March 11, 2017
Big Sky Championship
(3) Eastern Washington (17-13) vs. (1) Weber State (24-8)
This team is good. Very good. Not Duke or Kentucky good. But for a small major team, they are solid. They are beatable though, as we split with them in the regular season. We won by 5 at our place, and lost by 3 there to open Big Sky play. They've got 3 guys on their roster that are green overall, so they are a very talented squad. Not talented enough though, as we held them to just 5 field goals and 19 points in the first half, taking a 30-19 halftime lead and holding on for dear life late. At one point this season, we were 3-8. Since then, we've gone 15-5 and beat Weber State 59-54 in the Big Sky Championship to
clinch a bid to the NCAA Tournament! I never would have thought in a million years the team would have rebounded like this, but I am so proud of them. We've won 9 in a row and 12 of our last 13 going into the NCAA Tournament, where we'll almost assuredly be a #16 seed, or in the First Four.
Code:
Eastern Washington 59, Weber State 54
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Eastern Washington (18-13, 12-6):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Vincent Ruhl C 28 2-4 9-10 1 4 2 1 13
Tony Espinosa PF 20 4-7 0-0 2 6 0 5 9
Laurence Torrey SF 31 3-5 0-0 3 8 2 3 8
Bret Bascom SG 31 2-7 1-2 0 1 3 2 6
Charles Baughman PG 29 1-10 2-2 3 7 0 0 5
Sherwood Bish C 23 2-2 3-5 0 4 1 1 7
Randal Sifuentes SG 18 1-5 2-6 3 5 1 3 4
Kevin Hale PG 9 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Douglas Parker PF 8 1-1 2-2 0 1 0 0 4
Dean Crowder SF 2 1-1 1-1 0 0 0 1 3
Turnovers: 18 (V.Ruhl 2, L.Torrey 1, B.Bascom 4,
C.Baughman 3, S.Bish 2, R.Sifuentes 2, K.Hale 4)
Blocked Shots: 2 (V.Ruhl 1, B.Bascom 1)
Steals: 5 (B.Bascom 1, C.Baughman 2, R.Sifuentes 1,
K.Hale 1)
3P FGs: 5-15 (T.Espinosa 1-1, L.Torrey 2-3, B.Bascom
1-5, C.Baughman 1-6)
Weber State (24-9, 14-4):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Jesus Baillargeon C 34 4-9 3-4 0 4 0 3 12
John Jamison PF 33 1-2 0-0 0 7 2 4 2
Stephen Lomas SF 19 2-2 2-2 0 2 1 4 6
Jerry Robertson SG 31 3-9 1-1 0 2 1 2 8
Harris Murrell PG 30 6-13 3-3 4 6 1 5 17
Jacob Holton PG 24 1-4 2-4 0 2 2 2 5
Caleb Monahan PG 12 1-3 0-0 0 0 1 0 2
Marquis Ashmore SG 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Nathan Hill PF 9 0-0 0-2 0 0 0 0 0
Darnell Potts SF 2 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 2
Cletus Williams C 3 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 1 0
Turnovers: 15 (J.Baillargeon 6, J.Jamison 2, S.Lomas 3,
J.Robertson 1, J.Holton 1, C.Monahan 1, N.Hill 1)
Blocked Shots: 3 (J.Baillargeon 2, J.Jamison 1)
Steals: 5 (J.Baillargeon 1, J.Jamison 2, J.Robertson 2)
3P FGs: 5-19 (J.Baillargeon 1-1, J.Robertson 1-5,
H.Murrell 2-6, J.Holton 1-4, C.Monahan 0-2, C.Williams
0-1)
Player of Game: C Vincent Ruhl (EWU)
2017 Selection Sunday
I am still cleaning up the mess at my house hours after the selection show. Tables were flipped, glass was broken.. I am not a happy camper. As expected, we will be playing in a First Four game for a #16 seed. We'll be in the East Region. If we win, we'll be playing (1) Kentucky. All good so far, right? Then.. our First Four opponent was announced... Oregon...frikking....State, of the Pac 12. Really? Really? (on a side not, this is my biggest complaint about FBCB, when it comes to postseason tournaments, the game IMO does a horrible job of pairing and seeding teams. This isn't the first time I've seen a power conference team either as a 16 seed or in a First Four game for the right to be a 16 seed. I could understand it a lot more if Oregon State was like 5-24 or something like that, but they are 19-15 with an RPI of 31!!!!! No way should they be fighting for a 16 seed. This is the biggest flaw in this game, by far.)
Ok, rant over. We'll deal with it, it's not gonna change. We'll do what we do. Moving on, the Big Sky did much better than I expected them to do, as 4 other teams got postseason berths.
Weber State got the #8 seed in the NIT Midwest Region. They travel to (1) Syracuse.
3 teams got into the CIT.
Montana got the 8th seed and will host (9) UAB in the First Round.
Idaho State got the 15th seed and will travel to (2) Radford in the First Round.
And now I go back to griping, as Sacramento State got the 7th seed and will host (10) Hawaii. If they were to win and Idaho State somehow won, they'd be playing in the Quarterfinals. I don't agree with that at all. Oh well, it is what it is.