NWAACC's run and gun may face hardships

Sam McCloud, of Clackamas CC, led the
NWAACC in assists, steals, turnovers
and average minutes with 34 per game.

NWAACC Basketball

Now several weeks removed from the 2012 NWAACC basketball championships, the added distance provides some interesting perspective. Things played out mostly as expected on the women's side, but the men turned everything upside down, with two No. 1 seeds falling on the first day of the tournament. The biggest thing though, was the tournament confirmed one of the most well known phrases in sports: Defense Wins Championships. 

Spurred by the comments from several coaches and the failure of the high scoring teams to take home the title, I began to wonder what the chances were of a fast paced squad winning a championship with the current format. Looking at pure results, the men's team that won, Tacoma, finished 6th in scoring with 85 ppg. The women's champion, Columbia Basin, finished 12th with 68. Those numbers are far below the high-flying teams that led the league in scoring. 

The Shoreline men, famous for their adaption of "the system" or "run and gun" basketball, scored well over 100 points per game. They led the league in assists (19 apg), rebounds (54 rpg) and turnovers, and were second in steals (12.61 spg). Similarly on the women's side of things, Clackamas led the NWAACC in scoring (78 ppg) and steals (15.86 spg) and were a close second in assists (16.83 apg). Both teams played all out every game, especially Clackamas, who pressed on defense on almost every possession. 

Avery Scharer of Shoreline CC led the NWAACC
 with 9.74 assists per game, nearly four more than
the next player behind him.

Throughout the tournament, every time I ran in to Shoreline strength and conditioning coach Joe Cairo we got to talking about how Shoreline's breakneck pace was the way basketball was designed to be. And to their credit, they accomplished their goal very, very well. Their offense was difficult to stop, and they put up a lot of numbers. 

"I think we were getting stronger as the tournament went on because we were in our comfort zone and everyone else was holding on for dear life," said Cairo. "Remember, we were a deep team. We played the full 12 and our bench wreaked havoc. That's the thing about 'The System,' everyone has the green light." 

Shoreline Men 7th Place
101.58 Points	1st NWAACC
19.16 Assists	1st NWAACC
12.61 Steals	2nd NWAACC
582 Turnovers	1st NWAACC

However, despite the flashy numbers, neither team finished higher than 5th place. Shoreline had their lowest scoring stretch of the entire season, averaging more than 10 points lower than their seasonal average. They won three out of their four games at the tournament to take 7th place, but lost in the first round and failed to reach 100 points in any of their match ups. We never got to see what they could do when facing teams still fighting for a trip to the finals, something that completely changes the game plan.

Clackamas Women 5th Place
77.76 Points	1st NWAACC
16.83 Assists	2nd NWAACC
15.86 Steals	1st NWAACC
614 Turnovers	5th NWAACC

For Clackamas, they finished right around their seasonal point average, but you could tell by the end of the tournament that they were tired. Sam McCloud and Jenny Johnson, the two major ball handlers, combined for 13 turnovers and 78 minutes in the second round loss to Columbia Basin, a team that played at a much slower and more deliberate pace. Clackamas was a team obviously built for speed, and one that according to head coach Jim Martineau "doesn't take jump shots." Their offensive prowess combined with their defensive and pressing ability might have made for a winning combination, but they simply weren't deep enough due to injuries to make it work. 

The four games in four days presents an extremely difficult challenge for any team, but especially those like Clackamas and Shoreline that play at a breakneck speed every time they step on the court. The current set up allows no time for recuperation and rest, meaning that such teams have no time to rebuild their strength and stamina. 

"I think a team could (win a championship) with good depth," said Carl Howell, coach of the champion Tacoma Community College Titans, "but usually in the post season you have to be able to win in the half court."   

Clackamas men's coach Clif Wegner agreed with Howell, saying that he didn't believe it was possible for a running team to win a title with the current setup. In order for that to happen, the NWAACC would have to space the games out more to allow the bumps, bruises and soreness to subside slightly before the next game. 

I tend to agree. Having watched each team play, and as much as I enjoy watching the teams that score at will, it was the groups that played in control and could either speed up OR slow down that had success. I agree with Cairo when he says that basketball was meant to be fast paced, but as it's evolved over time, history has shown that the best teams play with versatility. They can save some of their energy for the next game. They can dictate the pace. They can shut teams down with defense, rather than just get in the passing lanes. 

In short, it really is true. Defense really does win championships.

It's time to seed the NWAACC tournament

Tacoma head coach Carl Howell and assistant RJay Barsh celebrate the 2012 NWAACC title.

KENNEWICK, WASH. - In the hours following Tacoma Community College’s NWAACC championship, a number of tournament volunteers, the executive director, and even an official could all be seen out together at one of the local restaurants, celebrating another successful year. Several minutes into the festivities, a man wearing a shimmering, dark blue suit and flashy ring sauntered through the doors, his normally grim face split with a smile when he acknowledged the cheers and applause from all those that recognized him.

            The man, who had a group of young men in tow, was none other than Carl Howell, the head coach of the NWAACC champion Tacoma Titans. He walked down the table of volunteers, shaking hands with many until he reached executive director Marco Azurdia, where he stopped to exchange a few words before making his way to another corner of the establishment where his team and assistant coaches as well as his wife and son awaited him.

Tacoma head coach Carl Howell

            It wasn’t until after the hubbub had subsided that there was enough of a pause in the maelstrom for a quick word of congratulation to the champion coach, who had gone exactly ten years between titles. Talk quickly turned to the set of power rankings that I write every two weeks, and how Howell appreciated the consideration of his team in the rankings. Then Howell said something I didn’t expect, but something that got me thinking.

            What Howell mentioned was that it may be time to seed the tournament, and not in the way it is now. The current format pits the Northern region against the Southern Region and the East against the West. The top finisher in one region takes on the fourth place finisher in the other, and the second place team takes on the third place squad.

            In a perfect world, that should seed the tournament equally. The opponent in the first round of the tournament is solely based on how a team performed in the regular season. However, the world isn’t perfect. The wrench that is thrown into this system is that the regions are far from equal, and so in some cases, the team that took fourth in the East may actually be better than the team that won the West.

            That disparity is painfully obvious on the women’s side, enough that several league officials said they weren’t at all surprised when seven of the eight teams from the Northern and Western regions were beaten on the first day, only to see the remaining team lose on the following day.

            The method to fix this broken system is simple, and it’s already used at the college level for the NCAA basketball tournaments. What happens is that the winner of most of the conferences gets an automatic bid to the tournament. The rest of the bids are called “at-large bids” and are chosen by a selection committee. The committee is made up of athletic directors and conference commissioners from across the country, and they decide which teams are the most deserving to receive an invitation to the NCAA tournament.

Tacoma Guard Mark McLaughin

            Gone would be the East vs. West days, it would be a system exactly like the NCAA where the first seed would play the 16^th and so on. It wouldn’t matter which region a team came from, it would matter how good that team actually was.

            The problem with that system is that it is subjective to the people sitting on the committee, and it is entirely up to them to decide who gets in and who doesn’t. Once the teams are chosen, coaches, players and fans alike would argue that their team deserved a higher seed than they were given. It’s not based solely on wins and losses, and so the ambiguity of the selection would unsettle some until the system had time to take hold.

            Despite its drawbacks, a system like this should effectively eliminate the imbalance between the conferences. Because it would be in accordance to rankings and not records, there wouldn’t be as many first round match ups that pitted two top eight teams against one another. Sure, there would still be plenty of Cinderella moments, such as this year when the Clark and Whatcom men were both ranked No. 1 and lost in the first round. That’s just basketball. But it would mean that the sixteen best teams would get in to the tournament, instead of a good team being left at home because they finished fifth in the best region in the league.     

            At the end of the day, this system works. A champion is crowned every year and there aren’t too many complaints about how it works. That said, as the league continues to try to grow in popularity, they may need to make the switch to a format that people are used to and understand. Besides, people could start having selection Sunday parties.