Portland Pilots on the Road

So far this season, the Pilots are 0-2 outside the Chiles Center after being blown out in Reno and losing a tough one to crosstown rival, PSU.

UP now embarks on a six-game road swing with two games in North Dakota, one in Arizona, and three in Hawaii before returning home next year against Pacific on January 6.

Tonight: In Fargo against North Dakota St. where the slow-moving Bison are favored by 2.5 - 3.0 points.

🤮

Honestly, the Pilots did not play that badly in their 11-point loss to the Bison, outscoring NDSU 40-20 in the paint, but once again giving up too many 3-point shots.

NDSU kept launching from outside resulting in 36 points while shooting 36%. UP was 5/12 from outside.

Ali and V combined for 23 points but also had to play "carefully" with four fouls on each of them.

Much of the early success of the Pilots this season was the play of freshman Tyler Harris, but last night he had zero field goals and only 4 rebounds...well below his average.

The team buses from Fargo to Grand Forks today before tomorrow's game against UND. The Fighting Hawks are favored in that game by 1-point over the Pilots.

Finally!!

Pilots win their first road game this season...83-72 over the Fighting Hawks of North Dakota.

Masic with 32 points and 4 assists, T-Rob had 16, and Austin with 10.  Masic was much more aggressive than previous games and he had zero turnovers and the team had only 6.

Gorosito started but couldn't find the basket, but Oosterbroek's return after missing three games really sparked the entire team with his energy and communication.

Down 36-33 at the half, the Pilots came out much more aggressive in the second half, outscoring UND 50-36.

A 1pm start time after a tough loss in Fargo caused the team to be a bit lethargic late in the first half, but they really looked much better late in the game.

DoubleDipper wrote:Masic with 32 points and 4 assists, T-Rob had 16, and Austin with 10.  Masic was much more aggressive than previous games and he had zero turnovers and the team had only 6.

Only 6 turnovers! For a team averaging 15 TOs per game, that is the key stat. UND outrebounded them 41-32. Similar FT stats. Similar 3P stats. Having 8 less turnovers than UND allowed the team to be more efficient and make five more shots than the Fighting Hawks.

Ali Koroma has started the last two games, averaging more than 20 mpg and 10 ppg.

While the rest of us were out partying, the Pilots were being trampled by the Antelopes in Phoenix, 91-63, last night.

Grand Canyon was just too big and too good for UP, outrebounding the Pilots 51-32.

T-Rob dropped 17, T-Harris 13, and Chris and Vukasin each had 12, but they were no match for GCU, now 9-1, while the Pilots are 4-6 in D1 games.

Next up for UP, Hawaii on 12/21 on ESPN2 at 8pm Pacific.  Aloha.

DoubleDipper wrote:Grand Canyon was just too big and too good for UP, outrebounding the Pilots 51-32.

The Pilots only had 9 TOs, but GCU only had 7. 17 of GCU's rebounds were offensive rebounds. They were able to put up 13 more shots than the Pilots, of which 10 were extra 3P shots. More shots and a better shooting percentage (48.6% to 32.2%) led to the wipeout margin of victory.

Rebounding an issue for sure. Assists, too. In our last 2 losses we had 9 assists in each game! 3 ball isn't falling, either. We have work to do to not go 0-3 in Hawaii ahead of conference play.

Back to rebounding, it reminded me of last year's BYU game in the WCC tournament. I didn't see Noah, Big V and Ali on the floor at the same time, ever. Still feel rotations are too short on the bench. I don't care what practices have shown. Get more guys competing.

Rumors ... Noah not in Hawaii.

Broadcast said Ali is out for the tournament for violation of team rules. If it's the rest of the season well...

Pilots outscored by 10 the final 2 minutes of the 1st half and first 2 minutes of the 2nd half. Getting away from them.

brooke_PPFan@proton.me wrote:In our last 2 losses we had 9 assists in each game!

How about going lower than that, 7 assists tonight!

Post-game UH game radio with Coach Legans: https://vocaroo.com/1fxVU0wjDPf2

The assist thing is killing me. We have moved away from Juanse at the 1 and every play is one pass, one shot. It’s like watching a bad AAU showcase. And, now we are just undersized. That had to be the reason it took so long for Juan to come in. Ali out (grades), Noah out (mental/ attitude). Yuto redshirted. Gebbers redshirted. That’s 4 scholarship guys over 6’8 that can’t play.

I was impressed by Thomas’ effort, if not results. Dude battled out of position all night. And Juan lit a spark until that ill-advised 3 ball killed momentum. T Rob remains a cyborg like warrior. Harris showing some emotion is awesome. Vuk is the best athlete we have. Let’s build on all that and beat UMass.

Pilots lose to UMass 100-78 late last night. Assist total up to 14. Turnovers at 13. Pilots shot 45%, but only 27% from 3P. UMass shot 59%! Pilots lost the rebounding battle, because UMass rarely missed.

Masic injured his ankle after 14 minutes of playing. If he is out for any length of time, and Koroma and Jordan don't return, the team is back to a 7-man rotation. That does not bode well for the future.

Oof. Pilots led by 8 with 6 minutes to go against Temple. They were outscored 15-6 from there, losing 55-54. A turnover, a missed FT, and a foul in the last seconds led to Temple making 2 FTs with 5 seconds left to win by 1.

They did play with a 7-man rotation, and were only 4-9 on FTs. 15 assists on 20 made shots, but 18 TOs.

Oosterbroek seemed to go down too near the end. Didn't catch most of the game, but seemed Juanse had a good game before fouling out.

The unforced turnovers and bad defense are killing me. Like this should not take the whole non-con to figure out.

Sound Voltex wrote:The unforced turnovers and bad defense are killing me. Like this should not take the whole non-con to figure out.

I also did not watch, only reviewed the box score.  Temple shot 32%, and only 23% on 3Ps.  So either the Owls shot poorly or Pilot's shooting defense was OK.  Maybe it was the early hour, but only 109 points in an O/U of 152.5 game is pretty bad.

In other Diamond Head Classic games by UP opponents, Hawaii lost to Georgia Tech, and trails TCU by 10 in the 2nd half. UMass lost to Georgia Tech and beat Old Dominion. Temple lost to Nevada and to Old Dominion.

Very excited for conference play!! Notable changes over break:

- Yuto is now on the active roster to replace Ali who has been excused from the team (academically ineligible).

- Noah is not back on campus yet. Possibly excused as well.

Hoping we see some improved attitudes and some new faces in rotation! Let’s beat Pacific!

B