March has arrived, which means March Madness is in store for college basketball teams and fans.
The UAA men's and women's basketball teams begin the month of tournament mayhem with games at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournaments this week in Lacey, Washington.
The third-seeded UAA men's team (21-10, 14-6 GNAC) faces sixth-seeded Western Washington (15-14, 9-11) at 11 a.m. Thursday at Marcus Pavilion.
The No. 6 UAA women's team (31-2, 18-2 GNAC) gets a first-round bye as the tournament's top seed and doesn't play until Friday at 6:30 p.m., when the Seawolves face the winner of Thursday's matchup between fourth-seeded Central Washington (17-11, 10-10) and third-seeded Simon Fraser (15-10, 13-7).
Both UAA teams are coming off losses.
The men fell to Central Washington 88-81 in overtime Saturday night in Ellensburg, Washington. With the loss, they surrendered the No. 2 seed and first-round bye to UAF (21-7, 15-5).
But despite the setback, UAA coach Rusty Osborne said he's confident in his team going into the tournament. Aside from a 19-point loss to Montana State-Billings, most of UAA's losses have come down to the final few possessions.
"It's not like we've been blasted out of a bunch of games," Osborne said. "We're positive going into this weekend.
"I think we're adjusting to Spencer (Svejcar) being back in full, we're adjusting to new guys playing different roles within the team, like Drew Peterson and Damien Fulp, and hopefully we'll continue to gel and it will all come together this week."
If UAA's regular season games against Western Washington are any indication, the first-round matchup will be a battle to the end — the Seawolves beat Western twice by three points.
On Jan. 9, the Seawolves downed the Vikings 87-84. The Feb. 4 rematch was a double overtime thriller, 108-105.
"I expect it to be close again," Osborne said. "They had three guys named to the all-conference teams, so we respect them and we know that we've got to concentrate on them before we look at anything else."
If the Seawolves beat Western Washington, they'll play UAF at noon Friday in the GNAC semifinals — another team they narrowly beat twice in the regular season.
"We've had success against Western Washington, we've had success against Fairbanks, so we feel confident against those teams," senior guard Brian McGill said.
The UAA men will likely need to do some damage in the GNAC tournament to have a chance at a spot in the NCAA Division II tournament. In the latest West Region rankings, the UAA men are 10th, which puts them on the outside looking in.
The Seawolves need to at least move into the top eight, possibly higher, to vie for an at-large berth. Only a GNAC tournament championship would guarantee an automatic spot in the NCAA tournament.
Meanwhile, the UAA women are still No. 1 in the West Region, but the team dropped from No. 1 to No. 6 nationally after a Saturday loss to Simon Fraser.
The Seawolves will get a chance at vengeance in the GNAC tournament if fourth-seeded Simon Fraser beats fifth-seeded Central Washington on Thursday.
"We could have built a new house with all the bricks we were shooting (against Simon Fraser)," UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said. "The bottom line is we had a chance to win the game … I think our ladies would rather see Simon Fraser since we lost to them and we haven't lost to Central yet."
Whoever they play, the Seawolves will be happy to have junior guard/forward Keiahnna Engel back in the lineup. Engel missed the last five games of the regular season with a knee injury, but is expected to play in the tournament.
"I think one key is getting Keiahnna Engel back this week," McCarthy said. "She makes us a completely different team because she can play multiple positions.
"Really with her, we are the No. 1 team in the nation when we're healthy."
If the UAA women win the GNAC tournament, there is a good chance they will host the West Region tournament the following week.
"In the postseason, it's survive and advance, and that's really where we're at right now," McCarthy said. "We're still playing (to be) back-to-back tournament champions as well. I think if we do that, then it puts us in a very good position to make an argument to host the first round in the national tournament."