Portland @ San Diego, 5:30pm, Thurs. 2/16

up7587 wrote:Beat Pepperdine - Nothing Else Matters!

Men’s Hoops Opens Road Trip at San Diego

Portland Pilots (6-19, 3-9) at San Diego Toreros (10-15, 5-8 )
Date: Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012
Tip-off: 5:30 p.m.
Location: San Diego, CA
Arena: Jenny Craig Pavilion (5,100)
Television: CSN-NW
Radio: 800 AM
Overall Series: 29-53
At UP: 21-20
At USD: 7-30
At Neutral: 1-3
Last: USD 82, POR 63 (January 19, 2012 at Portland)

COMING UP
• Portland (6-19, 3-9 WCC) heads to Southern California this weekend for a pair of crucial road games that will go far in determining seeding for the Zappos.com West Coast Conference Basketball Championships.
• The Pilots will be at San Diego on Thursday for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off. The Toreros (10-15, 5- are currently sixth in the WCC standings, one spot ahead of Portland. The game will be televised live on Comcast SportsNet Northwest with Steve Quis and Jim Brogan calling the action.
• Portland will then make the short trip up to Malibu, Calif. to play the Pepperdine Waves (8-17, 2-12) on Saturday at 7 p.m. Pepperdine trails the Pilots and are currently eighth in the league standings. Saturday’s game will be televised live on FSN Prime Ticket and tape-delayed on CSN Northwest at 11 p.m. Paul Sunderland and Mitch Butler will call the action.
• All Portland basketball games will be broadcast live on True Talk 800 AM, with a 30-minute pregame show. Bill Johnson will provide the play-by-play and an audio simulcast will also be available on www.PilotsVideo.com.


ABOUT SAN DIEGO
• The Toreros (10-15, 5-8 WCC) split a pair of games last weekend, knocking off Pepperdine on the road (70-57) before dropping an 81-70 decision to San Francisco at home.
• USD currently sits in sixth-place in the WCC standings, one spot ahead of the Pilots.
• Portland’s five-game winning streak over USD was halted by an 82-63 win at the Chiles Center on Jan. 19. The Toreros made 14-of-19 three-pointers in the game, tying a Chiles Center and school record for threes made.
• Freshman G Johnny Dee leads USD and is seventh in the WCC in scoring on the year (14.1 ppg). He is the top scoring freshman in the league.
• Freshman G Chris Anderson is fourth in the league in assists (4.6) and is averaging 10.9 points in WCC games.
• USD’s roster consists of one senior, three juniors, one sophomore and nine freshmen.
• The Toreros were picked to finish ninth in the WCC Preseason Poll after going 6-24 and 2-12 in the WCC a season ago.
• Head coach Bill Grier is in his fifth year at the helm of the Toreros. In his first year, Grier led USD to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after winning the WCC Tournament. He posts a 65-90 career record.


LINEUP NOTES
• Senior PG Eric Waterford (knee) is doubtful for Thursday.
• Sophomore C Riley Barker has missed the last 18 games (knee) and is out Thursday.
• Head coach Eric Reveno has used eight different starting lineups this year.
• Sophomore Ryan Nicholas is the only Pilot to start all 25 games this year, while 11 different Pilots have started at least one game.
• Three different freshmen have started at least four games.

Location: Portland, Ore.
Arena: Jenny Craig Pavilion (5,100)

Rob's Jacket wrote:I seem to recall USD providing a grainy internet stream in the past. Any word on whether that might be happening again?

DoubleDipper wrote:PU (2-12) is idle awaiting UP (3-9) on Saturday in Malibu

With just one win in the last month, the University of Portland Pilots find themselves with the fewest overall wins in the West Coast Conference, as they challenge the San Diego Toreros tonight at Jenny Craig Pavilion.

Portland, which has a total of just six wins this season, two of them coming in the first two games of the campaign, is only 3-9 in the WCC and those three wins have come against the only two teams (Pepperdine and Santa Clara) that lie beneath the Pilots in the standings. A week ago, Portland was beaten up by Loyola Marymount at home in a 76-62 final, the team's second straight loss and the eighth in nine outings overall.

As for the Toreros, they too were handed a loss in their most recent contest, an 81-70 final versus San Francisco last weekend. The defeat snapped a modest two-game win streak, the first set of back-to-back victories since San Diego began 2011-12 with four wins in five games. With a 5-8 record in conference play, USD is just ahead of the Pilots in the standings.

San Diego, which posted an 82-63 win in the first meeting of the season versus Portland, snapped a five-game series slide with the triumph and is now ahead in the all-time series by a count of 42-27.

The Pilots had four players score in double figures against LMU at home last week, led by Ryan Nicholas and Tanner Riley with 13 points apiece, but that was the extent of the good news for the hosts. Kevin Bailey and Tim Douglas dropped in 11 points apiece as well, but no one else on the team made more than a pair of field goals outside of the foursome. Overall, Portland is scoring just 65.2 ppg this season, but giving up 76.2 ppg which means its minus-11.0 ppg scoring margin is one of the widest in the nation. With points so hard to come by, it makes sense that Nicholas is the only double-digit scorer on the roster at the moment with his 11.3 ppg, his 50.2 percent shooting from the floor based on the fact that he tries to stay as close to the basket as possible.

The Toreros turned the ball over 17 times and shot just 8-of-23 behind the three-point line last Saturday against a San Francisco squad that made good on close to 52 percent from the floor in order to capture a double-digit win at JCP. Johnny Dee dropped in a game-high 23 points for the hosts, followed by John Sinis and Christopher Anderson with 16 and 15 points, respectively, the latter handing out six assists and making six steals in an effort to offset seven turnovers. Dee is certainly someone who can pace the team in scoring, as he leads the group in conference games with 14.2 ppg, but he can also be hit or miss which has been the case the last four games. Against Pepperdine, Dee tallied just two points, five days after dropping 19 on Santa Clara. However, prior to the meeting with the Broncos, Dee had just five points versus Saint Mary's, so to expect him to step up against tougher defenses is not a safe bet.

Portland has just a single true road victory this season and that came against Santa Clara, so to expect the Pilots to put all the pieces together and take down the Toreros would be asking quite a bit.

With points so hard to come by, it makes sense that Nicholas is the only double-digit scorer on the roster at the moment with his 11.3 ppg, his 50.2 percent shooting from the floor based on the fact that he tries to stay as close to the basket as possible.

blacksheep wrote:

Rob's Jacket wrote:I seem to recall USD providing a grainy internet stream in the past. Any word on whether that might be happening again?

It's on CSN, assuming that it's available in the Kingdom of Salem.

Rob's Jacket wrote:

blacksheep wrote:

Rob's Jacket wrote:I seem to recall USD providing a grainy internet stream in the past. Any word on whether that might be happening again?

It's on CSN, assuming that it's available in the Kingdom of Salem.

Definitely available at my apartment, less available in the Willamette law library - where in all likelihood I'll be spending my evening ...

PilotNut wrote:' . . . 11 first half turnovers for the Pilots . . .