2023 WCC Tournament

The men's portion of the WCC Tournament will open at 6pm on Thursday, March 2 with #8 UP facing off against #9 USD.

The second game, around 8:30, will pit #7 UOP against dangerous #10 PU.

Both games will be on BYUtv and the WCC network and some "regional networks."

The winner of the UP/USD game will play #5 BYU at 6pm on Friday, followed by the winner of the UOP/PU winner against #6 USF at 8:30.

ESPN2 will begin televising the games on Saturday...

After running the three-game gauntlet on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the Pilots will face #1 SMC on Monday at 6pm on ESPN before the Championship game on Tuesday at 6pm, also on ESPN.

DoubleDipper wrote:After running the three-game gauntlet on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the Pilots will face #1 SMC on Monday at 6pm on ESPN before the Championship game on Tuesday at 6pm, also on ESPN.

Mrs. Deaner says I can go to Vegas to watch the SMC game if they win the first three. Go Pilots!

I don't like saying this, but analytics favors the Pilots.  KenPom has UP as the #7 WCC team, and USD as the #10.  And ESPN says 61.5% UP to 38.5% USD.

Now that I've jinxed them, hopefully a few things happen:
- Moses continues rolling.  He averaged 27 pts and 9 reb last week.
- Kristian shows up. He had 16 pts vs UOP, and 5 total vs USF and SCU. He can take over a game, or completely disappear.
- Mike is more selfish.  After 39 pts against SCU, he had 4 against UOP in 34 minutes.  He's a great teammate, but he needs to score, too.
- Tyler gets out of his funk.  He's averaged 14 points his last 5 games, but he's only 26% on 3Ps (7-27), and only 28% on 2Ps (9-32).  He needs to score much better in the paint.  And maybe worry less about drawing the and-one.  He also averaged 4 TOs the last five games.  Clean that up.
- Alden and Juanse contribute.  They're both around 8 ppg on the season.  A clean game from each will be big.  
- A Joey sighting. 10 minutes and 4 points would be good.  That's what USD's big man averages.
- Visilije plays a role. In the 7 games leading into conference play he averaged 20 mpg.  He has not played more than 12 minutes in any conference game.  Chika does what he can as an undersized center, but he doesn't get to the rim on offense, and on defense refs are watching him closely for grabbing and pushing. If Vasilije can do whatever he needs to do to stay on the floor (I am guessing better defense), that will help a lot.  USD is not a big 3P shooting team; 63.6% of their shot attempts come from 2P range (UP is only 55% attempts from 2P range).  Another big on the floor will help.
- Coleman plays the final minute. Always a good sign.

Go Pilots.

He's the one they call Dr Feelgood, he's the one that makes ya feel all right

So you're saying there's a chance?

Tied at half time. No 2nd chance points for USD. Clean up turnovers, and get some bench scoring. And make your free throws.

Thank you for flying Air Portland

Yeah, they broke the WCC tournament 3-pt attempts and made record, but the important stat is that Lemke got a postseason point!

Great game!

Please, please, PLEASE win tomorrow and show BYU the door!

canadagael wrote:Great game!

Please, please, PLEASE win tomorrow and show BYU the door!

Couldn’t agree more, Internet stranger!!

up7587 wrote:. . . hopefully a few things happen:
- Moses continues rolling.  He averaged 27 pts and 9 reb last week. Check. 19 and 5, Very efficient.
- Kristian shows up. He had 16 pts vs UOP, and 5 total vs USF and SCU. He can take over a game, or completely disappear.
OK. 13 points in only 18 minutes
- Mike is more selfish.  After 39 pts against SCU, he had 4 against UOP in 34 minutes.  He's a great teammate, but he needs to score, too. Check. Stepped up in 2nd half. Got 12 points.
- Tyler gets out of his funk.  He's averaged 14 points his last 5 games, but he's only 26% on 3Ps (7-27), and only 28% on 2Ps (9-32).  He needs to score much better in the paint.  And maybe worry less about drawing the and-one.  He also averaged 4 TOs the last five games.  Clean that up. For sure. 23, 11 and 6. Only 3 TOs.
- Alden and Juanse contribute.  They're both around 8 ppg on the season.  A clean game from each will be big.   Sort of. Juanse got 15 pts, no TOs. Alden struggled with 2 pts, 3 TOs
- A Joey sighting. 10 minutes and 4 points would be good.  That's what USD's big man averages. Nope. Not seen.
- Visilije plays a role. In the 7 games leading into conference play he averaged 20 mpg.  He has not played more than 12 minutes in any conference game.  Chika does what he can as an undersized center, but he doesn't get to the rim on offense, and on defense refs are watching him closely for grabbing and pushing. If Vasilije can do whatever he needs to do to stay on the floor (I am guessing better defense), that will help a lot.  USD is not a big 3P shooting team; 63.6% of their shot attempts come from 2P range (UP is only 55% attempts from 2P range).  Another big on the floor will help. Another nope. Vasilije 0 pts in 5 min. But Chika got 7 pts, 2 rbs.
- Coleman plays the final minute. Always a good sign. Bingo!

Go Pilots.

The starters got 82 points. Bench got 10.

Post-game radio with Coach Bobby: https://vocaroo.com/1eDQZAuRsRHL
Post-game TV with T-Rob (audio only): https://vocaroo.com/176gIZ0MF1SS

Put a few down at the Alligator for me!!! Great win Pilots

Coach Legans now has a win in each of his two WCC tournament appearances. That's two more tourney wins than the previous coach had in his career.

up7587 wrote:Coach Legans now has a win in each of his two WCC tournament appearances.  That's two more tourney wins than the previous coach had in his career.

I'm prepared to count last year's bye as an additional win to make it 3.

canadagael wrote:Please, please, PLEASE win tomorrow and show BYU the door!

Obviously, UP fans would like to see the Pilots kick the Cougars to the Big-12 today, but just based upon the history of the two teams, it will be a tall task.

Tall, meaning BYU has a couple of very talented big guys, Traore and Atiki Ally Atiki, who will grab a lot of rebounds, and unless Joey and Vuc can play much better than we've seen, UP is going to have to shoot close to 50% to have a chance.

In the teams' lone meeting on New Year's Eve in Provo, Gideon George led the way for BYU, recording a team-high 20 points — including 15 over the final 20 minutes — on 8 of 17 shooting from the floor in BYU's 71-58 win.  

In that game, Joey, Wyatt, and Chika played a combined 30 minutes and had zero points and 4 rebounds between them.  Of course, Kristian went off for 32 points in that game, and Tyler and Moses did not play due to injuries.

If memory serves me correctly, UP has just two wins against BYU all time...perhaps the ghost of Bobby Sharp past (8-13 from deep in the triple-overtime win), will show up tonight to kick BYU down the road and propel UP into a Saturday showdown with LMU.

In the late game, UOP shot 50% on 3Ps, but only tried a measly 20 attempts.  No matter, it was plenty to put away the talented but young PU Waves, 84-71.

ESPN analytics says BYU 77% to win. BYU opened a 7.5 pt favorite, bet down to 6.5 currently.

up7587 wrote:ESPN analytics says BYU 77% to win.  BYU opened a 7.5 pt favorite, bet down to 6.5 currently.  

BYU NET: 88
UP NET: 163

BYU KenPom: 75
UP KenPom: 155

KenPom prediction: BYU beats UP, 80-74...giving UP a 27% chance of pulling off the upset.

Can't find it, but didn't we have a pre-season discussion about thinking that if the Pilots ended up at KenPom 150 we'd be pretty happy?

The conference record is disappointing, but playing GU and SMC twice instead of once, playing BYU only on the road, and losing Tyler, Moses and Mike for multiple games hurt. Then there was the puke-fest in Malibu.

The teams that stepped up this year were LMU and SCU. Neither was predicted top 4. UOP also did better than expected. BYU and USF fell a little short of expectations, and USD was way short of expectations. Lavin and his transfers just did not get it together.

I'm proud to announce that I had an effect on the game last night!

Completely classless, but when Earlington went to the line it was super quiet so I started making a turkey gobble sound as loud as I could and he missed FOUR straight free throws!

At 80.7% from the line, I'm almost positive that I got in his head lol.

I was right in line with his left ear and you could hear me gobbling from the parking lot, so I know he heard me!

My 15 seconds of fame!

YEEEEESSSSS!

GO PILOTS!!!!

How many beers deep are the four legends sitting courtside across from the BYU bench?

Dean Murdoch wrote:How many beers deep are the four legends sitting courtside across from the BYU bench?

Jealous?

Incredibly, wish I was there watching these guys ball out. Go Pilots, keep this going in the second.