Pilots vs. Western Oregon

You must remember that the team is made of kids right out of Hish School. It is Division I basketball not high school. There are kids on the team that weigh 165 pounds. They are not going to bang the boards or even get close to it. There are kids that should not even be on the team so don't expect miracles. As I said before Freshman and Sophomore do not win games and UP is playing with alot of them without experience. Last year the team had alot court time and 4 seniors left not including Jones and Emerson who both had court time. Don't set your goals too high but I think Rev's contact will expire before UP has a winning season.

My personal opinion is that beating the Western Oregon University Wolves would not be a miracle. I do expect better performance, also not a miracle.

I'm not going to freak out about this loss, but I I am going to shake my head in disbelief. And I am going to expect that this team be competitive.

Ouch .... 37% shooting from the floor with our starting backcourt at 13%
## Player Name, FG-FGA
34 WATSON, Sherrard, 3-5
43 SIKMA, Luke, 4-11
45 KNUTSON, Kramer, 3-5
04 THOMPSON, Walter, 1-6
05 ITO, Taishi, 1-9
01 RAIVIO, Nik, 4-7
3 NIEDERMEYER, Ethan, 3-4
12 SMEULDERS, Robin, 0-3
20 STOHL, Jared, 0-2
32 CARTER, Marcus, 1-2
55 HANNIBAL, Jasonn, 2-5
TEAM total = 22-59 .... 37%

I disagree with a couple of points 68OrBB makes. First of all, I still have confidence in Coach Rev, particularly given the description Coop gave at halftime. Rev's under contract for three (?) more years including this one, and I have every confidence that we'll see a winning season before then.

That being said . . .

Last night we weren't playing a Division I basketball team. We were playing a Division II basketball team that lost by 60 (sixty) points to BYU last year. I'm not happy now, but if we don't beat Concordia by more than 40 . . .

You know... looking at the stats, it's kind of maddening that we didn't perform a lot better. Yes, we didn't shoot very well, but neither did they really... 37% for us and 43% for them. We outrebounded them, had less turn overs, had more assists, shot better from the line (though we actually shot pretty poorly from the line), had less fouls... they hit a few more three-pointers, but it wasn't like they were just bombing us to death.

In the end, we just couldn't seem to make the key buckets that we needed to, I guess. But it's hard to pin-point one thing aside from field goal percentage that is a clear indicator of why we lost. Really, I think it had more to do with a lack of being able to run plays to get high-percentage shots and clean looks at the basket and an inability to make stops when we needed to.

But enough is enough is enough... let's just worry about Saturday.

Oh, and before I forget, I think Rochin and Dionnfan made plenty of good points, especially about not expecting mircales but definitely expecting the team to be competitive and out their busting their asses. And we didn't see that last night. I'm willing to excuse it because it was preseason and because of youth and because of line-up experimentation and all of that. But we better see some improvement quick, otherwise we'll be in for a MUCH MUCH longer season than I think any of us were expecting.

As for the future... I truly believe it's in good hands with Rev and the rest of the coaches. I know it's two years down the line and a lot can happen in two years, but just think about it... we could have four senior starters (Ito, Smeulders, Raivio, Niedermeyer) a huge and experienced junior class (Sikma, Knutson, Stohl, Porter, Hannibal). If we can add a a few talented recruits into that mix (Somogyi, hopefully, plus another soph and two frosh)... that's a very nice picture of a team that could be solid, talented, and perform well in conference. Kind of like Santa Clara last year or SMC this year. I really do think we are building towards that type of level.

But as of today, we lost to a DII team. So... there's still a long way to go.

thepuck wrote:And on the top row behind the hoop sat a large portion of the PSU basketball team, Jones, Dominguez and Tiefenthaler (sp?). If we lose to PSU I might need some heavy medicating.

You may want to go ahead and get that medication. I don't see you guys winning the PSU game this year...

Well, if we play like we did last night, you're absolutely right. But we're better than we showed lats night, and hopefully they will improve over the next month. I'm an ever-hopeful soul!

16 days 'til the Oregon game....

I don't even want to think about that now . . .

Probably a bigger win for WOU fans like me and the WOU team than it is a big loss for the Pilots. Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic my school beat a D-I team, but it was an exhibition game.

The key is not letting it affect your season. I live in Boise, a couple years ago Albertson College (NAIA) played at Boise State and won by 21 (!), I kid you not. It affected the team the rest of the season and they never recovered. I hope the Pilots get it turned around, I lived in Portland for a few years and loved going to the games at the Chiles Center.

* Yes, this is WOU's tallest team in school history. We have a 6-11, 300-pound post; a 7-3, 300-pound post, and a 6-8 two guard. What this means for this season, I'm not sure ... again, it was an exhibition game. Central Washington took the University of Washington down to 3 points a couple years ago in Seattle; Western Oregon was within 1 of the UO with 40 seconds left in Mac Court in Eugene about three years ago. I don't think D-I teams get motivated for these games.

Thanks, WOUalum... I hope the Pilots can mentally recover too. But honestly... as disappointing as it was, I can't say I'm truly stunned by the loss. With how young the team is and with such little D1 experience, it doesn't surprised me that they struggled in the first go-around. The key will be how they respond to the loss, not the loss itself.

But don't let it take way from your school's win - definitely an awesome job by the Wolves. Good luck the rest of the way!

Thanks, I'm very happy with the victory. We're still building up in D2 and don't have the max scholarships allowed (9) for D2 ball. I'm not sure where we're at scholarship wise, but it's not nine; most of the sports are still building scholarship numbers. Though we've been D2 for 7/8 years, the administration sat back and didn't fund raise for about five of those years. It's just starting to come together (football is 6-2 right now, just beat Western Washington, which has many more scholarships than WOU).

Last year in D2 hoop, national power Winona State knocked off Minnesota -- at UM. It's really not that unusual for a D2 team to win these exhibitions. Now NAIA or D3 (which has no scholarships), that's different. But D2? It's not completely out of the picture, like I said, Ernie Kent was sweating bullets a couple years ago as his team barely won over WOU.

Hope Reveno gets it cranked up on the bluff. Sounds like Raivio was a great pickup.

PSU just took WO to the wood shed!!!!!!

http://www.bigskyfans.com/2007/11/02/psu-basketball-vs-wou
http://www.psufansforum.com/portland-state-basketball-f2/western-oregon-game-t1446.htm

93-58 PSU.



Oh crap.

Pilots lose to Western Oregon. PSU beat WOU 93-58. What does this say about UP or PSU? I don't think it really says much about PSU. I wonder about UP though.

as prevously stated, this is a very young team. You must give them time to gel and form chemistry. This was an exhibition game. Giving the coach a look at what his players are capable of doing. I'm hoping they will get it together to peak at the right time at the end of the season. That's when it counts.
PSU has experience, UP will get there give them a chance.

In all honesty, I don't think this says a whole lot about PSU or UP. First of all, the UP game was a exhibition, while i agree we should have won the game, rev was basically cycling through players to get a look at them. It looked to me that winning the game was secondary to getting the kids some experience.

And as the PSU vs WOU game goes, it was a different night with different players.

Not that this means anything, but Division II Grand Valley State (a D2 football power) defeated No. 8 Michigan State in exhibition play the other night; D2 Tarleton State upended Baylor, too.

Findlay (Division II) defeated Ohio State last night.

Looks like the D2 exhibition games are a little tougher than those EA sports squads, which had guys with less hair than me!

Hey, Rochin! I guess if UP wanted to be the Notre Dame of the West Coast, we've now got the BBall team to match ND's FBall team!