This is once again my continuing efforts to get some small recognition for teams in the Northwest that play basketball on the D-2, D-3, NAIA and Community College level. Of course for all the news on D-1 basketball, I hope you will continue read Crawford's Court, which comes out every Monday and Thursday on CSNNW.com, the best sports website on the entire west coast.
Also please note, that this is just the tip of the iceberg as we finish out the 2011-12 basketball season. I already have a team in place to go big time with more information and the best website, radio interviews and much more when we get to the 2012-13 season when it comes to D-2, D-3, NAIA and Community College basketball in the Northwest. No one will be able to match what we are going to bring you for coverage of the people that have often been forgotten by many media outlets. We will be the go to people for basketball, without question.
Ok, here we go as we get down to crunch time in all of college basketball.
Multnomah University----Curt Bickley's Lions went 1-1 this past weekend, defeating Walla Walla University on Friday and then traveling to Eugene on Saturday and getting beat by New Hope Christian. Good battle this Tuesday as Multnomah travels to play their arch rival, Portland Bible College.
Multnomah has only two home games left, so I urge you to go to their website, check the schedule and go and watch an exciting team that loves the 3-ball and is so much fun to watch. I was raised on up-tempo basketball and will never ever not be a fan of teams of that score in the 100s as Multnomah does often.
Northwest Conference---It was great to see Tim Cleary's Pacific Boxers break their eight game slide and defeat Willamette on Saturday night. The Boxers have been plauged by injuries this year, so a win was just what the Doctor ordered. I still wish the Boxers would pull one of the greatest marketing moves the Northwest Conference has seen and change their nickname back to the Badgers. So Blake Timm, one of the best Sports Information Directors in the country, get going on my suggestion please.
It is no surprise that Whitworth will once again win the regular season championship in the NWC. Depsite losing their great coach Jim Hayford who left to over the head coaching job at Eastern Washington, the Pirates have not missed a beat this season and have lost only one league game so far, that being to Whitman.
Lastly on the NWC, congrats to longtime Linfield coach Larry Doty for surpassing Ted Wilson as the leader of all time wins at Linfield with 325. You can probably congratulate Larry in person as he is constantly out scouting and recruiting in the state of Oregon. Quite an accomplishment at a school with such a rich athletic tradition and I might add, my alma mater.
Community College---Clif Wegner's Clackamas Community College Cougars continue to surge as they won again on Saturday night, defeating SW Community College on the road. Wegner's team is playing the best ball they have played all year and face a tough week as they travel to Chemeketa on Wednesday and they return home on Saturday night to battle Linn-Benton, which is led by terrific player Joseph Vance.
It is worth noting about the Saturday night victory, seldom in basketball do you ever see a player score more points than minutes played, but the Cougar's Taylor Dunn accomplished that fete this past Saturday as he posted 34 points in just 32 minutes. No matter where Dunn goes to school next year, he is going to help whoever he plays for, it is really hard in this day and age to find a shooter like Dunn is.
CCC---Coaches never like to look ahead, but basketball writers have to and should. That is why the CCC championship just more than likely will come down to the February 11th match-up of Northwest traveling to Klamath Falls to meet OIT. The teams are tied atop the CCC at present and the showdown on Danny Miles court should be something. I also might add, I watch as much basketball as anyone in the country and I have not seen a player on any level play as hard this year as Bobby Hunter for OIT. He does not take one play off, either on the defensive or offensive end.
I am personally looking forward to seeing in person the Corban @Concordia game this coming Friday night on the Cavaliers campus. Brad Barbarick's Concordia team is fighting for playoff positioning and this game will be a key contest for Concordia. Of course the next night, Corban will travel to Warner Pacific to meet the Knights, in what is always a fun place to watch basketball, much like Concordia.
Before I leave the CCC, I would be remiss if I did not congratulate OIT women's coach Scott Meredith on winning 20 games so far this season. Anytime a college basketball team wins 20 games that is an accomplishment in itself.
GNAC---This is quite a league and is headed to a great finish, before the league goes to St Martin's later this month for their postseason tournament. It certainly is no surprise to see a Brad Jackson coached team on top of the league at this point in the season, as Western Washington leads Alaska Anchorage by one game, in an exciting race.
Worth noting as well, two new coaches in the league have had really good seasons thus far. Jamie Stevens is doing a wonderful job at Montana State University Billings as is Brady Bergeson at Western Oregon. Both of these coaches have really turned the programs around at their respective schools and deserve lots of credit.
So there you have another week of my covering "the other guys". If you have someone who would like to get this column by email, check with them first and then send me their email and they will get it automatically each week. Big things as mentioned before are coming from this column next year, but this year you still will get plenty of info. And please do not forget to go to CSNNW.com often to check not only Crawford's Court, but all the other great info on the website, the best as stated on the west coast.
I am always open to suggestions, comments, criticism, you name it by emailing me at crawscorner@gmail.com or you can follow me on twitter @wchoops.
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