vs. Gonzaga, 1/26, 8pm, ESPN2

Rob's Jacket wrote:Haven't been to a Portland/Gonzaga game since the Holton era, but I'm trekking up tomorrow with a friend fellow law student whose GU-supporting family buys season tickets just to get good seats to this game.

So that explains why some "sold out" games still have empty seats.

1. Why have the Teletubbies been banned from roaming the Chiles Center?

"They were a distraction."

dbl.dipper read ur comparison of our 3 pt grds and wouthink u could eliminate eric as he has not had much of a .
frankly douglas is a mystery to me this season. so far to date this season he has 74 TOs for 20games. he had 68 last year for 28 games.++he sometimes makes passes that a blind man would avoid'. still as bad as he hasbeen if u ck his wcc games he is a shade ahead of rogers and also score a sliver btr than rogers. also the fact that therehave been a couple of games where he has gone for 8 assists which rogers could never touch.
Then again u had the 2nd half of the SD game with rogers atthe pt where we scored one basket and two or three FT IN 9-10 MIN.

one item re; pt grds this season; last year they were pass the ball to 3 srs, i jr for the most part. this year its 1 sr, one so. and 2-3 fr.. thats quite a change from one yr to the next. it should have smoothed out a little by now but it ain't,

Whats the difference in turnovers per minute for Douglas rather than per game between last season and this one? I'm about to hit the sack or I'd look it up.

dholcombe wrote:Whats the difference in turnovers per minute for Douglas rather than per game between last season and this one? I'm about to hit the sack or I'd look it up.

Turnovers per 40 minutes
Player: Last Year - This Year
Tim: 4.7 - 5.6
Derrick: 2.7 - 3.2
Eric: 2.7 - 2.9

It's hard to read into this too much because it's a small sample size and I would argue that these things don't necessarily scale linearly, not to mention the circumstances of each players minutes are never the same.

That being said, notice that everyone's numbers are up. I'd guess this has something to do with the age of the big men, as UPSailor pointed out.

Today is my favorite day of the year!! The Gonzaga game is the one time that students and fans alike come out hard to support the team. Every year, I think "How cool would it be if every game had this much energy?" I'm hoping for a loud and loyal crowd tonight that really gets behind the guys and helps them defend Chiles. College basketball is a crazy world where anything can happen; meaning we have a chance to win tonight 'against the odds.'

Coach Rev doing a live twitter chat this afternoon for those twitter folks:

http://twitter.com/#!/PortlandPilots/status/162320244419997697

RipCityPilot wrote:

Rob's Jacket wrote:Haven't been to a Portland/Gonzaga game since the Holton era, but I'm trekking up tomorrow with a friend fellow law student whose GU-supporting family buys season tickets just to get good seats to this game.

So that explains why some "sold out" games still have empty seats.

Been happening since the 90s, at least. You see people wearing purple all season, then turn up to the biggest game of the year wearing Gonzaga colors. That's one of the biggest reasons why the arena is traditionally 60%+ Zag fans. (Though I hear that's changed somewhat the last few years.)

1. Why have the Teletubbies been banned from roaming the Chiles Center?

"They were a distraction."

Reminds me of when students at my high school were told that we couldn't say anything negative about the other team because "The court is too small."

Rob's Jacket wrote: That's one of the biggest reasons why the arena is traditionally 60%+ Zag fans. (Though I hear that's changed somewhat the last few years.)

Don't count on it this year. In the past few years a block of tickets was purchased by a booster and he would try to make sure those tickets got to pilot fans. My understanding is that this didn't happen this year.

Rob's Jacket wrote:

RipCityPilot wrote:

Rob's Jacket wrote:Haven't been to a Portland/Gonzaga game since the Holton era, but I'm trekking up tomorrow with a friend fellow law student whose GU-supporting family buys season tickets just to get good seats to this game.

So that explains why some "sold out" games still have empty seats.

Been happening since the 90s, at least. You see people wearing purple all season, then turn up to the biggest game of the year wearing Gonzaga colors. That's one of the biggest reasons why the arena is traditionally 60%+ Zag fans. (Though I hear that's changed somewhat the last few years.)

1. Why have the Teletubbies been banned from roaming the Chiles Center?

"They were a distraction."

Reminds me of when students at my high school were told that we couldn't say anything negative about the other team because "The court is too small."

Now at high school games you can't turn your back or do the newspaper thing during introductions, you can't do "AIRBALL!," you can't single out players...

If I was in high school now my friends and I wouldn't have made it through first quarter.

How big a block are we talking.....

dholcombe wrote:How big a block are we talking.....

I don't recall exactly. I know that it made a huge difference though.

Are you thinking of doing it for next year?

Good effort against GU tonight; very proud of the guys for their effort. It was pretty obvious that GU was older, bigger, more experienced, and athletic than UP, but the Pilots’ effort kept them in the game.

USD (3-5) won tonight, so they are now a game ahead of UP (2-6) in the standings. But, on a positive note, PU (1-eight) and SCU (0-7) both lost tonight keeping us in 7th place. Unfortunately, we have to play all three teams on the road in the days ahead.

I had a number of GU fans ask me why our “Dance Team” had University of Oregon green and gold pompoms. I didn’t even try to explain BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA WHY!!!!!!!!!! We obviously need a write-in campaign directed toward the (Interim) Athletic Director.

(Oh yea, we beat the over/under by 3)

I can't criticize much of anything about the on-court play tonight: great game plan, great execution, great hustle, great teamwork. We just got outlasted by a team that, as DD said, was older, bigger, more experienced, and more athletic.

... that being said ...

Could we pretty please (with sugar on top) draw up a couple of inbounds plays? I counted three turnovers off those alone tonight, but our inability to inbound the ball on the baseline has been a problem for at least four years. We run one play - a screen for a three point shooter - and if that's not there, we just lob it over the top. Over and over and over. Against a team with superior length, that's going to bite us in the rear, and it did tonight.

Rob's Jacket wrote:Could we pretty please (with sugar on top) draw up a couple of inbounds plays? I counted three turnovers off those alone tonight, but our inability to inbound the ball on the baseline has been a problem for at least four years. We run one play - a screen for a three point shooter - and if that's not there, we just lob it over the top. Over and over and over. Against a team with superior length, that's going to bite us in the rear, and it did tonight.

I couldnt agree more; this has been an issue for years... brutal tonight. (Not that I am still bitter about it, but we lost a game @LMU because of the inability to inbound the ball at the end of regulation to seal the win 2 years ago, which cost us 2nd place in the WCC in 2009-2010).

Otherwise, a great effort by the young Pilots tonight; this is the team I was hoping to see all year. If we can play with this sort of effort and execution down the stretch, we will certainly improve our seeding.

Glad to see the tough D, and Ryan Nicholas had a great night. Nem and Tanner hit some shots... this is the team we hoped to have this year! And this was without our starting center (Barker) and Waterford.

The students were great in their numbers tonight, but get a D for effort. Don't get me started here...

Overall, I am optimistic for the future, this year and beyond; the young Pilots, with 1 Senior and 1 Junior suited up, brought it tonight. Let's hope they keep it up!

Just watched my DVR of the game (don't ask). The inbounds issues was the first thing I was going to comment on. This is on the coaches; it has been a problem for too long. The ESPN commentators were generally complimentary, but they mentioned the inbounds problems.

The other was too many unforced errors. GU was the better team, but they were vulnerable tonight. I suppose after the romp in Spokane, they weren't very motivated. But the Pilots gave away too many points to even have a chance at an upset.

Finally, the WCC refs were typically inconsistent, both ways, and the ESPN guys also mentioned that a few times. Didn't affect the outcome, but it is frustrating.

DoubleDipper wrote:I had a number of GU fans ask me why our “Dance Team” had University of Oregon green and gold pompoms. I didn't even try to explain BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA WHY!!!!!!!!!!

I had to sit behind the Gonzaga bench tonight and got asked the same question. I just rolled my eyes and gave them the BS explanation. They didn't buy it either! After the game I had to listen to the official UP story again. Come on, can't we have pompoms that not only are purple, but also look purple in the lights of the EACC.

OK, enough with the pompom BS.

I thought our guys played really well tonight. If we played with this much energy, intensity, and good solid play, I wouldn't have to worry about what flight to Vegas I was on.

I feel our young team is really close to figuring out how to win together. Tonight should have shown our guys that they can win some games against quality teams in our league. It's time to put it all together!


PS: With this late post I feel like a combination of DD and Mesapilot1

up7587 wrote:(don't ask)

Come on, PRIORITIES!

blacksheep wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:I had a number of GU fans ask me why our “Dance Team” had University of Oregon green and gold pompoms. I didn't even try to explain BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA WHY!!!!!!!!!!

I had to sit behind the Gonzaga bench tonight and got asked the same question. I just rolled my eyes and gave them the BS explanation. They didn't buy it either! After the game I had to listen to the official UP story again. Come on, can't we have pompoms that not only are purple, but also look purple in the lights of the EACC.

I had to laugh pretty hard when I heard SP11's reaction when he first noticed the GREEN pompoms were back in play - an audible sigh, gasp, groan, *&%$#\@ *

Question - how "official" was the official who gave the "official" explanation? I don't know how many of you are old enough to remember when we boycotted grapes (and the boycott leader got a street named after him in Portland), but maybe it's time we figured out how to boycott grape colored pompoms. Trouble is, I guess it's not really that important in the big scheme of things. It's just that.............

blacksheep wrote:PS: With this late post I feel like a combination of DD and Mesapilot1

Not only would that be really ugly, it would bring back the grammar police. In MP1's defense, he is a time zone away. In my defense, I've seen Geez and UP7587 much later at night/earlier in the morning. And besides, I tried sleeping -- instead of counting sheep, all I counted were turnovers on attempted inbound plays.

up7587 wrote:
Finally, the WCC refs were typically inconsistent, both ways, and the ESPN guys also mentioned that a few times. Didn't affect the outcome, but it is frustrating.

With all the bumping and pressure that the Zags did coming out in the second, the finest refs in the NCAA saw no fouls on them until 12 minutes had passed, even with KB getting knocked to the floor on a layup. ( the next play was at the other end and Elias got an "and one". The guy who got whistled? Kevin.) UP was in the bonus by then.

Those guys amaze me every game. Tonight's new learning point for me is that Sacre could crowd Timmy on one of those inbounds plays that failed to the point of standing out of bounds. In the WCC, that is now legal, but perhaps only if you are a Zag.

Nobody else seemed to notice, except my wife, who asked me

"is he allowed to do that?"

...well...that was interesting. I'm not used to watching home games on TV, but watching from my hotel in Austin was better than not watching it at all. I'll admit, listening to the announcers keep referring to the "GU's won 17 straight" stat got repetitive by the end of the night.

I felt like it was closer than it should have been, and that if we'd controlled the ball better (turnovers, inbounds plays as already discussed), we could've won. I couldn't tell who won the crowd battle, but I will say that it seemed pretty noisy. About time. I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't also state that the band sounds great on TV, which generally means they sound EVEN BETTER live.

Classic refs and classic Few...Mark has to be the only coach who can be in the bonus as quickly as GU does and still flail his arms about about the calls. I'm not saying there all of the calls were good, but he sure likes to complain a lot.

I feel better about the games against BYU/SMC/LMU at home. If we can take a few things from this game, who knows what'll happen...

PilotDrummer wrote:
Classic refs and classic Few...Mark has to be the only coach who can be in the bonus as quickly as GU does and still flail his arms about about the calls. I'm not saying there all of the calls were good, but he sure likes to complain a lot.

I wonder why Few lets Sacre pop his jersey and prance around like he won the WCC. I don't think any of Rev's players would even dream of that, especially on the road.

The videos of the Pilot fans were nice. I saw some people I knew.

PilotDrummer wrote:I couldn't tell who won the crowd battle, but I will say that it seemed pretty noisy. About time. I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't also state that the band sounds great on TV, which generally means they sound EVEN BETTER live.

We want MORE COW BELLS; missed you last night, PD, but the band played as inspired as the team, even without you.

The crowd was like the Republican primary, everyone had something to say/yell, but unlike the primary, I thought the crowd was much more good natured than it has been in the past. The last few years the games have been played mid-week, making it less likely that hoards of drunken GU students would converge on the Chiles Center as they had in past years.

Also, as the Pilots are competitive, many more Pilot fans (some with young kids) were in attendance. I have honestly dreaded going to the GU game in the past (many Pilot season ticket holders still do not attend), but not anymore. Those acting like adult basketball fans are taking over from the hooligans.

I know PilotNut had some negative thoughts about the student section, but to be honest, I thought they were the best I’ve seen in recent memory (short-term memory loss?).

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:I wonder why Few lets Sacre pop his jersey and prance around like he won the WCC. I don't think any of Rev's players would even dream of that, especially on the road.

Yea, I have to admit, after seeing Sacre's antics, I wanted to charge the court and ................. Wow, it's a good thing for him my wife stopped me (again).

The rest of Few's guys showed good sportsmanship, by the way.