THIS WEEK IN SEAWOLF MEN’S BASKETBALL
Thursday, Jan. 7 – 5:15 pm AST – Alaska Airlines Center – Anchorage, AK
Simon Fraser (1-9, 0-4 GNAC) at Alaska Anchorage (11-4, 4-0 GNAC)
&
Saturday, Jan. 9 – 2:15 pm AST – Alaska Airlines Center – Anchorage, AK
Western Washington (8-5, 2-2 GNAC [1/7 @UAF]) at Alaska Anchorage
TV: Both games, live throughout Alaska on GCI cable Ch. 1 (SD) and Ch. 999 (HD).
RADIO: None
LIVE VIDEOSTREAM & STATS: Both games free at portal.stretchinternet.com/uaa
TICKETS: $10 at the door, online at alaskaairlinescenter.com, or by calling 907-786-1562 ... discounts apply for UAA staff/faculty, alumni, senior (60+), youth (3-18) and military ... groups of 10 or more can purchase in bulk for $6 per ticket ... UAA students free with valid WolfCard ... more information at GoSeawolves.com.
UAA PROBABLE STARTERS (2015-16 stats)
G—Diante Mitchell, 6-1, Jr. (12.0 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.0 spg, .529 FG, .542 3FG, .865 FT)
G—Sekou ‘Suki’ Wiggs, 6-4, Jr. (24.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 4.0 apg, 1.8 spg, .455 FG, .317 3FG, .755 FT)
G—Spencer Svejcar, 6-4, Jr. (11.9 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 2.3 apg, .410 FG, .341 3FG, .842 FT)
F—Corey Hammell, 6-6, Jr. (14.3 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 1.3 apg, .479 FG, .802 FT)
F—Tayler Thompson, 6-8, Jr. (4.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg, .652 FG, 6-8 FT, 12.9 mpg)
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter: @UAAMBB (for in-game updates) and @UAASeawolves
Facebook: Alaska Anchorage Seawolves
Instagram: UAA_Seawolves
YouTube & SnapChat: UAA Seawolves
Hashtags: #SeawolfHoops #UAASeawolves
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: Simon Fraser has started 0-9 against fellow NCAA Div. II opponents, including seven losses by double figures ... the Clan are led by 6-2 Jr. G Max Barkeley (17.2 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 2.9 apg, .357 3FG, .795 FT) and 6-4 Sr. G/F Michael Harper (13.1 ppg, 5.5 rpg, .875 3FG) ... Western Washington has gone 5-5 against D-II competition, including wins over common opponents UC Colorado Springs and Upper Iowa and a loss at common foe Hawaii Pacific ... the Vikings are led by Jeffrey Parkier (17.7 ppg, 4.8 rpg, .462 FG, .388 3FG, .765 FT) and Kyle Impero (16.7 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 2.5 apg, 1.5 spg, .574 FG, .407 3FG, .750 FT).
TEAM COMPARISONS UAA SFU WWU
UAA Home/Opp. Road 6-2 0-4 0-2
Points per Game 85.4 71.5 85.3
Points Allowed/Game 70.0 85.6 73.0
Rebounding Diff. +7.1 -4.0 +5.0
Assists per Game 16.9 12.4 15.2
Turnovers per Game 11.7 16.0 10.2
Steals per Game 6.2 7.4 6.5
Blocks per Game 2.8 3.9 2.9
FG% .469 .400 .488
3-pt FG% .368 .319 .363
FT% .779 .719 .708
THE SERIES vs SFU: UAA leads 13-0
In Anchorage: UAA leads 7-0
Last Meeting: UAA 115-98 (1/31/15 at SFU)
Notes: UAA has won all 10 meetings since SFU joined the GNAC
in 2010-11, posting seven double-digit victories ... the Seawolves have topped the century mark in three of the past four games, including last year’s 108-86 victory on Jan. 1 in Anchorage ... teams met twice in UAA’s fi rst year of Div. II membership in 1977-78, with UAA winning twice at home … teams also met when SFU was a provisional NCAA member in 1999-00 and both teams were in the Pac West Conference.
THE SERIES vs WWU: WWU leads 17-13
In Anchorage: UAA leads 8-7
Last Meeting: WWU 76-56 (3/5/15 at MSUB)
Streak: WWU 1
Notes: WWU avoided a 3-game sweep at the hands of the Seawolves with last year’s triumph in the GNAC Tournament quarterfinals in Billings ... UAA earned a 62-60 win in the first-ever meeting at the Alaska Airlines Center when Brian McGill sank a buzzer-beater last Jan. 3 ... WWU had an 8-game WWU streak prior to last season … WWU leads 16-12 in GNAC regular-season meetings (since 2001-02) … first and only non-GNAC meeting came when both teams were Pac West foes, with UAA winning 89-77 at home, Jan. 20, 2000.
WINNING IN WASHINGTON: The Seawolves remain one of just two unbeaten teams in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference after impressive victories over No. 8 Seattle Pacific (61-59) and Saint Martin’s (91-74) on the road, Dec. 31 and Jan. 2 ... in the first game, Jr. G Suki Wiggs – playing in his hometown – scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to help UAA stop losing skids of seven overall and 11 on the road against SPU ... Sr. G Brian McGill added 11 points (4-8 FG) and 3 assists in his first game since regaining his eligibility, producing the game-winning layup with 5 seconds left, while Jr. F Corey Hammell added 9 points and 7 rebounds ... the Seawolves erased a 52-43 deficit with 8:10 remaining as Jr. Gs Spencer Svejcar and Diante Mitchell combined for 17 points ... two nights and later, Wiggs tallied 32 points (8-17 FG, 2-4 3FG, 14-16 FT), 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals and Hammell posted a monster double-double with 17 points (11-13 FT), 15 rebounds, plus 3 blocks shots against the Saints ... Svejcar (13 pts, career-high 6 rebs), Mitchell (12 pts, career-high 6 rebs) and McGill (12 pts, 3 assts) also delivered solid offensive showings to help UAA to its fifth straight win overall against SMU, including three straight in Lacey.
TEAM NOTES: The Seawolves premiered at No. 10 in the weekly D2SIDA NCAA West Region poll this week ... UAA leads the GNAC in both scoring margin (+15.4) and free throw percentage (.779), along with top-3 league ranks in rebound margin (2nd, +7.1), offensive rebound pct. (2nd, .355), 3FG pct. defense (2nd, .336), scoring offense (3rd, 85.4 ppg), scoring defense (3rd, 70.0 ppg), FG pct. defense (3rd, .405) and assists (3rd, 16.9 apg) ... in the NCAA Div. II national stats, UAA boasts top-50 ranks in FT% (10th), scoring margin (13th), assist/turnover ratio (23rd, +1.44), rebound margin (26th), assists (28th) and FG pct. defense (35th) ... UAA is seeking the program’s 11th straight winning season and the 33rd in 39 years … last year’s Seawolves earned the the program’s fifth straight top-4 GNAC finish and plus-.500 league record ... UAA has qualified for the GNAC Tournament each year since the event was instituted in 2011.
SUKI SMOOTH: Div. I transfer Sekou ‘Suki’ Wiggs has lived up to his billing as a Preseason All-GNAC selection so far, setting Seawolf program records by scoring at least 20 points in 15 straight games – both overall and to start a season ... in the GNAC stats, he paces the 11-team league by more than four points per contests with 24.1 ppg (13th nationally), along with ranks of 4th in rebounding (7.3 rpg), 8th in assists (4.0 apg) and 1st in defensive rebounds per game (6.1) ... the former Seattle O’Dea High star set the CCA Div. II Tip-Off Classic single-game scoring record with 34 points against Cal Baptist on Oct. 31, and he tallied a combined 50 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists in UAA’s 2- and 4-point wins over Chaminade and Hawaii Pacific ... most recently, Wiggs posted his fourth double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds in UAA’s 61-59 road upset of No. 8 Seattle Pacific, and followed with his third 30-plus effort when he totalled 32 points and 8 rebounds at Saint Martin’s ... Wiggs tied another program mark with 14 made free throws (on 16 attempts) against Saint Martin’s, equaling Jason Kaiser’s UAA road record from Jan. 22, 1994 at Hawaii-Hilo ... at his current pace of 7.4 FTs made per game (111 of 147), Wiggs is on pace to break Jesse Jackson’s single-season UAA record of 167 FTs made (1986-87) on Jan. 30 ... in late November, he earned GNAC Player of the Week and GCI Great Alaska Shootout all-tourney honors after breaking the 38-year-old tournament’s scoring record with 98 points, surpassing the 97 by Purdue legend Glenn Robinson from 1993 ... Wiggs tied for the 2nd-highest scoring game by a Seawolf in Shootout history with 35 in the opener against eventual champ Middle Tennessee, and he led the tourney in scoring by more than 10 ppg, becoming first player to tally at least 30 in all three games ... a double-digit career scorer in two seasons at Idaho, Wiggs was the Western Athletic Conference’s Sixth Man of the Year as a freshman in 2013-14.
HAMMELL TIME: Jr. F Corey Hammell has shown why he averaged a double-double as a sophomore last season at Santa Rosa Junior College, tied so far for the NCAA Div. II national lead with nine such performances ... Hammell also leads the nation in offensive rebounds per game (5.1) and is 19th in rebounds per game (10.1) ... the Californian is on pace to become the fifth Seawolf to average a double-double and the first since Peter Bullock in 2002-03 ... Hammell is also on pace for one of the most productive free-throw campaigns in program history, getting to the line 121 times in his first 15 games and ranking 11th in the GNAC with a .802 FT%; he has made at least 3 FTs in every game and had a streak of 27 in a row from Nov. 28-Dec. 14 ... the 6-6, 225-pounder leads the GNAC by nearly three rebounds per game and ranks 16th in scoring with 14.3 ppg ... Hammell scored a season-high 24 points and matched UAA’s best rebounding total of 2014-15 with 15 boards in the 69-65 win over Hawaii Pacific, converting a key three-point play with 15 seconds left ... in the GNAC openers against Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene, he averaged a crazily efficient 19.5 ppg, 14.5 rpg and 2.5 apg in 26 minutes per contest, shooting 12-15 FG, 2-2 3FG and 15-17 FT ... with 17 points and 17 rebounds against NNU, Hammell grabbed the most boards for a Seawolf since 2009 and matched UAA’s program-best in a GNAC game (Bullock, twice, 2002-03), while his 17 rebounds and 15 rebounds at Saint Martin’s marked his third ‘15/15’ outing.
RETURN OF B-MAC (YOU KNEW THAT HE’D BE BACK): Sr. G Brian McGill – the Seawolves’ leading returning scorer (13.8 ppg) and assist man (5.8 apg) from 2014-15 – didn’t take long to make an impact after regaining his eligibility recently, totaling 23 points and 6 assists in UAA’s road sweep last week, including the game-winning layup at Seattle Pacific with 5 seconds left ... a Preseason All-GNAC selection, McGill was named honorable mention All-GNAC last season after posting top-15 GNAC ranks in six different categories – 3rd in assists, 12th in scoring, 9th in minutes per game (30.4), 9th in assist/turnover ratio (1.7), 11th in 3FG% (.419) and 11th in FT% (.794) … McGill has now scored double figures in 21 of his last 30 outings dating to last year, including eight times with 20-plus ... after just 60 games, McGill is already 6th on UAA’s career list with 332 assists, while his 5.5 assists per game rank 3rd; he also holds UAA career ranks in scoring average (16th, 14.6 ppg), 3FG% (9th, .434), FTs made (11th, 221), FT% (14th, .819) and FTs per game (10th, 3.7) ... the former Western Oregon transfer garnered All-GNAC Second Team honors in 2013-14.
TRANSFERS MAKING IMPACT: Along with Jr. F Corey Hammell, fellow junior-college transfers Jr. G Diante Mitchell (Western Nebraska CC) and Jr. G/F Spencer Svejcar (Larmie County [Wyo.] CC) have been critical additions to UAA’s starting lineup this year, combining to average 23.9 ppg and 5.8 apg, with both shooting over 84 percent from the foul stripe ... a former NJCAA Academic All-American, Mitchell has been one of UAA’s primary ball-handler thus far, leading the GNAC in 3FG% (.531, 26-48) and ranking 10th in assists per game (3.5), 7th in A/T ratio (1.8) and 15th in FG% (.524) ... Mitchell had perhaps his most solid week in UAA’s GNAC-opening wins over CWU and NNU, totaling 41 points (15-20 FG, 6-8 3FG, 5-6 FT) and 10 assists ... Svejcar was an NJCAA All-Region IX First Team selection as a sophomore after averaging 16.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg and 2.5 apg, while shooting .405 3FG last year ... the Colorado native has tallied double figures in 11 of 15 games so far as a Seawolf, including 18 points (8-9 FT) in the win over Chaminade, 20 points (8-12 FG) against CSUDH and 19 points (7-9 FG, 4-5 3FG) against San Jose State... Svejcar also has a solid 35/17 assist/turnover ratio in 444 minutes (29.6 mpg).
LECKBAND TOGETHER: Sr. F Christian Leckband is the most experienced Seawolf on the roster, with his 98 career games now ranking 19th in program history; on Saturday, he should become the 18th UAA men’s player to don the Green & Gold at least 100 times ... coming off the bench in 14 of 15 contests so far, he has improved on his career scoring (10.1 ppg from 5.3 ppg) and rebounding (4.3 rpg from 3.2 rpg) averages, boosted by a career-high 27 points in the win over Life Pacific ... after a slow start in the first two games this year, Leckband has averaged 11.9 ppg on .534 FG% since then ... the Nome native equaled the second-most rebounds of his career with 9 in the win over Hawaii Pacific, and he dished a season-high 4 assists in the loss to Div. I San Jose State.
BERG SIDELINED: UAA suffered a blow Nov. 6 when So. F Sjur Berg suffered a broken elbow in the Seawolves’ home opener ... following surgery, Berg is expected to miss at least two months and possibly the rest of the season ... the Norwegian ranked second on the team (15th GNAC) last year with 5.2 rpg and was averaging 7.0 rpg through the first three games this year.
THE OSBORNE FILE: Now in his 12th year as head coach, Rusty Osborne (219-123) has led the Seawolves to 10 straight winning seasons, along with five NCAA Tournaments and a trip to the 2008 NCAA D-II Semifinals in his tenure at the helm … with UAA’s victory over Alaska Fairbanks on Jan. 10, 2015, he became the first UAA basketball coach to reach 200 career victories … Osborne captured his first career GNAC and NABC West District coach-of-the-year awards in 2008 after becoming the second coach to lead UAA to three consecutive NCAA berths (2006-08), and in 2011-12 his Seawolves posted a 24-10 record to equal the 2nd-most victories in program history; Osborne’s 2007-08 club holds that record with a 29-6 mark … before taking over the head job in 2004-05, the Texas native previously served 13 seasons (1991-04) as a UAA assistant, including 11 years as the top assistant … the Seawolves have won over 60 percent of their games with Osborne on the staff, claiming four conference titles and eight trips to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Osborne is assisted in 2015-16 by Cameron Turner (5th season) and Kasey Riley (1st season).
SEAWOLVES TABBED 4TH: The Seawolves were picked to finish fourth in the 2015-16 Great Northwest Athletic Conference preseason coaches’ poll, released Oct. 15.
2015-16 Great Northwest Athletic Conference
Preseason Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Poll
Rk Team (1st-pl. votes) ‘14-15 Records Pts
1. Western Washington (5) 20-11/11-7 (t-5th) 114
2. Western Oregon (4) 23-7/15-3 (1st) 106
3. Seattle Pacific (2) 24-8/13-5 (2nd) 100
4. Alaska Anchorage 16-13/12-6 (t-3rd) 92
5. Central Washington 17-9/12-6 (t-3rd) 80
6. Alaska Fairbanks 7-19/4-14 (8th) 63
7. Saint Martin’s 6-22/3-15 (t-9th) 41
Montana State Billings 5-23/3-15 (t-9th) 41
9. Northwest Nazarene 14-16/11-7 (t-5th) 37
10. Concordia, Ore. 25-7 1st Yr in GNAC 32
11. Simon Fraser 11-15/6-12 (7th) 20
(Votes awarded on 11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis)
Nate Sagan
Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations
University of Alaska Anchorage
3211 Providence Dr.
Anchorage, AK 99508
(907) 786-1295 / nate@uaa.alaska.edu
GoSeawolves.com
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