Arkansas Pine-Bluff @ Portland, November 18, 2021

After some good news this morning for the Men's Soccer team making the NCAA tournament they'll be hosting Seattle U this Thursday at 6 p.m. We have another double-header on our hands!

They have moved back the start time for the MBB game from 7 p.m. to an 8 p.m. tip inside the Chiles Center. Let's hope we have another Pilot sweep like we had this past Saturday!

Arkansas - Pine Bluff is another SWAC team, like Alcorn St. It may have been mentioned elsewhere, but this is their fourth straight road game, and their first seven games are all road games. They lost at Wyoming by 40 last night. But maybe Wyoming is pretty good; they won their first game by 38.

APB looks like they play a 4 or 5 guard line-up. Only one forward gets a lot of minutes, and they don't list a center on the roster. They shoot 26% from 3P range, and they seem to have multiple players who can go off for 25+ points, or score less than 10. No consistent scoring leader.

Two things that stand out.

1) the best defense they have played was the 85 points they held Wyoming to. The other two matches were 90 and 91 points yielded.

2) they have been badly out rebounded in all three matches.

Geezaldinho wrote:2) they have been badly out rebounded in all three matches.

Not as bad as the Pilots have been outrebounded so far!

Offensive rebounds - UAPB 21.2%, Portland 15.9%
Defensive rebounds - UAPB 66.7%, Portland 63.2%

Pilot Club will be open at 7pm for the 8 o'clock tipoff...

Kinda late for some of you old-timers!

A lot of old timers have insomnia.
Went to bed at 4:30 AM last night.

What’s most concerning about the Arkansas-Pine Bluff game is the Pilots are supposed to win, and win big, by 12 points.  The experts are predicting UP will win 5 games this entire season, and this is the only game they are expected to win by more than 3 points.  

The last time APB had a winning season was 2013-14, just a year earlier than the Pilots last wining season in 2014-15, but they too have a young new coach (33) who took over this season expecting to turn the program around.  Yes, they are 0-3 this season so far, but their opponents were Creighton, Colorado St., and Wyoming…all much better teams than UP according to the experts.

Individually the Golden Lions can put up big numbers, but defensively, not so much.  I have not seen the over/under on this game, but if it is around 140, I would expect the final score to be higher.

One of the more intriguing players on the team is #55, senior guard Shawn Williams. A shot-maker and scorer, he started his career at East Carolina, played on New Mexico State’s WAC championship team in 2020, played in seven games at Nicholls State last season, and is now at APB.

Another player to watch is #23, junior forward Trey Sampson.  At 6-9 with two seasons at two different JUCOs before arriving at APB he is known as a highly prolific shot blocker who gets to the rim on offense.  Last season he shot 60%, and this season he put up 32 against Creighton.

Remember, the tip is at 8pm…

DoubleDipper wrote:Another player to watch is #23, junior forward Shawn Williams Trey Sampson.  At 6-9 with two seasons at two different JUCOs before arriving at APB he is known as a highly prolific shot blocker who gets to the rim on offense.  Last season he shot 60%, and this season he put up 32 29 against Creighton.

FYP

Let's see if the Pilots can defend these guys, and not get into a run and gun shootout.

DoubleDipper wrote:What’s most concerning about the Arkansas-Pine Bluff game is the Pilots are supposed to win, and win big, by 12 points.

Normal fans when their team is favoured by 12: "Should be a comfortable win, let's hope the spread is even bigger than 12 so we can get into the bench a bit and get some other guys some minutes with two games in three nights here."

Pilots fans when UP is favoured by 12: "OH MY GOD WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO HANDLE THIS"

up7587 wrote:FYP

Let's see if the Pilots can defend these guys, and not get into a run and gun shootout.

Thanks, too many late nights.

If UP's two previous games are any indication, they will not get into a (successful) shootout.

Against both ASU and Alcorn St., the total score was over 20 points below what the oddsmakers said it would be, although the argument can be made it was more about offensive ineptitude rather than good defense.

The line for tonight's game is currently UP by 12 with a 142 over/under.

Dean Murdoch wrote:Pilots fans when UP is favoured by 12: "OH MY GOD WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO HANDLE THIS"

I talked to Chika, Yaru, Skylar and Moses after the Alcorn St. game and told them how much fun it was to have close, nail-biting, games again but that UP fans are so used to supporting the underdog it is doubly difficult to watch when their team is favored and gets off to such a slow start like the 1-13 shooting against Alcorn.

Yaru said, "we always expect to win, so you are going to have a very nervous year."

Yeah, Alcorn St. was definitely offensive ineptitude. I was wondering why some other shooters (Sjolund, Svetozarevic) weren't inserted. It was commented Sjolund's play didn't fit a helter-skelter (run and gun) game. Hence my hope for a better defensive effort.

DoubleDipper wrote:Yaru said, "we always expect to win, so you are going to have a very nervous year."

Love it. Go Pilots.

DoubleDipper wrote:One of the more intriguing players on the team is #55, senior guard Shawn Williams. A shot-maker and scorer, he started his career at East Carolina, played on New Mexico State’s WAC championship team in 2020, played in seven games at Nicholls State last season, and is now at APB.

Another player to watch is #23, junior forward Trey Sampson.  At 6-9 with two seasons at two different JUCOs before arriving at APB he is known as a highly prolific shot blocker who gets to the rim on offense.  Last season he shot 60%, and this season he put up 32 against Creighton.

Good scout by DD, Williams has been by far UAPB’s most dangerous player.

Sampson isn’t playing tonight which is obviously a big hit to the Golden Lions.

Pilots look just fine so far. UAPB having trouble dealing with Vucinic, he’s got 10 at the half and could have been more had a couple high-lows not gone astray.

I’ve had enough of #55 for one night, sheesh

Radio post-game mentioned UAPB was without 3 regular players. Their small quick line-up definitely caused some problems. Vucinic called for several fouls trying to establish position. 16 turnovers, several from traps of the dribbler a long way from the basket. Too many times there were 3 Pilots and 1 Lion, and the Lion got the offensive rebound. Need to do better on those plays.

Nduka must not of been in their pre-scout, because they flat out ignored him and he got several easy baskets.

Dean Murdoch wrote:Good scout by DD, Williams has been by far UAPB’s most dangerous player.

Pilots look just fine so far. UAPB having trouble dealing with Vucinic, he’s got 10 at the half and could have been more had a couple high-lows not gone astray.

Despite his 31 points, the Pilots were not terrible at guarding Williams...he was just too good!

The game plan to go insides to Vucinic and others was going fine until he got 4 quick fouls and others started fouling too causing Legans to alter the lineup drastically.  

Twenty-two fouls and 16 turnovers is a recipe for disaster, but the Pilots still won by the Las Vegas predicted 12 points and the 86-74 final score was well above the 142 o/u.

APF now heads to Seattle U. for a Monday game against the team that Thursday night beat Morgan St. 93-80, while the Pilots are home on Saturday as 2-point underdogs to Morgan St,

My observations from Chiles last night:
1. It was definitely a big man’s game. Nduka and Vucinic both had showcase games. If not for some foul trouble for Vuc, he would have had a monster night. It’s encouraging to think those two are only true Freshmen. I’d say they’re already on par with any front court from the Porter era.
2. Wood finally got going a little bit. He is a very skilled big man. Last night I learned he is a pure stretch 3/4 though. They tried to post him up a couple times when he had the much smaller Williams on him and he couldn’t get any position. Wood also served as the primary ball handler at times. When the press ratcheted up, it was Meadows and Wood that brought the ball down the court. Even Shantay referred to Wood as the backup PG on his post game interview.
3. Matija was in street clothes for this one. Does anyone have any insight on if that’s an injury? Or has he fallen out of the rotation to the point he doesn’t dress?
4. Coleman Lemke’s bench antics are a show worthy of the price of admission. The kid is continuously chanting, dancing, joking and cheering. My favorite part is that I’ve never seen him wear any warmups. He’s always in only his jersey as if he’s ready to sprint into the game at a moments notice.

Regarding Matija Svetozarevic, he and Nikola Milosevic were both dinged-up when they arrived this late summer and while Nikola hasn't played and will likely redshirt, Matija played just a few minutes before having a setback.

Wyatt Watson is back, but Miles Turner is injured, as is Cly Griffith I believe, and there is talk Cly will transfer to a D2 on a full-ride at mid-term.

(None of the above is "official," just what I've heard).