University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

vs.

Top of the World Classic Semifinal
Carlson Center
Fairbanks, AK

Texas A&M Aggies at Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
Nov 15, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Texas A&M (2-0)	40	38	78
Alaska-Anchorage (4-1)	32	39	71

Texas A&M Aggies
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Hayes	22	5-9	2-3	4-5	1	6	1	0	7	16
Montgomery	24	8-12	2-5	0-1	5	4	2	1	3	18
Staten	22	4-7	0-1	1-2	3	3	0	0	3	9
Haranga	23	8-10	0-0	3-3	10	2	0	3	1	19
Kent	19	1-4	0-0	1-2	5	0	1	3	1	3
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Farley	11	3-4	1-1	0-0	2	2	0	0	4	7
Lawson	5	0-4	0-3	0-0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Augustine	14	3-3	0-0	0-0	9	1	0	0	0	6
Page	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Ingerson	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Connolly	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Bowman	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		32-53	5-13	9-13	35	18	4	8	20	78
TEAM TOTALS		32-53	5-13	9-13	35	18	4	8	20	78

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	22	3-8	2-6	0-0	1	4	3	0	0	8
Herman	11	0-4	0-3	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Luz	17	2-8	2-5	1-2	1	0	5	0	1	7
Wilkins	20	4-5	0-0	5-6	6	2	3	0	3	13
Atkinson	19	6-14	0-0	4-6	4	0	2	1	1	16
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Spears	19	5-12	4-11	0-0	0	2	2	0	1	14
Peavy	15	1-5	0-1	0-0	3	2	2	0	0	2
Borders	7	1-2	0-0	1-2	0	0	0	0	0	3
Taft	10	3-3	0-0	2-2	4	0	2	0	0	8
Scalzo	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Marsh	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Wagner	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		25-61	8-26	13-18	19	11	19	1	6	71

Tovarich: Even being +14 in turnovers wasn't enough to overcome the rebounding. It's futile against lesser opponents, so I'm not surprised we were so inept at it against a power school. Despite that, we got back in it somehow. We got it from 18 down to 5 there late. We hit some 3's. We forced a boatload of turnovers. It's crazy they were only credited with 8 blocks. Apparently slight deflections don't count because I would guess it was twice that.

Reporter: Are you ready to give up on Herman as a scoring threat?

Tovarich: Yes. There's something about him that just doesn't translate into making shots but he isn't really doing much of anything else either. Spears will go back in the starting lineup for the next game. If we're at the point where everyone is tired, maybe Herman can play PG and give it to people who can shoot.

Reporter: Is the rebounding trouble fixable with the current personnel?

Tovarich: They're all pretty inconsistent about it. Sometimes we don't look so pitiful, merely awful. Every once in a while we reach sheer below average. I suspect personnel is part of it. But it still needs to improve to have a chance against the better competition we have later.

Reporter: Did you feel like the press was effective?

Tovarich: Sort of. We forced 9 turnovers in the first half without pressing. Down 54-36 we had to go into desperation mode. So the second half was 11-6 in turnovers. We had some insanely bad luck. Wilkins gets a steal and immediately stumbles before he can take a step and loses it. We managed to get a steal at midcourt only to be called for over and back which was ridiculous. Atkinson got called for goaltending on his own shot, which was a real eye-roller. We also allowed a lot of easy layups against our press.

Reporter: Why do you think they were pressing up 9 with 35 seconds to go?

Tovarich: That seemed like a suspicious time to do it for sure, right out of a timeout too. Some of those coaches really work magic coming out of the half or those timeouts, it's like they sent a whole different team out sometimes.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

vs.

Top of the World Classic 3rd Place Game
Carlson Center
Fairbanks, AK

Loyola (MD) Greyhounds at Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
Nov 16, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Loyola (MD) (2-2)	30	28	58
Alaska-Anchorage (5-1)	46	37	83

Loyola (MD) Greyhounds
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Gosley	24	2-11	1-7	0-2	0	5	0	0	1	5
Boykin	21	6-12	1-2	0-0	2	2	2	0	2	13
Tran	20	6-7	1-2	0-0	2	1	0	0	2	13
White	14	1-1	0-0	0-0	3	0	0	1	0	2
Victoriano	21	2-4	0-0	0-0	3	1	0	1	1	4
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Crisp	8	2-4	2-3	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	6
Bowden	13	3-5	3-4	0-0	1	1	0	0	0	9
Peterson	10	2-3	0-1	2-2	3	1	0	0	1	6
Ingerson	5	0-2	0-2	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sherrod	6	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Warden	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Gamboa	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		24-49	8-21	2-4	14	13	3	2	8	58
TEAM TOTALS		24-49	8-21	2-4	14	13	3	2	8	58

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	19	2-2	2-2	0-0	0	5	2	0	1	6
Spears	23	4-7	2-4	0-0	1	8	1	0	1	10
Luz	23	4-4	2-2	0-0	4	3	1	0	0	10
Wilkins	18	5-6	0-0	2-2	7	0	3	0	1	12
Atkinson	16	8-15	0-0	2-2	7	0	0	0	0	18
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	8	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Peavy	5	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Borders	11	6-7	0-0	0-0	5	1	0	0	0	12
Taft	9	5-7	0-0	1-1	1	0	0	0	0	11
Scalzo	4	0-1	0-0	0-0	1	1	1	0	0	0
Marsh	2	1-1	0-0	2-2	0	0	0	0	0	4
Wagner	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	0
TEAM TOTALS		35-50	6-8	7-7	24	19	8	1	3	83

Tovarich: Finally a nice blowout win. We had a chance to try some different people in different spots and experiment a little bit. It's about time.

Reporter: How pleased were you with the balance of scoring?

Tovarich: 6 people in double digits is something I've only dreamed about. It's usually needing Atkinson in the 30's and hope Spears and Murry put in a handful of 3's. Hopefully it means we're progressing and building better depth, though I suspect it's just a one-time thing.

Reporter: How about the improvement in rebounding from yesterday?

Tovarich: I suspect the opponent had a lot to do with that. Still though, Atkinson went from 0 rebounds at halftime against Texas A&M to outrebounding Loyola 7-6 in the first half. Then he got none after halftime although we kept his second half minutes pretty minimal there. I imagine we're still inconsistent there, but I'll just be happy that for today, it was a success. I just know it isn't an indication of anything to come necessarily.

Reporter: You saw a halfcourt trap for the first time. What did you think about how the team handled it?

Tovarich: I think we had just the one turnover when we tried to throw a long pass over the top of it. But the rest went according to plan, and we got behind them a lot when they were lunging for the steal. Then I think they figured out it was a bad idea and backed out of it for a while, and then went to a full court man to man at the end in desperation mode.

Reporter: Where do you think you'll debut in the first mid-major poll?

Tovarich: Anything would be an improvement from last year where it took us quite a while to break into that, but it proved meaningless in the end, so if finishing 7th gets you seeded in the NIT the same as the teams down in 24th and 25th, it's silly to concern myself with it.

Reporter: Any chance of signing anyone in the early window that starts in a week?

Tovarich: None. I've only offered one of the 4 scholarships anyway. We're not anyone's top choice. My board hasn't quite been destroyed yet, but there's still time for a flood of offers to go out from other schools.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

@

Sullivan Arena
Anchorage, AK

New Mexico State Aggies at Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
Nov 19, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
New Mexico State (1-3)	21	52	73
Alaska-Anchorage (6-1)	46	46	92

New Mexico State Aggies
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Hudson	12	9-12	4-6	0-0	0	1	0	0	3	22
Wagner	25	7-9	2-4	0-0	3	3	0	0	7	16
Mitchell	21	7-8	0-0	0-0	5	5	1	0	0	14
Jacobs	24	0-3	0-1	0-0	6	1	1	3	1	0
Giles	18	1-8	1-2	0-0	2	1	1	0	0	3
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Baker	11	4-7	1-3	0-0	0	1	0	0	1	9
Bruce	11	3-3	1-1	0-0	0	2	0	0	1	7
Eaton	8	0-2	0-1	0-0	3	0	0	0	1	0
Chan	9	1-3	0-0	0-0	0	1	2	0	0	2
Caporn	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
McIntrye	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Leslie	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		32-55	9-18	0-0	19	15	5	3	14	73
TEAM TOTALS		32-55	9-18	0-0	19	15	5	3	14	73

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	18	3-4	1-2	2-2	1	2	2	0	1	9
Spears	22	1-5	1-4	2-2	1	2	3	0	0	5
Luz	18	4-6	2-4	0-2	0	2	3	0	0	10
Wilkins	17	8-10	0-0	2-3	6	3	0	0	0	18
Atkinson	16	8-11	0-0	0-0	6	1	4	1	0	16
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	9	2-3	0-1	0-0	1	0	1	0	0	4
Peavy	12	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	2	0	0	4	0
Borders	8	4-7	0-0	2-2	5	1	0	0	1	10
Taft	11	5-9	0-0	0-0	2	2	1	0	0	10
Scalzo	3	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Marsh	4	4-5	0-0	2-2	0	0	0	0	0	10
Wagner	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TEAM TOTALS		39-60	4-11	10-13	23	15	14	1	6	92

Tovarich: Luckily we came out and jumped on them early. That allowed us to withstand the barrage of 3-pointers they were making in the second half. It was mostly over by then, but the performance on defense in the second half was still kinda disappointing. We were up against the press for almost the entire game because of the big lead we had, so we didn't get a lot of halfcourt offense since we couldn't force many misses. But we did a pretty good job against that.

Reporter: How many options do you trust on offense now?

Tovarich: Still mostly the same 3, but the others are looking like better options more frequently. Atkinson doesn't have to average over 25 like last year. Murry playing PG kind of limits his shot taking options, but we move him around some. Spears we know is capable but his role has varied and he's been inconsistent. Hopefully it'll pick up. Wilkins is mostly against the press, so he can go missing in the half court offense sometimes. That's fine though.

Reporter: Is winning rebounding again showing some improvement?

Tovarich: Since their center was 1/8, something tells me they just had a bad game. When it regularly happens against decent competition like this, I'll be a little more encouraged.

[studbucket]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

You're getting solid contributions from the bench for a few games now, which is nice.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

@

Sullivan Arena
Anchorage, AK

Western Illinois Leathernecks at Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
Nov 23, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Western Illinois (0-4)	37	41	78
Alaska-Anchorage (7-1)	50	47	97

Western Illinois Leathernecks
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Thomas	26	6-11	3-7	2-2	5	5	1	1	4	17
Pranciiauskas	20	9-15	4-8	0-0	0	3	0	0	1	22
Linebaugh	26	4-5	0-0	0-0	3	6	0	0	1	8
Brittian	23	2-6	0-0	0-0	6	4	0	0	2	4
Henning	10	3-5	0-0	0-0	2	2	0	1	0	6
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Falls	1	2-2	1-1	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	5
Zwikker	4	2-4	1-3	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	5
Nwankwo	12	1-2	1-2	0-0	1	2	0	0	2	3
Southall	14	3-3	2-2	0-0	2	1	0	0	1	8
Nutter	4	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kennedy	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Parham	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		32-53	12-23	2-2	19	24	2	2	11	78
TEAM TOTALS		32-53	12-23	2-2	19	24	2	2	11	78

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	22	2-4	1-2	0-0	1	6	3	0	1	5
Spears	24	5-11	5-11	0-0	2	0	4	0	0	15
Luz	22	4-8	3-7	0-0	4	3	0	0	0	11
Wilkins	18	11-13	0-0	4-4	4	2	2	0	0	26
Atkinson	18	9-11	0-0	2-2	5	2	0	0	0	20
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	6	0-1	0-1	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Peavy	11	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Borders	10	3-4	0-0	2-4	1	1	0	0	1	8
Taft	10	5-8	0-0	2-2	4	1	0	0	0	12
Scalzo	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Marsh	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Wagner	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		39-60	9-21	10-12	21	17	9	0	2	97

Tovarich: Sorry to those who like defense. This game wasn't for you. If you like watching open jump shooters practice, you enjoyed it. If you like watching Wilkins lay it in against the full court press, you also enjoyed it.

Reporter: Was revenge from last year's loss a motivating factor?

Tovarich: I hope so. That was our only bad loss. Hopefully it means we're improving, though I'm sure they weren't 0-4 last year

Reporter: Was looking ahead to your rival Hawaii a concern?

Tovarich: I'm not sure how into that rivalry anyone is. It's not like we had anyone else close. Washington's the next closest team, and I doubt they would come up here. Washington State might be the only power team that realistically we'd be able to schedule up here unless we could know who was playing in the Alaska tournaments and snag one for a warmup game before they play in one of those.

Reporter: Are you concerned how bad all of your opponents are this year?

Tovarich: Yeah, our SOS is going to be terrible. 2 winless teams, 3 1-win teams, it's definitely not helping. We're piling up wins, but we had 23 of those in the regular season last year too and it didn't get us much, so it'd be nice if they all get better. I know I schedule lightly until we go to UCLA, Stanford and Arizona, but I didn't mean for it to be like this.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

@

Sullivan Arena
Anchorage, AK

Hawaii Warriors at Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
Nov 27, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Hawaii (3-4)	31	45	76
Alaska-Anchorage (8-1)	46	32	78

Hawaii Warriors
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
James	21	6-9	4-6	0-0	0	7	0	0	0	16
Lettenberger	17	8-10	3-3	1-2	1	4	0	1	0	20
McNurlin	21	5-6	3-4	0-0	2	3	1	0	0	13
Nguyen	22	0-0	0-0	0-0	3	5	1	0	2	0
Page	18	6-8	0-0	0-0	3	2	2	0	0	12
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Fletcher	18	5-8	1-3	1-2	0	3	0	0	2	12
Dillon	6	0-0	0-0	0-0	2	2	0	0	0	0
Pritchard	5	1-1	1-1	0-0	1	0	0	0	3	3
Seymour	1	0-2	0-0	0-2	3	1	0	2	1	0
Atkins	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Sanders	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Momplaisir	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		31-44	12-17	2-6	15	27	4	3	8	76
TEAM TOTALS		31-44	12-17	2-6	15	27	4	3	8	76

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	23	1-1	0-0	0-0	1	5	2	0	1	2
Spears	21	5-7	3-5	0-0	0	2	2	0	0	13
Luz	21	5-9	3-6	0-0	1	5	2	0	0	13
Wilkins	21	3-5	0-0	0-0	5	0	0	0	1	6
Atkinson	19	15-20	0-0	2-4	2	1	1	1	1	32
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	5	1-1	0-0	0-0	1	1	0	0	0	2
Peavy	11	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	1	0	0	0	0
Borders	7	2-5	0-0	0-0	2	1	0	0	0	4
Taft	9	3-4	0-0	0-1	2	0	0	0	1	6
Scalzo	3	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Marsh	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Wagner	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		35-52	6-11	2-5	15	16	7	1	4	78

Tovarich: I thought the defense was bad in the last game. Their 3-point shooting was insane. We did a good job making 3's until we missed the last 4 we took and I just gave up on them. They kept bombing away and it felt like they never missed.

Reporter: Why didn't you turn the heat off in the arena again?

Tovarich: The NCAA made us stop doing that. Something about icicles on the basket and falling on the court being "unsafe" or some nonsense like that, so they apparently all had their right shoulders nice and warm to shoot like that.

Reporter: So how did you overcome all the 3's?

Tovarich: Mostly because they didn't shoot more of them. They'd have beaten us by 30 if they shot a 3 on every possession the way they were shooting. Atkinson luckily was efficient. Neither team shot FT's well. When they (gasp) hit a 3 to make it a 2-point game, luckily they hadn't committed enough fouls so we were able to run the clock down to 0 before they could foul us a 7th time.

Reporter Tied in rebounding tonight and you won it last game. Are you still not ready to say it's improving?

Tovarich: Throw tonight out. There were a grand total of 30 rebounds because there has to be this thing called defense to force some misses and there just wasn't. They had no one with more than 3 rebounds and we only had one person make it to 3. We're also in a long stretch of weak opponents right now. I backloaded the tougher games to give us a chance to incorporate all the new people and figure out everyone's role before we had too much of a challenge. It's not an improvement until we are semi-competent at doing it against a competent opponent and we haven't had many of those yet.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

@

Corbett Center
Greensboro, NC

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves at North Carolina A&T Aggies
Dec 1, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Alaska-Anchorage (9-1)	48	42	90
North Carolina A&T (1-8)	50	21	71

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	20	0-3	0-1	0-0	1	7	3	0	3	0
Spears	20	4-8	3-7	2-2	2	1	1	0	1	13
Luz	20	6-9	1-3	3-3	1	3	3	0	1	16
Wilkins	21	6-13	0-0	2-2	2	0	6	1	2	14
Atkinson	18	12-15	0-0	8-8	7	1	1	3	0	32
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	8	2-5	0-2	0-0	1	0	1	0	1	4
Peavy	8	1-2	0-1	0-0	1	0	0	0	0	2
Borders	7	1-2	0-0	2-2	1	0	1	0	1	4
Taft	10	1-3	0-0	3-4	4	0	3	0	0	5
Scalzo	8	0-0	0-0	0-0	2	2	1	0	1	0
Marsh	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Wagner	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		33-60	4-14	20-21	22	14	20	4	10	90

North Carolina A&T Aggies
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Holden	21	3-8	1-3	0-0	0	5	1	0	4	7
Ma	22	5-14	2-6	0-0	2	4	1	0	6	12
Larson	21	4-12	3-10	1-2	1	2	4	0	4	12
Demanby	18	4-5	0-0	0-0	10	2	1	2	2	8
Cook	19	7-10	0-0	0-0	7	2	2	0	0	14
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Konryn	10	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	2	0	0	2	0
Hudson	12	2-5	1-3	0-0	2	2	0	0	0	5
Root	1	1-2	0-0	0-0	1	0	0	0	2	2
Greer	13	4-4	0-0	1-2	6	0	1	0	2	9
Temple	2	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Tobias	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Schmeider	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		31-62	7-22	2-4	29	19	10	2	22	71

Tovarich: That start looked a lot like last year's start with them. It's hard to think of much more that could've gone wrong to start the game. We get a couple misses and we watch the miss land on the court and bounce and we all stare at each other without grabbing it and then they come get it and lay it in. Then Atkinson is called for goaltending on his own shot which never left his hand. So we're down 16-4 3 or 4 minutes in. They aren't missing. Their never ending full court press is causing turnovers. We're all around doing nothing right. We have to get the press on against them to get ourselves back in it.

Reporter: And then you dominate the second half.

Tovarich: Yeah, all of a sudden they couldn't make a shot, so they couldn't get in the press. We finally have a chance to run some half court offense there. 22/35 shooting in the first half suddenly vanishes. Last year, we couldn't overcome that crazy start. This year's team is better and they're worse apparently, even though I'm not really sure they're any worse.

Reporter: Can you explain?

Tovarich: They were the worst team in their conference on paper last year and won the regular season, and the tournament and beat us and won 25 games I think and got a 10 seed. So, they did all that as the worst team in the Colonial and now they're 1-8. They're likely still the worst team in the Colonial. They're just not playing like they did last year for some reason.

Reporter: Why do you think their press gave you problems?

Tovarich: It wasn't quite the 1-2-1-1 or the full court man we're used to. So we tried to make some long passes and they stole a lot of them. 10 turnovers for us I think might be a first in my time here. We were lucky they were also very sloppy with the ball, even if we weren't pressing. And we got luckier than usual with the tipped passes. It normally feels like 80% of them go back to the other team. We reacted better to the tipped passes than we did the free rebounds we could have had and it lead to a lot of breakaway layups. They just wanted to play as fast as possible and it did them more harm than good.

Reporter: NC A&T coach didn't like the free throw disparity. What did you think?

Tovarich: I wouldn't either, but we were more aggressive getting the ball down low. They settled for a lot of 3's. Perhaps they watched some Hawai'i tape and figured out a plan their coach shouldn't, which was to shoot 3's a whole lot like Hawai'i should have. They just didn't make many. But that plan is not conducive to getting to the line.

Reporter: The in-season signing window has opened. Is there any hope of signing anyone?

Tovarich: I've only offered 1 of my 4 scholarships, and we're literally no one's first choice right now. I'm expecting Marsh and Wagner to leave the team at the end of the year. It's possible we'll get a third leaving too. We'll see if anyone wants to transfer in that we can use, so I'll leave at least one open for that. We have to re-evaluate everything in about 2 weeks when the in-season window ends and everyone else has to re-do their offers and we'll see who we lose. Standard operating procedure around here, probably every year. No one's clamoring to come play up here.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

vs.

Drake Regency Classic Semifinal
Knapp Center
Drake, IA

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves at Indiana State Sycamores
Dec 5, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Alaska-Anchorage (10-1)	43	32	75
Indiana State (0-7)	35	31	66

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	24	1-1	0-0	0-0	2	6	0	0	0	2
Spears	23	3-8	3-7	0-0	2	4	2	0	2	9
Luz	24	6-8	4-6	0-0	2	3	5	1	1	16
Wilkins	21	3-6	0-0	0-0	5	1	4	1	2	6
Atkinson	20	12-17	0-0	6-7	5	0	0	0	0	30
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	7	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Peavy	7	1-1	0-0	0-0	1	0	1	0	0	2
Borders	6	1-2	0-0	2-2	0	0	0	0	1	4
Taft	9	3-5	0-0	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	6
Scalzo	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Marsh	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Wagner	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		30-49	7-13	8-9	17	15	3	2	6	75

Indiana State Sycamores
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Parsons	20	4-9	2-3	0-0	0	5	0	0	4	10
Desilos	25	5-10	3-3	0-0	2	2	0	0	4	13
Sanchez	20	4-9	3-5	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	11
Noel	22	7-11	1-1	1-1	5	0	1	0	1	16
Kohn	16	1-2	0-0	0-0	5	2	0	0	0	2
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Fitzgerald	11	0-4	0-0	2-2	4	4	0	0	1	2
Miles	3	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	2	0	0	0	0
Christopher	6	2-2	2-2	0-0	0	0	1	0	2	6
Taylor	13	3-4	0-0	0-0	6	1	2	2	1	6
Smallwood	3	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Nabors	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Mendoza	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		26-51	11-14	3-3	23	18	5	2	14	66

Tovarich: I thought the 12/17 we allowed on 3's was bad. 11/14 tops that. They went to the half 6/6 and finished 5/5 with the 3 misses in between. We started 3/12 to start the second half too so they were still catching up anyway.

Reporter: What can you change on defense?

Tovarich: I'm certainly not about to try the zone if that's what you're asking.
We were supposed to be tight on all the 3-point shooters, but it didn't seem like anyone was taking that too literally. I did what we always do. Get hyper aggressive going for steals and try to get some transition baskets and we did a good job at that once they caught up and passed us in the middle of the second half.

Reporter: Murry seems to be shooting less on offense. Is there a plan to get him more shots?

Tovarich: When Luz wasn't shooting 3's so well, I definitely was moving him around more, but Luz has been shooting well, and so has Spears, so it's less needed. The PG just isn't open for 3's very often. When we need to sit some people, he's moved out there but we're still thinking Atkinson first most of the time.

Reporter: Do you feel like a 10-1 team?

Tovarich: No, this schedule is unfortunately far worse than I thought. It's largely completing home and homes from last year. I know the 4 power opponents are later but just 3 winning teams so far, and they're all just one game over. All these 0-7, 0-8, 1-8 teams can't be helping our SOS out. Fortunately when we leave here I see North Dakota and South Dakota have some decent records, so who knows if we're even ready for a 6-2 team. We've got a lot going badly for us right now and scraping by against all these struggling teams isn't instilling any confidence that we're ready for the Dakotas or even Wichita, let along Stanford, UCLA and Arizona.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

vs.

Drake Regency Classic Championship
Drake Knapp Center
Drake, IA

Texas A&M-CC Islanders at Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
Dec 6, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Texas A&M-CC (5-7)	36	31	67
Alaska-Anchorage (11-1)	41	33	74

Texas A&M-CC Islanders
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Dillon	21	9-16	4-10	0-0	0	5	0	0	3	22
Hull	21	3-8	0-4	0-0	0	4	0	0	0	6
Gunn	20	4-8	1-4	0-0	5	0	0	0	0	9
Carter	21	5-5	0-0	0-0	10	1	1	0	2	10
Towe	22	5-9	0-0	0-1	7	2	0	0	0	10
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Wiedemann	9	2-2	0-0	0-2	1	1	1	0	0	4
Stukes	4	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Halsell	11	1-2	0-0	0-0	3	0	1	0	1	2
Logan	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Schiffner	4	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	2	0	0	1	2
Skeeter	4	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	2	0	0	2	0
Minyem	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		31-52	5-18	0-3	26	17	3	0	10	67
TEAM TOTALS		31-52	5-18	0-3	26	17	3	0	10	67

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	22	2-7	2-5	2-2	2	3	0	0	0	8
Spears	23	5-12	5-12	0-0	2	3	4	0	1	15
Luz	21	3-12	1-7	2-3	1	1	0	0	0	9
Wilkins	19	4-5	0-1	2-2	7	1	2	0	1	10
Atkinson	19	10-17	0-0	4-4	9	1	1	1	1	24
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	3	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Peavy	15	0-1	0-1	0-0	1	5	1	0	0	0
Borders	7	2-4	0-0	0-1	2	0	0	0	0	4
Taft	11	2-2	0-0	0-0	4	1	2	0	1	4
Scalzo	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Marsh	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Wagner	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		28-60	8-26	10-12	28	15	10	1	4	74

Tovarich: Tough, hard fought game. It took a gritty effort to get it done. It certainly wasn't pretty. We were lucky to have 8 extra shots than them, because they shot about 12% better than we did. We got to the line a bit better. We just barely rebounded better. +6 in turnovers was just barely enough. Everything about the performance was just barely enough. That might get us by a 5-7 team on a neutral court, but I don't expect it's the kind of performance that's going to get us by anyone who matters.

Reporter: What did they do that bothered you so much?

Tovarich: The zone invited a lot of 3's. We just didn't hit that many. They had the one guy who was killing us for most of the game with 3's before he finally cooled off, one of those white guys who wear a t-shirt under his jersey who don't really do much of anything except shoot 3's really well. I'd like to have more of those. He was literally the only guy who was really doing damage and no matter how tight I told people to get on him, he got open and didn't seem to miss. Then they y double teamed Atkinson every time he touched the ball. Usually he handles that better and makes a quick move to the basket before the double team gets in on him, but tonight he went into these rushed shots that he usually missed. Maybe it was the combo of zone and double teaming him since the other defender was closer. He kicked it out well, but we just didn't shoot that well from 3.

Reporter: Is your trust in the bench eroding?

Tovarich: They were efficient. They didn't take a lot of shots, but the goal is to keep the starters as fresh as possible and keep most of them in most of the time. Taft usually does a good job. Borders can get pushed around a lot despite his size. There aren't really any shooters on the bench though, and ultimately scoring points is what we need.

Reporter: The Dakota schools have a much better record despite having the same talent level as most of your opponents. Is the current level of performance going to be good enough?

Tovarich: Hard to say. Our opponents so far are 30-68. Hopefully they're all playing tough schedules and are going to be good in conference play and prop up our SOS a little. These next two are tougher than I imagined they'd be before the season. Maybe their schedules have been easy, I'll take a look at that on the bus ride up there. The talent that NC A&T had last year wasn't any different but they won 25 games for some reason, so they should have higher confidence with their wins and probably play like it.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

@

Sanford Coyote Sports Center
Vermillion, SD

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves at South Dakota Coyotes
Dec 8, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Alaska-Anchorage (12-1)	42	45	87
South Dakota (6-4)	25	38	63

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	19	1-3	0-2	0-0	1	4	1	0	0	2
Spears	19	3-13	2-6	1-2	5	5	3	0	1	9
Luz	18	5-9	3-6	0-0	1	5	1	0	0	13
Wilkins	17	5-6	0-0	1-2	5	3	2	0	0	11
Atkinson	18	8-14	0-0	3-4	7	1	0	2	0	19
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	8	1-3	0-2	0-0	2	0	2	0	1	2
Peavy	9	1-4	0-2	0-0	2	1	2	0	0	2
Borders	9	6-8	0-0	4-4	2	1	0	1	0	16
Taft	8	4-5	0-0	1-1	5	0	0	0	0	9
Scalzo	7	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Marsh	4	0-1	0-0	0-0	1	1	0	1	1	0
Wagner	4	2-3	0-0	0-0	1	0	1	0	0	4
TEAM TOTALS		36-69	5-18	10-13	32	22	12	4	4	87

South Dakota Coyotes
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Stevens	25	4-9	2-4	1-2	2	11	0	0	3	11
McCully	22	2-7	0-2	0-2	8	4	1	0	1	4
Akins	22	7-18	2-10	0-0	2	1	0	0	0	16
Allison	19	3-8	0-0	0-0	13	0	0	0	2	6
Hart	16	4-8	0-1	2-3	2	3	0	0	1	10
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Clifford	5	1-3	0-1	0-1	0	0	1	0	0	2
Sims	10	2-6	0-0	2-2	1	1	0	0	4	6
Hopes	12	2-7	0-0	0-0	6	0	1	1	2	4
Nicholson	8	2-2	0-0	0-0	5	2	1	0	0	4
Warren	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Hargett	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Braxton	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		27-68	4-18	5-10	40	22	4	1	13	63

Tovarich: Nice to have an easy win for once. We don't need to pretend we're the Kansas City Chiefs and make every game exciting.

Reporter: Were you good or were they bad?

Tovarich: Mostly they were bad. We weren't great either. They had to force things after being down 40-17 I think it was. They made an occasional mini run to get a few baskets in a row but they never really made it too interesting. Both teams missed a lot of shots.

Reporter: Is 33 bench points a school record?

Tovarich: It might be. I know there's some unhappy people on the bench. Borders hopefully is a little less unhappy. Some of the other guys I'm fine if they leave at the end of the year. Borders I'm kind of iffy on. We might be better if he stays. I already have enough scholarships open and I'm not sure how much hope of signing anyone really. We may be better if he decides to stay. I'm trying to get the bench more minutes. Based on our SOS, we should be having more easy games, but despite playing all these 1-10 types, we haven't had many blowouts and we're stuck in close games all the time.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

@

Betty Englestad Sioux Center
Grand Forks, ND

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves at North Dakota Fighting Sioux
Dec 12, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Alaska-Anchorage (13-1)	48	56	104
North Dakota (5-5)	27	47	74

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	19	4-4	3-3	0-0	2	3	1	0	0	11
Spears	19	3-7	3-6	0-0	2	5	1	0	0	9
Luz	18	4-7	1-4	0-0	0	2	1	0	1	9
Wilkins	15	6-8	0-0	3-4	3	2	1	1	0	15
Atkinson	14	9-12	0-0	0-0	5	2	1	1	1	18
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	9	1-3	0-1	0-0	2	2	0	0	1	2
Peavy	7	1-2	0-0	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	2
Borders	12	4-6	0-0	3-4	3	1	5	0	1	11
Taft	9	7-7	0-0	2-3	4	0	1	0	0	16
Scalzo	6	0-0	0-0	2-2	0	1	0	0	0	2
Marsh	6	3-4	0-0	1-2	0	2	1	0	0	7
Wagner	7	0-1	0-0	2-2	0	0	0	0	0	2
TEAM TOTALS		42-61	7-14	13-17	21	21	13	2	4	104

North Dakota Fighting Sioux
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Dillard	23	9-13	2-3	1-1	0	6	0	0	1	21
Millar	23	2-7	1-5	1-2	0	4	0	0	2	6
Bakinde	23	6-11	0-4	0-0	3	1	0	0	6	12
Causey	22	6-9	0-0	0-0	3	1	1	0	2	12
Hawkins	10	2-4	0-0	0-0	5	1	1	0	0	4
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Law	10	3-4	1-2	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	7
Rand	5	1-2	0-0	0-0	0	4	0	0	1	2
Howard	14	4-6	0-0	0-0	5	1	0	1	0	8
Dillon	10	1-3	0-0	0-2	4	3	1	2	2	2
Carlson	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Siebrandt	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Hannan	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		34-59	4-14	2-5	20	21	3	3	14	74

Tovarich: Does anyone have a recording of my last press conference to play?

Reporter: Was it important to get everyone in the scoring column?

Tovarich: It's a nice footnote. Hopefully everyone feels good about themselves, at least on the flight home. Feels like forever since we've been home. We're only back for two before we leave again.

Reporter: You've peaked at #3 in the mid-major poll. Is that a big deal?

Tovarich: No. Hopefully Western Michigan stays up there at the top until we play them. I need the SOS help. 50-87 for our opponents so far isn't helping.

Reporter: Is the margin a size of improvement or from the opponent's struggling?

Tovarich: They had two of the better records we've seen this season so far, but on paper they're not as good as most of our previous opponents. Go figure. I don't think it's an indication of anything. We still need to do better at rebounding to compete when we head to California.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

@

Sullivan Arena
Anchorage, AK

UC Riverside Highlanders at Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
Dec 15, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
UC Riverside (3-5)	28	27	55
Alaska-Anchorage (14-1)	37	41	78

UC Riverside Highlanders
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Holmes	23	3-8	1-3	1-2	0	6	0	0	6	8
Hardy	16	4-13	1-4	0-0	2	4	0	0	0	9
Roy	19	4-8	0-4	0-0	3	4	0	1	0	8
Conn	10	2-3	0-0	0-0	2	1	1	1	1	4
Odia	12	3-3	0-0	0-0	7	1	0	0	0	6
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Goff	13	3-4	0-1	0-0	2	1	0	0	2	6
Cowans	9	2-3	0-1	1-4	1	1	0	0	0	5
Bush	15	2-5	0-0	0-0	4	0	2	1	1	4
McCoy	11	2-5	0-3	0-0	1	0	0	0	0	4
Rushing	13	0-2	0-1	1-3	4	0	1	0	1	1
Dillon	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Orfini	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		25-54	2-17	3-9	26	18	4	3	11	55
TEAM TOTALS		25-54	2-17	3-9	26	18	4	3	11	55

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	24	2-4	2-3	0-0	2	3	2	0	1	6
Spears	22	0-9	0-7	0-0	1	1	2	1	1	0
Luz	21	4-9	2-5	0-1	1	2	2	0	0	10
Wilkins	20	6-8	0-0	1-1	8	2	1	0	2	13
Atkinson	19	10-11	0-0	4-6	6	0	0	0	1	24
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	7	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	3	1	0	0	0
Peavy	7	0-0	0-0	2-2	1	0	0	0	0	2
Borders	8	3-5	0-0	4-5	0	0	0	0	0	10
Taft	7	3-3	0-0	3-3	3	1	1	0	1	9
Scalzo	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Marsh	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Wagner	2	0-1	0-0	4-4	0	0	1	0	0	4
TEAM TOTALS		28-50	4-15	18-22	24	13	11	1	6	78

Tovarich: It's a win I guess. It was an ugly, choppy game. Both teams had a hard time finding something that worked. Neither of us could shoot 3's. I think someone must have left a window open. If you shot from more than 1 foot away, it was rough for both teams. Luckily the refs were on our side. Other than FT's, it was a tight game, and all the fouls got us deep into their bench, so thanks refs.

Reporter: Opposing teams are starting to feel like the refs are always helping you.

Tovarich: Our refs are extremely "independent".

Reporter: Do you think the team is ready for a step up in competition?

Tovarich: Wichita is probably the perfect opponent to see. They're not quite UCLA or Stanford or Arizona, but they're good. They got us last year at their place. They're probably the second best team on our schedule to this point and we weren't great against Texas A&M. So, this is a slight step up for now and we need to be a lot better than we were today, that's for sure, unless the refs are going to help us out again.

Reporter: What do you make of Spears' night?

Tovarich: It felt off during the game, but I didn't realize he was 0-9. He looked like he got kicked by a moose or something. No sugarcoating that was a bad game, but we still won by 23. I haven't seen him do anything like that before. Hopefully he got it out of his system for the next game.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

@

Sullivan Arena
Anchorage, AK

Wichita State Shockers at Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
Dec 19, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Wichita State (7-2)	23	31	54
Alaska-Anchorage (15-1)	42	49	91

Wichita State Shockers
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Knox	23	4-8	2-4	1-2	1	7	0	1	3	11
Hopkins	22	3-5	0-1	1-2	2	2	1	0	3	7
Cranford	24	2-6	0-1	1-2	4	3	0	0	6	5
Radenovic	22	3-7	0-2	0-0	4	1	1	0	4	6
Buckley	20	6-7	0-0	0-0	5	2	0	1	2	12
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Boyd	9	1-4	0-1	2-2	2	3	0	0	1	4
Laudato	7	1-3	0-2	0-0	1	1	0	0	0	2
Njila	10	2-2	0-0	1-1	1	0	0	4	0	5
Richardson	4	1-3	0-0	0-0	1	0	0	0	2	2
Kohn	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Duffy	-- DID NOT PLAY --
Guerrero	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		23-45	2-11	6-9	21	19	2	6	21	54
TEAM TOTALS		23-45	2-11	6-9	21	19	2	6	21	54

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	20	5-10	1-2	2-2	1	3	6	0	1	13
Spears	21	1-6	1-4	2-2	2	4	1	0	1	5
Luz	21	6-8	4-6	0-0	1	4	3	0	0	16
Wilkins	19	7-12	0-0	3-3	6	2	6	1	0	17
Atkinson	18	6-10	0-0	2-2	1	0	2	0	0	14
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	9	2-3	0-0	0-0	2	1	0	0	0	4
Peavy	7	1-2	0-1	1-1	1	0	0	0	0	3
Borders	9	1-2	0-0	0-0	2	0	1	1	0	2
Taft	7	2-3	0-0	1-1	1	1	1	0	0	5
Scalzo	3	2-2	0-0	0-0	0	0	1	0	0	4
Marsh	3	3-3	0-0	0-0	2	0	0	0	0	6
Wagner	3	1-2	0-1	0-0	1	1	0	0	0	2
TEAM TOTALS		37-63	6-14	11-11	20	16	21	2	2	91

Tovarich: Shockingly easy game. I don't know why they played so poorly. They were 7-1, and it wasn't against nobody. They beat West Virginia, Houston and Western Kentucky. But 21 turnovers is crazy. Maybe they were tired from the travel, not sure. I thought that would be tough and I'm surprised it wasn't.

Reporter: What about Spears' struggles again?

Tovarich: I was optimistic when he hit his first shot of the game that he'd made amends with the moose that kicked him, but then he never made another field goal, just got 2 at the line later. I tried to let him shoot his way out of it, but we're going to have to go find the moose and see what we can do to fix this. He's got one more game we can survive before we need him to shoot a lot better.

Reporter: Is it ok he struggles as long as Luz keeps hitting 3's?

Tovarich: Can't I just have both? As long as someone's shooting, I'll go with the hot hand, but we're going to need our A+ game coming up and it's not going to be if someone's 1-6.

Reporter: This was the last Atkinson has been involved in the offense in a long time. Was that just the margin of the game?

Tovarich: That, and the never-ending press they were in out of desperation. We were trying to be aggressive and drive it in. That lead to a lot of blocks though. We probably should've waited for him to get into the half court set and get him more shots, but it was great other people stepped up. Atkinson and Spears' productivity is just kind of an assumption and everyone else you never really know, so hopefully some other people got some confidence from it to do it again when we need everyone playing their best.

Reporter: Was the rebounding effort encouraging?

Tovarich: Only -1 against a supposedly good school should be an improvement, but it's hard to say since they took so few shots.

Reporter: Other than it being cold and distant from everyone, what's made this team so good at home?

Tovarich: We've sold out every game since I've been here. The crowds help. The mostly inferior competition helps. We play our better teams on the road. It's tough to get people up here.

[Tovarich]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

@

Rabobank Arena
Bakersfield, CA

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves at Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners
Dec 22, 2008	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Alaska-Anchorage (16-1)	35	43	78
Cal State Bakersfield (2-10)	28	28	56

Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Murry	19	5-10	2-5	0-0	0	3	2	0	0	12
Spears	20	4-8	2-6	2-2	0	0	3	0	0	12
Luz	17	6-12	3-8	0-0	2	5	3	0	0	15
Wilkins	18	2-4	0-0	0-0	7	1	0	1	1	4
Atkinson	17	5-8	0-0	1-3	2	0	6	0	2	11
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Herman	8	1-1	0-0	0-0	1	1	1	0	0	2
Peavy	13	1-1	0-0	0-0	1	3	0	0	1	2
Borders	7	4-5	0-0	2-2	4	0	1	0	0	10
Taft	11	4-9	0-0	0-0	5	3	0	0	1	8
Scalzo	4	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Marsh	3	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Wagner	3	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	0
TEAM TOTALS		33-59	7-19	5-7	22	18	16	1	6	78

Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Diaz	19	1-11	1-7	0-0	0	5	0	0	3	3
Buckley	24	10-14	2-3	1-1	3	1	0	0	0	23
Singleton	19	2-6	1-3	1-1	4	0	0	0	6	6
Vargas	20	1-4	0-0	0-0	8	0	2	0	2	2
Olson	20	5-7	0-0	1-2	8	2	3	2	1	11
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
Rios	6	1-3	0-0	0-0	1	0	0	0	1	2
McLaughlin	8	1-1	0-0	0-0	2	0	0	0	2	2
Lett	8	2-5	0-0	0-0	5	1	0	0	0	4
Santos	6	0-2	0-0	1-2	0	3	0	0	1	1
Jorgusen	7	1-4	0-2	0-0	2	0	0	0	1	2
Bowden	3	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Tamayo	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		24-57	4-15	4-6	33	12	5	2	18	56

Tovarich: I'd like to take credit for their poor shooting, but we often left them wide open. We were just lucky only the one guy hit much of anything. They still killed us on the boards. That's a real setback for any rebounding progress anyone thought we might have made. -11 against that team is brutal, especially since they were doing all the missing. That'll have to be a million times better to win any of these next 4 games.

Reporter: Is Atkinson struggling or just wasn't a part of the offense these last two games?

Tovarich: He only took 8 shots, he did fine in terms of efficiency. We're trying to get Spears to shoot out of his funk. I still have an APB out on that moose, but it got a little better. Luz was ok. Murry was ok. Wilkins did a good job rebounding. He was probably the only one.

Reporter: How much scouting have you done on these big opponents coming up?

Tovarich: None really. I'll glance at the roster, but mostly we'll just have the game start and see what they have and adjust.

Reporter: Do you need to beat one of these 3 ranked teams for the trip to be a success?

Tovarich: No, I think if we go 2-3 and beat the two easier opponents and at least play respectably in the other 3 then we are ok. It'll take a great game and great effort. Either rebounding needs to be magically better, or we need to shoot the lights out. This is a great way to see how it affects our RPI and if these games are worth playing if we don't have the roster to beat them. We purposely waited to play these games to have some time to feel out the freshman and give everyone some confidence against mostly weaker opposition. Now we see if any of it was helpful. The 17 games we've played were to get us ready these big opponents.

[studbucket]

Re: University of Alaska-Anchorage Basketball (CH2K8)

A few more wins and the polls will have to begrudgingly put you in the top 25. Of course, you have UCLA, Stanford, and Arizona upcoming...