Sunday, December 2nd 2012
By Greg Crawford @wchoops
It was really a big week for small college hoops in the Pacific Northwest.
CCC----What a league this could be this year, as all teams opened league play this past weekend. It does not appear you can ever take a night off, top to bottom is pretty darn good.
Interesting to note that on Saturday night, Northwest Christian at home knocked off defending national champion OIT.
Eastern Oregon continued its winning ways, remaining undefeated for the year by polishing off Concordia and Warner Pacific at home.
Also winning twice on the weekend was Southern Oregon, beating Corban and Northwest Christian on the road. This was after, this season already beating Oregon Tech in a non-league game at home.
The next league action for most teams, comes on the weekend of December 21st/22nd, even though most teams will play non-league games before that time and Warner Pacific does visit Concordia for a counter on the 15th of December.
Fasten your seat belts, it is going to be one great season for the Cascade Collegiate Conference.
NWC---The Northwest Conference appears like the CCC to have some really nice balance. Linfield contributed to that balance by defeating Lewis Clark at home on Friday night and then the Pioneers came home, only to lose to the George Fox Bruins on Saturday night.
The Northwest Conference gets back into league play the first week of January, with the exception of a Tuesday night game when Linfield visits Willamette, a key early season match-up.
Multnomah University---It was a tough three days for Curt Bickley's Lions, as they hosted a wonderful tournament that featured Portland Bible, Central Bible College and Valley Forge Christian College. (You can read more about Central Bible College and their unique situation in the December 3rd edition of Crawford's Court, www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasbetball)
Even though the Lions lost all three games in the tournament, they battle as well as any team and are exciting to watch with their many 3-point attempts.
The Lions are back in action this week, with two 4:00 pm games, an easy time to attend a game. Tuesday night they face Adelaide from Australia and on Friday, the powerful California Maritime.
Clackamas Community College---The Cougars, led by coach Clif Wegner easily defeated the Concordia JVs on Friday, as they tune-up for league play which starts the first week in January.
This Tuesday, at 7:00 pm, the Cougars take on Linfield JVs, which should be an up and down affair, so get out and see this game, as well as just see a game period.
And speaking of taking on, I am going to take on any league that plays league games and then takes anywhere from 3-4 weeks before they play league contests again. It is stupid, it makes no sense and I hope someday it changes. Too long to wait between league games, end of story.
In the next 90 days, Greg Crawford will see 100 college basketball games live, which he is really looking forward too. You can check his progress every Monday in Crawford's Court, www.csnnw.com/pages/ncaabasketball and please follow him on twitter @wchoops. It will be called "100 in 90".
