LMU at Pilots – Saturday @ 1pm

LMU at Pilots – Saturday @ 1pm at the Chiles Center

The term MUST WIN is way over used, but it indeed applies to this game. The Pilots players are a good group and I believe they are a better team than their record attests (coaching?), but they are in last place in the WCC.

UP (1-7) is tied with LMU (1-7) and behind SCU (1-6) and USF (2-7) for the all important 7th place finish. I will be in Las Vegas on Wednesday in time to watch the women’s “play-in” game at 3pm, but I rather be golfing!

I know the usual die-hards will be at the game, but the ladies could really use everyone’s support!!!!!!

A very loud and audible, “Bull S**t,” (I don’t know what PN’s policy is on naughty words, even when they are direct quotes) from Coach Sollars towards the refs with 9 seconds remaining pretty much summed it up for the Pilots today.

Outplayed from the get-go, our Pilots were down by 16 at one point, brought it back to a four point deficit late, but ended up losing it on the boards and from the free throw line, 68-60.

I’ve always got a positive outlook, but realistically, I don’t see us finishing higher than 8th with a Wednesday afternoon game in Las Vegas coming up.

The Pilots dug their own grave with their play in the first half, but managed a near miracle comeback despite more poor play in the second interspersed by some very good effort.

The scatological reference was a commentary on the distaff side of the finest group of referees in the NCAA, who granted LMU a time out with 9 seconds left, but also enforced a foul they called on the inbound play that occurred while the LMU coach was calling time and took .4 seconds off the clock.


By some phenomenal twist of logic, they enforced the timeout, put .4 seconds back on the clock during the timeout but kept the foul as valid anyway.


One would have thought timeout, foul, and time added could not all have been part of a single call, or at least The clearly voiced opinion of the Dean of WCC coaches so indicated.(said during a quiet point in the explanation by the refs)

But this year's edition of adjudicators continues to astound. Well done, refs, you keep your accumulated record of at least one baffling call a game intact and did so in one of the most creative fashions so far..

You guys forgot to mention that the epithet from the coach got a round of applause from the crowd who were just as stunned by the call as the coach.

I was going to say...if the women's basketball officials are also the "best trained in the country" what's going on in the other conferences?

The band has had some discipline problems this season. I have to look at myself and admit I've been a moron and caused a lot of them. We were told there "If you can't say anything nice..." today, so it was a little quiet over there. I'm glad Sollars was there to say what I was thinking.

did it sound like the epithet was in stereo?


'cause it was.

Unforced turnovers and rebounding woes looked to me to be a bigger problem than the refs decision to call a foul before time out was called, or so the refs said--it was hard to tell. Coach has been around for a long time but I dissent from those who give him a free pass with his audible BS echoing around the gym: the game was already decided and he was letting off steam . . .in an inappropriate manner. The ref that called the foul did a generally good job. TecleMariaim shot with some consistency from behind the 3 point line, only wish she started earlier, cause that was when we started the comeback. Pupa was a force on the boards but she definitely needs help. The freshman Lutinen knows how to drive left and put it off the board--she was unstoppable at times. Glad she will be around for a while. Go PIlots.

I agree with you wrv, the game as too many this season was lost on the court, not by the officials. In my previous post I was trying to point out that the coach was not alone in his disappointment with the officials.

I also agree with your player assessments. The past few games I've really come to appreciate Lutinen's game. Early in the game yesterday she faked a jumpshot near the free throw line, got her opponent up in the air, then as her opponent was coming back to earth Lutinen went up and shot over her. This used to be a staple of the game back in the olden days - West, Robertson, Havllcek - you rarely see it these days. It would have been better if she had actually made the shot, but the fact she got herself open with the move is encouraging.