WOU AD Curtis Campbell Talks Facilities, New Coaches

Curtis Campbell

Western Oregon's second-year athletic director Curtis Campbell was among the guests on Tuesday night's episode of GNAC Insider, which also featured Saint Martin's senior guard Rhett Baerlocher and Northwest Nazarene men's basketball coach Paul Rush.

Campbell touched on the following happenings at WOU:

• The recent hiring of new head coaches in volleyball and women's soccer
• Improvements to the Wolves' softball and baseball facilities
• His previous work in NCAA governance

Baerlocher discussed the 12-2 start for the Saints' basketball team, which entered the week in a four-way tie for first place in the GNAC with a 5-1 mark. Baerlocher is averaging 10.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.

Rush, the Nighthawks' second-year coach, talked about his Northwest Nazarene team, which takes an overall record of 10-2 (5-1 GNAC) into games in Alaska this weekend.

Listen:

NCAA Weekly Whistles #10: Offense-Initiated Contact

Below is the latest installment of Weekly Whistles, which takes a look at rules (and rules enforcement) in NCAA men's basketball.

This week's episode lasts five minutes and covers offense-initiated contact against legal defenders.

Checking In On West Region Men's Hoops

The preseason favorites across the West are faring well.

It's early in the men's basketball 2018-19 West Region conference races, with teams across the GNAC, PacWest and CCAA having resumed league play after the holiday break.

All three conferences will complete their regular seasons Saturday, March 2. Conference tournaments will take place the following week, with tournament champions in each case being crowned on Saturday, March 9. Remember: winning the conference regular season title only matters for seeding in the postseason tournament; each league awards its automatic bid to the NCAA tournament to the winner of its conference tourney.

Here are quick links to the most current standings in each conference:

• GNAC standings (click here)
• PacWest standings (click here)
• CCAA standings (click here)

As a courtesy, I'm posting the preseason polls in each conference below. In each case, the polls reflect a vote of the conference coaches. 

The coaches (so far) are right on the money. The predicted champions -- Saint Martin's (GNAC), Point Loma (PacWest) and UC San Diego (CCAA) -- currently own or share first place in their respective conferences.

Interestingly enough, all three predicted champions have played each other this season and are 1-1 in the head-to-head matchups.

GNAC Preseason Poll			PacWest Preseason Poll
1	Saint Martin's		1	Point Loma
2	Seattle Pacific		2	Azusa Pacific
3	Western Oregon		3	Concordia-Irvine
4	Western Washington		4	Chaminade
5	Alaska Anchorage		5	Hawaii Pacific
6	Montana State Billings		6	Academy of Art
7	Northwest Nazarene		7	Biola
8	Central Washington		8	Dominican
9	Alaska		9	Hawaii Hilo
10	Concordia		10	Holy Names
11	Simon Fraser		11	Fresno Pacific
			12	Notre Dame de Namur
CCAA Preseason Poll
1	UC San Diego
2	Cal Poly Pomona
3	Chico State
4	Stanislaus State
5	Cal State San Bernardino
6	Cal State LA
7	Cal State San Marcos
8	Cal State Dominguez Hills
9	San Francisco State
10	Sonoma State
11	Cal State East Bay
12	Humboldt State
13	Cal State Monterey Bay