MBB: Northwest Conference

Started by The Show, March 06, 2005, 08:40:16 PM

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bbaddict

Quote from: A Buc Forever on November 30, 2012, 02:33:18 AM
Looks like Pac, LC, WW, WM, and W are starting strong.  LC hung well with Portland.  WW had a strong win against Montana Tech. Should be a great conference race this year.  Looks like UPS, PLU, and Linfield will struggle. Strange to see those teams at the bottom.

Seems that Linfield has the first NWC win over Lewis & Clark.    Linfield better than you thought, or L&C worse?

formercat

Linfield came back against LC after being down by double figures early in the second half. They matched up well against LC because the Pios do not pound the ball inside.  Linfield played good defense and LCs jump shots stopped falling. Harris and Batiuk got it going in the second half to open conference play with a win against one of the better teams.

playball


TryMeTeam

Buc Forever:

Not a big Pirate fan, but you are right:  I did love it!

Big day for Playball!  Wow, I didn't see that coming. 

Couple of things:  Preseason, er, Preleague games quite often do not prepare teams for the NWC.  Or at least provide assurance of success or not in league.  Teams know each other too well in conference and teams from other conferences play different styles.

And I don't like the schedule this year!  A league game in November 2 weeks after the non-league games start (not counting exhibition games)?  Fox and Will only playing once before Christmas while everyone else plays twice?  Who did this and why?
   
And Playball, that is why passionate was in quotes.  Trying to be nice.  Your dislike for Hollins AS A PLAYER has been noted, and I can see where you come from.  He takes some real bad shots and drives at times, but not being a team player I believe is inaccurate.  He is always cheering his team on when he is out of the game, and when my Biddy was around, he said he was a favorite of his teammates.  One player questioning his actions, even during a game, does not make him a bad teammate.

An apparent upset (too early to tell) in the season opener...it might be an interesting year!

A Buc Forever

Did not see Linfield beating LC like that.  TMT is correct.  It is different playing in your conference than non-league.  Looks like it will be a wild season.

The other issue this highlights though is that the NWC needs to have teams play a non-league schedule that gives the conference more credibility on a national scale. We need to stop playing all these NAIA teams, etc and everyone needs to schedule national level D-III teams and then go beat them.  I realize it's expensive, but football does it and look at the results. The NWC had 2 teams in the football playoffs this year and only 32 teams make it in.  Basketball has almost double that and we almost always just get one in.  Off the top of my head I think we have had teams get at least to the Sweet 16 the last 5 years and we got 2 teams in 1 time.  We need to work on the national rep a bit.

Playball--Congrats to Linfield on a great football season.  Sad to see them blow a 15 point lead in the 4rth quarter, but still a great season.

formercat

Quote from: A Buc Forever on December 01, 2012, 07:06:58 PM
We need to stop playing all these NAIA teams, etc and everyone needs to schedule national level D-III teams and then go beat them.  I realize it's expensive, but football does it and look at the results.

The closest D-III conference to the NWC is the SCIAC and from what I have been told by a source who would know is that in the past NWC coaches wanted to do like an NWC/SCIAC challenge like the ACC and Big 10 challenge, but the SCIAC as a conference wanted none of it.

playball

Buc,
Its not like the Linfield Basketball Staff and Players enjoy playing all these NAIA schools.  If we had adequate funding we/they would be happy to travel around playing some other conferences.  However, this goes back to me beating a dead horse in saying the things that get funded at Linfield are baseball and football.  However, I do believe Linfield is in a Christmas tourny that has some quality D3 competition this year!

A Buc Forever

LC dropping games to GF and Linfield really shocks me. LC had some good non-league wins and Linfield had no wins and GF lost to the Banana Slugs. That's why they play the games.


playball

Tough loss to Willamette for the Wildcats tonight.  Good to see Brandon Harris showing a little hot stretch, hopefully he can sustain it for as long as possible.  Batuik throws in his regular 19 and 7. 

Looks like Dart for Willamette was doing his thing and shooting at a stupid high percentage and grabbing a ton of rebounds.  18 and 17? Unbelievable.

Playing Willamette has always been a mixed result.  They are a well coached team that is scrappy.  Tough loss :/

(509)Rat

Whitworth gets PLU and UPS this weekend. Looks like PLU finally has a reliable big man. It will help but I don't know if the Lutes have enough talent, expecially with as shaky as they've been early on this season, to beat Whitworth tonight. I think PLU can finish 3rd this year, but if you look at results for the NWC this year (so far) there is no way of telling who is actually improved/gotten worse and who just had an off night against a common opponent...saying PLU could be 3rd really isn't bold at all. Anyone could finish 3rd this year.

UPS is down. Very down by the looks of some of their early season contests. What I don't get is why their leading scorer is coming off the bench almost every game this season...Where are all the Lunt apologists from UPS at?

TryMeTeam

Okay Rat, you started it!  Let's see if this sparks some UPS apologists (love that term)!

It seems that promoting the assistant coach to head coach is not a very successful procedure.  Over the last 10 years there have been 4 such promotions with limited to no success at all.  PLU promoted Dickerson in 2006, UPS also promoted Lunt in 2006, Willamette selected Ione in 2008, and LC tabbed Foreman in 2011. 

Those teams that hired from outside have done much better.  Bridgeland at Whitman in 2008, Cleary at PacU in 2010, and Logie at Whitworth in 2011.  I would say this group has done a much better job of maintaining or elevating their programs than the former group.

Dickerson has had mediocre success at best finishing consistently in the middle of the pack.  1 or 2 top 4 appearances in 6 years, just barely OK in my book.  I don't see PLU being a top team with Dickerson as the coach.

Lunt was dealt a winning hand when Bridgeland left with only his 3rd year finish being as successful as expected.  Most people would say he underachieved during the first 2 years of that 3 year period.  He had a decent record a couple of years ago, but I think the graph of his success shows a gradual but steady decline.   The UPS program was operating on a high level with Bridgeland there, but I don't see them back at the top with Lunt with the exception of a spike in the record on an occasional basis.

Ione has had a similar road to Dickerson, but started at a lower level and rose to the middle.  For Ione to be labeled as a good coach I need to see some top 4 finishes, and that doesn't look likely in the foreseeable future.  I think he has done a decent job.  Now it is time to take a step up.

Foreman was also dealt a good hand, and underachieved his first year.  LC backed into the playoffs when PLU lost their last 2 games and Fox lost their last 4 games to hand the 4th seed to the Pios.  But they did make it.  They came out strong this year, but lost their first 2 league games.  Heading into the assistant coach spiral down from a top program, or just a short step backward, too early to tell.

Whereas Bridgeland has brought talk of a league championship title to Walla Walla, Cleary, dealt a horrible hand to start his tenure as a head coach, has the Boxer backers talking of a playoff position in only his 3rd year, and Logie has maintained the high level of play at Whitworth, all success stories to me.

I think it is real hard to take over as a head coach from being an assistant coach.  The returning kids need to respect the new coach, and that doesn't happen most of the time.  It is an easy choice for the schools since a promotion probably comes much cheaper than hiring a more established head coach.  But the programs suffer from this. 

To make a short answer real long, I don't think Lunt was experienced enough to be the head coach, and now he can't get experience from other good head coach's since they are all at the wrong side of the scorer's table.  The school of "experience on the job" provides some answers, but not enough.  And now that he has all of his own recruits, UPS will probably fall to the middle of the pack like the rest of the promoted coaches.     

(509)Rat

After Whitworth gets done beating the crap out of UPS tonight, hopefully Keandre will grace us with his presence...to remind us all why Lunt is such a great coach.

Of course, after a 30 point beat down at the hands of Bridgeland's new team, I have a feeling we won't hear from him for awhile  :-X

(509)Rat

Whitworth beats UPS 78-45

Gone are the days of Kraul and Foster and Williams. No more Boyce or Marsh or Shelton. Maybe McVey or Curtiss could find eligibility...

This Whitworth team really doesn't "wow" you while they're playing. I don't know how to describe it, but they aren't an exciting team. They play great defense. They've held St. Thomas and UPS to season low point totals and several others (UMHB included) to their 2nd lowest totals. They execute on offense and don't kill themselves with turnovers.

So early on in the season, looks like it'll be Whitworth and Whitman battling it out for 1st. But who gets the last 2 conference tourney spots is beyond me...right now, I'd say Pacific and PLU. Don't ask me why I picked those two teams. Figuring out the 3rd and 4th best teams this year is gonna be like trying to find the tallest man in Mexico...

playball

TMT, look at the schools who have been successful with their new coaches and what do they have in common?  The dump a lot of money on sports.  Whitman with the $3 million spent on their new gym along with more spent on other facilities.  Pacific also has spent lots on updating facilities and adding football again!  And along with these two we have Whitworth that is on a level all its own.

UPS is down this year.  I don't think they have the athletes to run the run n' gun efficiently.  They are going to continue to struggle. 

Im impressed with Whitworth's freshmen George Valle.  Not an easy environment to succeed in, let alone to be a freshmen with a bunch of pressure.