WCC Tourney: Portland vs. SCU, Weds., 2/29, 6pm

I thought the Pilots played great in the 1st half. The boys were hitting their shots, moved the ball around well and limited their turnovers to only a handful. They played the type of basketball I think we all knew they were capable of but hadn't quite seen yet. The team started the 2nd half with more of the same and built up a nice lead but then the offense seemed to sputter, made some sloppy turnovers and started allowing way too much guard penetration on the defensive end. The Broncos briefly took the lead but the Pilots hung in there. Tanner's three from the corner was huge, absolutely huge! It was a nice victory for the men in purple. If the team comes out tomorrow the way they did tonight the Dons will have all they can handle.

Sat with Thomas' parents tonight; Mom said, "I didn't fly 12 hours to watch us lose," and she didn't!!! She was a little concerned how thin he looked; I told her the players weren't allowed to drink BEER during the season. Dad was impressed with Thomas' improvement since he last saw him at beginning of WCC, and I mentioned after 4 years under Rev he'd be an NBA draft choice. Keep sewing those positive thoughts.

Oh, oh, oh, I forgot to mention, Thomas is dating Amy Pupa of the Womens Basketball Team. That's my way of sneaking in a plug on the Men's page for the Women's game tomorrow's against SCU at approx 2:15; they will really appreciate your support!!!

I'm glad I don't have to watch any more games on the WCC's site. The announcer (not sure who it was) annoyed me and the camera work was terrible. I'm usually not aware or critical of these types of things but it really got to me tonight. I'm at the airport now (seems my flight may be delayed) and I'm excited to watch the Pilots play tomorrow!

ShipstadPilot11 wrote:I'm glad I don't have to watch any more games on the WCC's site. The announcer (not sure who it was) annoyed me and the camera work was terrible. I'm usually not aware or critical of these types of things but it really got to me tonight. I'm at the airport now (seems my flight may be delayed) and I'm excited to watch the Pilots play tomorrow!

Well, be prepared for more annoyance. The courtside announcer could only pronounce Anglo-Saxon names - he was terrible!! I'm told he may be replaced for tomorrow evening's games before he starts an international incident.

Wow. SID, yenta, PR guy and diplomat. DD, you're the man, er, many men.

See you tomorrow afternoon at 2:15.

ShipstadPilot11 wrote:I'm glad I don't have to watch any more games on the WCC's site. The announcer (not sure who it was) annoyed me and the camera work was terrible.

I'm pretty sure the announcer is LMU's play-by-play guy. I recognize him from watching the the Pilots' game at LMU via LMU's website earlier this season.

I think you're correct. And he was announcing as a radio broadcast. I think the camera feed was the in-house feed to the big screen. That long shot they kept going to on free throws was useless. I was routed to my 39" tv, and I couldn't see anything on that shot. But, I do appreciate

Nice to get a win in the tournament! But it was scary to see the lead slip away so easily in the second half. Seems like the Pilots have that kind of complete meltdown at some point in every game. Fortunately we were playing Santa Clara. Any other team probably would have run away from us at that point (or wouldn't have been down by 13 in the first place).

However, pretty impressive to win when you turn the ball over 15 times and your opponent only commits 1 turnover. (Really? ONE turnover? Our defense needs to generate some more steals and pressure!)

And how about those underclassmen!? Tanner Riley has come into his own the last few games, and has finally become a credible, reliable 3-point threat. Carr played well: 6 assists and only 2 turnovers. Kevin Bailey made things happen and got to the charity stripe. And of course, Nicholas dominated almost the entire game. However, van der Mars and Cason had disappointing performances, and John Bailey just does not belong on a Division-1 team. Meanwhile, the upperclassmen totaled 13 minutes played, 3 points, and 0 rebounds.

Some keys to the win:
• GREAT free throw shooting (16-17)
• GREAT three point shooting (8-16; but I'd be happy to never see Cason attempt a 3 again)
• Improved point guard play and ball movement
• 17 assists! (But still way too many turnovers)

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Nice to get a win in the tournament! But it was scary to see the lead slip away so easily in the second half. Seems like the Pilots have that kind of complete meltdown at some point in every game. Fortunately we were playing Santa Clara. Any other team probably would have run away from us at that point (or wouldn't have been down by 13 in the first place).

At the end, it seemed that Roquemore was going one on five against us, and we couldn't stop him. Box score says he was only 4 of 18, which is probably what saved us. We kept fouling him, and he kept making the the FTs. None of our guys could guard him. I see that Derrick only played 3 minutes; I didn't even notice he got in the game. He's supposed to be the defensive specialist, but Rev has him deep on the bench right now. I suspect that his liabilities on offense have finally outweighed hos contributions on defense. Sure hope he works all off-season on his shooting and contributes more next year.