Just about every college basketball coach will tell you the goal at the start of the season is to win the conference championship. It's an extremely difficult thing to do.
Going undefeated in conference play? Nobody even thinks about that. A perfect run through conference play, where you're seeing everyone twice and making multiple road trips is extremely rare.
That's why what the Point Loma Sea Lions are doing is so special.
PLNU, ranked 8th in the country, blasted Hawaii Pacific 120-74 on Saturday night, making a program record 22 shots from 3-point range along the way. They were so deadly from long distance that a fun statistic from the game is, in the first half they went 11-17 on 3-pointers but just 2-5 on dunk attempts. Head coach Matt Logie took responsibility for that anomaly.
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"We work on 3-pointers a lot more than we work on dunking so I'll have to rethink that a little bit," said Logie, tongue firmly in cheek.
The win made them 19-0 in PacWest Conference play. They have one more regular season game, on Thursday night at home against Hawaii Hilo. If they win that they'll complete the first 20-game undefeated season in PacWest history (BYU-Hawaii went 12-0 in 2008-09, the only other perfect conference run).
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The Sea Lions have been the best in the west for a while now. Saturday night's blowout was their 30th straight conference win overall, which is a new PacWest record. And it's not just during conference play that they've been tremendous. Two of their three losses this season have come in overtime and they haven't dropped a game since the Saturday after Thanksgiving. During their streak they've won 14 games by double digits and eight times by at least 20 points.
Yes, this team is impressive and yes, it has a legitimate shot at winning a national championship. One of their biggest strengths is, on any given night, anyone on the floor can get hot and they aren't scared to share the wealth. Against Hawaii Pacific they made 44 baskets and had 29 assists. When a team trusts each other, special things can happen.
"These guys, I've said this all year long, they love playing together," says Logie. "They don't care who gets the credit and when you play this game that way it's a beautiful thing to watch."
Tipoff on Thursday at Golden Gym is set for 7:30 pm. It would not be a bad idea to go watch some extremely exciting basketball.
