The UAA basketball teams hit the court again Thursday and Saturday and this week the schedules have a bit of a twist.
On Thursday, the men's team (11-4, 4-0 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) faces Simon Fraser (1-9, 0-4) at 5:15 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Center. The second-ranked women's team (16-1, 3-1) follows against conference foe Western Oregon (2-10, 1-3) at 7:30 p.m.
Nate Sagan, assistant athletic director for media relations at UAA, said UAA athletics wanted to have a day where they women's team played second. Often, the Seawolf women have a greater attendance the men's team.
"We just figured it was appropriate to do one doubleheader where the women have the primetime spot," Sagan said. "There are a couple schools in our conference that have been doing that for many, many years."
On Saturday, the teams play earlier than normal with the Seawolf women playing Concordia (3-9, 1-3) at noon and the men's team playing Western Washington (8-5, 2-2) at 2:15 p.m. The games have the earliest non-tournament Saturday start times on the schedules this season.
Sagan said one reason for the earlier start times is the evening UAA hockey game at 7:07 p.m. Saturday against Bemidji State at Sullivan Arena.
For the women's team, their opponents have a tall order. UAA recently improved to No. 2 in the USA Today Top 25 poll and faces two of the GNAC's bottom dwellers in Western Oregon and conference newbie Concordia. The two teams have combined for only five wins to UAA's 16.
One-win Simon Fraser faces a similarly tough task against the UAA men, who sit atop the GNAC with UAF. The Clan has started 0-9 against fellow Division II opposition this season. Western Washington sits in the middle of the conference with a 5-5 record against Division II competition.