Nothing is certain but death and taxes… and for the past two decades, 20-win seasons from Azusa Pacific men’s basketball.

Since 1993, the Cougars are one of just three four-year collegiate men’s basketball programs to post 20 consecutive 20-win seasons. The only others are Georgetown (Ky.) and Oklahoma Baptist, which both compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Azusa Pacific, however, is putting its streak of 20-win seasons on the line on a bigger stage — literally.

The average arena seating capacity for games during Azusa Pacific’s 2012-13 season more than doubles the average capacity of the Golden State Athletic Conference gyms it played in a year ago. With its transition to the NCAA Division II’s Pacific West Conference for the 2012-13 season, the Cougars’ home arena – the Felix Event Center – goes from easily being the largest facility in the GSAC to the fifth-biggest in its new league. The average capacity of GSAC gyms in 2012 was 1,935, while the average gym capacity of the 14-member PacWest Conference seats over 1,000 more people (2,996 average).

Read more on The Cougar Countdown: Day 25…

The Felix Event Center is one of the premier NCAA Div. II venues on the west coast, playing host to the Azusa Pacific men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, and acrobatics & tumbling teams. And while it has been a great home to the Cougar volleyball program since opening in 2001, it will undergo a bit of a change for Azusa Pacific’s 11 regular season home matches.

With a seating capacity of 3,500, the Felix Event Center is the fifth-largest arena in the Pacific West Conference (trailing Grand Canyon’s brand new 5,000 seat facility and Dixie State’s 4,779-capacity Burns Arena), which isn’t exactly ideal for viewing volleyball.  So to create a more fan-friendly environment head coach Chris Keife opted to make some minor changes for gamedays.

Read more on The Cougar Countdown Day 24…

It’s going to be different, but they’re hoping the results are the same. This year the Azusa Pacific women’s soccer program enters the world of the PacWest after 19 years in the Golden State Athletic Conference. In that span the Cougars won 10 GSAC titles, with head coach Jason Surrell guiding them to nine championships in the last 12 seasons.

Last year Surrell made soccer history, becoming the fastest NAIA coach to reach the 200-win mark and leaving the NAIA as the winningest coach in its history (.858 winning percentage; min 10 years). Needless to say he is the perfect person to have at the helm during the transition from the NAIA into NCAA Div. II.

Read more on The Cougar Countdown: Day 16…

While the first-ever Pacific West basketball championship tournament may not feature the Cougars (ineligible for postseason play), Azusa Pacific will still play a huge role in the conference’s inaugural postseason tournament in March of 2013. The Felix Event Center, home to the Cougars’ men’s and women’s basketball teams, has been selected to host the six-team event, with the winner of the men’s and women’s tournament receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The PacWest has seen its membership spike from nine schools at the end of the 2011 athletics season to 14 in 2012, making it the largest NCAA Division II conference in the West Region, but has not previously held a tournament to determine its automatic qualifier for the NCAA championships. Last year Dixie State won the regular season crown to receive the PacWest’s automatic bid before falling to Seattle Pacific in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Read more on The Cougar Countdown: Day 9…

At the turn of the millennium, Azusa Pacific was already established as a national track & field power. However, the Cougars’ strength as a program has been fortified with the development of its cross country program into a perennial national title contender. Since 2000, Azusa Pacific has posted 11 top-10 NAIA finishes in women’s cross country, including the program’s first-ever national title in 2008. In similar fashion, the men’s program registered top-10 national finishes in six of the past 10 seasons, finishing as national runner-up in 2008.

“One of the biggest reasons the program has developed has been more of an emphasis on the distance program,” said Preston Grey, who last week was introduced as Azusa Pacific’s track & field women’s head coach as he continues into his eighth year as the cross country head coach. “(Former cross country coach) Bill Reeves took that and developed It, and there were a number of athletes along the way who helped push that along. One generation to the next has passed that along and carried that tradition along.”

Read more on The Cougar Countdown: Day 5…