Next Season. What, already?

RipCityPilot wrote:I actually love how we are represented in that article. Nothing fancy. All ball.

Love this too. Some choose to start the season with nothing but squeaks, shouts, whistles and echoes.

Predicted 2012-13 WCC Finish: 8th
Head coach: Eric Reveno, 7th season
2011-12 record: 7-24, 3-13 WCC
WCC regular season finish: 8th

Key returners: Ryan Nicholas, Thomas van der Mars, Riley Barker, Kevin Bailey
Newcomers: Jake Ehlers, Bryce Pressley, David Ahern, Oskars Reinfelds

Projected starting lineup:
Kevin Bailey, G
Derrick Rodgers, G
David Carr, G
Ryan Nicholas, F
Thomas van der Mars, C

Outlook
Head coach Eric Reveno has had good success with the program but after the graduation of a number of key players two seasons ago, the Pilots have fallen on hard times in the win column. His team is young but forward Ryan Nicholas brings a steadying presence to the team.

Now if only they could find some shooters. Portland went from one of the league’s best from three-point range in 2010-11 to one of the worst in 2011-12. That is the key for the Pilots.

Backcourt
The backcourt returns Kevin Bailey, Derrick Rodgers, and David Carr and a slew of freshmen led by Bryce Pressley and Oskars Reinfelds. The Pilots went from shooting a WCC-best 41 percent from three in 2010-2011 to shooting 32 percent, good for eighth place, last season. This is a critical key to the Portland puzzle but it was more than just that.

“In order to improve our offensive efficiency, we had to do a lot of things better,” Reveno said. “Shooting the perimeter shot is one of them and taking care of the basketball is the other one. They all come hand in hand. We got to execute offense, find the open shooter when they’re open.”

According to Reveno, Bailey has worked at improving his shot. Also Pressley and Reinfelds have been impressive early on and could end up contributing early in the preseason.

Pressley is the son of Harold Pressley, who played four seasons in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings.

“Pressley has been very impressive just in terms of his overall balance in his game, offensively and defensively, his ability to pick things up and to make good basketball plays,” Reveno said.

Frontcourt
Ryan Nicholas is going to anchor the frontcourt but won’t have to do it alone. Thomas van der Mars and a healthy Riley Barker also return and the three should play off each other very well.

“Ryan’s going to be tremendous for us,” Reveno said. “His attitude and approach every day first and foremost sets the tempo for the younger guys in terms of what it takes to be successful. From a basketball standpoint, his versatility is where he’s going to improve in doing different things. In posting up, and rebounding, and making those hustle plays but also shooting the ball a little bit.”

Barker and van der Mars enter their sophomore seasons and Reveno said they have shaken some of the freshmen mistakes and should be very well prepared for this season. This should also open the post so Nicholas can do more.

“They’re both more consistent,” Reveno said. “Their bad plays or their plays where they struggle, they don’t exist as much… I think that’s from an increased skill level around the basket. Their job is to make plays around the basket, give the defensive presence, block shots, make it difficult to score inside, and to score themselves inside.”

Notes
Portland, despite shooting only 32 percent from three last season, is still the best three-point shooting team over the last four seasons.

“It’s funny we were such a good three-point shooting team the three years previously that we’re still the number 1 three-point shooting team over the last four years,” Reveno said. “So as bad as we were last year, it didn’t knock us off of number 1… I take some solace in that.”

Projected starting lineup:
Kevin Bailey, G
Derrick Rodgers, G
David Carr, G
Ryan Nicholas, F
Thomas van der Mars, C

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Another question raised by the Farmer article is that of potential redshirts. Based on Reveno's comments in the article, sounds like Pressley and Reinfelds are expected to make key contributions, indicating that they are not redshirt candidates. What about Ahern and Ehlers?

Can players make an appearance in the two exhibition games and still preserve their redshirt eligibility?

up7587 wrote:I will be interested in how Riley Barker comes back from missing a season, and if he pushes VDM for the starting center spot. I also want to see how Dorian Cason has progressed.

I still like starting a bigger line-up instead of three guards. Such as:
Kevin Bailey, G
David Carr, G
Ryan Nicholas, F
Dorian Cason, F
Thomas van ser Mars, C

NoPoNeighbor wrote:The glaring omission (and someone who isn't mentioned even once in the Farmer piece) is Tanner Riley. I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the starting lineup as the shooting guard, in place of either Rodgers or Carr (depending upon which of those two can be most productive and least turnover-prone at the point).

I see Reinfelds taking over at the PG

oh brody wrote:

I see Reinfelds taking over at the PG

Double D, you appear to be knowledgeable of our 2012-13 team and their practices so far. I am wondering what your thoughts are regarding Reinfelds' play and your scouting report of him. He appears to have good size, does he have the quickness and savvy to be our starting PG?

At 6’4” 210 lbs, Oskars is not particularly fast, but because he is very physical, he IS able to create his own shot and go to the rim. He CAN back down his defender and work his way into the paint for the short shots.

He’s not as quick or athletic as Kevin Bailey, but I look forward to seeing them in the backcourt together. They should have some size, speed, and range advantage against some of teams we play this year. I believe Oskars needs to work some on his maturity (who doesn’t?) but he just turned 18 years-old last March....so he's got a lot of potential for physical growth and more strength; let's hope with work his quickness and on court maturity will develop.

He tends to turn the ball over and could probably have better court vision, but face it; he's still to settle-in with the system and his teammates. It seems clear defense has not been a priority with him to this point, but HE's LEARNING!! We'll just have to see if Derrick has developed any kind of shot, or David develops into a PG, or Tanner gets so hot he can't be kept out of the lineup.

At the moment it's almost as if we have an offensive team and a defensive team.....great for football. It's early, Oskars will do fine, and should be close to starting by January.....but that's a long way off, and anything can happen.

up7587 wrote:Welcome to PN, TRO. I would think basketball would be pretty low on the radar right now, given your Bobcats are 7 - 0 and already bowl eligible in football. Is the Miami game a big rivalry?

up7587 wrote:Welcome to PN, TRO. I would think basketball would be pretty low on the radar right now, given your Bobcats are 7 - 0 and already bowl eligible in football. Is the Miami game a big rivalry?

NoPoNeighbor wrote:At some point I saw a post somewhere (I think on Pilot Nation) about an African player who had signed with LMU. What happened there?

up7587 wrote:Argentina, Mexico, Poland, Croatia, Germany, Latvia, Australia, The Netherlands, Georgia, and China. Only Santa Clara fails to add a foreign player. Truly an international approach by the WCC teams.

Doing the jobs Americans won't do?