The St. Mary's game

I actually wasn't able to watch/listen to the game (blasphemy, I know) so I'm going to have to trust you all for the reactions.

But I will say this... coming home later at night I was listening to sports radio and they were interviewing Hubie Brown. One thing that he said (talking about the NBA, but it still applies) was to point out that one of the hardest things when playing on the road is getting points, no matter who the competition is. Defense can generally perform, but it's the offense that almost always struggles. I thought that was fitting for what happened to the Pilots tonight... our offense was just out of sync. And remember, this was a Saint Mary's team that should have had a free throw to tie Gonzaga in the final 30 seconds of their game on Thursday. So they are starting to regain their Top 25 form, even without their best player Mills.

I look at it this way - it would have been awesome to win this game, but it's not a bad loss by any means. We didn't play well and you can't do that against a quality team and expect to win. The good news is that we still control our own destiny and are coming home with a chance to right the ship so to speak.

Regarding the threes, and that they are not going to fall every night, that's understandable. That's why you need a balanced attack. I do think, at times, we rely too much on perimiter shooting The problem with that, is that Knutson and Hannibal are not exactly great offensive players on the low block. Robin has some nice moves and good footwork, and is clearly our best post player. Hopefully, Big John will be a low post threat. He seems to have a nice touch, good footwork for a guy his size, and is a good passer. He just needs some time. Maybe if we posted Nick up some more against smaller players, I don't know.... I just think it's better to work from the inside out, because then if they collapse on you it opens up the perimter. If you're consistently playing outside-in, and the shots aren't falling... there's no real back up plan if the shots aren't falling. And there are going to be those nights, like last night, or earlier in the year against Santa Clara, where there is a lid on the basket.

UP Nation. Gutty performance. Rev keeps the boys working in a system that has them believing in their teammates and victories. I hope you finish out strong. If you win on the road (USD and SCU) we'll you'll deserve all the praise. Winning on the road is the difference maker.

Just a great, great season for the Pilots and glad to see the spirits lifted by a little game called basketball. It's amazing how one player as a point guard in General Mills can have such an affect on the other players.

My private thought and worry is that Mills will not return to form and impact status for the WCC.

Great to have another team (unforeseen my most) right in the mix and likely we will be playing each other one more time in the semi-final regardless of who finishes 2 and 3.

MJGoGaels wrote:
Great to have another team (unforeseen my most) right in the mix and likely we will be playing each other one more time in the semi-final regardless of who finishes 2 and 3.

It's nice to be in the mix for once. a rematch seems inevitable....

I was thinking about the tournament seedings last night and it does seem highly probable that UP and St Marys will end up playing each other again on Sunday, March 8th - regardless of who finishes 2nd or 3rd - the 3rd place team will have a great shot at winning on Saturday, which would pit them against the #2 seed on Sunday. As I said last night, I'm very impressed at how well St Marys has weathered the storm of losing Mills. It's scary to think how good they will be if and when he comes back healthy.

I don't want to get ahead of myself though. If UP don't take care of business this week against a Pepperdine team that has come on strong of late, and an LMU team that is playing competitive basketball, we could easily slip to 4th.

Four more to go, and as the cliche goes, "one game at a time"...

This is the part of the season where Rev can really try to differentiate himself as WCC Coach of the Year:

* Can we score and win on the road? (like Hubie Brown was talking about in Stonehill's post)
* Can Rev help Raivio to better understand what he does when he's at his best? Raivio quite frankly carried us in the first half of a game or two this season and without his contributions our record would be 2-4 games worse IMO.
* How will we do on a neutral court against teams in the WCC tournament?