South Point Holiday Hoops Classic -- Friday and Saturday

Hey, did you see this on the UP website?  

Drew Carney's 'Out and About' segments on KGW NewsChannel 8 at Sunrise will come to the Chiles Center for an early morning Portland Pilots men's basketball practice on Tuesday. Carney will suit up in Portland gear and check in with the Pilots between 5-7 a.m. as the team prepares for the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic this weekend in Las Vegas (against Bradley and Princeton).

I know a few of you PN readers are up at that time of the day, but for many of us, it will be a good segment to watch from our DVR.  

I am looking forward to tonight's (Bradley) and tomorrow's (Princeton) games.  The last 2 games before conference play starts at a neutral location.  Not only that both teams also play Pacific which will give us some indication where we are going into conference play.

Bradley has lost 5 of their last 6 games.  Glancing at there stats it look like they have struggled to score a lot of points in this stretch.  It looks like they mainly have 4 scorers who average 30+ minutes a game.  I would like to see a lot of defensive pressure and take advantage of our depth.

Princeton only has 1 loss and that was to Butler by 3 points.  They have a couple players who shoot 40+% from 3.  This is going to be a very tough game.  I see they have a freshman from Portland, but has only played 5 minutes for the season.

The latest Las Vegas line has UP by 4 over Bradley, and based purely on statistics the Pilots should win their game tonight by a few more than that.  But as we saw against North Texas and Montana St, statistics are only part of the story.

North Texas and Montana St were both very quick and athletic teams, and frankly, UP just couldn’t keep up with them in their two BAD losses of the season.  In the MSU game, the Pilots had to resort to fouling just to stop the Bobcats from running by them….and were outshot by 10 at the free-throw line.

The last week or so has been another time of bonding and practicing for the Pilots as they are now “professionals” as school is out and they are able to hang and practice together without classroom interference.   The team chemistry is really good this year and the communication on the court has been excellent; let’s hope that translates into stops and scoring tonight.

The game will be live streamed free through www.ustream.tv and Bill Johnson will broadcast the action on Sports 910 AM (KMTT) with the pregame show beginning at 5:00 PST and the game tipping off at 5:30.

The game I’m looking forward to watching this evening is the Tigers vs. Tigers matchup in the second game in Las Vegas….Princeton (8-1) has an RPI of 39 and Pacific (7-1) is ranked #28.

Oh good, Ustream.

The video quality should be about on par with Tecmo NBA Basketball for the original Nintendo.

DoubleDipper wrote:...with the pregame show beginning at 5:00 PST and the game tipping off at 5:30.

ESPN and portlandpilots.com both say that tip-off is at 5:00.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:...with the pregame show beginning at 5:00 PST and the game tipping off at 5:30.

ESPN and portlandpilots.com both say that tip-off is at 5:00.

Yup, you're correct....thanks!

Yes this game its as ugly in person... Yeesh. And, i feel like we are playing inside a Costco warehouse... Bad lighting, horse trailers, and a saloon.

DeanMurdoch wrote:Oh good, Ustream.

The video quality should be about on par with Tecmo NBA Basketball for the original Nintendo.

Right on with this prediction, DM. Awful stream.

Not a great performance on the court so far, either.

I've got BJ and JB on the audio...a lot more pleasant than a crappy video feed! I'm not about to complain too much about a free service provided by a neutral site, though.

Good start to the second half for the Pilots.

21-point win for the Pilots? All right then! Sounds like van der Mars was double-teamed and triple-teamed all night long but still ended up with 15 and 8. Nicholas with 18 and 6, and the boys on the broadcast seemed to think Wintering had a beauty of a game tonight.

Toughie coming up against Princeton tomorrow...

To me, offensive balance is the biggest difference between last season and this season. As happened with Nicholas a couple of games ago, again one of our top players had a horrible night (K. Bailey: 3-11 from the floor, 1-6 from distance), but our balanced offense was able to pull out the win.

Solid win, but a couple of big concerns remain, based on the last few games:

• The bench is contributing very little. 17 points in the last two games.
• Bobby Sharp and Tanner Riley are shooting very poorly. Extremely concerning as we head into conference play.

Really a tale of two halves.....a very sloppy first half characterised by turnovers and missed shots, but the second half was much smoother for the Pilots.  Bradley never did get untracked and some very good defensive pressure by the Pilots resulted in at least 24 points off BU turnovers.  

Offensive boards and second chance points kept the Pilots alive in the first half....the second half was actually fun with all 13 student/athletes taking the court UP seemingly never missing a shot.

Looking forward to the Princeton vs. Pacific game coming up.

DoubleDipper wrote:Looking forward to the Princeton vs. Pacific game coming up.

Princeton wacked Pacific 83-58, and was up 15 at the half. Yikes!

up7587 wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:Looking forward to the Princeton vs. Pacific game coming up.

Princeton wacked Pacific 83-58, and was up 15 at the half. Yikes!

Princeton is really, really, really good!!

Their teamwork was incredible, but beyond that they put on a show like I've never seen in college.  The Tigers were 18-39 on 3-pointers (they had only 9 2-pointers).....it's no wonder they had 22 assists; everyone that was passed the ball seemed to score.    

(For blacksheep....the action doesn't start until after midnight).  

Princeton is currently favored to beat UP by 6.5 points by the Las Vegas odds makers, but based upon Princeton’s 9 quality wins this season, including last night’s blowout of Pacific, this game should be a “laugher” for the Tigers.

All of PU’s starters are athletic and taller than 6-5, including pg TJ Bray who distributes the ball very well and knocks down 3-pointers at a 44% rate and shoots overall at 49%....last night he was 4-9 behind the arc.

Some are predicting Princeton by 25……but you’ll never get those odds in Vegas, baby.  

DoubleDipper wrote:Princeton is currently favored to beat UP by 6.5 points by the Las Vegas odds makers, but based upon Princeton’s 9 quality wins this season, including last night’s blowout of Pacific, this game should be a “laugher” for the Tigers.

Figured the line would be even more steep than 6.5 today given the smackdown Princeton laid on a good Pacific last night...and kind of scary to consider that Princeton likely isn't even the best team in the Ivy League. I'm intrigued to see what the Pilots will do against Princeton tonight. A good showing tonight against a solid squad would be a great note to head into conference play on.

And surely Princeton can't shoot the triple like they did last night two nights in a row......right?

DeanMurdoch wrote:And surely Princeton can't shoot the triple like they did last night two nights in a row......right?

Well, as UP is #324 at stopping the 3-ball, and PU is #31 at shooting from behind the arc on the season.....it could be a frustrating night for the Pilots.  

I did see one website predicting Princeton would win 81-66....

I'll be at the women's game at PSU this afternoon.....will probably check Jason's updates from Las Vegas on Twitter tonight.  No expectations, but plenty of hope!!!

The Pilots are playing much better tonight.... The game plan of making Princeton shoot contested 2 pointers is working so far... 41-36 Pilots at the half. Keep it up Pilots!

Turned on Ustream for the 2nd half. First experience with it. Interesting viewing experience.

The video is so choppy I can't even tell if the baskets are made without the announcer. Nicholas aired 3 and Pressley made 3 looked about the same...net moved on both and the ball was under the hoop. Slightly better than audio only....

If you're having trouble with the video, Nicholas has joined the 1000 point club, and it's Pilots 79-64, 4:40 to go.

FYI - tight game between BYU and Oregon on the Pac-12 channel. BYU up 3 with 1:15 to go.

C'mon, Pilots! Don't coug it.

Oh yeah. Ducks missed a FT with 2 seconds left that would have won. OT.

Yahoo! 93-79. Great win. Princeton had won 8 in a row, including at Rutgers and at Penn St.