Concordia-Irvine @ Pilots 11/3 @ 4 pm

In an email from a PN member yesterday I was asked why UP was about to play its second exhibition game, and some teams have only one, or even zero exhibition games when they are allowed a maximum of two.

It is my understanding that a D-1 basketball team can either play two exhibition games or have two “secret scrimmages,” or a combination of the two prior to the beginning of the season. That is what the UP women’s team has done, they’ll play one exhibition game (Concordia tomorrow night) and they’ve had one secret scrimmage (OSU last Sunday).

I decided to check with some of my friends in the know to see what the other WCC men’s teams were doing, and found quite a few were having these secret scrimmages. These scrimmages are not allowed to be viewed by the public or the media, and the coaches are not supposed to talk about them (one of the women’s team players told me about their OSU scrimmage). In fact, it's basically as if these scrimmages never even happened. Odd, but true.

It would appear the only schools in the WCC that do not have these Secret Scrimmages this year are UP, USF, and BYU. Here are the scrimmages I’ve learned about….there may be more:

Stanford at St. Mary's
Texas vs. Gonzaga in Colorado
Arizona State at San Diego
Santa Clara at California
Loyola Marymount at USC
St. Mary's at Arizona State
Pepperdine at UC Santa Barbara
Long Beach State at San Diego

One coach I spoke to said he preferred these scrimmages because you have better control of the scenarios and timing as the game is "reset" to situations the coaches want to work on.

My guess is the Pilots would want about 30 minutes worth of in-bound plays...

DoubleDipper wrote:My guess is the Pilots would want about 30 minutes worth of in-bound plays...

I take it you didn't see improvement in that area last night?

Based purely on reading the game stories, the discussion on this board, and looking at the box scores, here's where I'd say PROs and CONs are at heading into the regular season:

PRO
- The turnover-to-assist ratio is looking much better than last year
- Free-throw shooting is good so far
- A solid starting line-up has come together
- Balanced offensive attack within that starting line-up
- Improved play at the PG from Carr
- Tanner Riley!

CON
- Lack of depth beyond the starting line-up. Only 9 points off the bench for the entire game against C-I.
- No good option for back-up at PG. Rodgers is a liability on offense (zero points in 17 minutes, took only 1 shot), and neither of the freshman (Ahern, Rienfelds) is ready.
- Back-up centers are ineffective. In a combined 25 minutes against C-I, Barker and J. Bailey totaled 4 points and 4 rebounds. Barker did not attempt a single shot in 19 minutes.
- Why can't Reveno's teams ever run an inbounds play without giving everyone in the building a heart attack?

Up in the air
- Can Cason and Theilke make real contributions, assuming they get healthy?
- Seems like Ehlers and Ahern will redshirt. Reinfelds too?
- Will someone (K. Bailey, Pressley, Carr?) emerge as another outside threat to take the pressure off of Riley?

Couldn't agree more about the need for consistent and capable in bounding plays for the pilots. Also, I would like to see a stronger play in the paint. The pilots seem to stand around too much on offense. [b]

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Based purely on reading the game stories, the discussion on this board, and looking at the box scores, here's where I'd say PROs and CONs are at heading into the regular season:

By golly, I think you've nailed it!

All your pros and cons are as I see it too, except I wouldn't expect Carr to necessarily take the pressure off Riley just because he's now running the point. Don't get me wrong, when he's not wearing those protective goggles he can shoot, it's just that he'll have other areas to concern himself with now that he’s running the show.

I wouldn't worry too much about Barker, or even J. Bailey backing up vdM, Barker CAN rebound and score, and he's really gotten animal strong during his rehab. J. Bailey may still seem a little awkward when attempting to score, but he is so much more mobile and athletic than last year....and way, way ahead of where Hannibal was at this point.

But again, NPN, you nailed it.....it must have been everyone's great input on PN if you haven't seen the team in person.

up7587 wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:My guess is the Pilots would want about 30 minutes worth of in-bound plays...

I take it you didn't see improvement in that area last night?

Actually, it WAS somewhat improved over previous seasons....mostly because Carr was usually able to get away from the press, or K. Bailey or Pressley brought the ball down the court.

This will be my third year rooting really hard for Rodgers, but to this point he's just been too deliberate (slow?) bringing the ball to the front court. You're quick and strong Derrick....USE SOME OF THAT QUICKNESS AND STRENGTH!!!!

We've still got a long way to go, but last night wasn't that bad considering the pressure that C-I brought.

DoubleDipper wrote:
This will be my third year rooting really hard for Rodgers, but to this point he's just been too deliberate (slow?) bringing the ball to the front court. You're quick and strong Derrick....USE SOME OF THAT QUICKNESS AND STRENGTH!!!!

At the scrimmage he was pushing the ball up the floor hard and running at defenders. I'd love to see more of that.

I thought it got a little rough in the second half, with the backups out there, but the starting lineup looked good.

I thought the inbounds plays were much improved in the two exhibition games. Especially in the game against C-I considering how much they contested almost every inbounds all game and then usually kept the pressure on all the way up the court as well. No 5 second calls on the inbounds and very few turnovers.

I don't think we did well enough that when Kentucky plays the same style of defense with faster stronger guys that we won't have problems, but we did OK for 25 minutes of that game last year IIRC. Maybe we can be in it a bit later this year.