Pacific at UP - Saturday January 7 at 5pm

Traveled to Honolulu for the games there, and found the beach and nightlife to be much more enjoyable than the basketball.

I have seen Noah Jordan on campus, and although he may not be back in the lineup right away, there is some chance he will return to action later this month.

It was a late decision in November to redshirt Yuto because it was thought he'd get limited playing time behind Ali and V and Noah in the rotation, but with the suddenly short bench, Yuto Yamanouchi-Williams will now get into battle right away.

From my short observation, Yuto at 6-10/230 (second biggest guy on the team behind V), looks ready to start now as means of getting some better length, athleticism, and rebounding in the lineup.

Pretty easy for Pilot fans, including myself, to be discouraged about the upcoming WCC schedule based upon UP's 4-9 preseason that started out pretty well, but the team is now 0-0 entering play on Saturday night at 5pm against Pacific.

Never know whether to use KenPom or the NET when indicating how UP is doing compared to the rest of the D1 basketball world, but both are showing UP 8th in the WCC.

The NET:

39 San Francisco
52 Saint Mary's
57 Gonzaga
121 Santa Clara
186 LMU
207 San Diego
243 Pepperdine
278 Portland
356 Pacific

KenPom has UP at #263 and UOP at #343 (There are 362 teams in the rankings).

I imagine there is more than one WCC school on that NET list who is disappointed with their season so far. But that is a huge fall-off from last year for the Pilots.

We will beat Pacific. Should be a great chance to get Yuto some run and play all 12 guys!

Would be nice to be on the right side of a laugher!

So much for Pacific being a laugher.

Dean Murdoch wrote:So much for Pacific being a laugher.

What a disappointing finish for the Tigers...they were beating USF and let it slip away in OT.

(Very similar to UP's trend this season...the last 12 minutes have been the toughest).

UOP played 10 players against USF, and 9 of them are listed as a Guard including all five starters. They had a Center come off the bench for 12 minutes. 6'2" G Lesown Hallums Jr. scored 25 points on 9-11 shooting (3-4 from 3P) in 41 minutes of play. 6'1" G Moe Odum played 45 minutes and scored 19 points with 10 assists and got to the FT line for 9-11. 6'5" G Donovan Williams played 41 minutes and scored 15 points.

The Tigers got to the FT line frequently against USF; they had 37 attempts and made 24. So I am guessing they are small and fast. Hopefully the overtime effort against the Dons and the travel to UP leads to tired legs and allows the well-rested Pilots to take advantage. ESPN Analytics gives the Pilots a 87.9% chance of victory. I would not place any money on that.

Great debut game for Yuto. Glad the threes started falling in the second half otherwise I would've had that petition to switch the floor back up in a hurry.

Post-game radio with Coach Legans and Yuto: https://vocaroo.com/12MrX8LWtBB3

Ha! That gosh darn floor!

No Thomas. No Noah. No Ali. We need effort guys and we got what we wanted. Wasn't a perfect game by any stretch and we were helped by Pacific's poor 2nd half but I will take it!! I assume there is a reason that V and Thomas didn't play. Also saw Vince with a boot on his foot (redshirt but I hate seeing guys hurt). Watched St Marys v LMU... we can beat these guys!

Does seems like Tyler and Tyler are still disconnected. Can't put my finger on it but they don't look in sync.

Vuk!!! Just dunk the ball ... that backpass drove me nuts but the unselfishness I do love

Yes, the victory was over UOP, a team that has had very little success this season, but they were certainly athletic and well coached, IMO.

Last night it was all about the team's EFFORT...much better than it was during their recent tournament experience!!

True, it was rather curious that neither V nor Thomas played, and that could be for any number of reasons, but if I were to hazard a guess, it was because the 7-man rotation we saw last night were the same 7 guys who put in the most effort/work since the Christmas break.  

However, and regardless of one's effort, the ball still needs to go in the hoop to win, and the Pilots struggled more last night than they are going to be allowed to in the upcoming Bay Area games.