Poll: WCC Time!

Here we go! Please vote (it's anonymous), and feel free to discuss your answers below. Who do we beat? What are the key games? Who do we beat on the road?

GO PILOTS!

SMC: 13-2, with quality wins over SDSU, Pacific & Oregon (in light of the weekend's Pac-10 openers...). SMC doesnt seem to be struggling to replace Patty or Diamon Simpson. RPI today is 29, with a 77 Strength of Schedule rank.

GU: 11-3, with quality wins over Wisc, Cincinnati, Illinois. GU has been surprisingly good so far, particularly with all the players they lost. RPI today is 17, 19 SOS rank.

LMU: 8-7, with quality wins over USC (may not be by year end...) and Notre Dame, with "bad" losses @ Wyoming and UCI. LMU is coming on strongly, but did struggle a bit to win at CSU Bakersfield today. RPI today is 202, with 251 SOS.

SCU: 8-8, with a good win over Pacific, but lost to Rice and NAU. SCU has kept some of their losses quite close to better teams (by 3 to UNLV, by 6 to SJSU), but has also won a few "too close for comfort games" against CSU Bakersfield (won by 3), by 3 over New Hampshire, by 3 over Houston Baptist... RPI today is 235, SOS 228.

USD: 6-9, with wins over solid Oklahoma & Houston teams, but "good" losses to Miss. St, UNM (by 4), SDSU (by 7). USD's record isnt great, but their SOS rank is 17, and RPI is 124. It's hard to judge really how good USD is with the tough schedule they have played.

USF: 5-10, with no real notable wins, in fact the 3 Div. 1 wins were against teams that are a combined 11-23 (against other D-1 teams). USF did play UW tough in Seattle, lost @Loyola-Chicago and to SIU by 1 each. Today's RPI is 250, but SOS is solid at 76.

Pepp: 4-11, with 3 D-1 wins over teams that are a combined 14-26 (against other D-1 teams), however 1 of those was 76-64 win over a 7-7 Utah team at home. "Bad" losses: Pepp lost @UCLA by 19 (the game before we beat the Bruins), @Wyoming by 4, @Cal Poly by 6. Pepp's RPI today is 330, with a SOS of 306.

If you had a category for 9 or 10 I probably would have picked that instead. The way things are looking right now I find it unlikely we will do better than 1-3 vs. GU/SMC. The way we are playing on the road could lead to a loss at LMU/SCU/USD.

Although things can change quickly. If we jump on the Bulldogs this Saturday, I might have to change my vote to 14-0!!!!! (can you say fairweather fan?)

Even if we were to beat the Bulldogs Saturday, I still believe there would be 3 losses at the end of the schedule.

Jump on the bandwagon, hopefully the Pilots will improve the WCC road record. It is going to be a great season for the Pilots.

My vote of 10-11 wins seems to be the majority so far....at 57%. I believe that everything about the remainder of our season depends on our ability to improve as a road team. Some of that falls on Rev and some of it just falls on our Seniors playing like Seniors on the road (which unfortunately they really haven't done so well with since the neutral games in the early season tourney).

Go Pilots!

I am voting 9-5, but I am hoping for 10-4. I agree with the thought that 1-3 vs. GU and SMC will be likely. And I fear there will be a couple more road losses. Critical that the home court record be no worse than 6-1. Can't afford another PSU-type result.

Agreed that sooo much of this season hinges on, really, 3 key road games.

Home games: I dont think that going 6-1 is unreasonable for this team. I think we have a good shot at beating GU, and we should be able to take out SMC again. If we lose to GU, we really need to win the other 6.

Road games: The 3 key road games are @USD, @SMC and @SCU. I think these 3 games will decide our fate, and will learn a lot early with our first road trip being @USD and @SMC. @LMU is looking to be a tough game, as well. If we win @USF, @Pepp, lose @GU, and go 6-1 at home, that takes us to 8-2. A tough win @LMU gets us to 9-2. Depending on how the 3 key games fall, we could end up as strong as 12-2, or down to 9-5. I really think if our seniors step up, this veteran team should be able to win @SCU and @USD... @SMC will be tough, but I am glad we play there 2 days after GU is in town.

The game @USD will also be big. If we lose @USD, it is possible that we start out 0-3 in WCC, and who knows where we go from there... Conversely, a win over GU and @USD, we are 2-0 going into Moraga...

I gotta agree with the mattywizz 9 or 10 wins prognostication just because of the early season inconsistencies.... That said, I still see the #2 slot and 11 wins as a realistic possibility, on paper we should be able to handle everyone but GU and SMC readily, but there's always that road hiccup possibility that makes me nervous. USD has that capability of knocking anyone off with BJ at the point and for some reason we always struggle with SCU historically however our combination of a solid senior back court and a decent stable of solid bigs (and lest I forget the long range capabilites) all the makings of a 2 seed are there.

Of our losses we won't see a team with the athleticism/defensive of UW or WVU until the postseason, it just isn't there in the WCC, our biggest thing is maintaining a solid level of play and beating the teams we are supposed to beat. We had our PSU game, that should be motivation enough to never go into a game thinking we can play tiddily winks and still win. I trust Rev and the seniors will let that game be an aberration, and not the norm.

I cast my vote in at 10 or 11 wins. I'm thinking we lose 2 to GU, split with SMC, and win out the rest. Lofty, I know, but I'm thinking that we can get our stuff together and be a better road team. I will say that losing BJ for the rest of the season is making it harder to get that 11th win. We need to focus on defense and rebounding. I believe that is what will win us games. Some improved free throw shooting should help as well.

I saw on Rev's twitter account that Waterford was practicing again yesterday, and Rev commented on his ability to remain fit while in the cast... I'm guessing we wont see much of him Saturday, but it will be nice to have him back next week on the road...

With one game to go, how were your predictions? I predicted 9-5, but I'll be happy to be wrong with a victory over SCU. Looks like the #3 seed in Vegas is locked in, but I hope the guys don't let down.