Better Start the Yale Pre-Game discussion?

Game's on Friday,guess their top scorer graduated. Another great game at home for the Pilot's to work through early season game plans. Hopefully get revenge for last years drubbing and miserable east coast trip.

Okay. It's game day, folks. I know everyone's still talking about Washington and the woulda-shoulda-coulda game at PSU. Let's talk Ivy League. Let's talk Yale.

They're 0-2, but one of those losses was Stanford and the other was Vermont.

Thoughts? I'm going to call a Pilot victory. Not as physical of a game as UW, but about a 10 point win. For it being my wife's birthday, I hope it's a win, I'd at least like her to enjoy the game...

I guess they played Stanford pretty tough if I am not mistaken. Stanford is supposed to be a fairly good team this year. But their loss to Vermont was not what they expected at all.

They have two 2nd team all-conference players back and one r/s freshman that appear to do most of the scoring. The younger player is their Power Forward so it seems Knutson/Smuelders will have his third tough assignment in a row.....Brockman,Jamie..

Hopefully the students will show up like they did against WU. PurplePride13?

MesaPilot1 wrote:I guess they played Stanford pretty tough if I am not mistaken. Stanford is supposed to be a fairly good team this year. But their loss to Vermont was not what they expected at all.

They have two 2nd team all-conference players back and one r/s freshman that appear to do most of the scoring. The younger player is their Power Forward so it seems Knutson/Smuelders will have his third tough assignment in a row.....Brockman,Jamie..

Hopefully the students will show up like they did against WU. PurplePride13?

Surely you must mean UW? One of the ways I was able to rationalize going to Willamette University two years ago was that they'd never play the Pilots!

Stanford lost the Lopez twins to the NBA draft, and they probably won't be one of the top teams in the Pac-10 this year. If we play a smarter second half than we did against PSU, we could win by 10-15+ points, I'm hoping. But, I admit that I don't know the name of a single player on Yale...

They did win by 19: 77-58. Good games all around, and a nice showing by the student section.

It was a good game. Dominated in points in the paint and rebounds. Some good passing, but too many turnovers again. I believe 8 made threes. 5 players in double figures. Everyone got into the game.

Students stayed until the end with strong spirit. I heard there are some good incentives for them: free pizza before the games, and tickets and gas money to the conference tournament if they attend eleven games!! Where was that when I was a student; I never missed a home game.

And PPT, what was the song in the second half official timeout near8 minutes to go? Sounded a little like Sweet Home Alabama?

Sounded like it because it was.

Wow,all 5 starters in Double figures. When that happens it's pretty difficult to lose a college BB game. Like Rev said,sloppy,sloppy play in 2nd half.TJ got careless with the ball at points during the game. Great to see BJ , Nem,and Waterford get some "Live Action" in the game.
Nem and Waterford looked like Freshmen but they will continue to grow and progress. Isn't it nice to let them grow slowly and steadly rather than be thrown to the wolves like Sikma,Knutson, and Jasonn were last year as freshman.

Good fan support as PurplePride13 and his cohorts are to be commended for keeping it up. That's great news about the gas money incentive for the students. It would be nice to see some of that rowdy bunch travel with the guy's to Vegas.I know it would help the team very much to have some students there,plus think of all the fun they could have outside the tourney games

It is sure nice to watch the team score in the 70's, and feel like they have the game in hand in the first half barring any major mishaps. It's been a long time since that has happened. Grreatt Win for the Pilots,now Close out the weekend (Sun. 2pm) with a win at UC-Davis to run the record to 3-1.


MesaPilot1

Great game, lots of fun. Way too many turnovers, as observed by others.

Photos are already posted from the game on the website: http://www.portlandpilots.com/photo_gallery.aspx?gallery=4

I had the privilage of working the remote camera for Steve Gibbons (the photographer). I didn't have a bomb in the band (though the big red button looks like one), just the trigger for the two under the basket shots there in the gallery. Pretty cool!

Maybe the high turnover numbers are partly due to the number of young guys on the team. As they gain experience they might take better care of the ball as the season goes on. I'm sure Rev is already working on this.

One thing I noticed: all five starters in double figures. It's not like guys are dropping 20 or 25, but it's a sign that the team is versatile in how it scores.

Great to see the balanced scoring (again) by the Pilots... nice. Kramer: awesome game. Robin: Solid performance. TJ still has some learning to do, but played well. Sikma seems to be getting back into playing shape (and had an amazing block!!). Ethan continues to impress me, with his improvement over last year.

Overall, we played well, but I am concerned about the careless turnovers and how we let them back in the game a couple times--we built the lead up to 17 or so points, and then would noticably pull back a bit; granted Rev was subbing liberally (Waterford, Porter), but I would have liked us to maintain a 20+ point lead for the second half!

How did Yale stay close to Stanford? Was it the same team we saw last night?!

Oh, and I forgot to give some credit to PP13: Great student turnout & performance last night... you didnt disappoint on your proclamation!

Thanks guys, we try. i actually had to leave the game after 20 minutes last night. I'm an RA and was on duty, but clay held the fort for me. Basically our plan this year is to get about 30 dedicated students at every game, and we have a good core growing, they are mostly freshman which is nice to see. Last year was really tough for the student section but this year is going a lot better so far. Probably a small turnout for Nevada, and then after that its pretty much the end of the semester, we have some good things planned for next semester though. As for the promotions. We've been working with athletics to get some stuff seeing as we can not have OFFICIAL purple pride parties with alcohol anymore so we got a sponsorship from pepsi, and we get free food and soda before eveygame at the students entrance. we're calling it the Pepsi Pregame at the Pilagio. like the bilagio but with a P. trish thought of it, but so far students love it. Hoping that the enthusiasm continues. as for ideas on chanting things, sometimes clay williams, who some of you may know, just says some stuff that isn't traditional chants, but its clay,

Well of course students love it. They get free food.

Don't forget, everyone--19% off Pilots gear at the bookstore on Monday.