2007-08 Season Preview

Our good man Joe has put together a great preview of the 2007-08 Pilots men's hoops team, over on the Oregonian Pilots' Blog. Joe, once again, does a great job!

http://blog.oregonlive.com/pilots

Reading that post makes me ready for hoops season now. First game: 10/31!

It will be a three-parter... that's just the tip of the iceberg!

Part 2 is now posted, finally:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/pilots/

It's a big one, complete with a full WCC preview.

Great job Stoney!

I can see why it took so long. It''ll probably take another day to absorb it.

I hadn't realized that so many players are gone.

That's quite an effort Stonehouse. Thanks for the informative review.

I take issue with your painful, homer pick of the Pilots as 6th in the league. Unfortunately, reality is likely to be even more painful. I also am biased, but I believe you underestimate the effect of the departures and of having youth and inexperinece in so many positions. Jamie Jones is a huge loss. Tieffenthaller would likely have started. JD would at least be playing significant minutes. Losing Emerson doesn't help much either because he could have provided some offensive firepower from the small forward position, which we lack. I would not be surprised to see Reveno move Raivio to the wing at some point and play Ito with Stohl: we give up something defensively and on the boards, but we are probably a much better offense.

I do not think we will finish above 7th and perhaps we will inhabit the cellar. Santa Clara has more talent and more continuity in key positions than us. LMU may be better as well. Pepperdine is a wild card that may still be adjusting to the system of Coach Walberg, which has yet to work at this level, although I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

I hope you are right about the winning percentage, but there too. . . I do not think Tieffenthaller will be eligible when we play the Vikings: he did not leave the U until after the first semester, so that his eligibility will not begin until well into the preseason--I could be wrong on that, though, as he did not play with the team in the fall. JD against Ito will be interesting. I think JD will get around Ito at will but he has a hard time getting to the hole at his size. Ito might be able to take advantage of JDs size. Hmmn?

I am looking forward to the year, but I fear we will be at best inconsistent. I really do want to see Ravio on the court. I hope for the best but I think we are a year away from being truly competitive. Go Pilots!

I totally see where you're coming from. Maybe it's unfair to expect a lot from all of the newcomers, but here's the way I see it--Ito will be good and Watson will be solid enough. I also think Raivio and Smeulders won't miss a beat and will step right in... don't sleep on Smeulders. He's good and was always the best post player in practice last year and he got plenty of playing experience against good competition this summer.

So that's four guys I think we can count on. Which, in my opinion, is more than both LMU and SCU. (Other than Angley and Bryant, how can you saw SCU has more talent? I don't see it.)

Beyond that, I think Stohl can contribute as much if not more than Parker did last year (Jared is a better shooter at least) and I really do think Niedermeyer will imrpove. The real issue is how the young posts do. If Knutson can be serviceable (and I've heard he's pretty solid) and if Sikma can handle the adjustment to D1, they might be OK. I'm not counting on scoring... all I want to see is decent defense and good rebounding. I know with Sikma that it's a mental/maturity thing rather than a question of his skill. I think if Rev can "unlock" him, he could be a great player. As for Knutson, he's big and strong and fundamentally smart... remember how Tiefenthaler looked pretty decent as a freshman? Well, I'm thinking Knutson is the rich man's version of Tiefenthaler.

Hannibal, I'm not expecting much out of him. He's got size and is a great prospect, but his year? I definitely am not holding my breath.

The other thing that I am banking on is the improvement I saw in the team last year. We played good defense. We rebounded well. There was an offense. And this was with a team who went through a coaching change, a bunch of turmoil, whose best player was chronically injured and shouldn't have even been out on the court, had a freshman point guard, had two lackadaisical big men, and no guard depth whatsoever. So is there reason to be hopeful that the coaches might have more success with their own guys? I think so.

But yes, I know I've got purple-colored glasses on. I won't be crushed if they go 7-22 overall and 3-11 in WCC. I know they are young and I know they are up against a lot of better teams. But the way I look at it, I got more than I expected last year, and I think I'm going to get more than I expect this year too.

Stonehouse has put up part 2 of the season preview epic blog... check it out. Great work, Stoney!

I like the "glass is half full" attitude!!

http://blog.oregonlive.com/pilots/

Stonehouse wrote:I totally see where you're coming from. Maybe it's unfair to expect a lot from all of the newcomers, but here's the way I see it--Ito will be good and Watson will be solid enough. I also think Raivio and Smeulders won't miss a beat and will step right in... don't sleep on Smeulders. He's good and was always the best post player in practice last year and he got plenty of playing experience against good competition this summer. So that's four guys I think we can count on. Which, in my opinion, is more than both LMU and SCU. (Other than Angley and Bryant, how can you saw SCU has more talent? I don't see it.)

I think you're right about these four ..... pretty solid. In your opionion, are any of the incoming Freshman ready to make a solid contribution at the start of the season ?

Stonehouse, your posts always reflect extensive knowledge of the team and its players. I truly do appreciate your efforts. Thank you.

On the other hand, which way this team will go is an open question, to be answered sometime in the near future, on the hardwood. I hope you are right and I am wrong.

If Smeulders is the force you suggest he may be, well then, let the good times roll. But, having been chastened with each succeeding year's failure, I find it hard to be overly optimistic.

As to Santa Clara, why would you exclude either Angly or Bryant in evaluating the talent levels? I did not. Also, frankly, their recruits are no less tested than our own, and came to SCU with more competition for their services and more accolades than most, if not all, of the players here. Gunderson, for instance, was offered by the Pilots and many others but chose SCU. He may be a player.

wrv... you are exactly the healthy dose of reality that a starry-eyed Pilot fan like me needs!

Anyway, I got an e-mail from someone close to the program (oh yeah... I just busted out the "close to the program" line... I feel so important now) saying that from their observations they think Smeulders will be the leading scorer and not Raivio. Said Raivio is more of an all-around player, not necessarily a pure scorer.

Now that I think about it, it makes sense. I remember reading somewhere that Nik wanted to play point guard, which is obviously more of a play-making position than a socring one. So perhaps it's unfair to put that kind of expectations on him. Still, I'm just happy to have him on the team, because I know he's a skilled and smart player.

But that also leads me to believe that Smeulders will indeed be a force.

I also keep hearing good things about Jared Stohl... I think he is going to be a very nice surprise.

Stonehouse wrote:I also keep hearing good things about Jared Stohl... I think he is going to be a very nice surprise.

Are you thinking that Jared Stohl is capable of making a significant contributiohn this season ?

upforever - yeah, I think he can. The thing is, beyond Ito and Raivio we really don't have a whole lot of guard depth (I'm not buying Thompson or Carter as a real option), so Stohl and maybe Porter will be thrown into the fire. Naturally there's no way of knowing how they will handle it, but at the very least the opportunity will be there for them.

And from what I have seen/heard about Stohl, it sounds like he has been impressing everyone. I have seen him play a little bit, and he can definitely shoot. That in itself, I think, tells me he will contribute... we don't really have any other shooters aside from maybe Ito, so I'm thinking Stohl can provide the coaches with a three-point option that might help spread out opponent's defense.

So yeah... I think he is definitely capable of making a significant contribution. I wouldn't count on more than a few ppoints per game (I'm thinking 6 or so... if he gets close to 10 that would just be incredible), but hey... that's not bad for a freshman!

Stonehouse wrote:upforever - yeah, I think he can. The thing is, beyond Ito and Raivio we really don't have a whole lot of guard depth (I'm not buying Thompson or Carter as a real option), so Stohl and maybe Porter will be thrown into the fire. Naturally there's no way of knowing how they will handle it, but at the very least the opportunity will be there for them.

And from what I have seen/heard about Stohl, it sounds like he has been impressing everyone. I have seen him play a little bit, and he can definitely shoot. That in itself, I think, tells me he will contribute... we don't really have any other shooters aside from maybe Ito, so I'm thinking Stohl can provide the coaches with a three-point option that might help spread out opponent's defense.

So yeah... I think he is definitely capable of making a significant contribution. I wouldn't count on more than a few ppoints per game (I'm thinking 6 or so... if he gets close to 10 that would just be incredible), but hey... that's not bad for a freshman!

In terms of 'big men', which one of our incoming Freshman do you see as the biggest contributor this season ?

Stoney,

You mentioned that Santa Clara doesn't have a lot coming in. I seemed to recall they had some nice recruits before he ..... Um ... retirement announcement.


Did a bunch of players bail?

Yes, I agree. Stohl is definately a pure shooter. Great range also. With that shot of his, they've got to give him a chance and see what develops.

But that nickname of microwave just doesn't cut it. I'd call him the "magician."
Don't underestimate his athletic ability. Stohl will surprise many.

Ah...... "The Magician". I like it!

I knew the "Microwave" was weak, and besides it already belonged to Vinne Johnson. But "The Magician"? Perfect!

But next year they have some studs coming in. They were already called the best mid major recruiting class in the nation. LMU and St. Mary's also have some serious players from the 2008 class coming in. We need to pick the recruiting game up for 2008. hopefully Reveno has some tricks still up his sleeves.

Co-Pilot is totally right. I think they already have four 2008 recruits, several of them very highly regarded. And from what I've read over on the Broncos board, Keating is working really hard to sell the program to the students and fans. So he is obviously a very active coach.

So it definitely seems like they are in capable hands... I just don't think they'll have a whole heck of a lot this year. In the future? Watch out...