Half full, half empty. The view of the D-II basketball postseason glass is a little of both for the Brigham Young-Hawaii men and Hawaii Pacific women.
Both teams are happy to be playing well at this point of the season, as evidenced by their respective wins at Saturday’s PacWest tournament in Irvine, Calif. But with Sunday’s selection show came some disappointment when looking at the West Regional brackets, the 23rd-ranked Seasiders (24-5) believing they deserved to be seeded higher than No. 2 — particularly when the top-seeded and host Azusa Pacific didn’t make Saturday’s final of the PacWest tournament — and the Sharks (25-4) wanting a different opponent other than Cal Baptist, which they beat for the conference championship Saturday.
"I had hoped we’d be the top seed," BYUH coach Ken Wagner said, his team winning its last six en route to its first PacWest tournament crown. "I thought we had played the tougher schedule, beat teams the others had lost to.
"But I think we’re playing well, the guys have been coming together. Seattle Pacific is battle-tested and it will be a tough opener."
Wagner hopes the toughest part — the travel — is over. BYU-Hawaii returned to Honolulu Sunday, a flight that took 61/2 hours due to air turbulence. The Seasiders expect to fly out Wednesday and will face the seventh-seeded Falcons (23-7) in Friday’s second semifinal at the Felix Events Center.
Seattle Pacific is making its 11th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, the longest current streak in D-II. The Seasiders and Falcons met last Nov. 22 in the PacWest/GNAC Challenge, with BYU-Hawaii overcoming an 11-point halftime deficit to win 87-74 at the Cannon Activities Center.
Fourth-seeded HPU only has to go back to Saturday for its scouting report on fifth-seeded Cal Baptist, Thursday’s quarterfinal opponent in the regional hosted by top seed Alaska Anchorage. The Sharks held on for a 74-73 win against the Lancers to advance to the NCAA tournament for just the second time in program history.
"I think it’s interesting that the NCAA decided to put the three PacWest teams on the same side of the bracket and the three CCAA teams on the other," HPU coach Reid Takatsuka said. "It’s crazy a little disappointing, but it is what it is. We’re excited about being in the tournament. It would have been nice to play someone else. There is comfort in that we know Cal Baptist well."
There’s also comfort having played at Alaska Anchorage last Dec. 21. The Seawolves won 109-83 at the Alaska Airlines Arena.
"We wanted to strengthen our nonconference schedule, not thinking we’d be in the regional there. " Takatsuka said. "We’re back."
2015 NCAA DIVISION II MEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
West Regional
Felix Events Center, Azusa, Calif. (Times TBA)
Friday’s Quarterfinals
Game 1: #6 Chico State (22-7) vs. #3 California Baptist (24-6)
Game 2: #7 Seattle Pacific (23-7) vs. #2 BYU-Hawaii (24-5)
Game 3: #5 Cal Poly Pomona (23-6) vs. #4 Dixie State (20-7)
Game 4: #8 Western Oregon (23-6) vs. #1 Azusa Pacific (24-5)
NCAA DIVISION II WOMEN’S BASKETBALL WEST REGIONAL
Alaska Airlines Center
Anchorage, Alaska
Friday’s quarterfinals
Game 1: #6 Seattle Pacific (21-6) vs #3 Humboldt State (23-5), noon
Game 2: #7 Cal Poly Pomona (19-8) vs #2 Cal State Dominguez Hills (26-6), 2:30 p.m.
Game 3: #5 Cal Baptist (24-6) vs #4 Hawaii Pacific (25-4), 5 p.m.
Game 4: #8 Point Loma (19-11) vs #1 Alaska Anchorage (29-1), 7:30 p.m.
