USD @ Pilots, 1/18/20, 7:00pm

USD is 0-5 in conference, 7-13 overall. They are #204 in KenPom, 8th in the WCC, UP is #255. The game is rated as a pickem, with an O/U of 136.

After a promising opening week, the last two games have been disappointing. After the UOP loss, the coaches said that the players need to look at themselves, and step up their performance. In my opinion, the coaches need to find new ways for the players to get open shots, and get the ball into the hands of players who can reliably put the ball in the basket.

If this season is to be anything but another disappointment, this is a must win game.

up7587 wrote:If this season is to be anything but another disappointment, this is a must win game.

And one would think a must-win game for the coaching staff as well.

USD is a young team led by #1 junior Braun Hartfield, who put up 21 in their recent game against BYU, but their scoring is pretty balanced and they generally go with an 8 man rotation.

They're a team that looked like they had turned the corner in their close loss to PU a week ago, but then had to go to Provo where they were beaten 93-70 on Thursday night (UP lost to BYU 96-70 a week ago).

Taki is apparently doubtful for tonight and it was pretty apparent that Isaiah was not feeling very well on Thursday...so we'll just have to wait an see who steps up.  It's one thing to miss shots, but it's another thing to be out-hustled or out-coached...UP had better see a turnaround tonight or the calls for a coaching change will again get loud.

Those calls are already audible

of course we give usd their first conference win

what happen to first week conference play pilots

i miss first week conference play pilots

this start to feel like last season pilots

also can we not go one game without a pass to a big either being off target or dropped or intercepted

27-25 half lead, 69-77 loss.
A bench guy averaging 3 ppg over their last 7 games goes for 17.
Pilots were 3 of 10 on FTs at one point, before improving to 6 of 14, 43%.
Sighhh. No chance of 4 wins in conference now.
And all the talk of an improving UP program is out the window.

The UP program IS improving. Rapidly!
The women’s program, that is.

Two takeaways.

The copilot IPA is good.

The women won at the buzzer.

Sitting in the T-Room tonight after the game and watching the highlights of the WSU win over OSU on the TV, I couldn't help but think of what could have been...

One-time UP commit, Isaac Bonton, who was turned away by TP as being not "good enough," dropped 34 points on the Beavers tonight as the Cougars swept OSU and UO over the weekend in Pullman.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/jan/18/with-chip-on-his-shoulder-washington-state-guard-a/

Geezaldinho wrote:Those calls are already audible

I have skipped the season so far after 5 years of multiple season tickets. How has the attendance been (both students and others)? and how has the fan reaction been?

JimmAlacki wrote:I have skipped the season so far after 5 years of multiple season tickets. How has the attendance been (both students and others)? and how has the fan reaction been?

I'm sure you can look up the numbers, but compared to what I remember from a couple of years ago, the fan reaction has been much, much better, and I think part of the reason is because UP is hosting a number of youth groups at the games.

I was focused on the game, but every time a something positive for the Pilots happened on the court a loud roar would go up, so the players knew they were getting the crowd's support.

Except for about a six minute period where the game got away, the Pilots played well with lots of effort and enthusiasm, and when USD went nuts in the second half the fans were still behind the home team with plenty of yelling and screaming.

Oh, and I was a guest in the Pilot Club last night...and it was packed!

StudentPilot wrote:Oh, and I was a guest in the Pilot Club last night...and it was packed!

It was packed, and included a number of influential UP staff and regents who also stayed for the game.

During the pregame chalk-talk, all TP said about the game-plan was they planned to start fast and take the lead...well, the game plan worked perfectly!  

After looking through some of the box scores this morning, I couldn't help but notice that in addition to Bonton dropping 34 against OSU, Markus Golder, who wanted to come to UP as a grad-student scored 18 points for PSU against Idaho St.

Scoring 22 points for ISU was former Pilot, Chier Maker, and scoring 16 points was one-time Reveno recruit Jared Stutzman.

As a number of players that wanted to come to UP, including Grant Anticevich at Cal, seem to be doing well elsewhere, perhaps it has something to do with player-development once they arrive at other universities...pure speculation on my part.

JimmAlacki wrote:

Geezaldinho wrote:Those calls are already audible

I have skipped the season so far after 5 years of multiple season tickets. How has the attendance been (both students and others)? and how has the fan reaction been?

In reality, the season has not been horrible. They looked good at USC, they beat PSU, but then they lost to a winless Jacksonville St. at home, with JSU throwing it in their faces and them not responding. I guess we should have expected getting three big losses in Hawai'i considering the quality of the opposition. They looked good against GU and beat USF. But getting bullied by UOP then chunking up a loss at home to winless in conference USD leave a really bad taste. And the next stretch of games are either on the road or tougher teams at home. Not too promising considering that the team is either getting worse, or not adjusting as teams are scouting them and taking away what was working in the early part of the season.

I dunno, if they only go 2-14 in WCC it's a disaster. Hard to believe after beating USF they get thumped by a USD team that looked to be going 0-16. Beat LMU at home or it's 1-15