2014-15 schedule

up7587 wrote:WCC TV schedule is out: http://portlandpilots.com/news/2014/10/23/MBB_1023144627.aspx

Key point is:

The West Coast Conference will establish yet another record this season by offering the most broadcasts in men's basketball history with every game during league play televised on a national or regional level, and/or produced for broadcast on the conference's digital network, TheW.tv.

Sixteen West Coast Conference regular season games will be broadcast on ESPN Networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU) and an additional 48 games will air on regional television through conference and school partnerships with Time Warner Cable Sports, Comcast SportsNet, ROOT Sports and BYUtv - along with the West Coast Conference Game of the Week.

As part of the West Coast Conference's long-term deal with Time Warner Cable Sports, Time Warner Cable SportsNet will produce and air a West Coast Conference Game of the Week each Saturday during WCC play. The Game of the Week will be distributed to television partners throughout the WCC footprint - up to 20 million homes in all. Those games will also be available live to WCC fans outside of school television markets for free on TheW.tv.

So no 8 PM home games?  LIKE.

VillaGorilla wrote:So no 8 PM home games?  LIKE.

Well, not yet anyway.  We still don't know the start time for the GU game on January 3rd.

Not real pleased with the two Saturday at 1 PM games against USF and USD, but all the Women's games on Saturday are at 1 PM, so I guess we'll get used to it.

DeanMurdoch wrote:Pomeroy's rankings should be coming out in the next couple of days. He'll predict either an 8-4 or a 9-3 record for the Pilots given their opponents, which I think is realistic.

Pomeroy put out his preseason rankings tonight. Pilots ranked #121 in the nation. 17-13 overall record predicted including 9-9 in conference.

Interestingly enough, wins predicted in 10 of 12 individual non-conference games (Murray St, UNLV only predicted losses). He's got a few toss-ups in there, so rounding brings the overall non-conference prediction to 9-3.

Although many of us may give too much credence to Pomeroy and his analysis, I believe it's still the best we have available to us.  Hey, if Coach Reveno looks at it and comments on it....it must have some validity.

I have to agree, for the most part, with P's predicted order of finish in the WCC.  Without getting into a lot of details of why, this is P's predictions with WCC record:

GU (14-4)
BYU (12-6)
SMC (10-8]
USF (9-9)
USD (9-9)
UP (9-9)
SCU (8-10)
PU (7-11)
UOP (6-12)
LMU (6-12)

Interestingly, Pomeroy has UP playing USF in the Chiles Center twice....which I'm sure will give Rex something else to complain about....so a thorough analysis of P's numbers really has UP's record at 8-10 with home losses to GU and BYU and a road win over LMU.

Regardless, it's really very unpredictable at this point in the preseason....I think if P were to say "After the top two or three teams, it's pretty much a toss-up depending on which teams can stay injury free, which teams have a sudden stand-out performer, and which teams can stay together as a unit after some tough decisions go against them," it would be pretty accurate.

DoubleDipper wrote:Without getting into a lot of details of why, this is P's predictions with WCC record:

GU (14-4)
BYU (12-6)
SMC (10-8]
USF (9-9)
USD (9-9)
UP (9-9)
SCU (8-10)
PU (7-11)
UOP (6-12)
LMU (6-12)

My predictions:
Gonzaga will NOT lose 4 conference games. Maybe 1 or 2.
I think the Pilots will finish ahead of San Diego.
Neither Pacific nor LMU will win 6 games.

Now that Kenpom's stuff is out, it makes it inherently easier to compare schedules and other things.

It's pretty obvious that the Pilots have the one of the easiest non-conference schedules in the WCC, with perhaps the only challenger to this being USF. 9-3 record predicted, but it shouldn't be surprising if we see this talented team overcome some of its inconsistencies from last year and head into conference play with 10 wins.

I thought I'd check how P did last year.


https://www.pilotnation.net/t4870-the-season-begins-pomeroy

If we do 69 points better again this year we dance.

Don't look now, but Portland St. looks like an entirely different team compared to last year.

Tonight I watched them beat USC in LA, 76-68....and it really never seemed that close.  PSU started strong and kept the pedal down in the first half before relinquishing the lead at the start of the second before pulling away.

Former Pilot Tim Douglas was excellent, but he now has a much deeper team to work with.   They've got this kid from France, Tiegbe Bamba who is a four, but could easily be a 2 or 3 with his athleticism and shooting.  He's gone to two JC's, and this is apparently his senior year, but he's a difference maker.

In a reversal of identity problems, the USC athletics website at one point wrote, "....a 17-9 spurt sent the Pilots into halftime leading...."

The win by PSU tonight apparently improved their record against Pac-12 schools to 5-48 (unless that's the Pilots' record)

Former Pilot Dorian Cason, who now looks a lot bigger than his listed 250lbs, did not play.

DD you are spot on, I watched as well and PSU is much better than last year. Timmy played with poise and leadership and my friend Gary Winston is healthy and looked much better than last year when he was nursing an abdominal injury. This Bamba kid is a nice player, he really carried the load on both ends of the court in this game.

December 3 will be a great game, with any luck that live stream will be up and running so those of us rooting from the frozen tundra can watch.

Is Dorian injured or just not ready?

pilotdad1 wrote:Is Dorian injured or just not ready?

I'm told he stretched and shot around with his teammates during the pregame. Appears to be a "coaches decision."

It's been over a year since his knee injury; I guess it's possible he's had other injuries, but I wouldn't mess with the lineup we saw last night.

The WCC is off to a hot start....16-3 through last night....and the 3 losses have been two against Boise St. (68)  and one against Cal Irvine (106).  The Pilots only non-conference opponents that highly ranked are Murray St. (81) and UNLV (100).

Some of the opponents might be considered "suspect," but for the most part there have been plenty of quality wins.....meaning the teams are playing well against opponents they should play well against, and are not dropping games they shouldn't

GU totally dismantled a very good SMU team, and SMC toyed with New Mexico St. in a midnight game on Monday.  What was especially note worthy about those two wins were the contributions of the new guys...many of whom were redshirts last year.

Some of us will be able to see SCU play Utah St. and GU play St. Joseph's tonight on TV, and tomorrow night LMU plays ASU on the TV.

Oh, and UP is currently ranked #116 by KenPom.

DoubleDipper wrote:The WCC is off to a hot start....16-3 through last night....and the 3 losses have been two against Boise St. (68)  and one against Cal Irvine (106).  The Pilots only non-conference opponents that highly ranked are Murray St. (81) and UNLV (100).

Random thoughts -

• Up-and-down start to the year for Murray State, first a home loss to Houston then they took Middle Tennessee behind the woodshed for a big road win. But the Racers have almost no opposition in the OVC West, the closest being SE Missouri which just lost to both LMU and USD. Not to mention that their toughest opponents from the OVC East - Belmont and Eastern Kentucky - will both have to play the Racers in Murray this year. This Racers team could very well already have 25+ wins by the time conference tourneys start. (I'm trying to get to the point that this would be a great win for the Pilots if they can get by Murray State in a neutral game)

• Interested to see how Pepperdine does at San Jose State tonight.

• UNLV won't be easy on the road but they haven't exactly run their two opponents out of the Thomas & Mack this year. 60-59 over Morehead State, 59-57 over Sam Houston State.

Also of note, the first Bracketology from Lunardi.

espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

Gonzaga a 3, BYU one of the last ones in. BYU played themselves into the tournament largely thanks to wins over Stanford and Texas in non-conference. They've got the opportunity to do that again this year with games against SDSU, Utah, Stanford, and a solid UMass team.

SMC probably has a similar opportunity with Boise State, Creighton, and St. John's all upcoming. A return to a three-bid WCC (as in 2008 & 2012) would be huge. Go WCC teams.

Watched SCU tonight vs. Utah St. SCU lost by 6 after leading by as many as 15 over the favored Aggies in Utah.

I'm not really of fan of Coach Keating, but he does have some good players who are well schooled at going fast and leaning in on their shots to get the foul.

Tough road trip continues for SCU as they now move on to Michigan St. and Tennessee before coming almost home to play San Jose St.

.....meanwhile PU really took care of business against San Jose St., 63-44.  Hmm, better defense from PU that UP?  Hard to say, but it does indicate a one game disparity between the two teams.

PU was favored by 2 in Las Vegas. SJSt. scored only 22 points in each half.

GU's ahead of St. Joe's by 38 at the half and USF, BYU, and USD all won blowouts.

You probably aren't going to win Shooting 30% frm the floor and 17.6% from the arc and giving up almost as many points off turnovers as you scored by all means.

wrv wrote:5. That after three games we would have three different leading scorers . . .

And that neither van der Mars, Sharp nor Pressley was one of the three.

All very true, wrv.  

Obviously the first big test will come Friday in Nashville against Murray St.  But then the big test of the bench will come on Saturday and Sunday as the Pilots play two games that begin approximately 20.5 hours and 18 hours after the finish times of their previous games.  UP wanted the early game on Sunday so the student/athletes could get back for classes on Monday....but it's going to be a big test of their conditioning.

I'm sure there'll be more discussion of this when the Challenge in Music City thread goes up.

Don't look now, but the WCC continues its upward trend - it's now ranked 8th among the 32 conferences by Pomeroy (by the slightest of margins ahead of the American).

Though there's probably more than a few metrics out there that would have the American still ahead of the WCC - likely tournament bids, for one.

The WCC and ESPN2 have announced the starting time of the Gonzaga @ Pilots game on January 3, 2015....

The tipoff is at 6:30 PM PST in the Chiles Center!  Due to the large crowd (it's SOLD OUT), the gates will open a half hour earlier than usual....at 5 PM.

Plenty of time to party afterwards!