• NABC All-Region Teams
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Seattle Pacific's
Ryan Looney received the regional Coach of the Year award while seniors
David Downs and
Patrick Simon were first-team selections on the NCAA Division II All-West Region men's basketball team that was released Wednesday by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).
That trio helped the Falcons to a 26-6 overall record, Great Northwest Athletic Conference regular-season and league tournament championships and a 10th-consecutive playoff berth.
Looney earned his first regional coaching honor since taking over at SPU. He was recognized for a second time this season as the GNAC Coach of the Year. The 1998 graduate of Eastern Oregon University also won the award in 2010.
In five years, Looney has directed the Falcons to a 118-34 record with NCAA Tournament appearances every season. His overall collegiate head coaching record in 10 seasons is 213-89.
Downs is a three-time, first-team All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference pick. He was named the 2014 GNAC Player of the Year and the conference tournament MVP. Last week he was honored as the Daktronics Regional Player of the Year.
The 6-2 point guard from Bellevue (Wash.) Christian High School was the Falcons leading scorer with 20.4 points per game and distributed a team-high 150 assists, an average of 4.7 per game.
Downs completed his collegiate career ranked second among all-time SPU playmakers with 561 career assists and is third in scoring with 1,786 points.
Simon led the nation in 3-point accuracy, hitting treys at a 50-percent rate (80 of 160). On Nov. 29, he broke the school single-game record with 10 treys while missing on just two attempts.
The 6-foot-8 forward departs as SPU's best 3-point shooter with a career average of 47.9 percent (146 of 305). A graduate of Ephrata (Wash.) High School and second-year transfer from Washington State, Simon scored at a 16-point clip to rank second among Falcons.
Joining the SPU duo on the six-man first team were Austin Bragg and Richard Woodworth from Western Washington, along with Ryan Berg from California Baptist and Lacy Haddock from Cal State San Bernardino.
The second team featured San Bernardino's Kirby Gardner, Central Washington's Mark McLaughlin, Dixie State's Zach Robbins, Cal Poly Pomona's DeRonn Scott and Alaska Anchorage's Travis Thompson.
About the National Association of Basketball Coaches
Located in Kansas City, MO, the NABC was founded in 1927 by Forrest "Phog" Allen, the legendary basketball coach at the University of Kansas. Allen, a student of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, organized coaches into this collective group to serve as Guardians of the Game. The NABC currently has nearly 5,000 members consisting primarily of university and college men's basketball coaches. All members of the NABC are expected to uphold the core values of being a Guardian of the Game by bringing attention to the positive aspects of the sport of basketball and the role coaches play in the academic and athletic lives of today's student-athletes. The four core values of being a Guardian of the Game are advocacy, leadership, service and education. Additional information about the NABC, its programs and membership, can be found at
www.nabc.org
2014 NABC All-WEST REGION TEAMS
Coach of the Year --
Ryan Looney, Seattle Pacific
First Team
Ryan Berg, California Baptist
Austin Bragg, Western Washington
David Downs, Seattle Pacific
Lacy Hadock, Cal State San Bernardino
Patrick Simon, Seattle Pacific
Richard Woodworth, Western Washington
Second Team
Kirby Gardner, Cal State San Berardino
Mark McLaughlin, Central Washington
Zach Robbins, Dixie State
DeRonn Scott, Cal Poly Pomona
Travis Thompson, Alaska Anchorage
