Pilots @ LMU, Thursday 7:00pm

The Pilots embark on the first road trip of the WCC season in LA, facing LMU Thursday night.

There is no TV coverage, however video will be streamed online at theW.tv.  I have watched these streams previously, and they are pretty good; they stream the local tv broadcast.  

LMU enters the game with an overall record of 10-8, 2-4 in conference play.  After starting WCC play 2-0 at home (BYU, USD), the Lions have lost 4 in a row on the road (@USF, @SCU, @USD, @BYU).  We all know about Anthony Ireland (who is finally a Senior), so our guards will have their hands full defending him.  I have not seen the Lions play this year, so that is about all I can add.  

Let's hope the momentum from last week continues...  GO PILOTS!

Pomeroy projects LMU 81, Pilots 78. 41% chance of a Pilots victory.

Looking forward to seeing how they rebound coming off the game of their season careers one week ago.

This will be the first meeting between the two teams since the Lions' avenged a regular-season sweep by the Pilots with a 65-54 win in the first round of the WCC tournament last March. It was the start of the Lions' wonderful four-game run to the finals in last season’s tournament.

The Las Vegas odds have been getting closer all week; LMU is currently favored by 2 points.

In other WCC action: BYU by 3 at USF; GU by 8.5 at PU; and SCU by 3 over USD.

Thursday's game against Portland marks senior Anthony Ireland’s 119th as a Lion…he has not missed a game in his LMU career, and he's been hot of late, going 25-for-45 (55.6 percent) from the field in the last two games. Ireland ranks third among NCAA active career scoring leaders with 1,917 points.

• The Lions enter the week second behind Pacific in the WCC and 12th in the NCAA hitting 75.9% while the Pilots are 3rd and13th shooting 75.8% on the season from the free throw line.

• The Lions have had double-digit offensive rebounds in 14 of the 18 games on the season and are second in the West Coast Conference with 13.1 per game.

• Freshman Gabe Levin went for his fourth double-double in his young career with 14 points and 14 rebounds at Pittsburgh..

• The Lions have had more turnovers than their opponents just three times in 18 games this season.  They are averaging 12.44 turnovers per game this season and rank fourth in the WCC in turnover margin at +1.28 (the Pilots are averaging 11.2 turnovers with a turnover margin is +1.3).

• Three Lions average double figures, led by senior Anthony Ireland at 18.9 ppg, ranking second in the WCC and 54th nationally. The next two in double figures are freshman. Evan Payne is 12th in the WCC and second on the team with 14.1 ppg. Fellow freshman Gabe Levin is third on the team at 10.9 ppg.

LMU didn't make it to the finals in Vegas last year. Zags and SMC have been finalists for last five years.

DoubleDipper wrote:It was the start of the Lions' wonderful four-game run to the finals in last season’s tournament.

samolocal wrote:LMU didn't make it to the finals in Vegas last year. Zags and SMC have been finalists for last five years.

Correct. LMU had a 4 game run, starting in the play-in game. They lost to GU in the semi-finals.

Welcome to the board, samolocal.

up7587 wrote:Correct. LMU had a 4 game run, starting in the play-in game. They lost to GU in the semi-finals.

I remember the final between SMC and GU well...sitting in the front row of temporary seats in Las Vegas, my favorite non-UP player in the WCC, Jorden Page, went down in front of me with another knee injury and his collegiate basketball career was over.  A very sad ending to nice young man's time at SMC.

I don't know if it was the circus shot by Nicholas or the crotchety interview by Good, but the end of half has me in stitches over here. Funny stuff.

DeanMurdoch wrote:I don't know if it was the circus shot by Nicholas or the crotchety interview by Good, but the end of half has me in stitches over here. Funny stuff.

no sound at buffalo wild wings. I really wish I could have heard that interview.

Should have brought the ear buds.... 

blacksheep wrote:no sound at buffalo wild wings. I really wish I could have heard that interview.

"Anthony Ireland? I'm not worried about Anthony Ireland. I'm worried about our team. We're playing too much hero ball on offence, everyone's trying to take the ball and go 1-on-5."

Glad to hear there's people at the watch party. How many do you all have over there?

we're pretty spread out, but its a good crowd. lots of tv's with the game.

For you audioless folk, announcers are saying that Pressley hasn't come out for the second half due to illness.

And now they're saying that Bryce won't be back tonight.

Massive run by the Pilots here. Awesome.

Bobby for three!

Love the gang defense on Ireland. These guys have bought into playing D.

Bobby!!!

Wow. So careless tonight. Where is the focus from last week?

Two in a row, three of the last four after a slow start! Tough to get wins on the road and hats off to the boys for pulling this one out.

Nice win. Great job stopping Anthony Ireland; he's the kind of player who's killed us in the past.

Sure hope Bryce just got a bad burrito, need him in Malibu to settle the bowl ball handling down.

BTW, we have complained in the past about inbounds plays, or lack there of. But that has been an area of great improvement recently. Good to see.

League record now evened to 3-3, all alone in 6th place. Another chance to move up Saturday in Malibu. Go get it, boys.

up7587 wrote:Sure hope Bryce just got a bad burrito, need him in Malibu to settle the bowl handling down.

Well, if someone was handling the burrito in his bowl.....that could be the problem.

But yea, it got a little too out of control at times upping the discomfort level on this end.  Bryce can definitely be the calming influence needed in a tight game, but it was reassuring to pick up the win without him.

Final score: Pilots 71, LMU 57.

A great spurt by Sharp to pull away... and team D keeping Ireland under control.

We were careless with the ball, but I think if we can get that under control, I look forward to another good showing at Pepp on Saturday.

I will be at B-dubs on Saturday for some food and beverage, I hope to see lots of purple there!

DoubleDipper wrote:The Las Vegas odds have been getting closer all week; LMU is currently favored by 2 points.

In other WCC action: BYU by 3 at USF; GU by 8.5 at PU; and SCU by 3 over USD.

The closing odds favored the Lions by 4.

In other action...BYU beat USF by 7; GU over PU by 17 (it wasn't that close); and in a bit of an upset, USD by 3 at SCU.

Impressive to get a win on the road. Especially considering that Bailey had a bad night on offense... and all the missed free throws... and 17 turnovers (is that a season high?)... and a bunch of missed lay-ups.

Bobby Sharp really bailed us out tonight. And it helped that Ireland had a really bad night (or maybe it was our good D!).

The top players for each team, Bailey and Ireland, had pretty similar nights:

Bailey: 3-10 FG, 1-5 3P, 6-8 FT, 5 REB
Ireland: 3-17 FG, 1-7 3P, 7-9 FT, 7 REB

The difference was from the other players. No one was there to pick up the slack for the Lions, and the Pilots had 4 guys in double figures.

PilotNut wrote:I will be at B-dubs on Saturday for some food and beverage, I hope to see lots of purple there!

If they don't have sound for the game, I'll watch for home. Even with terrible announcers [tonight's guy on TheW.tv though Alec's last name was Withering], sound adds so much to the experience of watching the game. You'd think a supposed sports bar would understand that. Especially if they are promoting this as a special event to watch a specific game. I really wish that UP had arranged to do this with a local North Portland sports bar (Tom's, Greely Bar & Grill...), rather than a national chain franchise.

NOTE: the video for Saturday's game is coming from Pepperdine's in-house feed, rather than TheW.tv. Is Buffalo Wild Wings going to figure out how to show that on their TVs?