MBB: Northwest Conference

[(509)Rat]

UPS just doesn't have the depth they've had in recent years. And by that I mean they can't put 4 guys on the court who can score. To me that was always their strength. Guys who could score from all over the court. I only ever saw them play Whitworth so maybe that's why I was never incredibly impressed with their defense. Yes, they always played tough and were real physical defending on-ball but the high shooting % from all over the court, with different guys doing it every night made them really tough. They were gonna put up 80 every night and you had to do the same to beat 'em.

The only player on this year's team you need to focus on defending is Shelton IMO. If he doesn't put up 25 points you are probably going to beat UPS. If Foster didnt put up 20, there were always 3-4 other who could. And then you had to worry about a guy like Boyce coming off the bench and hitting 50% of his 3pt attempts.

I personally don't see the talent there, even their young guys. I would be more worried about a team like Whitman, who has been upgrading talent significantly since Bridgeland got there, challenging for the conference in the next 2-3 years.

[A Buc Forever]

WW #2 on d3hoops.com.

Still only 3 first place votes. 

Loggerfan1,

I thought UPS played WW hard. WW fans can make excuses for why it was so close, but the bottom line is they played hard.  Why is UPS so inconsistent?  You can't blame in all on youth. 

[loggerfan1]

I think that the inconsistency in games is about youth, and the lack of a real identity with all the turnover--this team doesn't have the personnel to play the old pressure system, it's added many new players for the season and two new starters in the past few weeks.   They have frosh and sophs all over the floor, Shelton aside the juniors haven't played, and the one senior on the team is brand new to the conference.  They lost their point guard and have literally just started playing an athletic  6'9" guy who as far as I can tell wasn't on the roster before Christmas, and it'll take time to figure out how to play with him.  It's understandable that this is not a smoothly running machine.  The guys do play hard, they're often fun to watch, and from my perch up high the team looks like it has a good vibe.  All of this is a credit to Coach Lunt.   

I think they will play better than you expect down the stretch.  They should beat PLU and Linfield at home and Pacific, Fox, and Willamette on the road.  WW beats 'em, of course, and I think the backcourt is way too young and inexperienced to handle Whitman.   If this comes to pass, and I think it's plausible, that's 8 wins in conference.  This would be a nice improvement over last season and would mark the way toward 10 or 11 next year. 

[etule]

There has been some talk on the board about the NWC being down this year! I'm not to sure! Other than WW I think it is pretty competitive. On a given night any of the teams could win.

When is the last time the NWC had two teams in the top 25? This is fun and makes for many very good games!

I think Lewis and Clark is pretty good. They depend on the 3 too much but they are tough!

[nwhoops1903]

There has been some talk on the board about the NWC being down this year! I'm not to sure! Other than WW I think it is pretty competitive. On a given night any of the teams could win.

When is the last time the NWC had two teams in the top 25? This is fun and makes for many very good games!

I think Lewis and Clark is pretty good. They depend on the 3 too much but they are tough!

And PLU has #27 Massey, next is Whitman at #69 ahead of Linfield.  3 in top 30 is decent, so I agree, NWC isn't down.  WW is up (again)!  Riley and Taylor could be All Americans, and Loofburrow WILL be next year.

[etule]

I'll be surprised if Riley and Taylor are not on one of the All American teams. Riley has been good for four years. Taylor is a D1 guy so no surprise there!
I was not aware of PLU or Whitman but kudo's to NWC!
It has been a fun year so far!

[Bearcat Press]

On a given night any of the teams could win.

I can think of one that can't.

The fact is that Willamette is regressing as the season goes on, essentially going from winning a few games to competitive losses to giving up 117 points tonight () at George Fox.

If nothing else, this season should be showing the NWC just how good Cameron Mitchell was.  The Bearcats returned four starters this year - everybody but Cam - and went from decent to disaster.  Unreal.

[etule]

There is no reason to let a team score 117 pts. GF is good but not that good. Stepping up on D might help their situation! Yikes!

[nwhoops1903]

Wow!  Willamette has problems. I can't see this result as acceptable or even explainable.

[A Buc Forever]

I have to agree that the conference is not really down very much.  LC is as good as they have been for the last 2 or 3 years (would be better without the injuries).  UPS does not have the talent they had two years ago (comparable to the talent WW has now) and Willamette is not the same team.  Everyone else is pretty much the same.  Linfield misses Tesero, but he hurt them as much as he helped them.  NWC teams have played some good teams very well.  Also, WW's margin of victory has been about the same playing non-league games and some of the teams they have beaten are doing well elsewhere.   

I think WW really needs to prepare for this weekend. LC is tough and Linfield can get hot. Hopefully, the victories over these teams  in December won't make WW overconfident.  It's gonna be a fun weekend of basketball.

Bummer about Willamette. Mitchell was a beast.  Fun to watch.  Can't imagine they miss him that much though.  Something must be going on with the team to fall this far.

[TryMeTeam]

My take:  The league is down.

WW ran the table last year.  How do you improve on that?  Okay, I think they are better.  +1

LC is about the same, probably a little bit better, but my premise is that they would not be if the league was equal or better.  +2 reluctantly

Linfield and Fox are both a lot down this year.  Both teams were somewhat feared last year and finished #2 and #3 in the league.  This year not.  -2 = 0

Will finished the year on a nice run.  Better last year -1 = -1

Pacific could give teams a game last year, cannot this year -1 = -2

I am not sure where they finished last year, but PLU, UPS and Whitm all seem about the same to me.  0 = -2.

League down.

[loggerfan1]

TMT is obviously right.  Two years ago NWC had two teams capable of going long in the tournament, and LC was very good.  Now?  WW is huge, everybody else is good to ok to bad.

[A Buc Forever]

TMT is obviously right.  Two years ago NWC had two teams capable of going long in the tournament, and LC was very good.  Now?  WW is huge, everybody else is good to ok to bad.

I disagree.  Two years ago, WW got beat by in the second round and UPS got kicked in the 3rd round by a team that I think got beat in the next game.  Last year WW should have won round 3.  I think WW last year was better than the the UPS team of two years ago and I think this WW team is better than last year. If LC wins out except for WW, I'd have to rate them comparable or better to the WW team of two years ago.  So, at least the top of the league is better.  PLU is better than they were the last two years as is Whitman.  Linfield is seriously underachieving, but still have talent. So the middle of the league is probably comparable.   Willamette, GF, and Pacific are struggling. I don't think the bottom of the league was this weak before. The bottom of the league provides some rest that did not exist before.  However, overall, the league is probably pretty comparable.  

[(509)Rat]

I'm with a buc forever,

Whitworth is better than any team I've seen in the NWC for quite some time. +1

I think LC is better than they were last year, but probably not as good as Whitworth was 2 years ago, let's say +1

So the conference doesn't seem to have a competitive #2 or #3 like in years past but I think that's simply because Whitworth is that much better than any other team has been in years past.

Linfield and GF are worse than they have been the last couple years, BUT they have been replaced by PLU and Whitman who are MUCH better than they have been the last 2 seasons. They all just cancel each other out (using the +, -, evaluation) and switch spots in terms of conference strength.

Willamette is worse, not much else to say about the Bearkitties -1

Pacific is worse -1

UPS is worse than they were 2 years ago but not much has changed since last year +0

I come up with +(-) 0  The conference isn't worse, Whitworth is just better and a slight changing of the guard has happened between the 3rd-6th spots.

[etule]

Good analysis! I agree ! A changing of the guard but all in all NWC is pretty competitive if you take out WW ! I would like to see WW go on a run in the tourney!
This weekend will sort things out quite a bit!