Falcon Men Picked Second in GNAC Hoops Coaches Poll
SPU is top challenger to Alaska Fairbanks
October 28, 2004

SEATTLE (Oct. 28) ­ Seattle Pacific University has been picked as the chief challenger to nationally-ranked Alaska Fairbanks in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference men¹s basketball preseason coaches poll.

The Falcons, who return all five starters from a squad which went 14-13, earned two first-place votes. Alaska Fairbanks, the defending GNAC co-champion and NCAA Division II West Region runner-up, got six first-place votes and 98 points overall, compared to 86 for SPU. The two teams meet Jan. 22 in Seattle.

Western Washington and Alaska Anchorage followed closely behind. There has been a tie for the conference title two of the past three seasons.

Back for SPU third-year coach Jeff Hironaka are 11 letter winners, including center Jason Chivers (Sr., 6-8, Los Angles, Ca./Highland-LA Trade Tech) who led the GNAC in rebounding (11.3) and the team in both scoring (16.3) and blocked shots (1.8). Also back is guard Jordan Lee (Sr., 6-2, Tacoma, Wa./Life Christian), who averaged 15.9 points and was No. 6 in NCAA three-point accuracy, and conference freshman of the year Dustin Bremerman (So., 6-4, Yakima, Wa./Eisenhower).

Seattle Pacific plays the Australia Institute for Sport in its first preseason exhibition Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion, then visits Nevada Nov. 13. The regular season opener is Nov. 19 at Washington and the home opener Nov. 20 vs. Chico State.