REGION 18 MEN'S, WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTS: Breathing easy at regionals
For the North Idaho College men’s basketball team, which enters this week’s Region 18 tournament on the campus of the College of Southern Idaho, win or lose, there’s a little breathing room.
They hope they don’t need it — they really don’t want it either — but at 30-0 and the lone unbeaten Division I team in the NJCAA, it’s there if they need it.
MEN: NIC awaits the winner of today’s game between fourth-seeded Snow (14-16) and fifth-seeded Utah State-Eastern (18-12) in the late semifinal on Friday at 6:30 p.m. PST.
“The nice thing is that were technically 0-0, but the nice thing is there’s no more pressure to go undefeated,” said second-year NIC men’s basketball coach Corey Symons, whose team finished a 30-0 regular season and clinched the top-seed to this week’s Region 18 tournament with a 15-0 record in the Scenic West Athetic Conference. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, and that’s what we’re going to try and do. We’re going to do some things a little differently, because whoever we’ll play it will be the fourth time we’ll play them, but we’re going to pretty much do the same thing that’s worked for us in the past and hope it pays off as successful as it has the last 30 times.”
Should NIC fall this weekend, they’d be in line for one of four at-large bids to the NJCAA tournament, to be awarded at the conclusion of District tournaments on March 5. Extra bids will also go to out to Region 3, Region 6, Region 11/13 and Region 23 through zone qualifiers.
“I think we’ve got as good of a shot as anybody to get an at-large bid,” Symons said. “We’re the only unbeaten team in the nation right now. We’re going to try and do it the old fashioned way and win the regional tournament and get in that way where we don’t need a vote to get in. If it came to that, I think we’d have a pretty good shot at getting that vote to get in.”
The men’s winner will host the District championship game against the winner of the Arizona Regional on March 5.
“At worst, our record going into the national tournament is a one-loss team,” Symons said. “And I think there’s only a few one-loss teams in the country, so I think we’ve got a chance there. We’ve just got to keep fighting and see what’s going on after that.”
NIC is 10th in the nation in scoring offense at 92.3 points per game, allowing 72.7 points per game.
“Been working on staying fundamentally sound on defense,” Symons said. “Sometimes, we get a little lazy on defense and don’t defend the ball well because we’re one of the top scoring teams in the country. We’re scoring the ball well, and need to get back to where we were on defense at the beginning of the season and we were really good defensively. Our guys are capable of doing it, but it’s hard to do when you’re scoring 97 points per game. In order for us to make a run at the regional tournament, we’ve got to guard and play good defense. If we get a chance to nationals, we’ll definitely need to do that.”
The winner of the Region 18 tournament will host a District playoff game against the winner of the Arizona regional tournament on March 5.
“I’ve thought about it, but we haven’t talked much about it as a team,” Symons said. “The one thing is that we’d love that because of how our crowd has been the last three games. On Saturday, we wanted to acknowledge the crowd and all the support they’ve give us this year. It would be great to have that one last game at home and have a fourth standing room only crowd and get that community support again.”
WOMEN: Twin Falls will always hold a special memory for NIC women’s basketball coach Chris Carlson.
Don’t forget, it was here that Carlson’s team that went on a few weeks later to win its first and only NJCAA title in 2011.
NIC (20-8) opens the fourth seed against fifth-seeded Utah State-Eastern (9-19) tonight at 4:30 p.m. PST. The Cardinals swept the season series with the Golden Eagles of Price, Utah.
“I think the biggest thing is the way we played against Snow and Salt Lake,” said Carlson, in his 11th year as coach. “It just feels like great team basketball. We were deep, we executed well and that was the best part. Even thought we’d beaten Snow before, it wasn’t as crisp and clean as that game (last Saturday). The way we played the second half, and Snow came at us and they’re a good basketball team. I’m liking how we’re playing. We might be playing our best ball right now.”
NIC beat third-seed Snow two of three times this season.
“We’ve got to take one game at a time,” Carlson said. “We’ve got to come out against Utah State and set the tone early on how we want to play the entire tournament. If we can get off to a good start, we’ve had a good couple days of practices here. I just want to get out to a good start on CSI’s court. I thought we played great down there and it kind of snowballed down there. It’s just about Eastern right now.”
In addition to regional champions, there is still four at-large bids and zone qualifiers in Region 2, Region 15/20, Region 4/13 and Region 8 that will receive bids for its runner-up finishers.
REGION 18 TOURNAMENT
at College of Southern Idaho, Twin Falls
Times PST
MEN’S
Thursday
Game 2 — No. 3 Salt Lake (22-8) vs. No. 6 Colorado Northwestern (3-26), 1 p.m.
Game 4 — No. 4 Snow (14-16) vs. No. 5 Utah State-Eastern (18-12), 6.
Friday
Winner Game 2 vs. No. 2 Southern Idaho (22-8), 1 p.m. (semifinal)
Winner Game 4 vs. No. 1 North Idaho (30-0), 6:30 (semifinal)
Saturday
Winner Game 6 vs. Winner Game 8, 6:30 (championship game, winner advances to host District championship game on March 5)
WOMEN’S
Thursday
Game 1 — No. 3 Snow (19-11) vs. No. 6 Colorado Northwestern (10-19), 11 a.m.
Game 3 — No. 4 North Idaho (20-8) vs. No. 5 Utah State-Eastern (9-19), 4:30 p.m.
Friday
Game 5 — Winner Game 1 vs. No. 2 Southern Idaho (26-4), 11 a.m.
Game 7 — Winner Game 3 vs. No. 1 Salt Lake (29-1), 4:30 p.m.
Saturday
Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 7, 4 p.m. (championship game)