Portland State game on Tuesday

Stonehouse wrote:Gooooooo Pilots!

Now you have me saying that! But it is a sentiment I like!!

I wish I could go, but there is too much to do here and I am only in town for so long...I am really going to miss seeing Wallet play, even though he is on the enemy now.

Thanks, Nut! I just bought my tickets in Section 2.

38-35 at the half.

Pilots are shooting 59% from the field and outrebounding PSU 21-5. They have 9 turnovers to PSU's 3, though.

10 pts, 4 rebs for Robin, 9 pts for Stohl, 7 for Ethan. Jamie has 8 pts for PSU.

Another thing: The Pilot bench is outscoring the Viking bench by a huge margin.

Looks like a final of 76-81, Portland State.

Dang. 81-76 PSU.

Looks like they played better D: They had 10 steals and UP had 17 turnovers. Pilots shot just fine (52.8%) and outrebounded them. I could add more, but PSU's live stats have a bad habit of cutting in and out.

OK, Dominguez had 23 and Jamie 14. For the Pilots, Raivio with 19, Stohl and Smeulders with 16 each.

From the sounds of it the Pilots came out with the same attitude as against UW. Portland State was always going to be tough and the Pilots matched them much of the game.

So what do those who were there think?

JD was amazing. He absolutely shredded our defense... it was brutal; many of the 17 turnovers (on top of the steals) were forced by JD...

PSU played great defense, and we just couldnt take care of the ball. It seemed like Dominguez couldnt miss... if he had just missed 1 or 2 shots, it felt like the momentum would have shifted back to us. But congrats to a solid PSU team... they are going to be a force (again) in the Big Sky.

I wasn't there but I'll throw in my . Good first half. Maybe I'm being to critical but it seems like a timeout could have been called during their run to slow their spurt down. I guess the Pilots didn't have one to spare considering Rev almost got a "T" at the end of the game when the "homer"
PSU announcers were trying to referee the game and give him one. Oh did I miss play by play guy Tom. What type of shot was that by Ito at the end of game. I think it's about time coach starts looking down the bench for some relief for TJ from Waterford. He needs some seasoning anyway. That was great to see Mem get some first half minutes. Always a critique in the Crowd .

Oh well just my sour grapes. I sure bet the players would have loved to won this one. Credit to the Vikings,JD and company played a strong game and should once again should be a force in the Big Sky. I'll be watching them on freee BigSkyTv.org(anything for this cheepskate) and cheering JD,and Jamie on to sucess.

Now I will go cry in my beer until the GW Bush's alma mater show's up at the Chiles Center Friday for a good ole fashioned butt-whippen. I think the players may be a little ready for them , huh?

MesaPilot1

The PSU defense really improved in the second half. And JD was basically their offense. I'd been thinking I hope he doesn't "go off", and then he did!

BTW, the long shot by Tashi near the end was at least the fourth option; everyone else was shut down, time was running off, and he had to shoot over a leaping defender. Credit to the defense.

Bottom line, our old guys beat our new guys, but it was a tough game, and we played OK. No chance now to be undefeated.

Yeah,4th option, I guess I just had flashbacks to the Pepperdine game last year.Maybe watching on the TV it was different but I tend to think Stohl,Ravio,Robin,Niedermier....may have hit the rim on that shot. All I can say isn't it nice to have a pt guard like TJ Campbell,I miss him every minute when he's not on the floor. I really think our team's skill level go's down the drain without him in there. But he's got to get some rest some time during the game. Too bad he picked up his 5th foul when the Pilots needed him the most.

TJ still has a little way to go. I don't think he was ready for a PT like Jeremia. He's use to being the quick guy out on the court. It looked to me that JD picked him every time TJ was looking over to Rev fo Sobatka for instructions.

I think it was a learning experience for him tonight. He'll learn from it.

I also thought Taishi is better as the #2 PT. he has more energy and will be able to spell TJ just fine.

Like Larry Williams said We still have a long way to go.

Thanks for pointing that out about TJ. I missed that looking over at the coach's angle .Like you mentioned though it wasn't like he was up against chopped liver,JD will be one of his toughest test all year.

I am excited every game he plays and transitions to D-1 ball from JUCO. It was great to see Stohl knock his shot down. He looks much better dribbling and on defense this year too.

Just think we have Sikma too, when he gets in better playing shape, he will be out there tearing it up with the rest of the Pilots too.

OK... had a night to think about it/wallow in pity.

1) Dominguez single-handedly won the game for Portland State. They have some capable supporting players, and I think we all know that Jones would be good for a double-double, but this was the JD show. He put his team on his back and carried them. At one point in the second half UP was up by 7 and seemingly in control... I honestly think, even given the result, that we played pretty well against a good mid-major team on the road. But we just didn't have an answer for Dominguez. Between his threes, his penetration, his defense... not much to do but tip your hat to him. I'm not sure what UP could have done to stop him. It was just one of those things.

2) I suppose this is where my abject homerism kicks in, but even given the loss, I am encouraged by what I saw. Obviously there is some stuff that needs to be tightened up - perimeter defense and rebounding (!!!) among them. How PSU got so many offensive boards in the second half, I'll never now. But the thing that impressed me most was - one again - the Pilots not totally folding under pressure. It was tight all the way to the end, and we even regained the lead briefly after their big run. Over the past two seasons... it always seemed like we'd hang in there for a while and then fade at the end and lose by 12-15. Now? We battled, we grinded, we didn't give up and gave ourselves an opportunity to make it interesting at the end. The way I look at it, if the home crowd is on their feet cheering for the defense on the last play of the game, you know you kept it competitive. It seems like we've got some mental strength that we didn't have in previous seasons. I love that.

3) Stohl... played his role to a tee. Knocked down shots, provided offense. Loved to see that.

4) Raivio was solid and there wasn't anyone else I wanted taking shots down the stretch. For whatever reason it seems easy to overlook his contributions, but he made some big plays down the stretch to give us a chance. I wish wish wish he would have taken a three in the final minute. He's the one on the team who has the you-know-whats to take that shot and make it.

5) Following up on point #4... I don't want to Monday morning quarterback, but seriously... a lot of things went wrong in the last minute. Smeulders hit a shot to cut the lead to five, and then we got our gift when they turned it over on the inbounds play. That was it... that was our big chance. And the best we could do was a lousy runner in the lane by Ito that had no chance of going in? Bah... frustrating. The shot needed to be Nik's. But then... even worse... it happens again! We force ANOTHER turnover... still down by five... 40 seconds or so - plenty of time - and the best we do is an airball three by Taishi? I love Taishi and all, but come on... Nik, Jared, Robin... they should have taken shots. Not Taishi. Maybe it's a credit to PSU's defense, but I expect better than that from us.

And last but not least... I really don't mean to harp on this, but it's frustrating to me... after Ito's shot goes out of bounds we inbound it... but Nik is the inbounder. WHY? We're down by 5 with 15 seconds left... we need to get the ball to him for a quick three. Instead, we pass it in and Ito dribbles around for a while before it gets knocked out of bounds. Then we do the exact same thing with 9 seconds left. WHAT???? I mean... there just wasn't urgency at the end there. It's like we were playing as though the game was tied and we didn't want to make a mistake. We were down by 5! We needed quick shots from our best player - Nik.

I trust the coaches and I believe in them, but I think when they watch the film they will realize things got real sloppy for us in that last minute. Definitely something for us to work on.

Sorry... there's more. In general thoughts on PSU:

1) I think they might have the worst announcer I've ever heard. From showing off his Mariah Carey-like ranged when he says "for thrEEEEEEeeeeeeeEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee" to announcing "knocked out of bounds by Jamie Jones" or whoever knocked it out of bounds. I mean, seriously? At times he sounded like a barking circus seal with his hi-low action. Baaaad. Makes me so proud that we've got a real pro in Curtis (our PA guy). Curtis is the man.

2) The freaking Bingo announcements during every time out. Did anyone even have a Bingo card? I looked around the whole stadium and didn't see anyone, and there definitely wasn't a winner. They weren't selling them before the game as far as I could tell. Annoying!

3) There was one timeout, in the final minute, where it was dead silent. The drum line guys didn't play, there was no music... it was creepy.

4) The students were a complete graveyard for the first 30 minutes. Part of the problem was there was an 80 year old man with a cane in the front row. Not sure what that was all about. They finally got into it at the end, but man... I realize our student section is hot and cold, but jeesh... at least they chant "defense", stand, and cheer when we hit shots.

5) I didn't get dinner, so I wanted to grab a bite to eat in the second half. I waited for the first media timeout to hit the concessions. They were shut down. WTF?

Ha ha... OK. That's it for my sour grapes. It's just when you go and experience a game like that, you really appreciate how professional it's done at the Chiles Center and how much better of a venue it is.

I agree with you. Now they need to just put us on the end of the bench for our Monday morning quarterbacking ability ,lol. What you said were my thoughts exactly, I guess I just have "nightmare's" from last season's losses that I am so desperate for the Pilot's to win every close game. I'll get over it but it might take a few more close wins or much Pschotherapy. Whichever comes first.

I love that the Pilots can score more points this year. I believe they have improved by leaps and bounds. It is so nice to watch a game with more than 45-60 pts scored. Last year we looked like lost little puppy's waiting for the other team to beat us even when we were ahead. Bring on the Yalle's.

MesaPilot1

Stonehouse wrote:Sorry... there's more. In general thoughts on PSU:

1) I think they might have the worst announcer I've ever heard. From showing off his Mariah Carey-like ranged when he says "for thrEEEEEEeeeeeeeEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee" to announcing "knocked out of bounds by Jamie Jones" or whoever knocked it out of bounds. I mean, seriously? At times he sounded like a barking circus seal with his hi-low action. Baaaad. Makes me so proud that we've got a real pro in Curtis (our PA guy). Curtis is the man.

2) The freaking Bingo announcements during every time out. Did anyone even have a Bingo card? I looked around the whole stadium and didn't see anyone, and there definitely wasn't a winner. They weren't selling them before the game as far as I could tell. Annoying!

3) There was one timeout, in the final minute, where it was dead silent. The drum line guys didn't play, there was no music... it was creepy.

4) The students were a complete graveyard for the first 30 minutes. Part of the problem was there was an 80 year old man with a cane in the front row. Not sure what that was all about. They finally got into it at the end, but man... I realize our student section is hot and cold, but jeesh... at least they chant "defense", stand, and cheer when we hit shots.

5) I didn't get dinner, so I wanted to grab a bite to eat in the second half. I waited for the first media timeout to hit the concessions. They were shut down. WTF?

Ha ha... OK. That's it for my sour grapes. It's just when you go and experience a game like that, you really appreciate how professional it's done at the Chiles Center and how much better of a venue it is.

My Question to you Stonehouse , did he look like Mariah Carey , or just sound like her. Your still pretty young,but you shouldn't be eating junk food that late at night. What would your Mother think of that Diet?

Sadly, no, he didn't look like Mariah.

And I know, I know... but nachos sounded so good!

Good wrap-up on the game. JD flat out won the game, almost single-handedly... and I dont mean that as a slight to the rest of the PSU team; he was just that good... we couldnt defend him. I look forward to seeing how he does this year; I would have never thought he would have progressed this well!

The last 45 seconds was tough to watch. Credit PSU's defense--which was very good to deny the 3-shot. But still, as Stonehouse said, we seemed to lack the urgency, or a set strategy, to get off a decent shot. I dont know... and maybe we could have gone for the quick 2 at some point in there with 30 seconds to go, down by 5? I think we could have made a quick & easy lay-in... and that might have opened up the perimeter a bit...? I am just trying to think how that could have gone better...

The PA announcer was terrible... I laughed every time he announced who knocked the ball out of bounds... a couple times I thought he was going to say "Coooostooooon wasn't able to hoooold on to it, and it fell out of booooounds...!!!" In that monster truck rally voice. I noticed that the crowd was oddly silent at times, too... weird.

Overall, I have to agree that other than way too many turnovers/steals, we played fairly well against a solid team. Without JD, we would have won that game by 10-15 points. But he was there, smoked us, and hopefully this will end up helping TJ in the long run. Oh yeah, and TJ's block of JD late in the game was pretty sweet...

PilotNut wrote:Oh yeah, and TJ's block of JD late in the game was pretty sweet...

Thanks for reminding me of that play!!! That was awesome... not only the swat, but the jump over those fans sitting in the chairs courtside. That was nice, and a reminder of how good an athlete TJ is.

Great game Pilots! You will do fine this year. Raveno has you on the right track. Next year you will be really good since you have no seniors on this team.

Stonehouse wrote:Sorry... there's more. In general thoughts on PSU:

1) I think they might have the worst announcer I've ever heard. From showing off his Mariah Carey-like ranged when he says "for thrEEEEEEeeeeeeeEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee" to announcing "knocked out of bounds by Jamie Jones" or whoever knocked it out of bounds. I mean, seriously? At times he sounded like a barking circus seal with his hi-low action. Baaaad. Makes me so proud that we've got a real pro in Curtis (our PA guy). Curtis is the man.

I went to some PSU games last year when the Pilots were away. The announcer at their women's games is pretty darn good. Much better than this guy by the sounds of it.

Stonehouse wrote:
There was one timeout, in the final minute, where it was dead silent. The drum line guys didn't play, there was no music... it was creepy.

There's a way they could fix that. And Athletics has figured out that playing when the opponent calls a TO makes a lot more sense than when the Pilots call TO. I would also add I'm really happy with how things are going with Dr. Murphy in charge.

Stonehouse wrote:
The students were a complete graveyard for the first 30 minutes. Part of the problem was there was an 80 year old man with a cane in the front row. Not sure what that was all about. They finally got into it at the end, but man... I realize our student section is hot and cold, but jeesh... at least they chant "defense", stand, and cheer when we hit shots.

I think our student section is much improved in recent years. Not quite what it was in the Stonehouse/R54/DTR era , but definitely on the rise.

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:
I think our student section is much improved in recent years. Not quite what it was in the Stonehouse/R54/DTR era , but definitely on the rise.

Aw shucks...

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:I would also add I'm really happy with how things are going with Dr. Murphy in charge.

I agree. Now if we could be a bit more up-tempo. I always enjoyed Phil's frenetic-paced tempos.

I think he likes taking the songs at the tempo of the originals. It would be fun to play at Phil's tempos sometimes, too.