MBB: SFA Getting Hot; ACU, GCU, Seattle U Escape; UVU Impresses
MBB: SFA Getting Hot; ACU, GCU, Seattle U Escape; UVU Impresses
Busy Saturday slate saw some wild endings, some favorites escaping and two teams playing better in the New Year.
The first week of the New Year was pretty special.
Conference play resumed and some things have come to light.
First, GCU has a stranglehold on the top seed for WAC Vegas.
Second, Tarleton continues to play well under acting head coach Joseph Jones.
Third, SFA is starting to play much better after a weird stretch dating back to Feast Week.
Fourth, we might have eight teams vying for five spots in the race to WAC Vegas.
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Right now, there are two undefeated teams in WAC play. GCU sits at 4-0. Tarleton sits at 3-0. The Texans had Saturday night off after beating UT Arlington in a barn burner at Wisdom Gym on Thursday.
SFA, Seattle U, and Utah Valley all sit at 3-1. The Jacks have won three straight since losing the WAC opener to Tarleton at home. Seattle U has also won three straight after losing at Utah Valley to open WAC play. And Utah Valley has bounced back with back-to-back wins in WAC play after its first two games.
Utah Tech sits at 2-2. ACU is 1-2. CBU and UT Arlington are 1-3. And UTRGV and Southern Utah are both 0-4 in WAC play.
Remember, eight teams make it to WAC Vegas. Which three teams will be left out? 14 games to go for all teams except ACU and Tarleton. The Wildcats and Texans have 15 games to go.
Lumberjacks Playing Much Better
Since a weird road loss at Wyoming on Dec. 9, the SFA men’s basketball team has been playing much better basketball. That loss at Wyoming was part of a weird stretch of games for the Jacks.
After dominating a really good Drake squad in the Cayman Islands Classic semifinals, the wheels came off the Jacks over the next five games. SFA got blown out by Utah State in the title game. Then, the Jacks lost at home to Tarleton to open WAC play. After an overtime win at ACU, the Jacks lost back-to-back games against Louisiana Tech and Wyoming.
Sure, La Tech is a good squad. However, Wyoming is one of the worst Mountain West Conference teams in 2023-24 with a NET of 191.
But, that Wyoming loss was the last time the Jacks lost a game.
SFA has reeled off five straight wins including wins at UTRGV and against UT Arlington this week.
Utah Tech transfer Frank Staine has been playing well recently for the Jacks. Matt Hayman was on fire from 3-point land in Saturday’s win over UT Arlington. Jalil Beaubrun has scored in double figures in back-to-back games. And there is flow to the SFA game plan.
Remember, the Jacks won a share of the WAC regular season title two seasons ago in their first year in the league. This is a veteran squad that gets after it defensively and has found some offensive rhythm leading into the New Year.
Keep an eye on the Jacks.
The Great Escape
There are escapes and then there are great escapes. Just ask GCU, ACU and Seattle U.
However, ACU head coach Brette Tanner would say that Saturday’s game against UTRGV never should have gotten to that point.
ACU was leading by three with about four seconds to play. UTRGV guard Hasan Abdul-Hakim was inbounding the basketball. Well, a really bad no-call led to an Elijah Elliott game-tying 3-pointer to send the game into overtime. Take a look at the picture and you can see the missed no-call where Abdul-Hakim’s foot is over the out of bounds line when he throws the pass.
The game never should have gone into overtime. Although, I was surprised that ACU head coach Brette Tanner did not pick up a technical at that point.
“I didn’t want to lose the game,” Tanner said after I asked him about it.
In overtime, the game went back and forth before a wild ending. JV Seat came down with an offensive rebound and put back to give the Wildcats the wild 91-89 win.
Another great escape happened at the Redhawk Center. And once again, there was a little bit of controversy surrounding it.
California Baptist led by as many as 15 at one point in a low scoring contest at Seattle U. In fact, Seattle U’s first lead of the game came with 5:09 to play when the Redhawks took a 44-43 lead after back-to-back jumpers by Seyi Reiley and Cam Tyson.
From there, things went back-and-forth continuing with the bad offense or perhaps good defense before dramatics happened.
Cam Tyson had a good look from 3-point range with two seconds remaining, but the shot rimmed out. However, the ball fell right into the hands of Alex Schumacher.
Schumacher then twisted, and knocked down a layup as time expired.
And, as we all know, this came under review. After the review, the officials confirmed the 48-46 win for the Redhawks.
But, there was controversy after looking at the Alex Schumacher game-winner. The screenshots aren’t great but looking at the images below, it appears the ball may have been still rolling off Schumacher’s index finger as the clock light went off. You be the judge.
Like we said, the call was made by the officials and the bucket counted. But, there was some controversy surrounding the Redhawks great escape at the Redhawk Center on Saturday.
And another great escape took place at Burns Arena in St. George to cap off a busy Saturday of WAC Hoops.
Perhaps it was just a slow start. Maybe Utah Tech just came to play. But, whatever it was, league-leading GCU found it self trailing by as many as 16 in the first half in St. George.
No worries, though. A veteran squad led by Gabe McGlothan, Ray Harrison, and Tyon Grant-Foster never panicked. Perhaps we shouldn’t call it a great escape. Just a team that knows how to win despite a slow start on the second game of a road trip.
McGlothan had arguably the dunk of the year in the second half as GCU turned a 16-point deficit into a 10-point win over Utah Tech. It was win No. 14 for the Lopes and the 11th straight win for a team that has the 1-seed for WAC Vegas all locked up already, barring something crazy happening.
Great escape? Perhaps. More like a team that is good enough to mess around for 20-25 minutes just deciding to turn things on and showing how good they really are.
Is Utah Valley Back?
Back-to-back wins in WAC play after a 4-game losing streak. Is Utah Valley back? The Wolverines beat California Baptist and Southern Utah this past week while making just two 3-pointers.
Yes, the Wolverines scored 80 points against Southern Utah and only hit two 3-pointers. Against CBU on Thursday, the Wolverines didn’t make a 3-pointer for the first time in eight years and still won the game.
The non-conference slate was up and down for the Wolverines. There was the impressive overtime road win at Sam Houston to start the season. But, four straight losses at Oregon State, at Utah, vs. Liberty and at Boise State kind of put a damper on things.
But, back-to-back wins have led to some confidence for the Wolverines. Trevin Dorius was really good this past week. Drake Allen had 16 points against his former team. And the Utah Valley defense clamped down in both wins.
The other thing of note…Utah Valley dominated the paint in both wins. Utah Valley scored 38 of its 65 points in the paint against CBU on Thursday. And 42 of its 80 points came in the paint against Southern Utah on Saturday. The Wolverines outscored the Lancers and T-Birds by a combined 80-48 and outrebounded both teams by a combined 88-64 margin.
Is Utah Valley back? We will sure learn more about the Wolverines over the next three games…Utah Valley goes to UT Arlington and UTRGV this week before a Thursday showdown on Jan. 18 at GCU.