MBB: Northwest Conference

[LogShow]

I'm disappointed I'll be missing the start of conference play but three days after we get back is the big matchup with UPS!

The logs are looking forward to that one...its been a long 9 months

[(509)Rat]

Whitworth has Jan-term as well.  While there are overseas class opportunities and they fill up, it isn't significant enough to see a drop in attendance at a Pirates b-ball game.  Plus, Jan-term tuition is built into your fall semester tuition so most kids come back to campus, take their class, and get the credit that they are paying for.  Pretty pointless to throw a few grand at the University because you're too lazy to come take a class.

[LogShow]

That's interesting, seems most of the schools have a "j-term" inbetween semesters.  UPS doesn't have anything like that.  Its too bad, I bet most students would take advantage of that.  UPS usually has a bit of a dip in attendence during the break, but it seems that quite a bit of the community comes out to the games so the gym is by no means empty.  Just the student section is thinner (but thats where most of the rowdiness is).

Conference play starts 3 weeks from today!

[LogShow]

Well the Logs have/will be idle for some time still, so have been checking out how the other NWC teams are doing.  Here are the results for the past few days...

Dec. 13
Pacific (Ore.) 63 at Multnomah 68

Dec. 14
Corban College 82 at Whitman 73

the Whitman game doesn't suprise me, typical Whitman, lose to a team that is most likely inferior.  I guess Corban gave LC a tough game but the Whitman had them at home in Walla Walla.

Now what to say about Pacific...I am not going to make this a derogatory post, but to be quite honesty it would be tough to put any positive spin on it, so I will keep it brief.  Granted to game was at Multnomah, but wow.  That is flat out an embarassing loss, Pac now sits at 1-5.  And what is disappointing to me is that the NWC looks because of it.  Pac is hands down the biggest disappointment in the first half of the season.  Not everyone can handle pressure/expectations.

They have a chance to bounce back tonight against Pomona, who seems to be in quite a funk themselves.  NWCer are you still with it, or ready to give up hope?  I would be interested to hear your thoughts on that game, and the direction of the program.

[LogShow]

Tonight's NWC game

Dec. 18
Pacific (Ore.) at La Sierra

Come on Pacific you got to win this one!

[NWCer]

Log Show, I'm here, but am in shock.........

Was away for a while and detached from the world electronically for almost a week, just jumping on to get caught up on the posts and the scores, had no idea about the loss to Multnomah Bible, all I can say is WOW, you weren't being derogatory - embarrassing and dissapointing, are good and very accurate words.

As far as the direction of the program, Lowry has done good things for my Boxers, so I'm still confident my Boxers have the right guy, just didn't expect this to start the season, once again - dissapointing fits well here.

I've seen their two home games, as I said after the Northwest game, it seems like they had better talent than in the past, but a lot of new guys who just didn't look comfortable, the second game I saw against Northwest Christian, again my Boxers displayed some solid talent and played pretty well, but once again a lot is depending on a couple of the transfers.  Hopefully they can do whatever it is that teams do to come together and be up for a run at making it a decent conference season.

Tonight's NWC game

Dec. 18
Pacific (Ore.) at La Sierra

Come on Pacific you got to win this one!

At least they got this one, maybe your plea worked!!

With the exception of Willamette, seems like everyone else is playing pretty well, going to be a tough go around through conference it seems.

Happy Holidays!!

NWCer

[LogShow]

Good to hear from you NWCer! Glad they beat La Sierra, especially for the NWC's sake. Not to long and the Logs will be stopping in at Forest Grove

[LogShow]

Dec. 20
Whitworth 85 at UC Santa Cruz 33


Why, what is the point? It just seems like a waste of a game.  How does WW possible benefit?

[Gregory Sager]

It's a regional win. Other than that, there's not much of a benefit to playing UCSC at all.

Unfortunately, my alma mater has the onerous task of facing the hapless Banana Slugs a week from Saturday in a classic-format tourney down in the Bay Area.

[Pio20]

From the WW website: "The Ameriprise Classic will conclude on Saturday when UCSC takes on Lewis & Clark College at 1:00 p.m. The classic was shortened to two games after Golden State Baptist College pulled out of the event in early December." I didn't know you could have "classics" in which two games are played. Does anyone know anything about this tournament? How long it's been going on? Why it only has two games? According to a Pio player I talked to it is "a weak tournament being played at a high school." Should be interesting to see if LC beats up on the Slugs as badly as WW did.

[Gregory Sager]

Should be interesting to see if LC beats up on the Slugs as badly as WW did.

Don't put too much stock in comparative scores if both games against UC-Santa Cruz turn out to be huge blowouts, Pio20. When a team is as bad as the Banana Slugs, it tends to lose games to decent teams by such massive margins that the margins themselves lose meaning. F'rinstance, if Lewis & Clark beats UCSC by, say, 42 points on the heels of Whitworth beating UCSC by 52, it will mean absolutely nothing in terms of whether or not Whitworth appears to be stronger than L&C. Same thing if the Pioneers beat the Slugs by 57 points, as compared to Whitworth's 52. Once you get to a certain point with regard to scoring margin -- somewhere in the 30s, usually -- it all becomes meaningless, since it comes down to such trivialities as the skill level of the decent team's third-stringers, the willingness of the bad team to foul late in the game, the desire of the refs to let things slide a bit and thereby end the suffering quicker, etc.

[cawcdad]

I'm going to the L&C-UCSC game Saturday. My understanding is the tournament is actually hosted by Whitworth each year in the bay area. UCSC's gym is being renovated and they play all of their games on the road this year. And yes the Banana Slugs are bad, their only win is over Cal Tech.

Gregory, I will also be attending the tournament you mentioned. It is at Cal State East Bay, an NAIA-2 team, that isn't much better than the Slugs. I saw them lose to Linfield in November.

UCSC-Cal Tech pics
Linfield - CSU East Bay pics

[LogShow]

Whitworth 85 at UC Santa Cruz 33

Why, what is the point? It just seems like a waste of a game.  How does WW possible benefit?

Whitworth wanted to get an advance look at UC Santa Cruz before they play them again on Jan. 27.

OxyBob

Thats a pretty good one Bob.  Once again I will have to question WW scheduling motives...besides in region wins, how can those games possibly prepare your team for conference wins?

[LogShow]

From the WW website: "The Ameriprise Classic will conclude on Saturday when UCSC takes on Lewis & Clark College at 1:00 p.m. The classic was shortened to two games after Golden State Baptist College pulled out of the event in early December." I didn't know you could have "classics" in which two games are played. Does anyone know anything about this tournament? How long it's been going on? Why it only has two games? According to a Pio player I talked to it is "a weak tournament being played at a high school." Should be interesting to see if LC beats up on the Slugs as badly as WW did.

I think classics are usually made up of 4 teams and play 2 games in a nontournament format (matchups are predetermined).  I am sure that LC will probably will win big...hopefully the reserves will get around 20mins of PT

[Pioneer Hoops Fan]

My UW-Platteville Pioneers face George Fox in San Diego next weekend, just wondering what they can expect, and what I expect to hear on the radio from the Bruins when they face them?