End & beginning. It’s the magical month of March and while the men’s basketball season is winding up for some, it may be just beginning for others this weekend. Seattle Pacific University will wrap-up the regular season Saturday night (Mar. 4), when both the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship and the right to host the NCAA Division II West Regional will be decided. The 17th-ranked Falcons (13-4, 21-5) are trying to catch Western Washington in both races but are essentially assured of a postseason berth going into their game at Northwest Nazarene (7-10, 12-14). The NCAA tournament bracket will be announced Sunday night (Mar. 5) with first-round games Mar. 10.

Down to the wire. Seattle Pacific has a chance to win its first conference crown in six years and bring the regional to Brougham Pavilion for just the third time. Although there are several scenarios for doing so, the most favorable involves getting a victory at Northwest Nazarene and at least one loss by Western Washington in Alaska this week. Currently, SPU trails the Vikings by one loss in the GNAC. The two teams have traded first place and the No. 1 spot in the West rankings back and forth the past four weeks, with WWU now on top.

Forget the Oscars. While the rest of creation is watching the Academy Awards, coaches, players and diehard basketball fans will be tuned to the NCAA tournament announcement at 7:30 Sunday, when the tournament sites, seeding and pairings will be unveiled. SPU is seeking its 16th trip to the postseason and 10th in the last 13 years. The Falcons have only hosted a West Regional twice before (1965, 2000) and each time emerged as tournament champions and the West representative to the Elite Eight. Tentative dates for the first three rounds of the tournament are Mar. 10, 11 and 13. Regional winners advance to the Elite Eight, which begins Mar. 22 in Springfield, Mass.

Coming of age. Twenty-one may be the marker for a person coming of age in society, but 22 has a special ring to it for SPU. In the program’s modern era, only five teams have won 22 or more games prior to a national tournament, and four reached at least the second round, including the Final Four squad of 2000. This is Coach Jeff Hironaka’s second straight 20-win season. His Falcons were eliminated in the first round of last year’s regional by eventual West champion Cal Poly Pomona. With Hironaka on the bench as either an assistant or head coach, the Falcons have been seeded first or second in a regional four times.

2 B’s. It’s been a special season so far–a No. 3 national ranking at one point and 13 consecutive weeks in the top 20–and that goes for some individuals as well. Guards Dustin Bremerman (Sr., 6-4, Yakima, Wa./Eisenhower) and Tony Binetti (Sr., 6-1, Enumclaw, Wa.) form the program’s most potent 1-2 scoring punch, averaging 19.3 and 18.5 points, respectively (Jackie Johnson and Scott Rolfness combined for 37.4 in 1988-89). Both Bremerman and Binetti have a chance to break the top 10 in season scoring (523), needing 22 and 42 points, and Binetti is 27 assists from cracking the top five in that category. In last week’s 103-79 win at Saint Martin’s, Binetti (23) and Bremerman (22) combined for 45.

Supporting cast. A key factor this season has been team chemistry and after waning a bit it is coming around again. Five players scored in double figures in each of last week’s games, making it seven times this season. In another 11 games there have been four players with 10 or more points. Chad Williams (Sr., 6-8, Burlington, Wa./Burlington-Whatcom CC) broke out of a slump with a combined 27 points in two games on 11-18 shooting. Center Robbie Will (So., 6-10, Seattle, Wa./O’Dea-Bellevue CC) now has five straight games of double figures. Mike Bushmaker (Sr., 6-7, Yakima, Wa./Eisenhower) is the top-scoring sixth man in the GNAC (11.3) and Drew Matzen (Jr., 6-4, Lynnwood, Wa./Bothell) was one point shy of his career high with 15 points at Seattle University.

Offensive behavior. Even the best shooters’ legs can get a bit weary at this stage of the season, so one less day of practice and only one game this week may help SPU enter the NNU game and the postseason relatively fresh. SPU is No. 4 in NCAA field-goal percentage (.517), and is also among the national leaders in sinking shots from the foul line (.769, 6th) and three-point arc (.399, 19th). They have made 50 percent or higher from the field 15 times, winning each of those games. They have lost their last four games when shooting under 50 percent.

Put-backs. The Falcons are contending for their seventh conference championship since 1984 and first since 2000...Saturday’s game can be heard live on the web at nnusports.com. Live audio and video streaming of the NCAA bracket announcement is available at ncaasports.com...Seattle Pacific out-rebounded Saint Martin’s 45-28 with Bremerman doubling his previous career high with 16. It was his first career double double...Will, who leads the GNAC with 2.08 blocked shots per game, is now tied for the No. 5 SPU season total (54)...Bremerman and Binetti are both within reach of the top 10 (1210) in career scoring, with 1194 and 1181 points, respectively...Binetti has scored in double figures in all 26 games. He had seven steals last week...Bremerman has scored 30 points or more five times this season, the most in the GNAC. He was held without a three (0-2) for only the second time this season and the first time in 20 games at Saint Martin’s. After going 29-46 in the first five games of February, he has hit 6-21 in the last three...After missing 13 of 16 treys in three games, Binetti was 3-6 at SMU. In the last seven games, he has 35 assists and just six turnovers and 12 steals in the last four games. When Binetti scores 20-plus away from home, SPU is 7-0 this season...Seattle Pacific is No. 2 in conference blocked shots (3.92) and overall shooting (.517). It’s No. 3 in field goal percentage defense (.457), scoring (86.4, 15th nationally) and free throw percentage (.769). Individually, Binetti is No. 3 in three-point accuracy (.477) and No. 4 in assists (5.2) and steals (2.0). Bremerman is third in three-point percentage (.464, 6th in NCAA) and sixth in scoring (19.3). Bushmaker is fourth in field-goal percentage (.625)...The Falcons are only 4-4 when outscored in the second half and 4-3 when allowing opponents to shoot 50 percent or higher...Seven times this season SPU has come from at least eight points down to win, including three on the road...In each loss, SPU has made less than one-third of their threes, including 10-31 in the 90-76 loss at Seattle U...In their four Div. II losses, the Falcons have yielded an average of 93.0 points.

Coaching Staff. In his first season Jeff Hironaka won more games (16) than all but one other first-year SPU coach, and he took a team to the NCAA tournament in only his third year–faster than any predecessor. His record entering this season is 50-33. A former aide at Idaho State and The Master’s, Hironaka became Ken Bone’s top assistant in 1991 and from there the Falcons won 236 of 253 games, claimed five conference championships and qualified for eight NCAA tournaments, including a Final Four in 2000. Hironaka is the second Japanese-American head coach of a four-year collegiate program. Brock Veltri is in his second season as the chief assistant.

Tickets, please. Reserved tickets for all SPU home games are priced $7 and $6. General admission is $5 with youth, students and senior citizens $3 with proper identification. Groups can qualify for discounts by calling (206) 281-2085 in advance.

Missing links. For the latest and best information on Seattle Pacific University athletics, stay where you're at -- on The Falcons Online. For updated standings and statistics, see the Great Northwest Athletic Conference web site.