Montana

oldtimer wrote:
Thoughts? Ideas? Beer suggestions?

onetouchfutbol wrote:I remember watching Will Cherry from when we played Montana in previous years, and he´s a pretty great athlete. I wouldn´t be surprised if parts of the game become a back and forth battle in scoring between Cherry and Bailey. I think the key to the game will be help defense and the contributions of the big men on both teams... Our guys really need to improve in that area.

oldtimer wrote: Beer suggestions?

blacksheep wrote:I will definitely be there, and I'm sure I won't be the only one in purple.

Portland Pilots (3-7) vs. Montana Grizzlies (5-5)
Date: Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011
Tip-off: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Portland, Ore.
Arena: Chiles Center (4,852)
Live Video: PilotsVideo.com
Radio: 800 AM
Overall Series: MON leads 10-7
At UP: MON leads 4-3
At UM: MON leads 6-3
At Neutral: POR leads 1-0
Last: POR 58, UM 54 (2010-11 at Montana)


THIS WEEK
• Portland (3-7) concludes its brief two-game home stand when the Montana Grizzlies (5-5) visit on Saturday at 7 p.m.
• The Pilots-Montana meeting is the late game of a Pilot doubleheader as the women take on No. 13 Louisville at 2 p.m. Fans that purchase a men’s ticket will receive a free women’s ticket as well.
• Tickets are available through all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.TicketMaster.com, or by visiting the Pilot Box Office 90 minutes prior to tip-off. Call the Pilot Box Office (M-F, 11am-5pm) at 503-943-7525 for more information.


GAME COVERAGE
• Saturday’s game will be video streamed live, free of charge, at www.PilotsVideo.com. All non-televised UP home games will be streamed for free this season.
• All Portland basketball games will be broadcast live on True Talk 800 AM, with a 30-minute pregame show. Bill Johnson will call the action courtside and an audio simulcast will also be available on www.PilotsVideo.com.


ABOUT THE PILOTS
• The Pilots ran into another hot team last Saturday as the Ohio Bobcats improved to 7-1 with a 72-54 victory at the Chiles Center. Portland led late in the first half and trailed by just one point early in the second before the Bobcats ran away late.
• Freshman Kevin Bailey and sophomore Ryan Nicholas scored 13 points each for UP.
• Portland is 0-5 on the road this year, with two of those losses coming against ranked opponents (#2 Kentucky, #23 Saint Louis).
• UP underclassmen are accounting for 76 percent of the minutes played and 77 percent of the team’s scoring thus far.
• Portland has outrebounded six of ten opponents this year.
• The Pilots are playing one of the most difficult non-conference schedules in the nation, including nine of 13 games away from the Chiles Center. Portland’s strength of schedule entering Friday is No. 3 nationally, according to KenPom.com.
• Head coach Eric Reveno and all three assistant coaches return for their sixth year together on The Bluff. No other current Division I coaching staff in the nation has retained the same four-member coaching staff longer than Reveno and his staff.
• Portland is coming off of back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time ever.
• The Pilots were invited to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) for the third consecutive season in 2011.
• Portland returns two starters and nine lettermen from last year’s team that finished 20-12 overall and 7-7 in the WCC.
• All nine UP graduates in the last two years and have gone on to play pro ball.
• The Pilots were picked to finish seventh in the nine-team West Coast Conference, while senior G Nemanja Mitrovic was named to the preseason all-conference team.


ABOUT MONTANA
• The Grizzlies (5-5) dropped a 70-64 home decision to the Nevada Wolf Pack on Saturday.
• Montana’s best win was a 73-71 victory over Long Beach State, while the Grizzlies have split against two WCC opponents (W @San Diego, 73-60; L vs. USF, 65-62)
• The Grizzlies start four upperclassmen along with a sophomore.
• Junior G Will Cherry (14.1 ppg) leads UM in scoring, while sophomore G Kareem Jamar is second in both points (13.2) and rebounds (5..
• Head coach Wayne Tinkle is in his sixth year at the helm and posts a 96-69 career mark with Montana.
• Tinkle has led the Grizzlies to consecutive 20-win seasons and a pair of postseason appearances. UM competed in the CBI last year after earning a bid to the 2010 NCAA Tournament.


LINEUP NOTES
• Sophomore C Riley Barker has missed the last three games (knee) and will not be available on Saturday.
• Head coach Eric Reveno has used four different starting lineups this year. The same five have started the last two games as freshman Kevin Bailey and sophomore Tanner Riley have made their first two career starts.
• Sophomore Ryan Nicholas is the only Pilot to start all nine games this year, while 10 different Pilots have started at least one game.


RILEY FINDS HIS STROKE
• Sophomore G Tanner Riley showed signs of being a big-time scorer early in his freshman season and after a slow start this year, he has been on a roll of late.
• In the last six games Riley is averaging 9.7 points and has made 13-of-33 three-point shots (.394).
• Riley made his first career start against Boise State on Wednesday and also started on Saturday against Ohio.
• He missed a good portion of preseason training with an ankle injury.


FRESHMEN FIRSTS
• Portland’s highly-touted four true freshmen have each appeared in all 10 games and are all averaging more than 13.6 minutes per game.
• Thomas van der Mars (Gouda, Netherlands) has started the last five games and has grabbed at least four rebounds in eight straight games.
• Kevin Bailey (Clovis, Calif./East Clovis HS) has started the last two games and scored a game-high 13 points against Ohio.
• David Carr (Portland, Ore./Central Catholic HS) has started four games at guard and is averaging 13.6 minutes per game.
• Dorian Cason (Fontana, Calif./Summit HS) averages 16.0 minutes per game along with 4.0 ppg and 4.0 rpg.
• Redshirt freshman F John Bailey (Mesa, Ariz./Dobson HS) has appeared in six games.


NICHOLAS’ TIME IS NOW
• After sitting behind All-WCC forward Luke Sikma and four-year starting center Kramer Knutson last season as a freshman, Ryan Nicholas is off to a fast start this year.
• Making his first 10 career starts, Nicholas is averaging 11.2 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.
• He recorded career-highs of 13 points and 11 rebounds in the opener against FAU for his first career double-double, and topped his career high with 16 points at UCSB.


DOUGLAS GIVEN THE KEYS
• Sophomore PG Tim Douglas moved into the starting lineup during WCC play last season, but missed the team’s final three games due to injury (all losses). He was voted team co-captain by his peers entering this season.
• He was named the WCC Player of the Week twice as a freshman, joining Elias Harris (Gonzaga, 2010), Patrick Mills (Saint Mary’s, 2008), Darrell Tucker (San Francisco, 2000) and Greg Anthony (Portland, 1987) as the only freshmen in league history to do so.
• Douglas scored a game-high 17 points against Washington on Nov. 14 and is leading the Pilots in assists (33) and second on the team in scoring (10.1).


NOT AN EASY ROAD
• The Pilots have one of the most challenging non-conference schedules in the nation.
• Stats guru Ken Pomeroy lists Portland’s strength of schedule No. 3 nationally entering Saturday’s game (www.kenpom.com).
• UP faces eight teams that made the post-season last year, while nine of the 13 non-league games will be away from the Chiles Center.
• In addition to the World Vision Classic, road games include: at #2 Kentucky, at #23 Saint Louis, at Nevada, at UC Santa Barbara, at Utah and at Boise State
• The home non-league schedule is highlighted by Washington State, Montana and Ohio.
• Entering Friday, UP’s non-conference Division I opponents are a combined 69-40 (.633).


HOME SWEET HOME
• Portland has rattled off a 39-8 home record since the start of the 2008-09 season.
• The Pilots’ 19-game home win streak was snapped by Gonzaga last February.
• Signature home wins have come against Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Saint Mary’s three times.
• Portland finished the 2010-11 regular season with a 13-2 record at the Chiles Center for the second straight season.


MITROVIC MAKES ALL-TOURNEY TEAM
• Senior G Nemanja Mitrovic was named to the World Vision Classic All-Tournament Team after leading the Pilots to a 2-1 record and averaging 12.0 points per game.
• Mitrovic finished last season No. 6 in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (.463) and 20th in three-pointers made per game (2.9).
• One of only two seniors on the roster, Mitrovic was voted a team captain this year along with sophomore PG, Tim Douglas.
• A native of Toronto, Mitrovic played just 43 minutes as a freshman and 312 minutes as a sophomore before averaging 13.5 ppg and earning All-WCC honors last year.


RODGER’S ROLE
• Junior G Derrick Rodgers has moved into the starting lineup the last five games after providing a big spark off the bench earlier this season.
• He made big plays late in both Pilot wins to open the season and is averaging 6.0 points per game this year, compared to 2.3 ppg last year.
• Known as a defensive stopper, Rodgers made the biggest basket against Florida Atlantic with a go-ahead runner in the lane with 28 seconds left in regulation.


STAFF STABILITY
• Eric Reveno was named the 2009 WCC and District 9 Coach of the Year after leading UP to a 10-win improvement during the 2008-09 season.
• Now in his sixth year on The Bluff, Reveno credits the stability of his coaching staff as key to the program’s turnaround.
• All three assistants that joined Reveno when he was hired in April of 2006 have remained on the Portland bench ever since.
• No other current Division I coaching staff in the nation has retained the same four-member coaching staff longer than Reveno and his staff.
• Reveno is the third longest tenured WCC coach behind Gonzaga’s Mark Few (13) and Saint Mary’s Randy Bennett (11).


THREE-POINT THREATS
• Portland was the No. 1 three-point shooting team in the nation over the previous three seasons combined (.412, 752-1825).
• The Pilots led the nation in three-point percentage in 2009 (.418), were No. 5 in 2010 (.407), and No. 3 in 2011 (.412).
• Portland is struggling this season far from beyond the arc (.317, 57-180).


PILOTS TO THE PROS
• Portland has graduated all nine players over the last two years and all nine have gone on to play professionally.
• All five 2010 graduates played professionally last season, while Portland’s four graduated seniors from the 2011 class are all playing in Europe this season.
• Jared Stohl signed with the Crailsheim Merlins of Germany, Luke Sikma inked with La Palma in Spain. Kramer Knutson and Jasonn Hannibal signed in Switzerland and Slovenia, respectively.


YOUTH MOVEMENT
• Portland’s 2011-12 roster features only three upperclassmen in seniors Nemanja Mitrovic and Eric Waterford, along with junior Derrick Rodgers.
• The six-player sophomore class played significant minutes as freshmen last year.
• Freshman G Kevin Bailey is the first top 100 recruit that the Pilots have landed, while freshman G David Carr is the first local Portland product to sign with the Pilots since Reveno took over the program.
• Underclassmen have accounted for 75 percent of the minutes played this year.


OREGON STATE PLAYER OF THE YEAR SIGNS WITH PILOTS
• Portland signed the reigning Oregon ‘5A’ State Player of the Year, Jake Ehlers, to a National Letter of Intent on Nov. 9.
• Ehlers (6-7, 200) led Corvallis High School to a 27-1 record and the Oregon ‘5A’ state championship as a junior last season.
• He averaged 22 points on 58 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent from three-point range. He also carried the Spartans to a 79-73 double overtime win in the state championship game over Benson, finishing with 36 points on 13-of-18 shooting.
• Ehlers was recently named to Oregon’s All-State First Team by ESPN.com and is rated as the No. 68 power forward on the same site.

Grizzlies Deal Pilots Home Loss

PORTLAND, Ore. --- Sophomore guard Tim Douglas scored 14 of his team-high 18 points in the second half to lead the Portland Pilots, but the Montana Grizzlies had four starters reach double figures to come away with an 80-65 road win on Saturday at the Chiles Center. Montana improves to 6-5 on the season, while the Pilots drop to 3-8 overall.

Sophomore forward Ryan Nicholas added 14 points and seven rebounds, while senior guard Nemanja Mitrovic chipped in 11 points for the Pilots.

Guard Will Cherry finished with a game-high 20 points pacing Montana, while Derek Selvig had a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Kareem Jamar also finished with 15 points and Art Steward contributed 10 for the Grizzlies.

Montana finished the first half on a 10-3 run to carry a 32-25 lead into halftime. The Grizzlies then opened the second half on fire and drilled four straight three-pointers to jump out to a 48-30 lead, their largest of the night. Portland was able to pull within 10 at 63-53 on a Douglas three-point play with 5:16 remaining, but the Pilots would get no closer.

Portland shot 47 percent from the field compared to 42 percent for Montana, but the Grizzlies made 9-of-18 threes and 23-of-34 free throws. The Pilots were just 2-for-10 from three-point range and 11-for-14 at the foul line. The Grizzlies also gained an 11-4 margin in points off of turnovers, forcing 13 Pilot giveaways while committing only five.

Portland will now hit the road for three straight road games beginning on Monday at Utah. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. (PST) and the game will be aired live on 800 AM (KPDQ) with a 30-minute pregame show. The Pilots will then travel to Nevada on Thursday, Dec. 22 for a 7 p.m. tip-off before opening West Coast Conference play at Gonzaga on Wednesday, Dec. 28 at 6 p.m.

PurpleGeezer wrote:The refs have come a LONG way under the tutelage of Dave Libbey, though.

I can sure see the difference...

PurpleGeezer wrote:The refs have come a LONG way under the tutelage of Dave Libbey, though.

I can sure see the difference...

DoubleDipper wrote:Yea, I guess we’re all in a bit of a funk after getting blown-out by a team we really should have been competitive against and even beaten.

I can’t blame the ridiculous calls that went against us for the loss, but with 5 minutes to go and UP within 11, one ref took it upon himself to cut the legs out from under the Pilots and Rev.

A positive: Finally, Tim started doing what Tim does best; DRIVE, lay it up, and get fouled.

One thing has remained consistent from the first game of the season; Ryan Nicholas is a stud! Everything now goes through Rhino; he scratches, claws, and dives for everything, and is by far our MVP to this point.

I spoke to our two weeks to go AD after the game, he agrees with RJ, it’s going to be a long season, but it will get better as our young team matures.

It's Rev's job to keep the guys thinking positive and moving forward; I'll leave it to the guy in row 6 to get us fired up!

dholcombe wrote:
I thought it was within 10 when the ref took an axe to us.