11/8 - NWC PRE-SEASON POLL: Bruins Slated for 6th in Coaches' Poll with Four Starters Returning
NWC Men's Basketball Pre-Season Poll
NEWBERG, Ore. - Hoping for their best season yet under fifth-year coach Mark Sundquist, the George Fox University Bruins have been picked to finish sixth in the 2004-05 Northwest Conference men's basketball race as chosen by a vote of the league's nine coaches in their annual pre-season poll.
The University of Puget Sound is a heavy favorite to successfully defend its conference championship, picking up eight of nine possible first-place votes.
George Fox was one of the NWC's top-scoring teams last year during a 7-18 campaign that included a 3-13 league mark, tying for seventh place. Four starters, all of them returning, averaged double figures in points per game, and the only one not back, wing Bryan Wadlow, averaged 9.9.
Leading the Bruins is First Team All-Conference wing Mark Gayman (Sr., Hillsboro, Ore.), the league's second-best rebounder (8.6 rpg) and fourth-best scorer (17.0 ppg) who also became the 31st player in George Fox history to reach 1,000 points for a career (1,007). Post Scott Szalay (Jr., Everett, Wash.) averaged 11.9 points and 7.5 rebounds a game while shooting .546, all numbers among the league leaders, and received Honorable Mention All-Conference.
Wing Aaron Schmick (Jr., Hillsboro, Ore.) averaged 15.4 points 4.3 rebounds,and 3.5 assists a game, and was among the best long-range shooters in the league with 2.52 three-pointers per game. Ben Melvin (Jr., Pleasant Hill, Ore.) averaged 10.7 points and 3.8 assists per game, but may shift from point guard to wing this year to take advantage of his driving and shooting abilities.
Sundquist enters the season with a career record of 27-72 (.273), a figure that is expected to rise as the Bruins continue to make steady progress back toward the top of the conference standings.
Puget Sound picked up 88 total points in the poll to easily outdistance Whitworth College. The Loggers won their first NWC title last season and finished 24-3 before losing in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament. Head Coach Eric Bridgeland, the 2004 NWC Coach of the Year, must overcome the graduation of 2004 Player of the Year Matt Glynn, but will welcome back Second Team All-NWC guard Chase Curtiss.
Whitworth received the other first-place vote and 64 points. The Pirates must replace three of five starters from 2004 if they hope to challenge for their second NWC title in three years.
Linfield finished third in the poll with 56 points, followed closely by Willamette University (54 points) and Lewis & Clark College(51 points). Linfield returns First Team All-NWC guard Blake Shelton and three other starters. Willamette lost a pair of all-conference performers in David Force and Miles Sandgathe. Lewis & Clark must also replace All-NWC forward John Mietus.
George Fox garnered 37 points, followed by Pacific University in seventh with 29 points. The Boxers have back honorable mention all-conference guard Brandon Kawazoe. Pacific Lutheran University (20 points) and Whitman College (16 points) round out the poll in eighth and ninth place, respectively.
For the second consecutive year, the Northwest Conference will not use a conference tournament to decide the automatic (Pool A) bid to the NCAA tournament. That bid will go to the conference champion and winner of the regular season.
Several teams begin play on Friday, Nov. 19, including the Bruins, who open at home against Northwest College at 7:00 p.m. The Bruins' first road test comes Nov. 26-27 in the Surf's Up Invitational at Kalani High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, where they will face California Lutheran University and the University of California-Santa Cruz.