bracket has IWU, WashU, and Hope all in the same bracket. Fine by me if those 3 have to play each other to get to the Final 4. These are just projections and will have to wait until tomorrow for the real thing.

Congratulations to the Bruins for winning the conference tournament championship.

[BruinFan]

Wow, I didn't see Louisiana College coming into the picture.

See my post on the multi-regional/ncaa tournament board about the fact that  GFU and UPS potentially meet in the 2nd round. We've seen this before. I guess splitting up NWC schools in the tournament will never happen.

The only consolation for me would be if George Fox advances to the Sweet 16 and gets to host that weekend as well.

I also don't think much of a pair of 2 loss teams meeting each other in the first round.

4 days until tip-off, I wish it was starting right now.

[Handles]

Well....one more year where the NWC teams don't get separated!  What is it going to take for the committee to separate the NWC??  They have already won the national championship and ran through oth everyone last year to go 39-0.  This year Puget Sound has 4 total losses, 3 of which are to the defending national champion.  Both teams are deserving to be separated and not have to face each a 4th time until later in the tournament.

Well congrats to both teams....good luck this weekend!!

[Lutefisk]

As usual, the Pacific NW gets no respect from the eastern dominated NCAA....

Good Luck to Fox and Puget Sound!!

[roaringtwenties]

After looking over the tournament brackets, I might tend to agree with you about the lack of respect.  In looking at the road that George Fox #5 had to take to get into the Sweet 16, they had to play two teams from the Top 20!

On the other hand, looking at Five (5) Teams getting into the tournament from the NESCAC, Amherst #1, Colby #20, Tufts #26, Bowdoin #29 and Williams (Not Ranked), the respective roads for the combination of all five of those teams would have provided only one potential game against a Top 20 Team through the first 2 Rounds into the Sweet Sixteen.  This seems a bit lopsided. 

I realize that geography plays a lot into the pairings of the tourney, but just the stats from the last two paragraphs seems like there is a huge disparity in treatment.  I am not faulting the NESCAC, but simply pointing out something that makes the NCAA DIII Tourney look bad. 

[Ralph Turner]

Well....one more year where the NWC teams don't get separated! What is it going to take for the committee to separate the NWC??  They have already won the national championship and ran through oth everyone last year to go 39-0.  This year Puget Sound has 4 total losses, 3 of which are to the defending national champion.  Both teams are deserving to be separated and not have to face each a 4th time until later in the tournament.

Well congrats to both teams....good luck this weekend!!

What's it gonna take?
A move to D-1!      Out of the 430 schools in D-III, more than 400 of them east of the front range of the Rockies.  I saw a post that priced a single plane flight from the midwest to the northwest at $48,000 per team.  (I think that the people at the NCAA would just as soon not pay out that much money to bring west coast east, but they have to.  Saving plane flights is always a key thing,)

When the Northwest Conference decided to move to D-3 from the NAIA, you knew that the foundation of D-III was regionally-based intercollegiate competition.  The idea was to decrease the amount of class time that student-athletes would miss, and have the NCAA pay for the post-season tourney, instead of having to raise your own money.

As for any bracket that includes New England schools, that is a common lament.  There are so many schools in the Northeast, that you get some very weak conference winners that fill up to 12 of the 16 teams in that corner of the bracket.

One thing that is different this season, is that the Maine schools are a little weak this year.  The Little East Conference has had some good runs in recent years.