Northern Colorado

Big Sky Basketball Preview: 08-09

CHN — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:16:03 -0500

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Conference Rank: 23rd

All-BIG SKY Team
Pos.	Player	Team	Yr.

G	Jeremiah Dominguez	Portland St	Sr
G	Josh Wilson	NAU	Sr
F	Phil Nelson	Portland St	So
F	Jabril Banks	No. Colorado	Sr
F	Jordan Hasquet	Montana	Sr
CHN Award Winners		Returning Leaders
none		Points: Jeremiah Dominguez 14.2 Rebounds: Jordan Hasquet 7.2 Assists: Josh Wilson 5.4

BIG SKY Standings
Nat'l	Team	League	Tourney

112	Montana	Big Sky	1	NCAA
149	Portland State**	Big Sky	2
181	Northern Arizona	Big Sky	3
203	Weber State	Big Sky	4
243	Idaho State	Big Sky	5
265	Eastern Wash	Big Sky	6
279	Northern Colorado	Big Sky	7
308	Montana State	Big Sky	8
327	Sacramento St	Big Sky	9

*Click on links for full Top 144 team preview

** returning conference champion

Poll: Who Do You Think Will Win the Big Sky?

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Rise & Fall: Big Sky

State of '08: Colorado

Shawn Siegel — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:25:41 -0400

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Duke or Carolina? BC or UMASS? Gonzaga or Washington.. or Washington State? What is the best program in each state? While there's not much competition in Hawaii.. there are great debates to be had in loaded regions like California, North Carolina, and Texas. The State of '08 is a ranking of every program in every state.. based mostly on recent success (the last five years) mixed in with subjective factors such as conference prestige, historical success, and overall program direction.

Up today: Colorado. For more info, check out the State of '08 introduction.

COLORADO

AIR FORCE - Throughout the 80's and 90's, Air Force was simply a very bad program. But something changed in 03-04, and since then the Falcons have made two NCAA Tournament trips and the semifinals of the NIT. Jeff Reynolds took over last year and finished a mediocre season with a .500 record and an RPI of 173. Its hard to tell what the future holds for Air Force basketball.

COLORADO - During the same period that Air Force struggled, Colorado was also bad, missing out on the postseason every season from 1969 to 1995. Although Ricardo Patton's tenure ended on a down note, he still led the program to 6 postseason trips in 11 seasons. Despite that improvement, Air Force has clearly outperformed Colorado in the last five years, averaging 87.6 in the RPI compared to 122.6 for CU. With Jeff Bzdelik on board, I like Colorado's future better though.

COLORADO STATE - Tim Miles had a rough go in his first season at CSU, winning just 5 D1 games and losing to DII Panhandle State along the way. But this was a bit of an aberration for a program that has some solid runs over the years, including a tourney bid in 2003 and three NIT trips between 1996 and 1999.

DENVER - The Pioneers rebounded from an embarrassing 2007 campaign (335th in the RPI, edging out UNC by 1 spot) with improved play in 2008. At one point, Denver was 7-5 in the Sun Belt before fading late. From 2004 to 2006, Denver wasn't half bad, making a legit run at the NCAA Tourney in 2005 when they won 12 SB games before losing to ULL in the conference title game.

NORTHERN COLORADO - The Bears haven't experienced much success since joining D1 a handful of years ago. But there definitely have been signs of progress. Finally becoming affiliated with a conference, the Big Sky, was a huge step in the program's future. Last year, UNC (the other one) won 6 league games, and had perhaps their biggest win ever.. knocking off Top 100 San Diego State in San Diego.

Last: California (24 teams) - Next: Connecticut

State of '08: The Introduction

Daily Dribble: 12/11

Shawn Siegel — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 23:36:07 -0500

Sunday was rather tame compared to such a wild slate of games on Saturday. The big game of course was Texas vs LSU, which didn't disappoint by going to overtime. The Longhorns won 76-75 thanks in large part to DJ Augustin's ability to drive to the hoop, and AJ Abrams threes in overtime. The best freshman wasn't Kevin Durant, but Augustin who ended up with a career high 25 to go along with 5 assists. I found it a bit odd at the end of regulation that they gave the ball to Abrams at the top of the key in the closing seconds instead of Augustin. Augustin is clearly better at beating guys off the dribble, and it makes more sense to have Abrams, your best shooter out on the wing. For LSU, Glen Davis and Tasmin Mitchell combined for 44 points and 20 boards. Towards the end of the game though, it was big threes by Garrett Temple that really kept LSU alive. Big Baby did his thing in the post, but his opportunities were limited thanks to a Texas defense that crowded him with two, sometimes three guys down there. As good as his final numbers were, he still made multiple bad decisions shooting ill-advised jumpers and his 4 missed free throws could have made the difference. Jared Dudley's 20 and 12 led Boston College to a home win over #22 Maryland. The Terps, who have lost 2 of 3, are in danger of dropping out of the Top 25. Besides Dudley, Boston College also got a huge performance out of big man Sean Williams. The junior ended up with 10 points, 11 boards and 7 blocks. Williams came into the game leading the nation in blocks with 5.8 per game, so the 7 aren't even that much above his norm. Florida State improved to 8-2, their third win in a row since beating Florida last Sunday. The Noles pulled away from SE Louisiana early, and were able to spread the scoring around with five guys hitting double figures. FSU was 34th (going by votes) in the AP last week and has a chance to move in considering that Xavier, Georgia Tech, and Maryland may very well drop out. Congratulations to Dartmouth for picking up their first win of the season, defeating James Madison 74-70. The Big Green are usually offensively challenged, but they shot an impressive 57% from the floor in the win. Northern Colorado picked up their first win over a D1 team by beating 1-9 Denver. Denver's only win: against Northern Colorado 3 weeks back. Both of these teams are putrid, so at least they were lucky enough to schedule each other twice this year. It looks like it will be another awful season for San Jose State. The Spartans haven't won more than 7 games in the last four years. At 1-8 following a loss to Portland State last night, it looks like more of the same this year. Portland State though is now a solid 7-3 and they've beaten a Pac-10 team for the second season in a row: ASU earlier this season and Oregon last year. - Click the link below for Shawn Siegel's Blog.. then bookmark it.. -