AZUSA, Calif. -- They say that no rivalry is worth its salt until the playoffs are involved. Well the Azusa Pacific-Concordia series is about to get salty.
All the ingredients necessary to create a quality rivalry – bragging rights, pride, revenge, scores to settle and statements to be made – are present. Playing careers are about to end and a signature game is still a must for several seniors. All that is needed is a mixer.
One is now available in the form of the Golden State Athletic Conference Postseason Tournament Championship game. Azusa Pacific, ranked No. 2 in the NAIA and winner of 17 straight, takes on No. 4-ranked Concordia, the defending NAIA national champion, Tuesday (March 16) in the GSAC Tourney title game at 7:30 p.m. in the Darling Pavilion on the campus of Hope International University in Fullerton, Calif. Tickets for the game go on sale game day at the door at 6:30 p.m.
On one hand, nothing serious is at stake in Tuesday's title game. Both teams are assured berths into the upcoming 32-team NAIA Championship Tournament in Kansas City, Mo. (March 24-30) and a top-10 seed, if not top 5, awaits both squads upon their arrival in K.C. On the other hand, though, everything is at stake in the GSAC title game. Everything that involves emotion.
It's not that these 2 NAIA powers have never met before in the postseason. Rather, Tuesday's GSAC title game will be their fourth playoff encounter in the past 10 years, and their second straight in the conference tourney title game. But this meeting, unlike the other 3 in the past, has the necessary backdrop for a good rivalry-making contest.
Azusa Pacific enters as the GSAC regular-season champion for the 11th time in the past 12 years. The Cougars are the king of the GSAC, and there is no mistaking that fact. Since 1993, they are a gaudy 165-25 (.868) in GSAC play. To put perspective on that accomplishment, Westmont is a distant second, some 40 games behind the Cougars at 125-65 in that same span of time.
Around the nation, the GSAC is generally regarded as the best basketball conference in the NAIA. At least one GSAC team has been in the NAIA Final Four every year since 1998. In 1999, the GSAC became the first conference ever to put 4 teams (Azusa Pacific, Biola, Concordia, Westmont) in the NAIA Elite Eight. But it wasn't until last year that the conference collected its first-ever NAIA basketball championship with Concordia's electrifying tournament performance which included an 88-84 overtime victory over Mountain State (W. Va.) in the national championship game. So for Azusa Pacific to consistently win the GSAC championship is indeed quite an accomplishment.
However, it's not Azusa Pacific's past or incessant success that sticks in Concordia's craw, but rather the Cougars' current status as reigning regular-season GSAC champion. Had Concordia coach Ken Ammann been told last November that he'd win a GSAC-record 18 games in the NAIA's best conference, he would have taken it and gone to the bank with the school's first-ever conference crown. But Azusa Pacific, admittedly a team without stars, went one step further and won 19 of 20 conference contests this year. Concordia returned 4 starters from last year's 36-4 national championship team and added at least 2 quality newcomers including 2004 GSAC Player of the Year Nick VanderLaan. And yet they finished a game behind Azusa Pacific once again, just like they did last year, and again it was because they stubbed their toe on The Master's with 2 weeks left in the season.
The fact that no GSAC team other than Concordia could beat Azusa Pacific is mind-boggling to the Eagle faithful, especially after they handed Azusa Pacific its worst conference loss an 8 years, a 71-55 dumping in Irvine on Jan. 8. What Concordia thought was its rightful claim to the GSAC championship was yanked out from underneath by the other 9 GSAC teams, who seemingly were in cahoots with Azusa Pacific to deliver the conference championship back to the Canyon City yet again.
Certainly, a national championship should out-weigh any number of conference championships. And the Concordia students are more than willing and ready to remind Azusa Pacific that it doesn't have an NAIA championship banner (never mind that Azusa Pacific actually has 23 NAIA championship banners – fourth most in NAIA history – as compared to Concordia's 2, yet none of the Cougars' banners say "basketball" and in that fact Concordia students revel).
Nonetheless, a blank GSAC basketball banner bugs Concordia players and coaches just the same. Why else would Eagle players shout derisions at Azusa Pacific and the GSAC during last year's net-cutting ceremonies of the NAIA championship game? It was if with each slicing of the twine they were exorcising the demons of a lost conference title. But those demons are back again, and they are bigger and stronger.
Moreover, it's not just the fact that Concordia doesn't have a conference title but also that it's Azusa Pacific that has it. Even with the celebration of the national title at Concordia, there is still a little Azusa Pacific involved in that crowning moment. Prior to his arrival at Concordia in 2002, Ammann was first introduced to the GSAC by serving as an assistant coach for Azusa Pacific's Bill Odell from 1999 to 2001.
Winning Tuesday's GSAC Postseason Tourney title won't necessarily erase the pain of a bygone opportunity, but it would indeed be sweet, just as was last year when Chris Victor hit a driving jumper with 10 seconds left to lift Concordia to a 69-67 win over Azusa Pacific during last year's GSAC Tourney championship game on the Cougars' home court.
For Azusa Pacific, it's business as usual with an unusual twist. Odell admits this is a "blessed" season. He never envisioned this being his fourth 30-win team in his 13 seasons at Azusa Pacific, especially after the Cougars lost 3 of their first 5 games to open the campaign. Truth be told, in terms of talent he has had at least 10 better teams than this year's set of Cougars. And yet these players consistently defy the odds, which they'll need to do one more time if they want to win their fifth GSAC tourney title.
