Scoreboard watching has begun in earnest throughout the world of NCAA basketball. The Chico State men’s team will be no exception over the next few days. The Wildcats are fighting for a first-round California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship Tournament game and NCAA Championship Tournament berth.
The scoreboards the Wildcats will be paying the most attention to reside in the gyms at Cal State East Bay and Cal State Monterey Bay where they will wrap up the regular season on Thursday and Friday, respectively. Both games tip at approximately 7:30 and can be heard locally on AM 1290 KPAY and online via the Wildcat Webcast link at www.chicowildcats.com.
As they travel to the Bay Area Wednesday night, the Wildcats will also be keeping a close eye on the Cal State L.A.-Cal Poly Pomona game. Cal State L.A. and Chico State enter their final two-game stretch tied for fourth in the CCAA.
The Wildcats, who clinched a postseason berth for the fourth straight season last weekend, could wind up as high as the No. 2 seed and as low as the No. 6 seed when the CCAA Championship Tournament begins on Tuesday, depending how they and a number of other teams around the conference fare during their final two games of the regular season.
CCAA STANDINGS
Meanwhile, the Wildcats are also on the NCAA Championship Tournament bubble, ranked No. 10 in the West Region for the second straight week. The champions of the CCAA, Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and Pacific West Conference Championship Tournaments will earn automatic NCAA Championship Tournament berths. The next five “at-large” teams in the final West Region rankings will also earn invites.
The current top five teams in the West Region – No. 1 Western Washington, No. 2 Cal Poly Pomona, No. 3 Seattle Pacific, No. 4 Dixie State and No. 5 Grand Canyon – have likely done enough to secure an NCAA Championship Tournament berth. But the Wildcats will be keeping track of the progress of No. 6 Cal State San Bernardino, No. 7 Chaminade, No. 8 San Francisco State, and No. 9 Alaska Anchorage, hoping to get a little help in their quest for their second straight NCAA Championship Tournament selection.
NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS
Chico State beat Cal State Monterey Bay and Cal State East Bay in their first meetings with those teams rather handily. But the Wildcats have struggled on the road this season, winning just three times in nine tries.
They’ve been hot of late, however, matching the longest winning streak in the Greg Clink era with five consecutive wins to improve to 15-9 overall and 12-8 in the CCAA. Cal State East Bay is 7-17 overall and tied for 10th in the CCAA at 6-14. Cal State Monterey Bay, coached by former Chico State assistant Rob Bishop, is 8-19 overall and 4-16 in the CCAA. Both teams have been eliminated from postseason consideration.
Chico State’s defense keyed their victories against Cal State East Bay and Cal State Monterey Bay earlier this year. The Wildcats tied the school record with 11 blocked shots against Cal State Monterey Bay and held Cal State East Bay to a season-low 43 points while blocking six shots. With 101 rejections on the season, Chico State needs nine more to tie the school’s single-season rejections record.
Jason Conrad and Jordan Semple each rank among the top six in career blocked shots for the Wildcats. Conrad is 10 shy of Ben Perak’s school record of 89. Semple, meanwhile, needs five more to match former assistant Terence Pellum for fifth with 60. Amir Carraway is also lurking just outside of the top 10 with 40 career send-backs.
Damario Sims also has a chance to move up the career leaderboards in points scored, assists, and made 3-pointers. With 1,119 career points, Sims needs 18 more to catch Jim Schreiner for eighth in school history and 32 more to match Ken Piercy for seventh. A trio of 3-pointers would move Sims into a second-place tie with Kenny Gleason on a career 3-pointers list. And he’s six assists shy of tying Homer Rivers for eighth in career assists and nine behind Brian Faulstich for seventh.
Reaching some or all of those milestones would certainly be nice for Conrad, Sims and Semple. But the best way for them to keep racking up numbers is to keep playing games. Two wins this weekend would certainly help that cause.
