Two words about how games at the Shootout impact the overall records of the UAA basketball teams:
It's complicated.
Before the season started, men's coach Rusty Osborne and women's coach Ryan McCarthy chose to designate some of their Shootout games as exhibition games -- something they are allowed to do by the NCAA "discretionary exemption" rule.
McCarthy decided that his team's first Shootout game would be a real game but the second would be an exhibition. Osborne decided that his team's first two Shootout games would be exhibitions but Saturday's would not.
Exhibition games don't count against a team's win-loss record, nor do any statistics compiled in them contribute to a team's or player's statistics.
And so even though a crowd of about 2,500 saw the UAA women lose to Western Kentucky in the championship game, the Seawolves are still officially undefeated, because the game they lost had been declared an exhibition many weeks ago.
And even though the men went 1-2 at the Shootout, only one game -- Saturday's -- counted against their record, which was 6-3 before the tournament and 6-4 after it.
Similarly, guard Suki Wiggs' pregame scoring average of 23.7 won't get a significant bump from the 98 points he scored in three games at the Alaska Airlines Center. Only his 30 points Saturday will be added to his season total -- the 35 on Thursday and the 33 on Friday will not, because those were exhibition games.
The ability to declare certain exempt games as exhibitions is part of the NCAA's "discretionary exemption" rule, which allows Division II teams like the Seawolves to play up to three games against teams at other levels -- Division I, Division III, NAIA -- without those games counting against the season-long limit of 26 games. Coaches are allowed to decide -- again, ahead of time -- whether they want those games to be exhibitions or actual games.
An exempt game isn't the same as an exhibition, although some exempt games are exhibitions.
The UAA men will play a nine exempt games this season for a total of 35 games. None count against their season limit of 26. And four of the nine are exhibitions -- a preseason scrimmage against Cal State San Bernardino, the Middle Tennessee State and Drexel games at the Shootout and next month's alumni game. Saturday's game against San Jose State was not exempt, so it counts against the 26-game limit.
The five exempt games that will count on the men's record this season have already been played -- three games at the Division II Tip-Off Classic in California, and their two Conference Challenge games in Fairbanks. The NCAA exempts the entire Tip-Off Classic to encourage participation and it exempts Conference Challenge games so teams get a chance to play inter-region games. With the advent of big conferences, it's hard to fit inter-region games under the 26-game limit, but those games are crucial to determining postseason bids. The Great Northwest Athletic Conference has 11 teams, meaning each team will play 20 conference games, leaving GNAC teams to a half-dozen non-conference games -- unless they play exempt games.
Osborne said he had no grand scheme in mind when deciding whether to call any, all or some of the Shootout games exhibitions or not. He merely decided that the first two would be exhibitions and the third would not.
Had none of the Shootout games been exhibitions, Osborne would have had to designate two of UAA's three games against NAIA teams as exhibitions (the Seawolves played Lincoln Christian twice and Life Pacific once).
Meanwhile, all of the Shootout games played by the Division I teams -- including games against UAA -- count as real games, because the discretionary exemption doesn't apply to D-I teams. And so you get the unusual situation where a game counts for one team and doesn't count for the other.
Told you it was complicated.
Sing first, then cheer
UAA cheer captain Andrew Christian II belted out an impressive performance of the national anthem Tuesday during the first day of the GCI Great Alaska Shootout.
The UAA vocal major often can be heard singing at sporting events for the Seawolves before he performs with the cheer team at halftime and during timeouts.
"I sing for a few games every now and then," Christian said. "My coach puts my name in the little bucket they pull from. It's a lot of fun."
Christian said he is used to singing in front of large crowds. He said he often sings at military commissioning ceremonies in Anchorage and he used to sing before high school events.
"I want to be a choral conductor in the future, one of these days," Christian said. "I'm a vocal major here at the university, so that's my main goal."
Even with all his experience, Christian said he still gets nervous before singing, but he uses that to fuel a better performance.
"It's gotten better over the years, but still my right leg will still shake," Christian said. "But the fear is definitely needed to make sure you do it right, because if you get too comfortable, you'll be sloppy."
Christian said he is from a military family and has been living in Anchorage since he was 4. He said he started singing during his sophomore year of high school at Eagle River and started cheerleading during his junior year of high school.
Spikers in the house
The nationally ranked UAA volleyball team received a huge ovation Saturday afternoon when introduced during the UAA-San Jose State game.
The Seawolves will host the Division II West Region playoffs Friday through Sunday at the Alaska Airlines Center, but because of the basketball tournament, they held their most recent practices at the old Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
"It would be nice to be here," UAA coach Chris Green said of not getting to practice on the court where the tournament will be held, "but it actually worked out pretty nice."