2022-23 PRESEASON ALL-PACWEST MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM
Name	School	Pos.	Yr.	Hometown
Kaden Anderson*	Point Loma	F	Gr.	Enumclaw, Wash.
Ken West	Azusa Pacific	F	Jr.	Bellevue, Wash.
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones	Hawai`i Hilo	F	So.	Wellington, New Zealand
Justin Hemsley	Azusa Pacific	F	Sr.	Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
Mike Asante	Academy of Art	F	Sr.	Toronto, Canada
Alex Wright	Biola	G	Sr.	Riverside, Calif.

                                               *2022-23 PacWest Preseason Player of the Year 

During the 2021-22 men’s basketball season, there seemed to be six degrees of separation between the Azusa Pacific Cougars and the Point Loma Sea Lions.

In 2022-23, the Pacific West Conference coaches see no reason for that change, ranking the Cougars as the preseason favorite with 112 voting points, with the Sea Lions an inch back with 111. Azusa Pacific had seven first place votes to Point Loma’s three.

While that vote was as close as humanly possible, the coaches chose PLNU’s Kaden Anderson as the runaway winner for the Preseason Player of the Year. The 6-foot-8 forward has won the PacWest Player of the Year award twice and is a three-time First Team All-PacWest selection.

Anderson averaged 21.1 points per game and 9.4 rebounds a year ago and was a First Team All-West Region pick. He missed the first part of the season with an injury but returned to help lead the Sea Lions to the PacWest regular season title and NCAA playoff berth.

Anderson is joined on the PacWest All-Preseason Team by APU’s Ken West and Justin Hemsley, Biola's Alex Wright, Academy of Art’s Mike Asante and Hawai`i Hilo's Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones.

Point Loma and Azusa Pacific shared much in common last winter, including Anderson and West exchanging three-point daggers in the final 20 seconds of the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Anderson tied the game with a bomb and then West stepped back even further to drop home the winner in a 66-64 thriller, giving the Cougars their first victory over the Sea Lions in 2021-22 after falling to PLNU twice during the regular season.

Azusa Pacific returns much from that squad that reached the NCAA West Region semifinals before falling to Alaska in overtime. Of course there is West, a 6-8 sharp shooting forward, who averaged 14.1 points per game last year but had 29 against Alaska. Like West, Hemsley is a fellow First Team All-PacWest selection, who put up 12.7 points a contest.

Head coach Peter Bond also has returning starters Nate Kleppe, Allan McBride and Hayden Gray on his roster, and added Northwest Nazarene transfer George Reidy, an honorable mention All-GNAC selection last year.

Like Azusa Pacific, Point Loma finished the season 21-10 a year ago, and just edged the Cougars for the PacWest title with a 16-4 mark (APU was 15-4). The Sea Lions return Anderson and seven total players from that squad, but the Sea Lions lost four players with experience that head coach Matt Logie will have to work around.

Logie does welcome back Luke Haupt and Coby Barnes who saw starting time, but transfer Tobin Karlberg could end up being the biggest impact player beside Anderson for the Sea Lions. Karlberg averaged 18.3 points a game for Alaska Anchorage last season and was named to the All-GNAC Second Team. Karlberg leads a group of five impressive transfers that includes Division I starter Kyle Colvin (Cal Poly SLO) and Aaron Acosta, who averaged 18 points a game at Division III Colorado College.

Academy of Art, the 2021-22 PacWest Conference Tournament champion, checks in at the No. 3 spot in the poll and also picked up one first-place vote. Head coach Scott Waterman, the PacWest Coach of the Year, has four returning starters, including Asante. The 6-8, 230-pound senior was the PacWest Tournament MVP last year and averaged 11 points a game and 6.6 rebounds on the season.

The Urban Knights also return PacWest Defensive Player of the Year Klay Brown, Second Team all-conference selection Latrell Williams and fellow starter Deang Deang. Additionally, Waterman has six transfers including 6-4 guard Will Balata, who averaged 13.1 points per game at Simon Fraser, and 6-0 guard Stephon Hall, an NAIA honorable mention All-American at University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, who put up 15.2 points and 4.5 assists per game.

Biola is the No. 4 team. Veteran head coach Dave Holmquist, in his 43^rd season with a record of 987-375, has veteran guard Alex Wright to guide his squad. Wright averaged 14 points and seven rebounds a game and was a Second Team All-PacWest pick. Holmquist has five other returning lettermen but also lost four starters to graduation.

Concordia takes the fifth spot, just a few votes behind Biola. Like the Eagles, the Golden Eagles are led by a veteran coach in Ken Ammann who enters his 22^nd season just one win shy of 500 (499-185). Concordia has just one returning starter in Kobe Sanders (11 ppg, 4 apg), having lost five other players with starting experience. Ammann has a bevy of transfers to fill the gap, including five players from Division I schools-- Lance Coleman II (CSUN), Freddie Dybala (CBU), Brendan Harrick (CSUN), Kendall McHugh (Idaho), and Alpha Okoli (St. Bonaventure).

Chaminade gathers the sixth rung, only four voting points behind Concordia. Head coach Eric Bovaird enters his 12^th season (160-132), leaning on Third Team All-PacWest pick Isaac Amaral-Artharee and fellow returning starter Raazhel Watkins. Amaral-Artharee averaged 15.4 points a contest and Watkins added 10 points and three assists a game. Bovaird also brought talented transfer Braden Olson to Honolulu. The 6-0 guard averaged almost 13 points a game over two seasons at Gannon University and played two years at Seattle Pacific prior to that.

Fresno Pacific edges Hawai`i Hilo for the seventh spot. The Sunbirds were 17-10 a year ago and finished fifth in the PacWest with a 11-8 mark under head coach CJ Haydock. FPU returns starters Nate Kendricks, Darrin Person Jr., Spencer Heimerdinger, and Ryan Abbott but Haydock also has to replace four players with starting experience. 6-6 transfer guard Jonah Geron will help, who spent three seasons in the University of Washington program.

Hawai`i Hilo is next, guided by third-year coach Kaniela Aiona. The Big Island native has super sophomore Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones to bank on, a 6-6 forward who has twice been named the PacWest Freshman of the Year (includes Covid season). Tait-Jones was a First Team All-PacWest pick last year, averaging 17 points and eight rebounds a game. Fifth-year senior point guard Darren Williams, a Third Team All-PacWest honoree, is also back. Seven players with elevated experience are gone, but Aiona looks to replace them with seven transfers.

Island neighbor Hawai`i Pacific is slotted ninth. Head coach Darren Vorderbruegge (15^th season) has three returning starters (Trey Chapman, Jakob Kimura and Elijah Martinez) but also went the transfer route in securing Jack Ammerman (Gr., G, Northwood), Jalen Chandler (Sr., F, San Francisco State), Maj Dusanic (Jr., F, San Francisco), Mason Landdeck (So., G, Eastern Washington), and Marquis Moore (So., G/F, Southern Utah).

Dominican (tenth) and Holy Names (11) round out the poll. Dominican, under second-year coach Justin Argenal, has three returning starters in Jake Blazona, Justin Brown and Jorden Josephs. Five returnees in all are back for the Penguins but they also lost eight players.

Holy Names has ten returnees for coach Dave Covell, including starters Damiri Lindo and Roman Bahrens. The Hawks roster is also bolstered by six junior college transfers and former Academy of Art player Jacob Smith.

All 11 Pac-West teams will play on the official opening weekend of November 11-12. Prior to that Chaminade will play three exhibition games in Cincinnati against Ohio State, Louisville and host UC. Concordia will play UCLA on Nov. 2, Fresno Pacific will play at Fresno State on Nov. 7 and Hawai`i Hilo will play at Hawai`i on Nov. 3, all exhibition games.

The first PacWest contest will be on Nov. 29 when Hawai`i Pacific and Chaminade square off, followed by a full slate of conference counters on Dec. 1.