Wednesday, Nov 26 - San Jose State @ Pilots

San Jose State @ Portland
Wednesday, Nov. 26 - 7:00
Chiles Center

Broadcasts
Portland Radio - 910 AM
Pilots Webcast

Pomeroy
Rankings: Portland #157, San Jose State #232
Projected Score: San Jose State 67, Portland 75

San Jose State (2-4) - Season Stats
Wins - at Pepperdine, Cal State Fullerton
Losses - at Santa Clara, vs. Milwaukee, at Northern Illinois, vs. James Madison

Portland (3-3) - Season Stats
Wins - UC Davis, Idaho, Columbia
Losses - at Oregon State, at Michigan State, North Texas

Portland Info
(coming soon)

San Jose State Info
Preview
Game Notes

Most of the "experts" have San Jose State battling with Air Force and Nevada near the Mountain West cellar, but the Spartans have won two straight (including one at Pepperdine) after losing their first four games of the season so they're on a bit of a roll.

Over half (!!) of SJ State's FG attempts on the season have been three-pointers - Wazzu, Princeton, and Army are the only other schools in all of D1 that shoot from downtown more often that the Spartans.

They were 14-for-27 from three-point range in their win over Pepperdine, so if they're hitting their shots this is going to be a very difficult game for the Pilots. I would imagine it's tough to prepare for a team like this that just bombs away - easy win if their shots aren't falling, but if they're going down then look out!

Had an opportunity to sneak a peek at the SJS Spartans during a shoot-around.....and yes, they can definitely hit the 3-ball.  No, they weren't being guarded, but from where some of them were hitting, it didn't matter....no one would be on them that far out anyway.

SJS has a head coach in his first year, so they may have started a little slowly, but they seem to be rolling pretty good right now.

Las Vegas had UP by 12.5, but now it has dropped to 10.5.  No doubt there will be very little "home court" advantage this evening as the students are on Thanksgiving break, and the average fan is too busy to attend.  

Die-hard fans will be there....I guess we'd better be vocal.  

DeanMurdoch wrote:easy win if their shots aren't falling

Muhammad 4-for-5, rest of the team was 4-for-17. Only 37% of SJSU's shots tonight were three balls, maybe someone that knows more about basketball than me can tell me if they had a slightly different game plan or if something the Pilots were doing got them off their usual long range strategy.

Awesome game by Kevin Bailey tonight! When he's on, he looks so smooth out there and he was a lot of fun to watch tonight. Team shot 7-for-11 from 3pt tonight, outrebounded them by a small margin, and kept turnovers to the single digits. That's a recipe for a win on most nights against most teams.

Also, the webcast HD stream looks spectacular even when hooked up to a big screen, so props to the fellas for getting that going. It's honestly like watching on TV (expect a lot of the time we can hear Bill Johnson talking through the commercial break, good thing he never says anything bad). Was also great to see Buzz Stroud fly into action when the clock took a dive early in the game. You da man, Buzz.

Yes, keeping SJSU from shooting or making the 3-point shot was a priority.   Muhammad is a wonderful player....not sure why the Las Vegas native didn't end up at UNLV....it couldn't be grades.  

Stat of the game: the Pilots three point guards, Alec, Bryce, and David, combined for 25 points, 14 assists, and only 2 turnovers.  

Others stats of the game: 40 points in the paint and 12 fast break points.

Energy source: Korey was all over the court and was instrumental in the big push that put the Pilots over the top.

Kevin played as well as I've seen him because he was UNDER CONTROL!!  I hope someone has a good still photo of his tomahawk dunk....

Fellow geniuses.

I want to ask about the foul called on the sjsu player when he swung an elbow and brushed Pressley's face enough to stagger him a bit. It was enough that the refs blew the whistle, then awarded a foul.Then they spent a lot of time on the monitor.

Here is the wording from the NCAA's explanations when they changed the flagrant wording:

An example of a Flagrant 1 foul would be when a player swings an elbow and makes illegal, non-excessive contact with an opponent above the shoulders. The team whose player was struck would receive two free throws and possession of the ball. Previously, this type of foul was called an intentional foul. The committee wanted to move away from the word “intentional,” because a player’s intent was never the point to the rule.

An example of a Flagrant 2 foul would be when a player swings an elbow excessively and makes contact with an opponent above the shoulders. In this case, the player who threw the elbow would be ejected from the game, and the other team would receive two free throws and the ball.

How come it was a simple foul with an inbound instead of shots and possession of the ball? It seemed like the very definition of a flagrant 1.

Please, please, don't get me started on tonight's officiating....
 
It was pointed out that whoever these refs were, they were obviously holiday replacement workers.  
 
I spoke to UP staff members and the evaluator of officials....all agreed it was a Flagrant 1.

EDIT: oops, sorry, I just noted you only wanted to hear from geniuses….

PurpleGeezer wrote:Fellow geniuses.

I want to ask about the foul called on the sjsu player when he swung an elbow and brushed Pressley's face enough to stagger him a bit. It was enough that the refs blew the whistle, then awarded a foul.

Here is the wording from the NCAA's explanations when they changed the wording:

An example of a Flagrant 1 foul would be when a player swings an elbow and makes illegal, non-excessive contact with an opponent above the shoulders. The team whose player was struck would receive two free throws and possession of the ball. Previously, this type of foul was called an intentional foul. The committee wanted to move away from the word “intentional,” because a player’s intent was never the point to the rule.

An example of a Flagrant 2 foul would be when a player swings an elbow excessively and makes contact with an opponent above the shoulders. In this case, the player who threw the elbow would be ejected from the game, and the other team would receive two free throws and the ball.

How come it was a simple foul with an inbound instead of shots and possession of the ball? It seemed like the very definition of a flagrant 1.

That's a good question for Coach Rev next Monday. We all sure thought it had to be a flagrant one. I think that is when DD said some about the ref having a cutlass.  

DoubleDipper wrote:Die-hard fans will be there....I guess we'd better be vocal. pirat

You took your own advice for sure tonight! Good work!

DoubleDipper wrote:

EDIT: oops, sorry, I just noted you only wanted to hear from geniuses….

That's fellow geniuses. Clearly Geez counts as the first genius to comment on the subject.  

I didn't have the advantage of repay (It's much easier to be a genius with replay), but I thought it was a flagrant 2.

That said, I hate the rule. Nothing was intentional or flagrant about it. It should just be a foul, but that's not the rule. The rule says flagrant 2.

But why spend the time on the monitor? Surely the only question was between Flagrant 1 and flagrant 2...

They called the foul, so they admit to the contact.

There is no third choice with elbows above the shoulder if you call the foul.

Oh, and a nugget from Bill Johnson on the broadcast - he said that the Pilots will return games to both UC Davis and San Jose State next year. Not sure if that's been mentioned around these parts?

DeanMurdoch wrote:Oh, and a nugget from Bill Johnson on the broadcast - he said that the Pilots will return games to both UC Davis and San Jose State next year. Not sure if that's been mentioned around these parts?

Yea, I mentioned it during the summer....but face it, that was a long time ago. 
 
The Pilots will play both schools on one trip......part of cutting down on travel expenses and time away from the classroom.

DoubleDipper wrote:

DeanMurdoch wrote:Oh, and a nugget from Bill Johnson on the broadcast - he said that the Pilots will return games to both UC Davis and San Jose State next year. Not sure if that's been mentioned around these parts?

Yea, I mentioned it during the summer....but face it, that was a long time ago. 
 
The Pilots will play both schools on one trip......part of cutting down on travel expenses and time away from the classroom.

Why,  will the WCC  keep UP students away from the classroom  for a month next year, too?

UP Women's Head Coach Jim Sollars won his 800th D-1 game last Sunday in the team's win over Seattle U.

If my math is correct (someone should always check my math), Coach Erick Reveno just picked up his 100th D-1 win has a head coach tonight against SJSU.

DoubleDipper wrote:If my math is correct (someone should always check my math), Coach Erick Reveno just picked up his 100th D-1 win has a head coach tonight against SJSU.

Math checks out. Spelling leaves a bit to be desired, though  

Yeah, I didn't recall it ever being mentioned that the Pilots would return the UC Davis and SJSU games. I'm a bit irrelevant sometimes, so what!

DoubleDipper wrote:UP Women's Head Coach Jim Sollars won his 800th D-1 game last Sunday in the team's win over Seattle U.

If my math is correct (someone should always check my math), Coach Erick Reveno just picked up his 100th D-1 win has a head coach tonight against SJSU.

The Pilot Basketball Twitter account confirms your calculations.

How 'bout Bryce's line . . .  3 of 5 from the field, 6 assists, 1 turnover, 1 steal.

The play that really stood out to me was when Bryce was driving, looking to throw down a monster dunk.  At some point he realized the high percentage play was an easy layup instead of the contested monster (though I was ready to jump out of my chair when he threw it down).  Understated, Smart, Efficient.  It's almost like he grew up in a basketball family.   I just love watching Bryce play!

blacksheep wrote:How 'bout Bryce's line . . .  3 of 5 from the field, 6 assists, 1 turnover, 1 steal

Agreed! Bryce had an outstanding game. BUT... he does still miss quite a few lay-ups. Kinda like Kevin did his first two years. Coach Rev was yelling at him to "finish" his drives to the hoop tonight. He was 3 of 5, but the 2 that he missed were EASY lay-ups.

In fact, the Pilots missed quite a few "easy" (relatively speaking) inside shots today that I think they are very capable of making. (Almost everyone was guilty of this -- VDM, Kevin, Rhino, Voldy, Alec... The only guy who made all his lay-ups was Korey!). Our shooting percentage was a season high tonight, but it really could/should have been even higher. I think we are just a couple steps away from really "clicking" and being able to completely dominate games like this one and put teams away early. Making a few more of those easy inside looks would have made that happen tonight. To my eyes, the team is at the point where I can see their potential, but they aren't quite there yet.

Many of our conference opponents will not be as forgiving as SJSU was in terms of not taking advantage of the makeable inside shots.

I agree that this team is just a couple steps away from really "clicking" as NoPo mentioned. The tempo creates enough transition game that they arent strictly dependant on the half court game. Alec does a nice job at this although he has a tendency of taking it too deep into the paint with no clear pass or shot options. Freshmen right?
I cant help but think that last weeks schedule still is taking its toll on the legs. Combine that with a sparse crowd and I can see some of those easy bunnies being missed.

I think that if the team better looks to make that extra pass it will be the missing piece to this "clicking" team. When they move the ball, pass up a good shot for a great look the Pilots are a damn good team.

Not to be lost in the game recap was the rebounding by Nicholas. 30 boards in the last two games, combined with the effort and leadership makes for a steady and consistent nucleus in the paint.

Colin said it best in the presser, when Kevin is in control great things happen. I think (hope) his experience at the college level has given him the maturity to see the game slow down. If he can continue to play like he did today this team will be a tough out come conference play.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and Go Pilots!

Just looked at the box score and see that the coaches have clearly been looking to PilotNation.net for advice! The starting 5 played a ton of minutes tonight. 34 minutes (and only 3 fouls!) for van der Mars has got to be a career high, right?

The starting 5 make for a balanced offense: 8, 10, 11, 11 and 22 points. And then a few key guys coming off the bench to make big plays at the right moments. Tonight it was Carr, Thieleke and Voldy. Other nights it will be Sharp and Barker. Maybe Tanner Riley at some point, too. I like the substitution pattern used tonight, and hope we stick with it. Although it will only work as long as the starting 5 stay out of foul trouble, as they did tonight.

wrv wrote:Kevin Bailey is pretty good. Just saying . . .

Go Pilots.

Kevin Bailey Is really good in a :

What the hell are you doi.....GREAT SHOT!

Sort of way.