WCC Home Opener, Thursday, 8pm vs. USF

Well here we go with the kickoff of home conference play... USF Thursday, 8pm (TV: Comcast SportsNet) and SCU on Saturday, 7pm (TV: Comcast SportsNet).

These 2 games are critical in terms of WCC Tournament seeding, as SCU, USF, UP and USD will likely be battling it out for Seeds #3-#6. If we are going to grab #3 or #4, and the opening round bye in the tourney, we need to win these games at home.

USF has been solid overall this year, but went 0-2 at home this past weekend vs. SMC (lost 66-54) and USD (lost 65-50). There seems to be some roster/playing time issues going on with some of the veteran guys, so we will see how that pans out; USF, like us, is a young team. USF has junior forward Dior Lowhorn, who had 9 rebounds and 22 points vs. SMC and 7 rebounds, 18 points vs. USD... containing him will be key.

Game time. All in. Its time for the team, the students and the rest of the fans to prove their mettle.

GO PILOTS!

Word up... I can't really tell you how much I want to beat USF. I'm sick and tired of losing to them by one point. I swear to God out last 5-6 games against them have been absolute heartbreakers. Last year we lost by one at home. Two years ago we lost by one at home (Ito missed a FT that would have sent it to OT). Pooh's last year we lost in OT... kept Surratt scoreless all game, then he went off in overtime. The year before that freaking Tyrone Reily banked in a three to send it to OT and we lost. FRUSTRATING. Not to mention some close losses on the road too.

Santa Clara makes me nervous, and you know they will be hungry for a win after dropping two close ones at home (to SMC and USD) and (presumably) losing at Gonzaga on Thursday. You know they won't want to drop to 0-4.

So yeah... these are HUGE games right off the bat. Let's go Pilots!!!

I hope the team is as fired up as I am... hopefully the "All In" crowd tonight gives them the extra push they need to win this one. As you stated, it is WAY past time for us to beat USF.

GO PILOTS! BEAT USF!

WE PLAY HARDER!

I literally felt sorry for those players when they had to warm up with We Play Hard on the back of their shirts....

DaTruRochin wrote:I literally felt sorry for those players when they had to warm up with We Play Hard on the back of their shirts....

I was laughing too hard to feel sorry once the chant started...

No doubt about it, "We Play Harder" was one of the highlights of my college career. And I'm not even kidding.

The chant was so loud and so clear... and you could see it on all the USF player's faces... they knew it!!

Indeed.... You could see their entire body language change... and players on the bench literally hung their heads... You know someone along the line was REALLY excited about this slogan, but you may as well put a kick me sign on their back or make one of them wear NBA Socks in the game ...

Purple Pride had some brilliant chants back then... but none better than that. The more the USF players reacted, the louder it got...

I just miss Phil Mathews... he was always so fired up. Pretty sure he was glaring at us during the "We Play Harder" chants.

By the way, I think we have to tip our hat to MattyWizz for coming up with that one.

Well from what matchtracker tells me, we most definitely did play harder... And big ups to Jared on the the career night!! Since I didn't see any of the game I'll let all y'all fill in the game details...

Jared Stohl... congrats on the UP record for most made 3's in a game. Congrats to both Jared and the team for getting him open looks... Jared was ridiculously open on many of those shots, and the contested shots went in...

Team defense was good tonight... I would have liked to see us get the ball inside a bit more, but when the perimeter shots are falling... can't fault the strategy.

A great turnout by the students tonight... hopefully everyone can keep it up Saturday night.

GO PILOTS!

Holy mackerel Jared Stohl!!!! What a shooting performance. And the scary thing is, he could have had a couple more but passed up some shots to eat clock... especially that one at the end of the half.

Anyway, I was really impressed with Portland's defense in the first half, especially on the perimeter. TJ Campbell was awesome in the first half - really set the tone for the win.

And I was especially happy that we were able to maintain the big lead throughout. I remember last year sometimes we would get up big but would always let the other team back in it... dare I even bring up that miserable Pepperdine game? Anyway, tonight the Pilots maintained the lead and the intensity in the second half, which was great to see.

Great win overall, and boy was it nice to not lost by one to darn USF!

I think my head just exploded after looking at Jared's statline. Holy crap!

Oregonian writeup:
http://www.oregonlive.com/pilots/index.ssf/2009/01/stohl_lifts_portland_pilots_ov.html

Good game. Good turn-out for students, but I hope they stay for the whole game on Saturday. What happened to the cheerleaders, seems several were missing? Still stuck in a snowdrift? And did I see a purple wig in the band??

WOW!

That was a treat. Stoney was right that he easily could have had a couple more. in addition to passing a couple up, he had a couple rattle out - just barely. I also watched his defense- I thought he worked hard tonight and played a pretty good all-around game. Great night for him.

I gotta say - Dior Lowhorn is scary. That guy might be the best all around player in the conference. a treat from outside, a threat underneath, good with the ball, and just a good athlete. Why his coaches have never figured out how to play to his strengths is a mystery to me. I thought our bigs played him pretty well, and he still popped for 22.

He got to a thousand points tonight - faster than Bill Russell did. Congrats to him.

Sooo - Ethan had 4 minutes of play....did he get hurt again, or is this just somtething else?

I'll tell you what, seeing this score this morning after walking into wrok with a -16 temp and -36 windchill brightened my morning right up. I thought my face was going to fall off.

Heatwave!
It's -25/-41 here in the great white north.

That was a great score against a solid team. Hopefully this momentumn can carry into tomorrow. But why did Jared even attempt that 2-point field goal? All it did was lower his shooting percentage.

up7587 wrote:Good game. Good turn-out for students, but I hope they stay for the whole game on Saturday. What happened to the cheerleaders, seems several were missing? Still stuck in a snowdrift? And did I see a purple wig in the band??

You caught me.

Hopefully yes, the students will STAY on Saturday. If Gonzaga cleaned up Santa Clara by 40(?!), we should be able to have a little fun with them and their big big man.

Anyone know what the reason for the intentional foul on USF in the first half? Or why someone wasn't given one when BJ got dropped? How that was a normal foul but a double technical foul was given with 30 seconds left beats me. It's not like the game was close...

Not that I need to pat Jared on the back more than you guys...but how ABOUT STOHL?!

Rochin54 wrote:Sooo - Ethan had 4 minutes of play....did he get hurt again, or is this just somtething else?

Good luck with your face.

Ethan tweaked his ankle again during warmups for the second half. He went into the locker room with the trainer and came out with an ice wrap. By then they were 18 points up, so there wasn't ever a thought of using him in the second.

No word on how long he might be out.

[quote="PilotDrummer"]

up7587 wrote:

Anyone know what the reason for the intentional foul on USF in the first half? Or why someone wasn't given one when BJ got dropped? :roll: How that was a normal foul but a double technical foul was given with 30 seconds left beats me. It's not like the game was close...

I think this week's ref clinic was on the intentional foul. Whenever they go to one of those clinics, it seems every fouls is on whatever the clinic was about.

In the first half, a USF player tried to grab Nik's shorts as he broke up the court. No play on the ball- intentional foul.

I didn't see what happened on the second one.

The double foul with 30 seconds left- Robin threw a forearm, the other guy retaliated. At first the ref called two technicals, but I think Robin's got changed to a personal. It must have, or we would have kept the ball.(unless he got a personal AND a technical - I lost track of his fouls).


After calling two intentional fouls that were borderline, I think they missed the BJ one. The whole reason for the new emphasis is to cut down on hard fouls or endangering fouls. If that wasn't one, they don't exist. In the old days of box Lacrosse and Ice hockey, if you drew blood on a blow to the head you got a major penalty (that's where "no blood no foul came from"). There was blood this time.

Purplegeezer wrote:In the first half, a USF player tried to grab Nik's shorts as he broke up the court. No play on the ball- intentional foul.

Ah. I must have had my view blocked by the basket.

Purplegeezer wrote:The double foul with 30 seconds left- Robin threw a forearm, the other guy retaliated. At first the ref called two technicals, but I think Robin's got changed to a personal. It must have, or we would have kept the ball.(unless he got a personal AND a technical - I lost track of his fouls).

They called a personal foul on Robin (probably for the forearm), then a technical to Robin and the other guy.

Purplegeezer wrote:After calling two intentional fouls that were borderline, I think they missed the BJ one. The whole reason for the new emphasis is to cut down on hard fouls or endangering fouls. If that wasn't one, they don't exist. In the old days of box Lacrosse and Ice hockey, if you drew blood on a blow to the head you got a major penalty (that's where "no blood no foul came from"). There was blood this time.

+1000.

Did everyone notice the BIG new addition on the bench last night?! Hegarty wasnt dressed in uniform but was on the bench! I cant wait to watch him play.

Congrats to Purple Pride and the Marketing folks for getting the students out in force last night... I hope that momentum continues!!