Pilots vs Gonzaga, Tuesday 3/12, 1:00pm, ESPNU

The Pilots face the Bulldogs for a ticket to the NCAA Tourney. The Bulldogs are on a 24 game winning streak and have only lost two games, to WSU and Louisville. They are undefeated against WCC opponents this season. They led UOP 70-43 with 3-1/2 minutes left in the semifinal game before the Tigers had an 18-2 run to finish the game. GU won at Chiles by 21, and in Spokane by 50.

The Pilot women have nothing to lose, might as well play ferocious defense and give them your best shot.

The game will be broadcast on ESPNU at 1:00pm, I think with Ann Schatz on the call, and will also be on 910 ESPN radio with Jason Swygard on the call.

Go Pilots.

FYI, while the men's bracket has been exactly chalk, and all higher seeds have won every game so far, there have been three lower seed wins for the women.
#7 LMU beat #6 SMC on Friday. #5 UOP beat #4 USF on Saturday. And of course, #3 UP beat #2 SCU on Monday. Why not a fourth upset on Tuesday?

I'M JUMPING UP AND DOWN IN MY FLAT WITH NO ONE I CAN CELEBRATE WITH!!!

HOW

DO

THEY

KEEP

DOING

IT??????????????????

Sound Voltex wrote:HOW

DO

THEY

KEEP

DOING

IT??????????????????

Meek owns the zags in the tournament

54% shooting, 50% from 3P. 21 assists on 26 makes. Four players in double figures. Held the Truong sisters to 5-19 shooting, with 2-11 from 3P. Overcame a massive rebounding disadvantage (44-25). Never trailed by more than 5 points, responded whenever GU had a small run. Well done, Coach Meek, staff, and team.

up7587 wrote:54% shooting, 50% from 3P.  21 assists on 26 makes.  Four players in double figures.   Held the Truong sisters to 5-19 shooting, with 2-11 from 3P.  Overcame a massive rebounding disadvantage (44-25).  Never trailed by more than 5 points, responded whenever GU had a small run.  Well done, Coach Meek, staff, and team.

And and the pilots held the zags to 37.1% shooting and 25% from the arc for the game, which more than made up for the rebound differential.

Just remarkable.

"Final" play and the actual final play radio: https://vocaroo.com/12sA26YIGzMT
Post-game radio with Coach Meek: https://vocaroo.com/14AWRp7XSwtc
Post-game radio with Emme Shearer: https://vocaroo.com/17L3cvdOZPYZ

Post-game radio said Kennedy Dickie was Most Outstanding Player for the tournament. I haven't seen an All-Tournament team announcement.

Post game presser:

https://www.youtube.com/live/l2n4YnFUsE0?si=qSHGk-xhYr-_ycQw

I know Coach Legans is over grad transfer portal guys. I'd say Dickie (2 years EWU, 2 years USF) and Hamilton (5 years LBSU) worked out OK for Coach Meek.

Before today, Zags were NET #12, with the second best record in the nation. SCU is #70, Pilots are #108.

WCC championship recap:

https://wccsports.com/index.aspx

Geezaldinho wrote:WCC championship recap:

https://wccsports.com/index.aspx

2024 Credit Union 1 WCC Basketball Championship
All-Tournament Team
Maisie Burnham, Portland
Kennedy Dickie, Portland
Yvonne Ejim, Gonzaga
Eliza Hollingsworth, Gonzaga
Anaya James, Pacific

Most Outstanding Player
Kennedy Dickie, Portland

up7587 wrote:Most Outstanding Player
Kennedy Dickie, Portland

Kennedy once told me she came to UP for a chance to win a championship, and Coach Meek said he wanted her senior leadership.

I think they both got what they wanted!!

Here’s the O’s take on the win yesterday:

https://www.oregonlive.com/pilots/2024/03/portland-pilots-knock-off-gonzaga-to-win-wcc-womens-tournament-earn-ncaa-bid.html

From Spokane...

TV take: Gonzaga women come up on wrong side of instant classic WCC title game

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/mar/12/tv-take-gonzaga-women-come-up-on-wrong-side-of-ins/

Another article from Spokane, on Spangle WA (18 miles south of Spokane) native Maisie Burnham.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/mar/12/dave-boling-fearless-maisie-burnham-portland-women/

The Pilots are now tied with USF for second most WCC tournament championships at 4.  GU of course leads with 10.

The Pilots were champs in 1994.  USF won the next three years, and Pilots were the 2nd place team every time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Conference_women%27s_basketball_tournament#Performance_by_school

From the Spokane Spokesman, a note about Kennedy Dickie:

"Pilots forward Kennedy Dickie cried with equal emotion at the announcement she was voted the tournament’s most outstanding player."

No doubt it is getting ahead of events, and even though her tenure as a Pilot will be short, I would like to see Kennedy inducted into the Pilot's women's basketball Hall of Fame/Honor based on her tournament and other performances. The induction may not bring the same tears years from now, but it will be deserved, imo.

We have heard much about the improbability of the Pilot's win, but let's not fail to again give consideration to the fact that the Pilots were playing their 3rd game in 4 days, a predicament about which we hear kevetching from NBA teams, citing it as a reason for subpar performance. But no complaints from our hometown heroes.

Agree with the comment that the two graduate portal transfers were huge. Both Hamilton and Dickie were instrumental to Pilot success.

Kennedy Dickie played the second most minutes this year, 869 minutes or 65.3 of the total available minutes. She is only behind Lucy Cochrane at 929 minutes, 69.8%. Some big holes to fill next year.

Unfortunately, Kennedy doesn’t meet the hall criteria for induction, having played only one year.

HOF criteria wrote: https://portlandpilots.com/documents/2011/9/26/UP_HOF_Committee_and_HOF_Nominations_.pdf?id=3433

She has a better chance of being inducted in the WCC hall


And there is still a big backlog of All Americans in other sports who haven’t made the hall, which should be an embarrassment to the selection committee.

A homecoming clip, with comments by Kennedy Dickie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1LIBMBZhX8

On the car radio this evening, quite by accident I caught an interview on GameNight on ESPN Radio with Emme Shearer, highlighting the Pilots as WCC conference tourney champs.  The hosts loved her accent.

She mentioned they were on their way to the TrailBlazer game to get a shout-out there.

up7587 wrote:She mentioned they were on their way to the TrailBlazer game to get a shout-out there.

Evidence: