Pilots vs San Diego. Thursday 7 p.m. Root Sports

Which USD team will show up, the one who needed OT to win at LMU, or the one who beat BYU at home the very next game? The schedule makers are not doing our Pilots any favors. While the boys in purple were getting walloped in SLC (That was a 20 point loss. They were down 20 the entire 2nd half until they had a little 6 point flury at the end), the Toreros were home resting up. Their last game was a Valantine's Day loss at Santa Clara. USD has lost 6 of their last 8, but all 6 losses came against the top four WCC teams, and they did fit that BYU win in there, along with that LMU OT win. The Pilots also have 6 recent losses to those top 4 teams, plus the USF and Pepperdine home losses on their record, to go with the LMU and USF wins.

USD is led by Johnny Dee, averaging 15 ppg in 30 minutes. As a team they are a better 3pt shooting team than the Pilots at 35%. They are not a big team, with only 6'9" Sr Manresa and 6'9" Fr Kok among their leading players, and those two only scored 3 points total at SCU. And Trasolini went for 17 pts against them. So, it looks to me that perimeter defense and inside scoring will be the path to victory on Thursday. Let's hope Tanner and someone else can make some shots to open up the middle and improve the spacing, and that Derrick is moving the ball around a lot so that the defense isn't sagging off him. Go Pilots!

You might recall the Pilots had high hopes heading to USD in the first WCC game of the season, but scored only 50 points and lost by 11.

The first half saw the game knotted at 27 with no player scoring more than 6 points. In the second half Portland edged ahead by 3 points on three different occasions, but a layup by Thomas gave UP its final lead at 42-41 with 7:55 to go…after that USD outscored UP 20-8.

Through 13 league games the Pilots are averaging 58.9 points while surrendering 70.1 ppg...... In the game at USD on Jan. 3rd, the Pilots were led by Thomas (12 points, 8 rebounds) and Ryan (11 points, 9 rebounds). USD is a little better at scoring in WCC play, averaging 62.3 while giving up 65.9.

USD is 3-3 in WCC road games with Johnny Dee (14.5 ppg) and Ken Rancifer (11.0 ppg) leading the way in those six league contests... For the season the Toreros are being paced by Dee's 15.0 points per game (8th in WCC) and his league-best 89.9% from the free throw line (#7 in NCAA)... Rancifer joins Dee in the double-digit column at 10.0 ppg (25th in WCC).

Last I saw, the odds makers are predicting the game tonight is just too close to call…..giving USD a 1 point edge with an o/u of 125.

KenPom is also predicting a one point win by USD, 60-59, but our generous friends at RealTimeRPI are predicting the Pilots will pull it out, 68-63!!

The UP Athletic Department is offering up its usual game day report on tonight’s game against USD….
LINK....nothing unusual, but one item that might bring a few more folks to the game…..it’s paper airplane toss night!

Thursday will feature a paper airplane toss at halftime and one lucky fan will win a trip for two to Hawaii, courtesy of All About Hawaii Travel.

Oskars out due to a violation of team rules. A "dormitory incident" according to the radio.

Dormitory violation? Must have put a goat in the elevator.

I never thought I'd see the day when Derrick Rodgers led the Pilots in field goal attempts ...

DeanMurdoch wrote:Oskars out due to a violation of team rules. A "dormitory incident" according to the radio.

Dormitory violation? Must have put a goat in the elevator.

I was about to offer a guess at a certain regulation-size ladder.

Did this have anything to do with Riley Barker not getting off the bench? I mean, did John Bailey outwork him in practice by that much? Is it National Blame Canada day?

VillaGorilla wrote:

DeanMurdoch wrote:Oskars out due to a violation of team rules. A "dormitory incident" according to the radio.

Dormitory violation? Must have put a goat in the elevator.

I was about to offer a guess at a certain regulation-size ladder.

Did this have anything to do with Riley Barker not getting off the bench? I mean, did John Bailey outwork him in practice by that much? Is it National Blame Canada day?

the talk around me is that Riley Barker was getting over the flu.

MaizeBluePurple wrote:the talk around me is that Riley Barker was getting over the flu.

Yea, that's what the AD told me.

We knew in advance about Oskars (expected back on Saturday), but we all wondered where Riley was. Finally, when he wandered out for player’s introductions, he looked like crap!! We all agreed he wouldn't be playing just based upon his appearance....too bad because his mom was down from Canada for the game.

DeanMurdoch wrote:Oskars out due to a violation of team rules. A "dormitory incident" according to the radio.

Dormitory violation? Must have put a goat in the elevator.

Penny locking a door? Garbage can of water leaning against the door?

Funny smelling smoke coming from under the door?

I came to see how the game went....

I guess I'll have to go elsewhere to see how the program did.

Interesting stats tonight. Korey was the only bench player who scored, with 6 (coulda been 10 with a couple finishes). But I thought all the guys played strong tonight. John Bailey played well giving Thomas some key rest breaks. Korey brought a lot of energy to defense, especially not playing the last two games. Tanner was different, no turnovers, and no shots. But USD didn't give him any open looks, and he didn't force it. And Jake also got 4 rebounds, with no turnovers and no shots.

Being down 3 guys (Carr, Barker, Reinfelds), the team really stepped up tonight.

PurpleGeezer wrote:I came to see how the game went....

I guess I'll have to go elsewhere to see how the program did.

Hmm, I thought you'd already gone elsewhere; otherwise you'd have known how the game went.....

Great to see Derrick putting the ball up! He’s been told over and over that even if he misses (he shot 6/10 tonight) his teammate will get the rebound…..and tonight they did; out rebounding USD 38-25.

Ball movement and Thomas’ play has seen a huge leap in recent weeks, and tonight both were the difference in the game. KB is playing with abandon again after losing the shield, and Korey once again brought great energy with his steals and length of the court dashes (sure, he missed a couple of easy ones, but he made the plays to get himself in position) Everyone played within themselves and didn’t try to do too much. Tanner never even took a shot, and Jake and JB played solid, mistake free minutes off the bench. Bryce started again, and was solid….and very active. As soon as he gets a little stronger and experienced he will be a good defender and an excellent slasher.

Not huge numbers for Ryan tonight (5/10 at the line), but the leadership and work that he puts in affects the entire team in a very positive way….without Ryan, the Pilots could be a rudderless cruise ship….tonight the Ryan led Pilots brought much more intensity than did USD.

DoubleDipper wrote:

PurpleGeezer wrote:I came to see how the game went....

I guess I'll have to go elsewhere to see how the program did.

Hmm, I thought you'd already gone elsewhere; otherwise you'd have known how the game went.....

I came here first because I heard this is where the UP fans hang out. it turns out maybe only the bitchers do, because no fans posted that we got a great win!

had to go to CBS sports to find out.

Two options:

1) Shock
2) Too busy celebrating.

Your pick.

So I was able to watch the first half of the game last night, but I taped the second half, so I'll watch it tonight and give my full reaction I guess. Just a few thoughts as of right now:

As a proud Res Life Staff Alum (RA in Christie and Corrado) I'm pretty curious about this violation. Could be alcohol, could be inter-vis, could be noise violation, could be a goat in the elevator. Who knows. But only being a one game thing probably not a huge deal, but something to keep an eye on in the future. I feel like Oskars is pretty firey. Which can be good. But also, could get him into trouble. Again I don't know him, never met him, I'm just basing this on how he plays the game. I don't mean to offend.

From what I saw in the first half, we really limited thier guards. I think Dee only had two or three points in the first half. Looking at the stats, anytime you can keep their star player shooting under 50% its a good thing. It took him 12 shots to get 13 points. We'll take that any night.

19-27 from the free throw line is great. Only 70% but it shows how aggressive Kevin and Ryan were. Solid. We had the same amount of made FG, but they had 4 more 3's. It was our +7 free throws that made the difference. Some of that is at the end of the game, but making those is huge.

Only 5 assists is not great. Our assist to turnover ratio was 5:12 which is pretty crappy to put it nicely. That should be closer to 1:1 ratio. Free throw attempts can somewhat skew that stat but still an issue. Hopefully a true PG can help in that area.

1-7 from deep is a real issue. The good news with that is the team stayed aggressive and didn't let it kill them. They attacked and got rewarded. Nice to see.

I think this shows us nothing new in the WCC. I think for a while its kind of been Gonzana and Saint Mary's and now BYU, then everyone else. Not unusual to see any of those three lose to the rest of the field every once in a while, but they seem to be consistently at the top of the league. There have been questions about the level of recruits we get, and if they are WCC caliber players. I think they are WCC players. Across the board I think our team is in the same league as the second tier WCC. We as fans, and the administration don't want to be in the second tier. We want to compete for championships, CONSISTENTLY. To make that jump up into the top 2 or 3, we do need to be getting some higher level guys. Gonzaga did it by turing blue collar, hard working guys into a consistent national program. Saint Mary's used the Australian connection and some nice tournament wins to get the high level recruits they are now (guys like Stephen Holt and Cullen Neal). BYU has always had a solid program, using their religious affiliation and solid coaching. Question is how do we get up into that tier. On the level with those three. It looked like we were getting there but in order to be considered at that level you can't have two seasons like we've had. You can't have even a season like we had last year, or this year. It will be interesting to see how the next 3 or 4 months play out.

DeanMurdoch wrote:Oskars out due to a violation of team rules. A "dormitory incident" according to the radio.

Why is it so hard to get good recruits to UP?

pilotram wrote:

DeanMurdoch wrote:Oskars out due to a violation of team rules. A "dormitory incident" according to the radio.

Why is it so hard to get good recruits to UP?

Uh, Davies sat out a month at BYU, and Foster sat out two months at SCU. They are both good recruits. Kids do stuff. Sometimes they get caught.

dholcombe wrote:Two options:

1) Shock
2) Too busy celebrating.

Your pick.

Celebrating
Watching the 2nd half of BYU-SMC
Watching the DVR'd game again

It was a long night.

up7587 wrote:

dholcombe wrote:Two options:

1) Shock
2) Too busy celebrating.

Your pick.

Celebrating
Watching the 2nd half of BYU-SMC
Watching the DVR'd game again

It was a long night.

Yup, did all that, and the women's game against BYU too....we don't have to be posting on PN to be UP engaged, you know!

up7587 wrote:

pilotram wrote:

DeanMurdoch wrote:Oskars out due to a violation of team rules. A "dormitory incident" according to the radio.

Why is it so hard to get good recruits to UP?

Uh, Davies sat out a month at BYU, and Foster sat out two months at SCU. They are both good recruits. Kids do stuff. Sometimes they get caught.

Having the ethical requirements of BYU wouldn't hurt our athletics if we also had religious attraction of BYU. Now, our sister institution publicly defended an athlete who was shown to be a big big liar. I think there is a reasonable middle ground.

pilotram wrote:

DeanMurdoch wrote:Oskars out due to a violation of team rules. A "dormitory incident" according to the radio.

Why is it so hard to get good recruits to UP?

You saying that out of 12 guys you expect none to have a dormitory incident in 4 years? Pick 12 of your random college buddies...any incidents there?

dholcombe wrote:

pilotram wrote:

DeanMurdoch wrote:Oskars out due to a violation of team rules. A "dormitory incident" according to the radio.

Why is it so hard to get good recruits to UP?

You saying that out of 12 guys you expect none to have a dormitory incident in 4 years? Pick 12 of your random college buddies...any incidents there?

Actually I was talking about recruiting.

A. Re: Oskars…..we don't know what happened, where it happened, or what/who it involved.
B. Student athletes at UP ARE held to a higher standard than non athletes...they have a coach and teammates, in addition to administrators, to whom they must answer.
C. Based on my full UP experience(s) over 100 years ago, if you're not pushing boundaries, you're probably not getting the FULL college experience.
D. Re: Oskars....he's a fun loving guy who's wide-eyed and richly enjoying his college experience....I'm jealous.
E. Goats in an elevator? This generation is so, so soft.....we may have had goats in our dorm rooms, but we NEVER had elevators!!