Rivals Central Washington, Western Washington Top Picks in GNAC Basketball

Beitinger	Graham

Two longtime rivals figure to be the top contenders for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball title this winter.

Central Washington, which hasn't won a conference title in nearly a decade since snagging the 1998-99 PacWest championship, is a solid favorite to win its first GNAC title.

The Wildcats received seven of nine first-place votes and earned 86 ballot points in the annual GNAC Coaches poll.

Arch-rival Western Washington may be the No. 1 obstacle for CWU to end its longest title drought since it went 14 years without a championship between 1951 and 1964.

The Vikings received the two remaining first-place votes and finished second in the balloting with 61 points.

Defending champion Alaska Anchorage placed third in the poll and perennial contender Seattle Pacific, which has won or shared three GNAC titles, ended up fourth in the balloting.

Central Washington is coming off back-to-back near title misses and head coach Greg Sparling returns six of his top seven scorers from a year ago including pre-season All-American Jake Beitinger.

Beitinger averaged 14.8 points and 6.4 rebounds last year in earning first team GNAC all-star honors. Also back is guard Matt Penoncello who contributed 14.1 points and 5.6 rebounds and was a second team all-star selection.

Sparling did not stand pat, either, adding former Eastern Washington recruit Chris Sprinker, a 6-9 post player who averaged 17.2 points and 11.5 rebounds last season at Tacoma CC, and NWAACC West Region MVP Chris Scott, who led the junior college league in assists (9.5).

Ira Graham, who finished second in the GNAC in scoring (18.5) in earning GNAC first team all-star honors is back to lead a Western Washington squad that also features two other starters - guard Steve Alford, who averaged 10.1 points per game, and forward Calin Schell, who ranked third in rebounding (7.7) and is the conference's top returning rebounder.

Brad Jackson, who begins his 24 th season with 409 career wins, also had a solid recruiting class led by seven-foot center Dave Vanderjagt, who played 18 games for the University of Montana the past two seasons.

Alaska Anchorage returns just four letter winners and no starters off a team that made a run to the Final Four, but the Seawolves did add three transfers including guards Kenny Barker and Brandon Walker.

Barker was a second-team all-star two seasons ago at Alaska Fairbanks and Walker played in 28 games at Division I Loyola Marymount.

Jeff Hironaka, who has the best career winning percentage among the nine GNAC head coaches (115-57, .669), has some rebuilding work to do with just one returning starter – 6-8 junior forward Rob Diederichs – among six letter winners. His three top scorers from a year ago who combined for 42 points per game all graduated.

Northwest Nazarene has nine returning letter winners and four starters, as many as any team in the league in both categories. Among the nine are honorable mention GNAC all-star Kendall Gielow, who averaged 13.4 points per game, and Scott Helpenstell, who ranked eighth in the GNAC in rebounding (6.6).

Saint Martin's also returns nine lettermen and four starters including 2007-08 GNAC scoring champion Jake Linton, who averaged 19 points a game in joining Beitinger and Graham on the first team all-star unit.

Also back for the Saints is center Bill Richardson, who ranked eighth in the GNAC in scoring (14.3).

Western Oregon has seven returnees including a trio of double figure scorers in second team all-star Travis Kuhns (13.9 ppg), guard Sam Kelly (11.7 ppg) and forward Mike McLaughlin (10.7 ppg).

Former University of Idaho and Lewis-Clark State coach George Pfeifer takes over at Montana State Billings and has added two former Division I players – Michael Hall from Idaho and Travis Bunker from Wyoming – to a returning nucleus that includes six letter winners.

Coach Clemon Johnson begins his second season at Alaska Fairbanks has only four returnees, but two – forwards Colin Matteson (13.9 ppg) and Mladen Begojevic (11.4 ppg) – averaged in double figures last season. Among his recruits are two former Division I guards.

The exhibition season tips off Friday with Northwest Nazarene playing at Utah State.

The first official games are Friday, Nov. 7 as Alaska Anchorage opens play in the Disney West Coast Tip-Off tournament in Anaheim and Saint Martin's begins its season in the Disney East Coast Tip-Off tournament in Orlando, Fla.