MBB: Northwest Conference

[nwhoops1903]

And no...Pac comes back from their loss and gets outshot and outhustled in first half, but then fights back hard in second half but fails in the end.  GF, enjoy your moment of perfection.  Congrats on a nice weekend to both WW, LIN and......GF?!

[TryMeTeam]

NWCer:

I did get to the game last night.  Fox looked awfully good and Pac just looked okay.  Pac got down early and just couldn't get back over the hump.  Pac cut the lead to 3 with 5 minutes to go, but was down too much, 21 early in the 2nd half, to come all the way back.



Time for this week's predictions:

UPS          2-0
Whitw       2-0
Whitm       2-0
LC            2-0
Linf          1-1
Pac          0-2
PLU          0-2
Wil           0-2
Fox          0-2

UPS gets into the win column this weekend and mid-week with a sweep of the lower tier teams while Fox and Linf get their first losses.  Linf vs LC will be the game of the weekend, and I will be there.  Fox gets the grueling tripl to eastern WA and comes down to earth after their great start to the conference.  Tough road for the Boxers this year.  I don't see many wins for them now (sorry NWCer).  That means they are now in the upset mode.

Only two games in OR with week.

[NWCer]

TMT, no apologies needed, unfortunately you're probably right.  I was at the game last night, HORRIBLE 1st half, great push in the second half.  My Boxers are just so youthful.  This Whitworth-Whitman is a tuff trip coming up, a tuff one to "get something started", but hopefully they can turn the year into something more than an upset role, 14 games left....

[nwhoops1903]

And so the games shift North.

What will UPS say if they lose at home and are 0-3?  Heyman is playing tonight...

PLU could very possibly win this game.  Too late for a prediction.

[Tglassman55]

UPS loses...

at home...

to PLU...

by 15

the wheels have come off. 

[nwhoops1903]

UPS loses to PLU and I can hear the chainsaws firing up in loggerville.  Makes me think of one of my favorite basketball quotes.  From Jack Nicholson sideline at a Laker Championship Game after Lakers had just defeated a favored, previous year NBA champion.  The CBS sideline reporter asks him what does he have to say to the losing team and only Jack and his distorted face can say it best "Wait til last year, baby."

Can the Logs recover and finish top 3, very iffy right now.

PLU might just have something this year...nice win on the road Lutes.

[pineconefan]

Just got around to checking last night's score. 

All I can say is WOW.   

UPS Fans - I know its a rough year for you.  But please stick around this board.  Your input is valuable.  LogShow, PS Fan, etc. - your opinions are important.

Also, we need Bearcat Fan back too.

[wildcat11]

Also, we need Bearcat Fan back too.

Pine,

Hope you make back to the football board next fall...Once (509) pulled the rip cord we lost the most vocal Whitworth poster on that board and I noticed your voice trailed off towards the end of this year.  Hope to see you back next fall!

[TryMeTeam]

So, WC11:

How about the game on Friday?  Linfield at LC for the early season lead on second place.  I see a close battle with LC the slight favorite due to home court.  Linfield has played much better since Wiser got back, and the new players (Anderson, Martin and Vance) are developing nicely.  The Cats looked horrible in pre-league, but have come out hot in league games. 

PCF:

I agree with you about calling out the UPS fans to the board.  NWCer has been here for years for his Boxers even when they are down.  It will be a loner board without the UPS contingent. 


Great win be PLU last night.  Total domination in the second half.  I listened to the very scratchy broadcast and PLU just kept scoring and UPS kept missing shots.  I still expect UPS to get some momentum going and take some teams down. 

[pineconefan]

True point 11.

I'll be back over on the football board.  Work got a little busier this fall.  But also the injuries to Anderson and the two QBs soured the season for me.

We need someone on here talking up Linfield basketball too.

[wildcat11]

True point 11.

I'll be back over on the football board.  Work got a little busier this fall.  But also the injuries to Anderson and the two QBs soured the season for me.

We need someone on here talking up Linfield basketball too.

Good to hear Pinecone.  My guess is that Anderson will be back and so will the Rats in the conference title race.

However, I think this will probably be my last post on the hoops boards for sometime.  I know zero about NWC and Linfield hoops.  I haven't watched a men's game probably since the 2000 season so I would offer no real words of contribution to this board besides "Go 'Cats!".

[PSfan]

The Loggers were not very good against PLU in the second half, or in the first half for that matter.   I don't think PLU has much talent, but they were tough, more aggressive on the glass and much stronger physically than the Loggers.  It didn't help matters that the big guy who's been playing lots of minutes for UPS was in street clothes with what looked from the cheap seats like a cast on his hand, but that doesn't explain the loss to PLU.   To me this looked eerily like the Fox game—Puget Sound up in the first half with a solid lead but not playing particularly well.  Against Fox they were buoyed by the home team's  shakiness against the press in the first several minutes, and against PLU by some (unusually) good 3 point shooting in the first half.  Once Fox settled down, and once the Loggers returned to form against PLU (UPS is just not a good shooting team this year), the team's basic weaknesses were exposed, big time.   

The team is young, there's not much depth, and they don't shoot well.   They have several guys who can get to the basket, but without any outside shooting to open things up they're finding it crowded in there—PLU was running two and three big guys at every Logger drive to the basket.  Defensively, the press looks ok now and again but I don't know if UPS is deep enough to sustain it or good enough offensively to answer the many easy baskets they give up when the press is faltering.  Heyman and Boyce are good players, Koach is a terrific sixth man, and the young guys up front (Shelton, Yabro, and Barboa) look like they could turn into a nice version of the old Shelton/McVeigh/O'Donnell group that had so much success a few years ago.  But at the moment, the team just isn't very strong.

I think they'll get better as the season rolls on.  I mean, they beat Oshkosh, beat a good Portland Bible team, lost to St. Martin's (which has a great record in DII play) by 2, and played Stevens Point and Warner Pacific tough.  They led Fox by 15 in the second half (I think), and PLU by 10 early in the second half.   A few more decent minutes in those games and they're 2-1.   I thought .500 when the season started, and I will stick by that.  They'll beat PLU there, Fox here, Willamette twice, Pacific twice, Whitman here, and Lewis and Clark here.  Of course, if they drop the game to the Bearcats this weekend....I start attending women's games and haunting that board instead! 

[NWCer]

OK, here we go, I like Linfield to get LC, UPS to pick up their first NWC win against Willamette, Whitman to get past Fox in what I think will be a good one, and the shocker of the night.....! - ok, no shocker, My Boxers succumb to the powerful Pirates in Spokane...  Let's play hard boys!

To echo some earlier posts, we do need all the UPS faithful to get back on the board, and I agree bearcatpress as well...

And somebody speak out and support Whitman, year 2 of the Bridgeland era and they are off and runnin...

[Pio20]

Just got back from the LC-Linfield game. Typical LC basketball. The offense relies on making jump shots and threes. There is little movement, little structure, and little results unless they are hitting the outside shot. And they sure didn't do much of that tonight, shooting 20% from three and 33% from the field. Defensively they are soft as usual. For the first time in many years they have an actual big man with height and girth in McCullough, but for some reason he didn't see many minutes in the second half. They gave up so many layups in the second half it was kind of ridiculous. I think back to 2007 when the Pios went 13-3 in conference and the presence they had inside defensively with Gene Rivera. That was the first year in a long time that they had that, and it showed. It also showed tonight that they had no real defense. I will say this much, Kelly Edwards is a beast. Extremely athletic, able to beat anyone off the dribble and soared for several rebounds. After watching the game tonight I think as a team LC just isn't that good but they have a lot of individual talent in Edwards, Kollasch, Hollins, and even Meeuwsen. I think this talent will keep them in the top four in conference, but unless they figure out how to either play better defense or get better shots offensively I don't see them going very far.

[nwhoops1903]

Good night for the Pirates.  Never serious threatened by Pac after jumping on them out of the gates.  Second half coast.  WW 3-0 and I predict will win again tomorrow against Fox.

Whitman does burst the Fox bubble and forces 33 turnovers, ouch.  Looks like EB has his system in place and full court chaos has a home in Walla Walla.  Actually Whitman probably won because they shot the ball so well and held off a determined GF.  Can Pac get a win on Sat?  Yes, will they? No.

Linfield bounces LC on the road and sits at 3-0 and might very well clobber WIL tomorrow.  I just circled Jan 22 on my calendar, LIN at WW.  LC can't go 6-29 from 3 and compete, oh yea, they aren't and will be 1-3 after Sat at PLU.

UPS is finally in the left column after defeating the WIL bearkittens.  Early results are not good news in Salem.

So I think tonights games turned out the way most would have expected, even the LC loss.  After week 2 and it's only a mini prediction...

WW         4-0
LIN          4-0
PLU         3-1
WHT        3-1
FOX         2-2
LC           1-3
UPS          1-3
PAC          0-4
WIL           0-4