FAIRBANKS, Alaska – At first glance, the 2019-20 Nanooks men's basketball team did not strike people as a GNAC-contender. But as you dive deeper into their season statistics, you realize that Alaska was a clear dark horse in one of the strongest conferences in Division II basketball.
Opening up the season, the Nanooks found themselves with only four returning players and seven new faces; all of which were hoping to make noise as one of the most overlooked teams of the new year. Before the season, the GNAC released their preseason poll. That poll chose the Alaska Nanooks to finish 10
th out of the 11-team GNAC, beating out only Saint Martins University.
The Nanooks used this as fuel heading into their opening weekend of the season. Unfortunately for Alaska, they fell in the season-opener to Chaminade University in Anchorage, 64-90. Despite the loss,
Shadeed Shabazz introduced himself in fine fashion, ending his first game in the blue and gold with 19 points, five rebounds and two steals. The Nanooks would break into the win-column in the second game of the year, stealing a win away from the Hawaii Pacific Sharks with one of the top plays of the year. With just over one second remaining in regulation, transfer-guard,
Koby Huerta put up a half-court prayer and hit it. The three gave the Nanooks a 75-73 victory and their first win of the season in the best way possible.
Alaska would endure a six game losing-streak after their win, bringing them to 1-7 as they entered GNAC play on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019 against Western Oregon. The 'Nooks went on to shock the GNAC and the Wolves, winning the conference-opener 72-66, upending the previously undefeated Western Oregon. This would begin the new-look Nanooks season. Heading into the holiday break, the Nanooks found themselves 2-0 and tied at the top of conference play following a 116-111 2OT win over Concordia in which Shabazz put up a season and GNAC-high 43 points, including the game-tying three in the first overtime with just under a second remaining.
Head coach
Greg Sparling at the time of the two conference wins was happy but not surprised with the way his 'Nooks overcame a 1-7 record to start GNAC play off on the right foot, "We scheduled a tough preseason schedule for a reason, we felt it would prepare us for conference play and I think we proved something to the league tonight."
After averaging 35 points per game in his first GNAC games, Shabazz was awarded his first of three GNAC Player of the Week awards. The 'Nooks continued their early run with another win at Saint Martin's to begin the new year before falling for the first time to Seattle Pacific in Seattle on Jan. 4. They would go 3-3 in their next six games before their rematch with Seattle Pacific in Fairbanks on Thursday, Jan. 30. SPU entered this game with a 10-0 GNAC record and was riding a 14-game winning streak. That streak was snapped right then and there as Shabazz,
Koby Huerta,
Alex Sommerfield and
Spencer Sweet all scored in double-digits to knock off the top-GNAC squad, 83-77.
That impressive win over the Falcons put Coach Sparling only one win from the history books. After knocking-off SPU, Sparling was sitting on win 399 in his career. While that win would not come in front of Nanooks fans, it would come at Western Washington University on Feb. 6 in a 96-85 victory over the Vikings led by Shabazz who tied the Carver Gymnasium scoring-record with 43 points.
Sweet played the support-role in Sparling's 400
th victory, collecting 18 points while shooting 50% from the field. The 'Nooks rode the wave of Shabazz and Sweet's hot-shooting, collecting another win at Simon Fraser, putting them in striking distance for the GNAC playoffs.
A slight bump in the road occurred following their win at Simon Fraser when the Nanooks went on to lose three-straight home games before picking up a much needed win over the Montana State Billings Yellowjackets on Feb. 20. After the three-point win over MSUB, Alaska was in play to grab the final spot in the GNAC playoffs and on Saturday, Feb. 29, that dream became a reality. With a Seattle Pacific win over the Central Washington Wildcats, the 'Nooks had officially claimed the #6 seed for the GNAC Championships.
Sparling echoed his players excitement for the Championships, "our student-athletes deserve the opportunity after playing a really challenging preseason and GNAC schedule. We now need to come together and play our best basketball."
With the help of everyone up and down the roster, the Nanooks did exactly that.
In the opening round of the tournament, the Nanooks were pitted against the Western Oregon Wolves, the team that had defeated Alaska on the final day of the regular season just six days earlier. That final game was a learning moment for the tourney as the Nanooks overcame a 15-point deficit in the first half to claim a first round victory over the Wolves, 91-88, picking up their first GNAC playoff win since the 2015-16 season in which they made it to the GNAC Championships game before falling to WOU, who would eventually make it to the DII Final Four.
This victory set up the Nanooks for a matchup with the Western Washington Vikings in the GNAC semifinals. In the regular-season, the 'Nooks and Vikings split, with each road team being victorious.
Despite their best efforts, and 29 points from Shabazz, the Nanooks season came to an end against WWU as they fell 64-76. The Nanooks storied-season had officially come to an end with a 12-18, 10-10 GNAC record with a trip to the semifinals of the conference tournament. From 2018-19 to 2019-20, the 'Nooks improved by seven overall wins and eight conference wins, moving to double-digit wins in both categories for the first time since 2015-16.
Season Statistics
The Nanooks had two scorers in double-digits after all 30 games were played.
Shadeed Shabazz was the high-scorer on the team, finishing 2019-20 with 26.6 points, good for the most in the GNAC and fourth in NCAA DII. Behind him was senior-guard,
Spencer Sweet, who averaged 12.7 points per game. These two were the only Alaska players to average more than 30+ minutes on the court per game.
GP – Games Played
GS – Games Started
PPG – Points per game
RPG – Rebounds per game
Record Breaking
The Nanooks were a part of 12 separate record-breaking performances this season. 11 of which were by
Shadeed Shabazz alone on the individual end. The lone team-record that the Alaska Nanooks broke was the single-game steals record. The Nanooks became the first team in GNAC history to break the 20-steal mark in a single game, grabbing 23 against Simon Fraser on Jan. 9 in Fairbanks. In that game
Shadeed Shabazz led the way with six steals while
Spencer Sweet picked up five,
Markel Banks and
Koby Huerta both grabbed four,
Keshaun Howard stole a pair and
Mawich Kachjaani and
Zach Hatch each added one.
As for Shabazz, he broke records in both the full regular-season stats and GNAC-only stats. The first records are full season play records.
- Points – 798
- Field Goals Made – 274
- Field Goals Attempted – 588
- Total Steals – 114
- Steals Per Game – 3.86
- Points in Conference Play – 582
- Points Per Game in GNAC play – 29.1
- Field Goals Made in GNAC play – 197
- Field Goals Attempted in GNAC play – 415
- Steals in GNAC play – 88
- Steals Per Game in GNAC play – 4.40
Shabazz also found himself moving into the top-20 in career steals in GNAC play. After 88 against GNAC opponents this year, he finds himself tied for 16
th place, chasing the record of 154, set by Tanner Omlid of Western Oregon from 2015-18.
Nanooks History Books
Some names from the 2019-20 Nanooks men's basketball team cracked the list of top Alaska scorers. After spending two seasons in Fairbanks, the sweetest jumper from Longview, Washington,
Spencer Sweet, moved into 49
th place on the all-time scoring list, graduating with 704 points scored in just two seasons with the 'Nooks. Sweet picked up 322 points for an average of 11.9 points per game in 2018-19 after coming from Lower Columbia CC, before improving to 382 points and an average of 12.7 ppg in his senior year. As for
Shadeed Shabazz, he moved into 34
th place after just one season in the blue and gold as his 798 points put him behind the 33
rd ranked Lloyd Burns and Jeff Hutton who are tied with 802 career points.
| 33rd Place |
Jeff Hutton |
802 points |
1974-76 |
|
Lloyd Burns |
802 points |
1976-79 |
| 34th Place |
Shadeed Shabazz |
798 points |
2019-20 |
| 35th Place |
Chris Smith |
779 points |
2002-05 |
| ---------------------------- |
---------------------------- |
--------------- |
---------------------------- |
| 48th Place |
Bangaly Kaba |
719 points |
2015-17 |
| 49th Place |
Spencer Sweet |
704 points |
2018-20 |
| 50th Place |
Dominique Brinson |
701 Points |
2011-13 |
Academic Acomplishments
The Nanooks had a successful season on the court, but it
was what they did off the court and in the classroom that also shines bright. They were apart of one of the most successful academic years Alaska athletics has seen.
Zach Hatch and
Jalon McCullough headlined the GNAC All-Academic team for the Nanooks as Hatch, the redshirt-junior from Snohomish, Wash., earned a 3.56 in the 2019 Fall Semester, bringing his cumulative to a 3.58 and McCullough, the senior Fairbanks-native pushed his cumulative GPA to a 3.49 with a 3.46 in the 2019 Fall Semester.
While these two were the only Nanooks who were eligible to make the All-Academic team, the 'Nooks found strong work in the classroom from
Keshaun Howard,
Koby Huerta,
Matthew Scarboro and
Alex Sommerfield who all surpassed a 3.2 GPA in the 2019 Fall Semester, including a 4.0 from Sommerfield.
Mr. Alaska
Shadeed Shabazz became "that guy" on campus right away. In only his first season in Fairbanks, after spending time at Cochise College in Arizona and the previous season at Iowa Western in Council Bluffs, Iowa, he introduced himself as one of the most prolific scorers the Nanooks have seen since the likes of Parrish West (2010-11) and Brad Oleson (2002-05). Shabazz grabbed his first 30-point performance on Dec. 7, 2019 against Concordia, picking up 43 points. He would go on to grab 11 more 30-point games, including two more 40-point games with a five-game streak of 30+ points from 1/16/20 to 1/30/20.
While Shabazz was a hot-hand from the offensive side, his defense was top-notch and did not go un-noticed on the national level. The junior-transfer led NCAA DII in total steals with 114 and steals per game with 3.83. With such a balanced attack this season and a unanimous GNAC First Team selection , Shabazz won the triple-crown of GNAC awards, winning GNAC Newcomer of the Year, Co-Defensive Player of the Year and GNAC Player of the Year. He was the first Nanook to win Player of the Year since Brad Oleson in 2005. He was also the first Alaska player to win the Co-Defensive Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year since 2014 when Andrew Kelly was named DPOY and Jushay Rockett was named Newcomer of the Year in 2007.
After racking in the GNAC awards, it was time for the national awards. He was later named to the D2CCA and NABC All-West Region First Teams before being named the first Nanooks All-American by the D2CCA since 2011 when Parrish West was named the Daktronics DII National Player of the Year. Shabazz was named a Third Team All-American, the lone-GNAC player named to any team.
The 2019-20 season was full of ups and downs and it looks like the Nanooks are building something strong in Fairbanks. Follow along on Twitter at @NanooksMBB or follow the Alaska Nanooks athletics page on Facebook for the latest updates on the Nanooks men's basketball team.
