Senior guard Mitchel Anderson of Cal Poly Pomona has been chosen to participate in the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-Star game to be held at 4 p.m. Friday at Louisville, Ky. in conjunction with the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.

The NCAA Division II quarterfinals are Thursday with the semifinals on Saturday at Freedom Hall. This year’s NCAA Division II championship game will be played at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Ga., at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 7.

Anderson finished with 1,433 career points and 180 steals through his four-year collegiate career, ranking third all-time for the program in both statistics.

Anderson is the school’s leader in three-pointers, knocking down 190 while at CPP. Earlier in March, Anderson picked up California Collegiate Athletic Association Most Valuable Player honors for both the regular season and tournament. He’s also picked up NABC and Daktronics All-West Region First Team honors for the 2012-13 campaign. Anderson is the only CCAA student-athlete to be featured in this year’s Division II All-Star Game.

It’s a shame that Cal State San Bernardino’s Kwame Alexander wasn’t picked. His high-flying dunks are quite crowd pleasing and his numbers warrant a selection. But only two players from each region are chosen. The other West representative is Jobi Wall of Seattle Pacific. Whoever was doing the selection wasn’t going to take two players from the same conference, especially when the regional final was between two teams from another.

The accolades continue to roll in for three locals players and a coach as National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II All-West Region honors were announced.

Senior Mitchel Anderson and junior Terrence Drisdom of Cal Poly Pomona as well as senior Kwame Alexander of Cal State San Bernardino all earned first-team honors while Broncos coach Greg Kamansky was named Coach of the Year.

It marks the third time that Kamansky earned West Region Coach of the Year selection with the previous honors coming in 2009 and 2010. This past season – his 13th at CPP – Kamansky raised his career totals to 270-110 for a winning percentage of .711.

Anderson, a Temecula native, finished with 1,433 points and 180 steals, ranking third all-time for the program in both statistics. Anderson is now the school’s leader in three-pointers, knocking down 190 while at CPP.

Earlier Anderson picked up California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Most Valuable Player honors for both the regular season and tournament.

Drisdom, of Corona, averaged 13 points per game to rank second on the team in scoring while proving to be CPP’s top free throw shooter at 82 percent.

The 2012-13 Broncos’ squad matched the program record for wins at 28, even with the 2010 national championship team.

Meanwhile Alexander became the first Cal State player to have at least 900 points, 500 rebounds and 60 blocks in his career. This season he led the CCAA in scoring (16.7) and rebounding (8.8). He also ranks among the top 10 in eight CSUSB career categories in his three-year career – points (No. 7-919), field goals (No. 6-336), field goal attempts (No. 10-608), field goal percentage (No. 3-.553), free throws (No. 5-246), free throw attempts (No. 4-397), rebounds (2nd-562) and blocks (1st-66).

The Coyotes finished 20-9 in 2012-13 and returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three seasons and made their 12th appearance in school history.

Sometimes you have to do something just to avoid the appearance of impropriety. The NCAA, which makes a lot of curious decisions, blew that one too.

I’m going back to the NCAA Division II West regional hosted, and not surprisingly won, by Western Washington on Tuesday night. The decision to let the school, located in Bellingham,  host both the men’s and women’s eight-team regionals was a mind-boggling one on a lot of counts and I have addressed that.

But something else was brought to my attention. Turns out one of the referees who worked the semifinal game between Western Washington and Cal State San Bernardino, not only is from Bellingham, but owns a popular family restaurant  adjacent to the campus which is frequented by the students.

Not only did he work that game, won by the Vikings 86-77, but he also worked the championship game in which Western defeated rival Seattle Pacific 62-58 for a berth in the Elite Eight.

How is that right?

No I wasn’t there. But I did watch the videocast of the Cal State game and there were some curious calls, many of which even the announcers, who were from Western Washington, questioned. There were two technical fouls on the Cal State bench. Fouls were 24-18 against Cal State and one Coyote fouled out despite playing seven whole minutes.

Was that the reason the Coyotes lost? Maybe but probably not. And I hate when a losing coach starts blaming the officiating – no matter what the sport. But why put yourself in the position to be questioned. All that had to be done is put the Bellingham resident official on the earlier semifinal between Cal Poly Pomona and Seattle Pacific and have one of those official work the latter game. Problem solved.

As far as the championship game, well there were enough officials on site he didn’t have to be one of the chosen three to work that game.

I’m sure that official worked several of that school’s game during the regular season. That’s fine. But this is the postseason where much more is at stake. The other schools in the eight-team field deserved a fair shake.