No men’s college basketball conference championships are won the first weekend of January.
But that doesn’t take any luster away from the showdown his weekend in Tacoma between the Northwest Conferences’ top four teams, who are coming off strong showings in their nonleague schedules.
Tonight, 11th-ranked and defending NWC champion Whitworth travels to Pacific Lutheran, while Whitman goes to 16th-ranked Puget Sound.
On Saturday, the two nationally ranked teams – UPS and Whitworth – go at it at Memorial Fieldhouse, while Whitman plays at PLU.
Still, it is just the second of eight weekends of league play. Coaches are quick to point that out as a way to de-emphasize the hype surrounding these matchups.
“The fact the teams in Tacoma, at Whitman and with ourselves and all of us having gotten off to good starts … heightens the impact of this weekend,” first-year Whitworth coach Matt Logie said. “Long term, these games are no more important than any other weekend.”
The oddity of this season’s nonconference slate was that seven NWC teams traveled to the National Invitational Tournament, hosted by Trinity University in San Antonio, from Dec. 20-22.
They got a pretty good peek at one another, too.
As far as UPS and PLU are concerned, both coaches were pretty pleased with how they came out of the first part of the season – which included a pair of league games in December.
The Loggers won their first 10 games before losing to Redlands University, and the Lutes went 5-6 against top-quality competition that included Eastern Washington, an NCAA Division I program.
“I think our kids are ready to go,” PLU coach Steve Dickerson said. “We still have our deficiencies – one being a complete lack of size – but I really like these kids and their effort so far. I think we are ready.”
As far as their early season showdowns against Whitworth and Whitman, Dickerson and Loggers coach Justin Lunt downplayed the impact of those outcomes.
“Granted, we are playing two of the best teams in the first weekend, but the focus is, whether we are playing the top team or the bottom team, each game is going to be a battle,” Lunt said. “Each game will be tough to win.”
Dickerson noted he wants the Lutes to focus less on the opponent and more on themselves.
“What we try and tell them is we are playing basketball,” Dickerson said. “Obviously they know who we are playing, but … we are playing basketball – and against the game of basketball, it does not matter who you play. It has always been that way with me, and it is a cliché. But if you don’t play like that, there are a lot of ups and downs that come along.”
Todd Milles: 253-597-8442 todd.milles@thenewstribune.com
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