St. Louis

Looks like St. Louis has found it's way into the AP top 25 this week. They have some nice wins on their schedule, Washington, Villanova, Boston College and Oklahoma and just took home the 76 classic crown. Interestingly, their leading scorer and rebounder, Brian Conklin is from Eugene. This could be a tough matchup for us. They play LMU tomorrow, and maybe on Saturday we can knock them out of the unbeaten ranks and the top 25. I'm really looking forward to finding the hotel Majerus lives in and heckling him all night long!

You better make the trek or take the flight to St. Louis this year; it looks like the closest your Pilots will get to La Crosse next year is Lexington, KY and Athens, OH.

Are you going to wear a KFC bucket on your head while you heckle him? That's what the WSU fans did back in the day.

450 miles, 8-1/2 hours, piece of cake!

mattywizz wrote:Looks like St. Louis has found it's way into the AP top 25 this week. They have some nice wins on their schedule, Washington, Villanova, Boston College and Oklahoma and just took home the 76 classic crown. Interestingly, their leading scorer and rebounder, Brian Conklin is from Eugene. This could be a tough matchup for us. They play LMU tomorrow, and maybe on Saturday we can knock them out of the unbeaten ranks and the top 25. I'm really looking forward to finding the hotel Majerus lives in and heckling him all night long!

Well, they are no longer unbeaten: LMU 75 St. Louis 68 in LA last night

Congrats to LMU for beating SLU in LA last night.... A big win for the WCC for sure!!

Hopefully we can make it 2 in a row on Saturday, but playing them in St. Louis, after them losing last night, is not an easy task... they will be anxious to bounce back.

IronLions, are you around? Any insight on how you were able to beat them?

Let's show the A-10 why they were too scared to step into the A10-WCC challenge. At least that is why I am assuming it never happened (even if it never was an option). Very much looking forward to my first live Pilots game in far too long.

Just read the write-up in the Post Dispatch, doesn't say much about the game. Mostly about how the SLU players are happy to be home after being on the road for about a week. Ten hours to tip. Goooooo Pilots!

Having dinner at a small brewpub surrounded by Bilikens and enjoying a tasty black IPA. Even more excited to see my (our) Pilots than I expected!

Warmups looked good. I think we're ready!

Bilikenjust touched rim in warm ups. Game should start with Nem at free throw line.

Is Nem our best FT shooter?

Kevin Bailey and Ryan Nicholas are both shooting a higher percentage while taking and making more FTs per game. But Nem is still over 80% so it wouldn't be a bad move at all.

I just hope we shoot a high percentage in the game. We´ve been outrebounding our opponents consistently, but, we need to shoot better...

Whatever happened to mesapilot1? Was he finally involuntarily committed?

I strongly suspect that Mesa became suddenly disinterested in the Pilots recently. Prove me wrong if you're out there, Mesa!

That 19-2 run in the (well two runs that kind of bled together) really hurt. The Billikens are a good team and we are still young.
Better things to come at Boise I hope, safe travels men.

I just took a wild stab in the dark that Nem would shoot a technical, it was a moot point as the refs didn't call anything. Here are some of my observations of the game, before looking at a box score and in no particular order.

We played pretty competitively the first ten or so minutes, but the next ten minutes just killed us. Got the score back to within 15 with about 8 minutes left. Our offense looked pretty lost for most of the game. In the last few minutes we started to run the ball through Nicholas in the post and that worked pretty well, that is when he scored most of his points. Timmy also started attacking the rim a little harder late in the game.

Our defense was very strong early on in the game. We made some good stops, but allowed too many second chance points. for the middle 20 or so minutes our D looked kind of lost. There were a few instances where the coaches were telling players who to match up with and they matched up with the wrong guy. A couple times we ended up with a guard on Conklin in the post and there were no screens set to force a switch.

We played like the young team that we are. When SLU made their run to extend the lead heads were hung low and guys seemed to be frustrated with one another, almost seeming to blame others. After halftime though, that attitudes seemed to be a lot better. The team played pretty tough, I was very proud of the second half effort.

SLU has a pretty good environment for their home games. A brand new, very nice, fairly large arena. Pretty good attendance for tonight's game. They have a large band and a large, loud student section. IN whole, a difficult environment for a young team to play in.

SLU was definitely a better team than us tonight, and for the whole season I am pretty sure (well, I guess obviously, looking at records and rankings). I definitely like what Rev has for the future. I like what I saw in several of our young guys. Nem didn't seem to play many minutes tonight. And Waterford checked in for the first time with about 10 minutes left.

So, I am now just starting to ramble and carry on. There is much more that I could add (mostly useless, I am sure) and maybe I will later. Even though it was not the result I would have liked to see, it was exciting being able to watch the Pilots play once again.

Great synopsis Wizz.

It was great hearing your take on things because 1) you were there, and 2) because it was your first live game of the year and you gave a good unbiased account of our players. I hope we hear more of your thoughts from this game.

Addressing some of your points from what I know/speculate:

Nem is really struggling right now and gets very frustrated; coach has limited his minutes on occasion when this happens. I think he only made one basket tonight.

Eric W. is really lacking confidence and is still not feeling 100% from his calf injury. He’ll have to step it up though because Tim is struggling with turnovers and dribble-driving against the large/quick guards he’s facing.

We shouldn’t have been too rattled at St. Louis after playing in front of 24,000+ in Lexington, but as you said, we’re a young team.

I take it Van der Mars played pretty well. I know he fouled out, and fouls have been a problem for him as he adjusts to the college game. There’s even more pressure on him now as Barker had knee surgery today and is out for about four weeks.

Finally, I asked the coaches what the difference was between playing St. Louis at the Chiles last year and in St. Louis this year, and you may or may not be surprised by the answer: “everything flowed through Luke and Kramer last year.”

The guys travel home tomorrow (Sunday) and depart for Boise on Tuesday; tough turnaround. :face:

Have a safe trip back to La Crosse Whizz!

where was Barker?

shallwemaui10 wrote:where was Barker?

He was apparently out because he hurt his knee. I wonder how long until he is back...

shallwemaui10 wrote:where was Barker?

Ref: my previous post, he's out with knee surgery.

If you mean what hospital, I don't know; but he is "home' in Portland.

RipCityPilot wrote:

shallwemaui10 wrote:where was Barker?

He was apparently out because he hurt his knee. I wonder how long until he is back...

Again, Ref: my previous post (plus one), "four weeks" give or take.

Read the St.L Post-Dispatch write up today, summed it up pretty well. SLU played like they did in Anaheim last week after the hiccup at LMU. We were definitely outplayed by a stronger team. Don't know if any of you will see this, but here is Rev's quote in the paper;

"They found their offensive footing sooner than we did. The bottom kind of fell out a little big, and they just got really comfortable. It was primarily turnovers that were our downfall. Against a great team on their court, you don't have a margin for error. Give them all the credit for being opportunistic."

Very accurate quote. We also struggled on defensive rotations and sometimes just following our guy. They had way too many open looks. I remember a play in particular where Nem was on their shooter right in front of our bench and lost him before he even got screened.

Now onto some of my individual analysis:

Nicholas: Looks to be our team leader. A solid, heady player. Going to develop into our low post threat. Not going to be the rebounder Sikma was, but I think will develop into a better scorer.

Van der Mars: Wish he was a little more aggressive. Had a nice little night. Got the ball deep in the post and hesitated a little more than I would have liked. Played great defensive on Conklin a few times, but Conklin was still able to score over VDM's outstretched arms. If he puts on a few pounds he could be a real banger in the future.

Douglas: like him as our point guard. Wish he tried to get to the rim a little more often, makes things happen when he does. Very solid on the ball defender. Had a few baaaad turnovers. He's a little bit of a leader, but would like to see more from him in that department in the future.

Rodgers: Not much of a threat offensively. Like his defense though.

Mitrovic: Doesn't seem to be as confident as he should be. Kind of disappeared in this game.

K. Bailey: foul trouble all game. Picked up a couple bad fouls, will figure that out. Looks like he is gonna be a good one. Rev has a LOT of confidence in him I do believe. Very athletic, solid on both ends. I think he is gonna be a good one.

Riley: Looks like a shooter.

Cason: I really like him. He's got good size, looks a little clumsy, but also athletic. Very aggresive on defense, especially when he bumps out on screens. Didn't see much of him offensively.

Waterford: checked in for the first time with about 10 minutes left. Kind of status quo for him. Decent. Got the ball up the court, not very confident on offense.

J. Bailey, Thielke, Carr: didn't play enough for me to form an opinion.

So those are the view of a non-scout who has seen most of these guys play once, ever. I have a lot to say because, well, after most games I have nothing to say because all I see are the write up and box score. I really am excited for the future of our program. This is definitely a rebuilding year. Next year will be better, and I think two years will be very exciting.

Lastly, it was very cool to sit right behind Rev and watch him coach. Some of the insights that he pointed out to the players and assistants during the game were very interesting. My only complaint is that he is too tall, so sometimes it was tough to see the other end of the court.

Ok, now this is lastly, when I saw Majerus run onto the court I thought I was going to witness first-hand a man having a heart attack.

mattywizz wrote:
"They found their offensive footing sooner than we did. The bottom kind of fell out a little big, and they just got really comfortable. It was primarily turnovers that were our downfall. Against a great team on their court, you don't have a margin for error. Give them all the credit for being opportunistic."

Ok, now this is lastly , when I saw Majerus run onto the court I thought I was going to witness first-hand a man having a heart attack.

Rev also stated in the Oregonian: “We’ve played some good teams (ie, Kentucky) and they’re (St. Louis) the most skilled and toughest team that we’ve probably played in terms of execution and just good basketball.”

You’re spot-on in your analysis of Nicholas; he’s our spark this year and outwardly gives more effort than the others 100% of the time.

Van der Mars is still learning to be “physical” after playing a more finesse style in Europe.

I’ve seen Rodgers hit from the outside in practice, and he shoots FT’s pretty well, but you’re right, he’s got to show something in games from the outside to take the pressure off others.

K. Bailey will be a star, and he's willing to learn because he can no longer just get by on athleticism as he did at East Clovis.

We’re you prepared to perform CPR?

Again, thanks for the great review, Whizz.