When Mike Adras met with his team Monday morning for the first time since the Lumberjacks' win over Eastern Washington, the 11th-year coach had a clear message for his squad.
"Monday, when we met with the team, we laid out all of the scenarios for the Big Sky tournament," Adras said. "We went over everything, it went for about 15 minutes, and then I asked 'does anyone have any questions?' No one said anything, so I said, 'OK, then I don't want to hear anything about it until the regular season is over on Saturday.'"
And, that's where NAU is right now.
With one game left in the regular season, the Jacks have already qualified for the Big Sky tournament and are locked into the No. 5 seed, but still have to play out their season with the finale tonight at Sacramento State.
Tipoff is set for 8:05 p.m.
"I have a great concern because if I have non-motivated players, it's hard to push the wheels around," Adras said. "It's not like we're playing for something in terms of conference standings, but we are playing for something more important than that and that's the message the players have to hear and let be the motivating aspect for them."
One thing NAU is playing for today is a winning regular season. If the Jacks are able to top the Hornets, NAU will finish its regular season slate with a 14-13 record and would finish Big Sky play with an even .500 record in conference play at 8-8.
That would certainly be an accomplishment for this group after finishing 8-19 overall and 5-11 in league play last year.
It would also be impressive for a team that started 1-4 in conference play this year and lost its lone exhibition game of the year to Division II Fort Lewis (Colo.).
"It would be a great achievement for us," junior guard Cameron Jones said. "We were down in the dumps in the beginning of the year and I don't think anyone expected us to be where we are after how the season started. I think going forward and possibly finishing .500 in conference and being above .500 overall, it's a good season for where we are as a team.
"We had a goal to reach the conference tournament and we did that, so having a winning season would be even better."
Even though NAU is locked into the No. 5 seed, the Jacks still don't know who they will face in the first round of the league tournament. It will either be Montana or Montana State, depending on what happens in their game Saturday night in Missoula, Mont.
The Jacks should have a good chance at wrapping that up. NAU topped Sacramento State on Jan. 24 and the Hornets (9-19, 3-11) have lost three straight games and four of five heading into today's matchup.
Today's game is also an opportunity for NAU to gain some momentum before the conference tournament starts March 6.
"I think having a strong finish to the regular season would be a great thing for us, especially winning that final game and going into the tournament on a three-game win streak," junior forward Shane Johannsen said. "I think it's something we can do and something that we need to do. We need to go in there with a positive mindset and see what happens."
Daniel Berk can be reached at dberk@azdailysun.com or 556-2251.
