WCC Results

In other league action today:
GU rolled USD, as expected.
SCU got a big road win at LMU, 79-72.
And USF lost to Pepperdine, 94-88. Keion Bell came off the bench to score 18.

So, at the midway point, SMC leads the standings, with 4 teams within 2 games of them.
SMC 6-1
USF 5-2
SCU 5-2
GU 4-3
UP 4-3
Pep 3-4
LMU 1-6
USD 0-7

One to keep an eye on: LMU is at PSU for a Bracketbusters game February 19. If the Pilot game didn't conflict with it I would be there.

SMC hosts Utah St. On ESPN2 at 6:00 in the other WCC bracket buster.

You'd think an LMU team with an 8-13 record might already have a pretty thoroughly busted bracket... I don't really understand how either team really benefits from this game...

SMC beat LMU tonight, to go to 8-1.
USF beat SCU at home to break the 2nd place tie and move to 6-2. SCU is 5-3.
Pepperdine won at USD, in overtime, to get to 4-5.
And GU lost at home to Memphis by 4, falling to 15-9 overall.

For sure SMC is the only team that can lose the WCC tournament and perhaps still get invited to the NCAA tournament. Pilots need to fight to stay ahead of Pepperdine, and pass SMC to get into the top four in tournament seeding. Got to get two road this week.

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:
Robert Sacre is my favorite player for a day for being a moron at the end of regulation.

please explain. I couldn't see the game and I want to cackle..

Purplegeezer wrote:

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:
Robert Sacre is my favorite player for a day for being a moron at the end of regulation.

please explain. I couldn't see the game and I want to cackle..

That was back in the USF game when he elbowed a guy, got an intentional foul, and nearly cost them the chance to go to OT.

No "morons" per se against Memphis, but all the announcers wanted to do was fawn on Stockton's kid, who promptly turns it over in the last minute.

Oh. THAT moron move. I was hoping for redux.

The announcer's name didn't start with an "E", did it?

Purplegeezer wrote:Oh. THAT moron move. I was hoping for redux.

The announcer's name didn't start with an "E", did it?

No. It was on ESPN. I think it was Jimmy Dykes.

In a curious note, I just read over on the Pepperdine site that Keion Bell was suspended for the rest of the season...

That takes some guts from the coach to suspend the best singular talent in the conference, it will be interesting to see how tis affects the team the rest of the way.

SMC won @USF tonight...

Now I know there are a several key games to win in the next 2 weekends, first things first, etc... But this is worth noting, that for Vegas seeding purposes, The Pilots own some key tie breakers, should we end up tied with USF or SCU... The first tie breaker is head-to-head play, so if we end up tied with USF or SCU, we would have likely split with them, and would then move to the next tie breaker. The 2nd breaker is results against the rest of the conference. Our win over SMC should be key here, as SCU, USF & Pepp were swept by the Gaels.

The final tie breaker is RPI, and we should win that vs. anyone other than GU or SMC.

Let's win out, though, and make this all moot.

Don't look now, but St. Mary's just lost their second conference game 74-66... to San Diego?!? That can't be right...

AND LMU took out Pepperdine (Not as shocking a result, but could be helpful keeping ahead of the Waves in the standings)

Wow!

Final was 74-66

SMC was up 32-20 at the half, but USD exploded for 50 points in the second half.

USD was 8-12 from the arc, the Gaels were 2-15

I watched a good chunk of the 2nd half of the SMC @USD game... and SMC looked flat out awful, and couldn't buy a basket... and credit to USD for makig their shots and FT's down the stretch for the win.

Did that win just save Grier's job?

PilotNut wrote:

Did that win just save Grier's job?

No.

It seems to me the formula for beating SMC is hitting from range and keeping the two tone mouthpiece and Jones at bay, we managed to do that, and USD somehow managed it tonight.

So with USF and GU now only one behind SMC in the loss column, the rest of the way just got really really interesting. Not only that, does this loss kind of put the WCC in an unfortunate one bid conference situation? Hmmmm

DaTruRochin wrote:. . . does this loss kind of put the WCC in an unfortunate one bid conference situation? Hmmmm

I think, yes.

If we and Gonzaga both win in Moraga, does that put GU in first at the end of the regular season?

Better question: Let's assume we win out the rest of our games. Can we improve our place in the standings? It looks like we'd leapfrog SCU, at least, if we win everything but the SMC game...but there are people way better at forecasting this stuff here than I am. I'm just good at banging the cowbell.

There are still a lot of variables, but if both UP and GU beat SCU, the best they could finish the season would be 8-6. If we beat SCU, USF & USD, the worst we would be is 8-6 (9-5 if we beat SMC). If we end up tied with SCU, it comes down to tiebreakers, and here is where we NEED the Gaels to claim the #1 seed. We own the tie breaker with SCU if SMC is the #1 seed, as we beat the #1 seed once (or possibly twice), and SCU was swept by #1. If Gonzaga ends up the #1 seed, SCU would own the tiebreaker, as they beat the #1 seed once, and we were swept.

Bottom line: Go Pilots, Go Gaels (except when we play them), and Go Zags (and Pepp and LMU) over SCU.

(Now it is still possible that we could also leap over USF for the #3 spot, based on the same type of tiebreaker if USF goes 1-3 in their final games... it should be noted that both SCU and USF still have to play @GU, @UP, and home vs. Pepp & LMU.)

Clear as mud?

PilotNut wrote: and Go Zags

I can only imagine how wrong it felt to type this...

St. Mary's still has a chance for an at large. They have an RPI in the high 30's and their remaining games are against Utah St (25)., Gonzaga(69), and us(83) all of whom have sub 100 RPI's. If St. Mary's wins out their RPI should improve and they will be a solid bubble team so long as they only lose in the WCC tournament championship game.

The Utah St. game is an opportunity to get a win against another team that is likely to get an at large and show the San Diego game was a fluke.

We are pretty much locked into 5th or 6th place. We cannot pass USF or GU; they are 3 up with 3 to play and they swept us. SCU is one up until Saturday. After Saturday they have home games with LMU and Pepperdine, where they'll be favored. So I expect them to get 4th place even if we beat them because we have to play at a wounded SMC.

Pepperdine has two games left, at USF and SCU. They will be underdogs in both games. So we will most likely end up with the 5th seed, playing the 8th seed. IF we win that game, we'd play the 4th seed (SCU). IF we win that game, we'd play the 1st seed (SMC?).

Still some possibility on the table, but we have pretty much given away most of our chances with woulda/coulda/shoulda games.

up7587 wrote:but we have pretty much given away most of our chances with woulda/coulda/shoulda games.

Sad, but true.