San Diego @ Pilots, Thursday 2/17, 7:00pm

The Pilots' delayed conference opener was on the road at USD, where they had a large first half lead, and lost by 5 points in overtime. Meadows was the leading scorer, with Nduka and Wood in double figures. Tyler Robertson and Chris Austin had miserable nights, scoring only 8 points between them, shooting 2-17 overall and 1-8 from 3P range, and Tyler getting no FT attempts. Silveria got 8 points, but Sjolund did not play.

San Diego has gone on to a 7-6 conference record so far, all their losses coming to the top 5 teams. They have swept the bottom 3 teams, plus beat us. After this game, they host SMC and USF. This is an opportunity for the Pilots. Winning this game and 2 of the last 3 would be a 7-7 record. Meanwhile, USD would have to get an upset to finish better than 7-9. Who knows what the KenPom algorithm would say about tournament seeding, but it's a chance to finish out of the bottom 4.

USD is led by Marcellus Earlington, a 6'6" 240# guard/forward. A 4th year senior, he played 3 years at St. John's before transferring to USD. He averages 14 ppg, and had 21 in the first matchup. Chika and Tyler will have their hands full defending him.

With the Pilots dealing with Meadows sore back and Matija's ankle, this one will be a challenge. Robertson and Sjolund need to continue their strong play, and Wood needs a solid game. Austin needs to step it up. Go Pilots.

Are we sure this game is still on, or is the WCC going to let USD cancel in order to protect their CBI bid?

up7587 wrote:With the Pilots dealing with Meadows sore back and Matija's ankle, this one will be a challenge. Robertson and Sjolund need to continue their strong play, and Wood needs a solid game. Austin needs to step it up.  Go Pilots.

I am hearing this secondhand but have been told Meadows may have to rest his back quite a bit before now and Las Vegas, and may play very little, and that Matija's injury may be to his knee, and not so much his ankle.

Again...secondhand reporting.

up7587 wrote:This is an opportunity for the Pilots. Winning this game and 2 of the last 3 would be a 7-7 record.  Meanwhile, USD would have to get an upset to finish better than 7-9.  Who knows what the KenPom algorithm would say about tournament seeding, but it's a chance to finish out of the bottom 4.

Huge game tonight, for all the reasons up7587 has pointed out.

And speaking of the KenPom algorithm, where is it? The first edition of his AdjWP was already out by this time last year, and without nearly as many games played as we've had this year.

Dean Murdoch wrote:And speaking of the KenPom algorithm, where is it? The first edition of his AdjWP was already out by this time last year, and without nearly as many games played as we've had this year.

There was an article posted on the Pilots website a few days ago (Sunday)? announcing the first AdjWP standings. UP was in 7th place. That article has now been taken down. Mysterious!

A google search turns up this click-baity website's reposting of the now-missing article on the UP site:
https://www.chatsports.com/portland-pilots/a/source/pilots-seventh-in-first-pomeroy-wcc-adjusted-win-percentage-rankings-17040283

Great sleuthing! I missed that.

It's probably being sent out regularly, but for internal purposes only at this point.

up7587 wrote:Robertson and Sjolund need to continue their strong play, and Wood needs a solid game. Austin needs to step it up.  Go Pilots.

I guess that formula worked out pretty well.

As far as I can tell, this is the Pilots' biggest margin of victory in a conference game since a 79-39 win over LMU on January 21, 2010!

Pilots are now #183 on KenPom.

This team is something else. I think I understand the Legans formula now. Recruit players that can shoot and handle the ball. It doesn’t matter if they are undersized (Chika) or too slow (Robertson) or don’t really have a position (Woods). If you have 5 of those guys on the court, there is going to be a mismatch. The Pilots attacked the mismatch tonight every time down the court. Then you get them to buy into a system and play as a team. They didn’t have a point guard tonight. Doesn’t matter. The player with the best matchup will bring the ball down the court. They don’t really have a true center that plays minutes. Doesn’t matter. They are able to piecemeal rim protection between Robertson, Woods and Sjolund. This team is so unselfish and a hell of a lot of fun to watch. I’m hoping they can make a run in the conference tournament. If for no other reason than we’ll get to see this group play an extra game or two. Go Pilots!!!

Running out of words to describe this team. This is the most fun I’ve ever had watching the Pilots and every one of us that sat through the Porter era deserve this. Enjoy it, everyone.

I’m starting to like point guard by committee. We get mismatches all over the place.

Rob's Jacket wrote:As far as I can tell, this is the Pilots' biggest margin of victory in a conference game since a 79-39 win over LMU on January 21, 2010!

Ok, now look up the last time we shot 63%, 58% , and 93%.

Geezaldinho wrote:

Rob's Jacket wrote:As far as I can tell, this is the Pilots' biggest margin of victory in a conference game since a 79-39 win over LMU on January 21, 2010!

Ok, now look up the last time we shot 63%, 58% , and 93%.

To be fair, I asked 7587 to look up the last 30 pt wcc victory before I checked pilotnation, and he had already seen Rob's post. I think he should now have to do geez's research.

Geezaldinho wrote:

Rob's Jacket wrote:As far as I can tell, this is the Pilots' biggest margin of victory in a conference game since a 79-39 win over LMU on January 21, 2010!

Ok, now look up the last time we shot 63%, 58% , and 93%.

Non-D1 games don't count.

blacksheep wrote:

Geezaldinho wrote:

Rob's Jacket wrote:As far as I can tell, this is the Pilots' biggest margin of victory in a conference game since a 79-39 win over LMU on January 21, 2010!

Ok, now look up the last time we shot 63%, 58% , and 93%.

To be fair, I asked 7587 to look up the last 30 pt wcc victory before I checked pilotnation, and he had already seen Rob's post. I think he should now have to do geez's research.

I don't know, but last weekend we shot 60, 70, 80.

Vote for the Moses Wood dunk for WCC Play of the Week:
https://twitter.com/wcchoops/status/1496211227449892864?s=21