Sata Clara, January 5/Pepperdine January 7

I'm starting this thread now because there's been a time change: It now starts at 8 pm. If you show up at 7 you'll be early, so no big deal.

The important one is Saturday the 7th: 5 pm start time. Don't spend too long at your pregame spot!

Santa Clara at Portland; Thursday at 8PM with pregame pasta available!!!!!!!

The Pilots (3-11) are rated #253/345 and own the distinction of having the 4th most difficult schedule in D-1 play.

The Broncos (8-5), are rated #179/245, with the 216th most difficult schedule. Since my last update, SCU has beaten #301 Eastern Michigan at home and lost to #76 Wagner at home on a last second, illegal, over the backboard shot that did much to solidify the national reputation of the WCC referees.

It depends upon what criteria you use, but SCU is generally ranked 4th in the WCC behind St. Mary’s, Gonzaga, and BYU.

SCU’s is as young as Portland, I count 8 freshmen on their roster, and their scoring comes from the WCC’s top scorer, Junior Guard Kevin Foster, with an 18.6 ppg average. This will be only the 4th road game of the season for SCU; they’ve lost the previous three (UCSB, WSU, and Houston Baptist)!

I will attempt to get the last minute betting line on this game tomorrow, but at the moment the odds are even, with SCU given a one point edge and a 54% probability of winning.

With a young team, winning these home games against mid WCC teams is going to be critical to not playing on Wednesday in Vegas. It feels like it's been a long time since our last game. Hopefully the team is rested and well prepared for the the first WCC home game.

I assume the students are still gone, so lets make some noise.


PS - DD, with these 1AM posts, it's almost like having Mesa back

UP Men's Basketball's facebook account just posted that the game starts at 7. I hope the teams know what time the game starts.

blacksheep wrote:
PS - DD, with these 1AM posts, it's almost like having Mesa back

Sigh, ALMOST, but with my UP education, at least I throw in punctuation here and there.

PS: Don’t forget to record BYU/LMU on your new, overpriced, BYUtv at 6PM followed by SCU/UP at 8PM on CSN.

blacksheep wrote:UP Men's Basketball's facebook account just posted that the game starts at 7. I hope the teams know what time the game starts.

If they also plan a 7PM start on Saturday's against Pepperdine, it could be a very one-sided affair.

DoubleDipper wrote:ince my last update, SCU has beaten #301 Eastern Michigan at home and lost to #76 Wagner at home on a last second, illegal, over the backboard shot that did much to solidify the national reputation of the WCC referees.

I'm pretty sure they test drive referees in the WCC before sending up a level to officiate middle school games.

Also, since when is Houston Baptist D-I?!?!

Rev goes SMALL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHUSsnAnZew

RipCityPilot wrote:Also, since when is Houston Baptist D-I?!?!

Since 2008-09 when they began their D-I transition. They're in the Great West Conference.

Houston Baptist must be tied with Charleston Southern for the smallest D-I arena:

VS

RipCityPilot wrote:Houston Baptist must be tied with Charleston Southern for the smallest D-I arena:

Charleston Southern's Fieldhouse holds...get ready for this...881.

The things you learn reading the Mid-Majority during the 800 Games Project.

I was on campus today and I noticed two trucks from that CourtSports company. Are they making changes to the floor in Chiles? I guess we will find out tomorrow.

RipCityPilot wrote:I was on campus today and I noticed two trucks from that CourtSports company. Are they making changes to the floor in Chiles? I guess we will find out tomorrow.

They sell Portland Purple paint as one of their 16 colors if you want to put a logo on the hardwoods in your house...

http://courtsportsinc.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=17

DoubleDipper wrote:
I will attempt to get the last minute betting line on this game tomorrow, but at the moment the odds are even, with SCU given a one point edge and a 54% probability of winning.

Santa Clara is now given anywhere from a 54% to a 64% chance of beating the Pilots tonight according to the experts and the computers. But I’m still not seeing any betting lines. Ken Pomeroy has SCU over the Pilots by 1 point! Meaning, it’s a toss-up.

It is considered to be the most exciting of the four WCC contests tonight, with AP #25 GU favored by 21 over PU; BYU by only 9.5 over LMU; and USD losing to SMC by 18.

For the Pilots, it's an early "must win."

I really look forward to the game tonight, to see how a well-rested Pilots team plays at home.

SCU lost their talented big man, Trasolini, but they have an extremely talented G in Kevin Foster (18.6 ppg). I believe we have been able to keep Foster under control in previous match-ups, but limiting his scoring will be key. Their 2nd leading scorer is 6-3 G Evan Roquemore (14.5 ppg).

We really need another Guard to step up and become a perimeter threat, to ease the pressure on Nem and keep the defenses honest. To date, Rogers, Carr and T. Riley have not done that; It would be great for one of them to have a break-out game tonight.

SCU doesnt seem to have a lot of size down low, so hopefully our bigs can dominate...

First off: Congrats to the team on the win. A well fought battle and they deserved to come out on top. There were some questionable calls down the stretch (Douglas sold that elbow quite well), the clock issues, and the dunks by Santa Clara near the end that all could have taken away the momentum, but the guys stayed tough til the end.

There were a couple of career nights. I can't wait to see the box score, but I believe that J. Bailey, Carr, VDM, and Nicholas all set career highs during the night. John really had his first game where he showed the potential that he has. I wish I could have watched him more, but the foul trouble limited his minutes. I would like to believe that Nem had decent night as well and he and the guys all seemed positive through it all.

I loved the first half and the first part of the second. We played great defense, limited their points in the paint, limited their rebounds, and limited their ability to pass and get assists. Those closing minutes were definitely scary. SCU showed why they came back against the recent suprise in Wagner. We definitely limited the scoring of their big men and star players early, but I'm not sure what it looked like after the second half.

I LOVED the dunks by J. Bailey, K. Bailey, and VDM. Polarizing.

Because I was unable to see from by angle, if the scorer's table is broken, does Foster get the bill?

Also, anyone else notice the "Pilot Club," "Portland Pilots," and "Rise" logos on the hoop? I thought they looked nice.

RipCityPilot wrote:First off: Congrats to the team on the win. A well fought battle and they deserved to come out on top. There were some questionable calls down the stretch ............... the dunks by Santa Clara near the end could have taken away the momentum, but the guys stayed tough til the end.
Also, anyone else notice the "Pilot Club," "Portland Pilots," and "Rise" logos on the hoop? I thought they looked nice.

I think you've summarized it well and kept it positive as it should be for our first WCC win. I heard a lot of complaining towards the end (yes, I too was frustrated because we were not inbounding well). But as someone said, "a win is a win," and that is so true considering it was our first D-1 win since the first two games of the season -- a long, long time ago in Seattle.
Yes, I saw the logos; I give our staff credit for at least trying.

RipCityPilot wrote:First off: Congrats to the team on the win. A well fought battle and they deserved to come out on top. There were some questionable calls down the stretch (Douglas sold that elbow quite well),

Tim didn't sell anything. You aren't allowed any contact with your elbows to the head. If Tim had sold hard contact, Clark gets ejected.


I learned something new about basketball tonight. Nicolas can have his points taken away when he scores falling down from a foul against him, but Brandon Clark can keep his three points from a shot he took after his flagrant foul on Timmy.


Here's ESPN's National pbp on the play.( read from bottom to top)

Nemanja Mitrovic made Free Throw. 71 82
22.0 Nemanja Mitrovic made Free Throw. 71 81
23.0 Tim Douglas made Free Throw. 71 80
23.0 Tim Douglas made Free Throw. 71 79
23.0 Foul on Brandon Clark
23.0 Santa Clara Full Timeout.
25.0 Brandon Clark made Three Point Jumper. 71 78

Thought the box shows the foul after the shot, that's not what happened. Tim went down, THEN the shot was taken. The refs only Called it after they looked at the monitor after SCU took the time out. If Santa Clara doesn't call for the Time out and give Rev a chance to complain, they wouldn't have caught it.

Clark And SCU got three points they shouldn't have.

Another amazing night from WCC refs.

A big win for the team tonight... a great team effort, with balanced scoring, and getting the monkey off the back. We made free throws down the stretch to hold on and take the W when the Broncos finally started hitting some shots... but wow, SCU looked awful at times.

I am concerned with with some lapses in defense in the last couple minutes, and our continued struggles with their press, but overall we played pretty well. Defense in the first 35 minutes or so was solid.

I am going to look up the rule on the flagrant fould called against Douglas... it might be a loophole in the new rule this year that requires the refs to check the video at the next dead ball. They may have actually called it correctly, because the rule is flawed (the next dead ball part). Usually, there is a foul or dead ball situation when a flagrant is called... since they missed the initial foul altogether, the rules are vague, and there is not precedent to take points off the board for this after the play is over and the next play has begun; the ball stopped due to a time out, not the foul called...

PurpleGeezer wrote:Tim didn't sell anything. You aren't allowed any contact with your elbows to the head. If Tim had sold hard contact, Clark gets ejected.

Another amazing night from WCC refs.

A number of us, yes I was watching you Geez, almost came out of the stands to protest what looked like a flagrant foul to us.

The refs finally got it right, but the game would have finished well past midnight PST if they used the monitor to correct the rest of their ridiculous calls/non-calls tonight. With so many WCC games on TV this year, the incompetence of the refs will not only be nationally known, it has already gone viral! (SCU v Wagner)

PilotNut wrote:.....since they missed the initial foul altogether, the rules are vague, and there is not precedent to take points off the board for this after the play is over and the next play has begun; the ball stopped due to a time out, not the foul called...

Agreed! There was no way they could take the points off the board! I think the refs showed good/proper judgment to check the monitor. It appeared pretty obvious by Coach Keating's reaction that he knew it was the correct call in the end.

DoubleDipper wrote:

PilotNut wrote:.....since they missed the initial foul altogether, the rules are vague, and there is not precedent to take points off the board for this after the play is over and the next play has begun; the ball stopped due to a time out, not the foul called...

Agreed! There was no way they could take the points off the board! I think the refs showed good/proper judgment to check the monitor. It appeared pretty obvious by Coach Keating's reaction that he knew it was the correct call in the end.

Had play continued, I can see this line of reasoning, but there was no additional time off the clock after the score. If there had been, SCU couldn't have called a time out with UP in possession.

It's just like taking points back off the board on a charging foul that gets reviewed.

Coach Keating didn't bitch because he knew he got away with the points.

OK, next!

#237 Pepperdine (7-7) (1-2) v #247 Portland (4-11) (1-1) @ 5PM; active and retired military get in FREE!

Pepperdine is coming off very tough back-to-back losses to #21 St. Mary’s and #19 Gonzaga after beating #184 USF in Malibu. They have played the 183/345 strongest schedule (Portland is still holding at 4/345 after the win over Santa Clara). No team in the WCC has played the tough schedule, and as many games on the road as UP, but Pepperdine has played 7 road games; they’ve won 3 (Arizona State, UT San Antonio, and Northern Arizona).

They are lead by Senior Forward 6’8”, 230lb, Taylor Darby with 11.5ppg and Senior Forward 6’10”, 235lb, Corbin Moore with 9rpg and 10.6ppg. As a team the Waves average about 60ppg and give up about the same.

Ryan Nicholas is our points and rebounding leader with 10.8ppg and 7.6rpg.

With about 40 hours until game time, the Pilots are favored over the Waves, 66-63 with a 63% probability (but that was about how we were favored over Montana).

Let’s get loud, and stay loud. You saw how our guys played when everything went quiet and they stopped running and playing transition basketball against Santa Clara.

Was really excited to wake up this morning and (finally) read about a Pilots victory. With regards to DD hearing complaining about not finishing strong (if I interpreted correctly), isn't maintaining the lead and winning considered finishing strong. When the freshman and sophomores are juniors and seniors, then I would want to see them win going away.

The Bailey brothers played outstanding last night.