It was a forgettable way to start a season.
On Nov. 6, the NAU men's basketball team took the court for the first time and promptly lost to Division II Fort Lewis (Colo.) by 10, 75-65.
No one was quite sure what to expect from the Lumberjacks, who were coming off one of the worst seasons in the Mike Adras era.
"I can tell you now and I would never admit this at the beginning of the season, but I was very nervous," Adras said. "I had serious questions going on in my head before this season."
It didn't start promising, but at the end of the day, the Jacks managed to finish .500 (14-14) in regular season play and .500 (8-8) in the Big Sky Conference. Now, NAU is ready to look forward to next year with all but one player, Nick Larson, returning.
But, before anyone looks ahead, the Daily Sun takes a look back at the season and breaks down the highs and lows.
CAM'S THE MAN
Junior guard Cameron Jones emerged as one of the best players in the Big Sky Conference during the 2009-10 season, putting up big game after big game.
Jones didn't waste anytime getting on the radar, scoring 29 points in coach Sean Miller's debut at Arizona and wowing the Wildcat faithful, knocking down 12 of 16 shots from the field.
He finished his season by being named one of three unanimous selections to the All-Big Sky First-Team. He was the only player in the league to rank in the top 15 in points, rebounds, assists and field goal percentage.
He scored 541 points for the season, which is the third-best mark in school history behind just Kyle Landry in 2007-08 (561) and Andre Spencer in 1985-86 (550).
The Los Angeles native also became the 25th player in school history to eclipse the 1,000-point mark and has a legitimate chance of challenging Kelly Golob's school-record 1,550 points as he will enter his senior season with 1,003 points.
JACKS SHOOT THE LIGHTS OUT
Yes, NAU did finish in the top 35 in NCAA Division I in field goal percentage for the third straight year, but the Jacks literally shot the lights out one night in November.
Leading Pacific 45-43 with 8:52 to go, the lights at Rolle Activity Center went out as part of a power outage that struck the campus and surrounding areas.
NAU was on a 15-3 run courtesy of Cameron Jones and Gabe Rogers when the lights went out mid-possession.
Fans hung around for about 45 minutes before the gym was cleared and the game was postponed and eventually canceled.
But, before the fans left, everyone had some fun in the dark gym.
"I went up to one of the officials and said to him, 'do you like Michael Jackson,'" Jacks coach Mike Adras said after the game. "He looked at me like, 'what?' I said, well the band is playing Thriller now with the lights out and it's kind of a party.
"You just have to laugh about it. What can you do? It was a good game and unfortunately, we didn't get to finish."
CAN'T STAY HEALTHY
Mike Adras had his entire team together for exactly one game this season, a Jan. 24 home game against Sacramento State.
Freshman Reid Wallace was the first Jack to get hurt, suffering a knee injury in preseason practice.
Wyoming transfer Eric Platt was next when he missed the team's exhibition opener because of shin splints and then missed eight games after playing in five games when the pain from the shin splints wouldn't go away.
Junior college transfer DeAngelo Jones missed several games in January after injuring his groin on a road trip in December.
Junior forward Shane Johannsen missed a pair of games in November with an ankle injury and freshman Gabe Rogers also missed a game with a sprained ankle.
Platt went back on the injured list when he broke his hand in a practice in late January and missed the rest of the season.
"You look back and I had my entire team for one game the whole season," Adras said. "The teams that did the best in the Big Sky were the teams that stayed the healthiest and we couldn't stay healthy at all."
NA WHO?
If a Jacks fan stumbled into the Rolle Activity Center gym on Jan. 12, it would have been tough to tell who was occupying the court.
Adras took away all of the players' practice gear and the Division I squad looked like a group of kids playing pickup basketball.
The reason the practice gear was taken away was because the Jacks had just suffered a 25-point loss on their homecourt to Weber State and Adras didn't feel like the team was playing with enough school pride and were disrespecting the players that came before them.
Adras' master plan worked like a charm.
NAU went on to win four straight games and go from 1-4 in Big Sky Conference play to 5-4 and right in the thick of things.
"The moment I'll remember most is when we took away the guys' practice gear," Adras said. "That was something significant I'll have to remember. Not the fact that we didn't have practice great, but it was a great indication that these guys would respond to something where we were saying 'we're not getting the job done and we're going to have to do something different if we want to be successful.'
"I had never done anything like that, but I thought that was a very pivotal point in our season."
CARDIAC JACKS
During a two-game homestand in mid-February, NAU played 95 minutes of basketball in two games, winning both thrillers.
First up was a double-overtime win over Portland State, 86-85, in a game that had just about everything. Neither team could sustain a lead and both teams had trouble closing out the other.
Eventually, DeAngelo Jones hit a layup with 13 seconds left in the second overtime, which proved to be the game-winner. Portland State's Dominic Waters missed a potential game-winning layup in the final second and NAU got revenge from a four-overtime loss during the 2008-09 season.
Two nights later, NAU showed no signs of fatigue and again had another overtime battle and picked up a win. This time, the Jacks were able to outlast Eastern Washington, 74-71.
After missing potential game-winning shots against Northern Colorado and Idaho State, freshman Gabe Rogers made up for it in a big way, nailing a 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds to win it for the Jacks and give Nick Larson a win on his Senior Night.
"I joked with him in the locker room afterwards, 'I guess if you get enough of those, you'll eventually make one of them.' I told him after Northern Colorado, 'That's going to happen again and you're going to have to make the shot.' I told him after Idaho State too," coach Mike Adras said after the game. "I think everybody dreams of making that shot and I'm happy for Gabe."
Daniel Berk can be reached at dberk@azdailysun.com or 556-2251.
