Five Games In Nine Days...And Some Tired Legs

The Northwest Conference basketball is indeed a marathon. Teams play 16 games over a span of seven weeks, two games per week, with trips that send teams to three different regions of two states.

The season is a rigorous test. Now, thanks to the flooding in the Northwest earlier this month, Pacific will play over a quarter of their conference schedule in a span of nine days.

The Boxers played in Tacoma, Wash., on Friday, and then bussed home to take on Linfield on Saturday. The flooding forced the postponement of games against Pacific Lutheran, originally scheduled on Jan. 9, to Tuesday night. That’s wedged right between last week’s action and this weekend’s tough home series against Whitman and Whitworth.

Five games in nine days. Combine that with practices and you have to think that the Boxers may not be able to climb out of bed on Sunday.

Pacific’s head hoops coaches are taking everything in stride. Men’s coach Jason Lowery sees it as a challenge that he expects the Boxers to rise to. "If this was November I'd be concerned,” Lowery said, “but it's the end of January and we've been going at it for over three months. We're in shape and prepared. If we're not ready to go now then it's not going to happen. It's time for us to go out and perform."

Sharon Rissmiller, head women’s coach, expressed some concern when the Jan. 9 games were cancelled, but is looking at the positives of the situation. "I knew when we had to reschedule the PLU game that this was going to be a tough stretch,” she said. “On the positive side to having five games in nine games is that besides our five-hour bus ride to Tacoma last Friday, the rest of the games are at home. We are taking it one game at a time."

Another positive is where the string of games fall in terms of the academic calendar. Pacific’s Winter III term, a three-week cram term where students take one three-credit class over the course of 23 days, ended on Monday. There will be plenty of time for the Boxers to rest up. It could very well be a week where Lowery’s and Rissmiller’s charges do nothing but eat, sleep and breathe basketball.