LMU @ Portland, Thursday 8pm

It's nice to see the toughness in all the guys, Jared pop in a couple threes, Nem hit some in 2 nd half, Timmy show us his abilities,our freshman Nicholas & Tanner get some p/t during game situations not a blow out....I like a little overtime once in a while-especially on my paycheck at work...

What a game tonight, particularly KK and Luke. Props to Douglas for stepping in late to direct the team!

A win is a win... so I will take it... I just hope the team remembers the importance of ball handling on Saturday.

Now, lets come out and blast Pepperdine Saturday!

Side note, will someone please dust the damn court before someone slips and gets hurt? (Well that and Nem slipping with the ball could have cost us the game.)

Purplegeezer wrote:

DaTruRochin wrote:I wonder what Kramer said to bring out that dumb elbow from Teel... And better yet who on the bench is he teaching his enforcer ways to? I'm gonna miss that kid next year.

he probably just cited Teel's stats for the night.

Casuall game - I knew we's pull it out.

Customizing the smileys now,huh Geez, lol

MesaPilot1 wrote:

DaTruRochin wrote:Whew...

79-78 2OT...

Got outscored 9-2 in the last 2:30 of regulation to get there...

Yeah, strange game, unbeaten streak at home continues....I liked Rev's move to put Timmy in at the end, what a luxury to put your freshman pt guard in at the end.....

Revs great recruiting is starting to pay dividends, how many teams do you know can put their backup freshman pt guard in for the end of the game.....

You could call it a luxury to be able to put him in...or Rev might have felt that he had no choice because of Waterford's play toward the end of the game.

DaTruRochin wrote:Side note, will someone please dust the damn court before someone slips and gets hurt? (Well that and Nem slipping with the ball could have cost us the game.)

What's the deal with all the slipping...you guys up there in pdx better bring an extra towel, or is the new scoreboard leaking?....I imagine before Rev reup's to his next contract the 30 yr old building will need some renovations too.....

No voice and no energy!!!

Glad we got that win!

MesaPilot1 wrote:
Customizing the smileys now,huh Geez, lol

Me?

I agree on the slipping. maybe we need to find a shoe company that puts stickier rubber on the soles.

ShipstadPilot11 wrote:No voice and no energy Students!!!

Glad we got that win!

fixed your post.

Either that order some of these:

http://www.fast-brake.com/

I've been thinking.... I think we need UP to pick up the Co-pays on the blood pressure meds for us old folks if they are going to play like this.

The dorms don't open until Sunday - we did the best we could with what we had.

We tried to start a GO PILOTS cheer back and forth but we got weak support. It'd be nice if we could get some noise from non-student fans especially when there aren't many students around.

ShipstadPilot11 wrote:The dorms don't open until Sunday - we did the best we could with what we had.

We tried to start a GO PILOTS cheer back and forth but we got weak support. It'd be nice if we could get some noise from non-student fans especially when there aren't many students around.

Important tip for the future...

Old people have weak lungs and bad memories. By virtue of that we get the one-sylable chants



ALWAYS GO! on the geezer side.

If we did GO! on the side with geezers, the chant would be GO! GO!

onetouchfutbol wrote:

MesaPilot1 wrote:

DaTruRochin wrote:Whew...

79-78 2OT...

Got outscored 9-2 in the last 2:30 of regulation to get there...

Yeah, strange game, unbeaten streak at home continues....I liked Rev's move to put Timmy in at the end, what a luxury to put your freshman pt guard in at the end.....

Revs great recruiting is starting to pay dividends, how many teams do you know can put their backup freshman pt guard in for the end of the game.....

You could call it a luxury to be able to put him in...or Rev might have felt that he had no choice because of Waterford's play toward the end of the game.

Yeah, I feel bad about Eric's tough times during important moments....hopefully he can overcome those mental mistakes......well I'm just comparing to last yr....we were lost when the 2 nd team guard went in, and he couldn't shoot, took 10-15 seconds to set the offense,.....need I go on....~ and he was senior....a liability when TJ needed rest our was in foul trouble....I used to watch games with non UP fans and they could notice the GIGANTIC liability the Pilots were in last yr with TJ's replacement....I miss TJ but the pt guard by committee seems to work right now....just hope Eric can get over the mental block....because if you follow the game as a whole he does a much better job than mr 9-22 (for two seasons)who helped give me plenty o gray hair.....

I still stand by my statement that Rodgers us gonna be very important for us defensively....before the seasons over.....

Great win Pilots, woo who....

up7587 wrote:Nervous? Yes. LMU has athletic players, which gives us trouble. Until I see that we have figured out how to handle pressure and aggressive defending, I am nervous.

Guess I had nothing to worry about, huh?

Wow, how many ways can you blow a lead? Up 58-51, give up nine straight points, with several creative turnovers, and make two FT's to force OT.

I also worry about Waterford: 0-4 FG, 0-1 FT, zero points, 3 assists and 4 turnovers in 29 minutes. That is not a stat line for a starting PG.

Jared got 15 points, mostly due to 9-10 FTs. But he sure had to worry a couple of those makes in.

The team was 7-22 for 3-PT tries tonight. Another 15 turnovers. Lots of room for everyone to improve.

Glad I didn't stay up to watch that, especially considering the game was probably still on when I was rudely awaken.

Would have been nice to put that thing away in regulation, a couple bad turnovers and sloppy passes that could have been TOs need to be cleaned up.

I'm a little worried about our point guard play. Waterford isn't terrible, and he's certainly not TJ. Douglas has some potential, but he's a freshman. He forced a few shots when getting to the hoop late. Pretty solid in the post though with Luke and Kramer.

Could you imagine how much time the officials would have spent on reviews if they hadn't brought the HD cameras?

I'm workin on 5 hours of sleep thanks to this game so don't judge me too hard if I say something stupid.

About the PG situation, I feel like we will get by alright. Having Timmy in there does give us an extra dimension that Waterford can't bring to the game but Timmy did get crossed-up a couple times in key situations last night so we'll see what pans out. It's interesting to see how Rev uses the young guys because until this year, the only time we've really had the luxury to not baptize our freshman/sophomores by fire was in Nem and Jasonns case. Pretty much everyone else played a bigger role right away.

Anyway, I also have to bring up Lukes pass at the end of regulation. I'm not sure if we had a time-out or what but that was a beautiful play. The team as a whole didn't even flinch when Viney hit that three, they just proceeded to try to win the game which is the sign of a veteran club. Quality stuff there.

And what the heck was Teel thinking when he got T-ed up. I've run through it over and over and my only thought was that he thought he saw Kramer get a little upset over the first call and expected him to react if he took an elbow. Usually it isn't the initial elbow that gets the Technical but the guy who retaliates. Again a veteran move to remain calm by Kramer. There definitely were a few lapses and sloppy moments in the game, but there were also some moments when you could tell this was a veteran squad and they weren't going to let this one slip away.

Great to see the Pilots on TV, high def in fact!

purplepride13 wrote:they weren't going to let this one slip away.

Despite their best efforts ...

I'd also like to bring up the question of why Waterford was ballhandling when LMU obviously needed to foul near the end of regulation. There were four really good free throw shooters on the floor at that time - everyone except Waterford. Only two things worry me about this team: pressure defense, and protecting a late lead. They were pretty bad at both last night, and they're going to get spanked in Los Angeles if things don't get sorted out.

That said, a win is a win is a win.

Rob's Jacket wrote:

purplepride13 wrote:they weren't going to let this one slip away.

Despite their best efforts ...
I'd also like to bring up the question of why Waterford was ballhandling when LMU obviously needed to foul near the end of regulation. There were four really good free throw shooters on the floor at that time - everyone except Waterford. Only two things worry me about this team: pressure defense, and protecting a late lead. They were pretty bad at both last night, and they're going to get spanked in Los Angeles if things don't get sorted out.

That said, a win is a win is a win.

We tried to give it away, for sure.

Waterford was on the floor because he has fewer turnovers than Douglas (28 v 33 with WAY more possessions) and shoots only marginally worse at the line ( .622 v .696), and because he's not a freshman. The guy with the best free throw shooting percentage missed a shot. Three different guys coughed up the ball on three straight possessions.

Yeah, I think that Rev has a dilemma on his hands more than a luxury when he has to decide whether to play Douglas or Waterford. Waterford knows the system better on the defensive end, but, that's about the only slight advantage that he has over Douglas. But, since Waterford has turned the ball over in crunch time in two consecutive games, it's almost made his experience over Douglas as a freshman irrelevant. What looked like a deep position at the beginning of the year is starting look like a weakness as we play teams with better perimeter defense.

mattywizz wrote:Could you imagine how much time the officials would have spent on reviews if they hadn't brought the HD cameras?

Sure they had HD camera's, but the officials were still using an SD 6" TV from the 80's.

Much has been said about Waterford' experience, but it is not experience in playing time. As a freshman limited playing. Asa soph broken hand for most of the season. His experience has been with our system for the most part. As far as skill and athlete wise I would favor Douglas. Rev didn't ;eave him in for two overtimes just on a whim. Rev will,probably start Eric Sat. nite and play will dictate things from there

After nearly having several heart attacks, I'm glad we got the win. We tried every which way to give this one away, but thankfully we somehow managed to keep battling. This one won't win any beauty contests, but in some ways it's oddly reassuring to know that we can play that badly and still win.

Personally, I don't think it's so much a point guard issue as it is an overall issue with ballhandling. Eric, Tim, Jared, Nem... none of them are particularly great when it comes to dealing with pressure defense, especially in a late-game situation. I'm not sure if there's a quick fix to that - I think, unfortunately, it's something we'll have to deal with all season, especially since other teams have plenty of video to scout us with now. It's a weakness in our team - it's up to the coaches and the players to figure out the best way to deal with it.

I like Tim's potential, but he definitely plays like a freshman - bad decisions, forced shots, trying to do too much. He's got to reign that in. But when he does, I'm super excited about him being the point guard of the future.

While it's tempting to pile on Eric (and I'm sure he'll be the first to admit that he struggled at the end of the Gonzaga game and for most of the LMU game), you do have to remember that he has been pretty solid all year and given us what we need - limited turnovers, knocking down open shots, and running the offense. Looking at the stats at a site like KenPom, our offense is very efficient - ranked 35th in the country as of today.

So, I'm hopeful that we're just in a bit of a slump and we'll get out of it soon. We didn't play that well against Nevada, had to mount a big comeback to top Utah, struggled with Gonzaga, and now last night. Part of me wants to point the finger at match-ups... outside of UW and Kentucky, those are probably the four most athletic teams we've faced and all of them were able to cause us some problems with pressure and perimeter defense.

And it's probably worth nothing that Jared has been mired what's likely his worst shooting slump since the Portland State game. If he knocks down shots like he normally does, we don't even go to OT against LMU. And I for one fully expect him to bounce back very soon... against Pepperdine sounds like a perfect time!

One other thing to note though... twice we rushed shots when we didn't need to after the refs had re-set the shot clock. Once, Eric took a bad shot and missed, the other time we got lucky and Jared buried a very deep three. All's well that ends well, I suppose, but really... we shouldn't make those types of mistakes. I realize part of the problem is that the refs kept stopping the game and messing with the shot clock, but sheesh - we're a veteran team and should know better.