Pepperdine, Thursday 7pm, Chiles Center

The final homestand starts with the surging Pepperdine Waves, who swept USD and SCU at home last weekend.

Pepp (5-5, 8-18 ) is on a bit of a roll... winning 4 of their last 5. Pepp is a very young team that seems to be gelling a bit late in the season, so we need to make sure we "show up." Pepp coach Asbury credits the recent wins to a noticable improvement in defense, and they held LMU, SCU & USD to 43, 60 & 52 points, respectively, in the last 3 games...

I dont think Pepp will be able to consistently defend our perimeter guys, and hopefully we can get the inside game rolling, as Robin, Luke & Kramer (& Hegarty?) should hold the advantage down low for scoring and rebounds...

Discuss amongst yourselves...

GO PILOTS! Break the Waves!

I would like us to come out and really step up the effort defensively. At the beginning of the year, one of Rev's goals was to be the best defensive team in the conference. We've showed signs of being really good on D - these next two home games would be great opportunities to rekindle some of that defensive pressure. It does seem that often players on other teams have some of their best offensive games against us, let's not let that happen. Just dominate them on the defensive end from the opening tip.

Our offense is solid and will come. I suppose it would be nice to get the big men scoring down low. I'd like to see a 12 and 12 game from Raivio, just playing his game within the offense.

And before I forget, these two home games aren't on TV, but the last two are on CSNW. If you are a DirectTV customer with the sports package, they are also on one of the Comcast california channels (can't remember which one specifically, but they are listed on the opposing schools' websites) which are available on DirectTV (and Dishnetwork I think).

This should be a fun game. It'd be great to see our big guys start to take control and get the ball more. A good inside game would take pressure off of our perimeter shooters and give us a more versatile and balanced attack.

Either way, bring on the Waves!

Ah, Malibu Beach Night! Has the pep band got any Beach Boys songs to play?

I'm flying on a jet plane don't know if I'll be back Monday, I'm flying on a jet plane don't know if I'll be back some day, yeah! Vacation until next Tues. I'll be at my first two home games this year Thurs. and Sat. If any of you guys want a dinner that they serve (spagetti last year?) I'm buying. Or any other secret PN folks meet before the game at Chile's Center. Last year I felt kinda uncomfortable sitting ALONE at that dinner so it would be nice to meet one or two of you. On the other hand,if you feel the other way, don't say I didn't give you advance notice!!! HIDE !!! I'm not a real big drinker but I'll buy you your first round if you can tolerate my big hot self.

Looking for a good performance. Thank goodness the Pilot's have T.J. this year. I remember that lead we blew in the 2nd half because we could not get the ball over half court.

I look for better offensive preformance's from the big's as Big John gets aclimated(ie. conditioning , game shape) and can give Kramer,Robin, and Luke some solid backup with his size. It will be great to have him and Jasonn in there for the bulk and size during the stretch run and WCC tourney time. No more little old Portland anymore with a 9-10 deep bench.


Is it raining yet? , hopefully 3's Thurs.Sat .




MesaPilot1

Glad to hear that Mesa will be in the house this week! Hopefully lots of people will be there... alums, students and fans.

I agree with Rochin54 that this week will be a great opportunity to re-focus the defensive intensity...

Guess I'll need to wear the wig so Mesa knows which one's me...

Thursday and Saturday's forecast is calling for heavy 3-point rain, with some potential thunder from big guys in the paint.

Am I the only one really wanting to see Big John dunk?

I would love to see Big John dunk. The crowd would surely go NUTS for it, too!

I'm digging that forecast.

PilotDrummer wrote:
Am I the only one really wanting to see Big John dunk?

Personally I'd be happy with a simple rebound or just an actual field goal... But a put back dunk would be fine by me (haha and would satisfy my other two desires at the same time...)

Mesa, what secret signal are you going to use to reveal yourself to other PN'ers? We really need t-shirts or ballcaps, don't we? Of course, some folks keep their identity hidden even on PN! At least when I look at who's loggod on there is usually one or two 'hidden' members.

"Am I the only one really wanting to see Big John dunk?"--PilotDrummer

A dunk would be sweet... A screen for Jared Stohl to knock down a three would be even better because that would mean he's catching onto Rev's system... It would also be sweet to see a TJ to Hegarty pick-and-roll, but, maybe I'm dreaming a little too much...

Lets just let him focus on being able to put in 10-15 effective minutes and snag some rebounds.... That said, running into him on a hard screen is definitely not on my top 5 of things to do before i die....

It must have just missed at 6

I don't really care what big John does, cuz I won't see it anyway. I just want to hear a score where the number after Portland is greater than the number after Pepperdine. There are a lot of "experts" who constantly remind me that the team with more points ALWAYS wins.

Oregonian game day preview: LINK

Here is a preview I found in the Kansas City Star: LINK

So Beseda mentions the tie breaker, and potentially SCU being a big game for the tie breaker. Does anyone know what the tie breaker rules are for the tournament seeding? I was assuming it was overall record (in which case SMC would have the tiebreaker over us). I poked around a bit and couldn't find anything.

WCC Tiebreakers:
(1) Head to head
(2) Results vs. other WCC teams, starting at the top and working down the standings.
(3) RPI

So, if we end up tied with SMC for 2nd (that assumes SMC wins out which is likely with USD tonight, @LMU and @Pepp; and assumes we go 3-1) the tiebreakers would work as follows:

(1) We split during the regular season, so we move to #2.
(2) We both lost to GU twice, split with each other, so then we move to whoever ends up in 4th place behind us... if that is SCU, then SMC split with them. This is where it gets tricky--if we beat SCU again but lose to USD, we would have swept SCU, and therefore have a better record vs. the #4 team, and we win the tiebreaker--UP gets #2, and SMC gets #3. Now, if we lost to SCU and beat USD to get into the tie, we both would have splits with SCU, so we would move down to #5, but this wont break the tie, as UP's record against the other teams and SMC's would be identical (each team with 4 losses--2 to GU, 1 to SCU and 1 to each other). We would then move to #3.
(3) RPI. SMC wins this tiebreaker. Their RPI is around 60 and ours is in the low 100's... We cant make up that difference in the above scenarios.

So, what this boils down to: We must beat Pepperdine tonight.

And then, after that, we must beat LMU.

And after that, we need to win at USD & SCU, and then all of this is moot. We can actually lose @ USD if we win @ SCU (if they are in 4th place) and still get the #2 seed. A USD win @ SMC tonight would be huge, too... I really, really would like to win 2nd place outright... But SCU plays @ USF Saturday, and if USF (who is playing much better recently) upsets SCU, step #2 really gets interesting. Again, win out, and we dont have to worry.

To recap the importance of seeding in the WCC tourney:
On Friday, March 6th, #5 plays #8, and #6 plays #7. On Saturday, #4 plays the 5/8 winner, and #3 plays the 6/7 winner. On Sunday, #1 plays the survivor of 4/5/8, and #2 plays the survivor of 3/6/7. The winners play for the auto bid Monday night.

By mentally putting teams into the bracket, there could be some very entertaining 1st & 2nd round games, with teams #4-#7 all being pretty close now...

A nice breakdown Pilot Nut. Well done!

The biggest thing for me is that if we do indeed get the #2 seed we will be two wins away from the NCAA tournament. It gets very real at that point... and as Rev has been saying a lot lately, it's time to get greedy!

Thanks Nut - well said.. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the tourney games. Unfortunately, I'll be missing the friday games as I won't make it there until late friday night.

Rochin54 wrote:Unfortunately, I'll be missing the friday games as I won't make it there until late friday night.

At least you shouldn't miss any Pilot games!

indeed! By the way Pilot11 - are there many students heading to Vegas for the tourney?

Rochin54 wrote:are there many students heading to Vegas for the tourney?

There aren't many that I'm aware of, actually. I imagine there are quite a few students like myself who would love to go, but can't afford to.

Ummm...

Step 1: Get a couple big cars.
Step 2: Drive 12+ dudes down to Vegas.
Step 3: Split a hotel room between 12+ dudes.
Step 4: Hope that PBR is still cheap in Vegas.

Did it for the tourney when it was in Santa Clara (not sure if that's an easier drive or not) and it was one of the most memorable college experiences (besides the education of Course). You can make this happen!

With the rate we got at The Palms, you could have six guys in a hotel room for $12.83 a night each. You could pester the athletic department or student activities for tickets to the game. Seriously, you should consider this.