MBB: Northwest Conference

[D O.C.]

UPS Jimmy Woher made a quick juke on his defender and hit a huge 3 in overtime.
Jerimiah Hobbs lucked one in.
Loggers never trailed again.
UPS does not let that home court advantage slip away.
76-71

[A Buc Forever]

So now that LINFIELD is not beating itself regularly attention turns to how much more can they improve...

News-Register by Rusty Rae

It's time for the NWC to live up to its standard of equitable play!

"The heart of competition" sports column by Rusty Rae, Sport Editor, McMinnville N-R/News-Register Feb 8 (online) and Feb. 9 (in print), 2018

.......

The mission statement of the NWC states: ... exists to promote, organize, and supervise intercollegiate athletics competition among member institutions in a way that encourages competition to be equitable, fair, amicable, enjoyable, and educational (emphasis added).
It's time for the NWC to exemplify their standard.

Shortened the quote, but there is really nothing the conference can do about the scheduling short of adding another team so that everyone plays back to back games on Friday and Saturday every week and no Tuesday night games. It is DIII basketball.  As a tuition payer of a kid at Lewis and Clark--if he played basketball I would not want him playing Thursday/Saturday like DI schools do. I would want him in class Thursday. Missing Friday classes is enough.  Also, at small, academically oriented schools you might not get a lot of kids out to the games on Thursday night. It would not make sense for the Whits to have different travel partners.  Yes, it is a brutal road trip.  Facing the #1 and #4 teams in the nation on back to back nights is a bit overwhelming. It won't be like this forever.  Times will change. The Tacoma trip used to be a bear.     You could make the games Friday night/Sunday afternoon, but then you would miss out on Saturday night games.  The other issue is being smarter about your travel.  Why is Linfield driving back and forth to McMinnville on the Tacoma weekend?  It can't be much more expensive to stay in a hotel rather than bus back and forth like that.

OMG--Whitworth must have had a let down!!!  Hopefully they get it together for next weekend and the playoffs.

My bet is UPS for third place.  Linfield likely to lose 2 of their last 3 and UPS could win all three. 

Does UPS press all game or just run up-tempo offense?  Kind of interesting that 2 of the 4 top teams play so fast (WM and UPS) and Whitworth isn't exactly methodical.  The hyper up-tempo style doesn't seem to have hit the DI ranks yet.  It will be interesting to see where the game goes in the next few years. I like Whitman's pressing defense.  I prefer WW's approach on offense.  WM gets a little more chaotic than I like.  That was a great game on Tuesday.

[(509)Rat]

Rusty comes off as a whiny b****

The real story re: Linfield and equality (or lack there of) would dive into the inequality between programs in  their own athletic dept

Of course it's much easier to deflect outward than shine the light inward

Is anyone from the spokesman taking notes? I feel a hot take coming on..."Mean NWC forces Whitworth Football to travel over 5 hours for every away contest...while those Oregon jerk offs get to drive 45 min down the road"

[D O.C.]

A B F... your response of adding a team is like this LINFIELD fan who cites the old PAC 10 model...

The ideal answer would be adding a 10th non-football NWC team in the Portland area, creating a conference of 5 sets of travel partners. Each weekend one set of partners travels to another, and one plays home-and-home against its own partner. It could be the scheduling model for a number of sports such as volleyball, men's and women's soccer, etc. Concordia would have been a possibility until it decided to go NCAA II; maybe Warner Pacific or a similar school could be a good fit for the NWC.

[catjumper]

The other issue is being smarter about your travel.  Why is Linfield driving back and forth to McMinnville on the Tacoma weekend?  It can't be much more expensive to stay in a hotel rather than bus back and forth like that.

Which would be great, and I believe Linfield would likely do that, but this is the third straight season there is no such thing for Linfield as "the Tacoma weekend." For the third straight year, Linfield's trips to Tacoma have been scheduled on different weekends so there's no chance for a two-day, up-and-back trip to play PLU and UPS. That said, a quick sampling of this year's NWC schedule shows similar home-and-away weekends split between Tacoma and the Willamette Valley for every school located west of the Cascades, and no easy way to completely and equitably avoid that comes to mind.

Unless, of course, Concordia, Warner Pacific or Corban joins the party.

[(509)Rat]

Linfield can play UPS Friday night, stay at a Tacoma hotel. Sleep in Saturday and take a bus down to Portland to play Lewis and Clark Saturday night. The difference between that and playing UPS and PLU in the same weekend is about 2 extra hours on a bus Saturday.

The whole argument/complaint made by is pretty nonsensical

[blackhawks4]

I've got some catching up to do!  Reflections on the WMN-WW game. 

First off, completely agree with McHugh

That Whitman-Whitworth games was emotional!  We are all guilty of saying things that we didn't mean.  I am no exception.  After the game, emotion got the better of me, and I went so far as to call Whitworth a top 15 team in the country.  For that, I am sorry.  They are not.  They are a top 25 team, but they have major deficiencies.  Talent just isn't there. Kyle Roach is good--but Butler, Hewitt and Howell, and Jack Stewart are just as good.  A WMN player would never score 45--just because there are too many options.  College is good, but Trevor Osborne is better.  For every 1 player WW has, WMN has 3.  WW is not as good as Occidental or Claremont.

Should we tackle the character issue?  Agree again with McHugh and Rat here.

There's only one group who calls people "bad winners."  Losers.  Simple solution for the WW folks.  If you don't like it, put a better team on the court.  The you wont have to deal with it.  And nobody has said a thing about Whitworth flexing to the crowd and pointing into the stands after every..single...shot..that..they..made..in..the..entire..Whitman...game. Kinda funny that to Whitworth...this is THE game...but to Whitman, its just a game.

Linfield lost to UPS because they arent good enough.  Lets not blame the travel.  So many excuses from everybody on the board.  "The NWC always has the toughest road, they have to travel unfairly..."

Linfield and UPS can both pull off upsets.  But we're likely looking at WW-WMN in Walla-Walla for the auto bid.  In Walla-Walla I think WMN wins 19 out of 20, so WW has less than 5% chance.

[wildcat11]

Linfield can play UPS Friday night, stay at a Tacoma hotel. Sleep in Saturday and take a bus down to Portland to play Lewis and Clark Saturday night. The difference between that and playing UPS and PLU in the same weekend is about 2 extra hours on a bus Saturday.

The whole argument/complaint made by is pretty nonsensical

I agree.   

'Cats looked great last night vs L&C.

Via twitter: https://twitter.com/_JoeThePro_/status/962547665098612736

Tonight's win made it the first time under Shanan Rosenberg that Linfield has won 10 conference games, last time was 2009-10 season. The 16 overall wins are the most games won in a season by the program since 2002-03 #RollCats

[D O.C.]

That Puget Sound game was costly.

[(509)Rat]

Well Lewis and Clark isn't gonna ruin anybody's conference tourney hopes like I thought they could. They could knock off UPS and force a tie with Linfield (assuming Linfield goes 0-2 in Eastern WA), but I'm pretty sure UPS would have the tie breaker?

Linfield's only hope is to knock off Whitworth in Spokane. Because the next night they have to play a team that is 3.5 hours away by bus...Linfield does not have the testicular fortitude to play their best basketball after such an arduous trip

[blackhawks4]

Don't count Linfield out of that 3rd spot just yet.  That program is continually getting better.  They have a chance at stealing one this weekend.

And Puget Sound plays PLU (who is awful), but it's still a rivalry game.  PLU will play their best game of the year. 

Puget Sound also plays that high risk/high reward style--which is super interesting.  From the article someone posted on the board earlier this year, Lunt acknowledged Whitman would be impossible to catch unless they did something drastic.  Respect Lunt for making that decision.  This high risk high reward style puts them as a threat to knock off the WMN/WW's on any given night, but in my opinion it can also work against them if things go wrong, and give lessor opponents a chance.

Anybody else paying attention to the SCIAC?  Claremont is back.  They are a TOUGH first round game for one of the Whits.  Beat WW last year.

[Smitty Oom]

Again, concerning the Hoopsville conversation aboout women having priority over men in hosting this year.

If Whitman finishes at 27-0 with three wins over Whitworth, can the committee really send the Blues to Spokane?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Again, concerning the Hoopsville conversation aboout women having priority over men in hosting this year.

If Whitman finishes at 27-0 with three wins over Whitworth, can the committee really send the Blues to Spokane?

Yes... and would... IF Whitworth is in the tournament as well. So... yeah.

It has happened on the women's side a few times, I believe.

[blackhawks4]

Im curious about Amherst, Williams, and Augustana -- how do they stack up to Whitman?  Also, Wittenburg?  Wash U?  Anybody seen these teams play and have an opinion?

Regarding WW hosting the 1st round:

I understand the NCAA saving money by only having to fly two teams, and that its WMN women's turn to host if they outlast Fox.  But 2 follow up questions.

1.  Does the committee look at having WW host as doing a favor to WMN by lessening their travel (assuming WMN stays undefeated #1)?

2.  WW's key wins are North Central Illinois and Wheaton.  Is that really enough to hang your hat on for hosting?  I would think if WMN doesnt host that theres a chance they fly both WMN and WW to a different pod

[blackhawks4]

A sidenote:  I would argue that two teams from same conference having to play each other (such as Whitman vs. Whitworth) is a more difficult draw in the ncaa tourney than playing the rest of the field because the teams are SO familiar with each other.  In those early rounds, i think its easier for WMN/WW to play a team that its never played before