In case you are reading this column for the first time today or you are a regular reader, this my attempt to bring some small attention to the schools in the Northwest who play basketball below the D-1 level. Of course I love all basketball, so not only this column, but I hope you will go often to CSNNW.com for my Crawford's Court blog, which appears there on Monday and Thursday. As many of you have done and I appreciate it very much, please feel free to send me after getting their permission, the email of anyone who might want to receive this.
Cascade Conference---It was another great week of basketball in what many think is the best basketball league in the NAIA. In order to be the champ, you have to beat the champ. It did not happen and with one week to go, Oregon Tech has a one game lead on the men's side, after a key victory on Saturday night over Northwest, who was tied with Oregon Tech for the league lead going into the game.
It was also a nice weekend for Warner Pacific as they swept at home defeating Northwest Christian University and Corban, to move into a second place tie with Northwest. Next week I will have all the seedings for postseason play.
On kind of sad note, you have to feel for Concordia coach Brad Barbarick, whose team has been decimated by injuries. Brad is truly one of the wonderful people in basketball coaching, has as one of his assistant's Larry Black, another true gentleman. Next week I will be listing several of the seniors on his team that will be going out in this world and making a major contribution to society after graduation, as will so many of these young men and women who play basketball in the Cascade Conference, who are student/athletes in the greatest form.
Northwest Conference---One week to go and all you can say is that once again Whitworth has dominated the league, hats off to them. It has been a tough year for the fans of Pacific and Linfield, many of them who are regular readers of this column. I also want to thank Blake Timm, the superb SID of Pacific University who often writes to me and puts out such a great professional product, which is a big help to myself.
GNAC---Another great basketball conference that plays on the D-2 level. With two weeks to go, the huge edge to win the GNAC title goes to Western Washington, after they beat second place Alaska Anchorage Thursday night 59-50. It should be lots of fun when the GNAC holds it postseason tournament at St. Martin's in Lacey Washington, starting on February 29th.
Community Colleges---It was fun game to see on Saturday night at Clackamas Community College, when the Cougars defeated Linn-Benton is a game that close the entire way. Clif Wegner has his team playing some great basketball, actually should have won both games this past week, but in something you rarely see in basketball they lost at Chemeketa on Wednesday night because of a scoring error. The Cougars actually won the game, 73-72, but in the first half, Chemeketa was credited with a basket they did not score and at the time the final score was 74-73. Sadly this should not happen in this day and age, but it did and tough loss for Clackamas and is not correctable.
One final note on the Saturday game, I am really puzzled why Joseph Vance did not start either half for Linn-Benton, which might have meant the difference in the game. Vance in my mind is the best player on Linn-Benton and one of the top ten players in the South Division, so to not play him all the time seems rather a mystery.
Multnomah University----Hey, let's pack the gym next Saturday for the final home game of the regular season for the Lions. The game starts at 3:00 p.m. and is a critical game for the number one seed against New Hope Christian College.
Multnomah is such an exciting team to watch and Curt Bickley does a great job of coaching his team each and every game.
Please do not forget to go to CSNNW.com often for all the latest in sports news and please feel free to email me crawscorner@gmail.com or on twitter @wchoops
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