BYU @ Portland, Thursday 7:00 (ROOT)

An article from BYU's last game - http://www.heraldextra.com/sports/college/byu/basketball/men/cougars-get-teachable-moments-late-during-loss-of-focus-at/article_0cad04c4-816c-11e3-be30-001a4bcf887a.html

This next trip, however, is possibly the biggest two-game contrast the Cougars will see. They've never been challenged at Portland in two WCC seasons, and that's where they'll play Thursday. Then comes a Saturday night game at first-place Gonzaga, where BYU has never been in contention in the closing minutes. Oddly, Gonzaga recently lost at UP.

If all BYU is thinking about is Gonzaga on Saturday, they're going to go in there at 5-3 instead of riding a six-game winning streak like they'd like to be.

Looks like BYU's starting centre Nate Austin might be unavailable for this one - ankle injury suffered in practice yesterday.

Of their five starters Austin is - by far - the least involved in BYU's offence, but it seems like he's a pretty solid defender and rebounder so it'll be interesting to see what BYU does down low if Austin is indeed lost. Probably will see Josh Sharp get even more minutes than he's had lately.

I would imagine Las Vegas knows of Nate Austin's status....the odds makers seem to have eyes and ears everywhere. 

UP is the only WCC home team that is considered the underdog by Las Vegas on Thursday night.....here are the opening odds:

BYU by 5 at UP
UOP by 7.5 over LMU
SMC by 12 over PU
GU by 16.5 over USD

BYU is on a 5 game winning streak after losing their WCC openers to LMU and PU.

WCC Standings entering the weekend:

1.  GU    6-1
2.  BYU   5-2
3.  SMC  4-2
4.  USF   5-3
5.  PU    5-3
6.  UP    3-4
7.  SCU  3-5
8.  USD  2-5
9.  LMU  2-6
10. UOP 1-5

If UP is going to hang on for 6th place or better, the team is going to have to win some road games and win at least 3 of their 4 remaining home games.....duh. 

However, on a positive note, any team that finishes in the bottom 4 will have a less brutal schedule in Las Vegas than in the past because of the new format.  Although there is no day off between the Monday semi-final and the Tuesday final, there will be a day of rest after the Thursday and Saturday games....

DoubleDipper wrote:I would imagine Las Vegas knows of Nate Austin's status....the odds makers seem to have eyes and ears everywhere. 

UP is the only WCC home team that is considered the underdog by Las Vegas on Thursday night.....here are the opening odds:

BYU by 5 at UP
UOP by 7.5 over LMU
SMC by 12 over PU
GU by 16.5 over USD

BYU is on a 5 game winning streak after losing their WCC openers to LMU and PU.

Excellent. Vegas calls a loss, but by a small margin. Sounds like the makings of a win.

UOP over LMU? By 7.5? Hmmm.

up7587 wrote:UOP over LMU? By 7.5? Hmmm.

Yea, everyone seems to be pretty much in agreement on that number.  Pomeroy has UOP by 7 and RealTimeRPI is predicting the Tigers by 12.

UOP's RPI is quite a bit higher, LMU has lost 6 straight and is 2-6 on the road, and UOP is 5-2 at home.

RTRPI and Pomeroy both have BYU over the Pilots by 1 point!

Before the game go ahead and read my newest column on westcoastconvo.com

http://westcoastconvo.com/2014/01/22/david-thompsons-portland-pilot-column-3/

I'm sorry for all of the self promotion here, but I really think you guys are my target audience. Thanks for reading
Also by the way, I have been posting a blog each wednesday night

DTLegend wrote:I'm sorry for all of the self promotion here, but I really think you guys are my target audience.

Don't apologize....for those of us who for months attempted to become regular WestCoastConvo readers, but found it to be no more than a Gonzaga centric website....your alerts will be the only way we'll know your articles are online.

This one's a weird one. Do we get the Pilots team that thumped Gonzaga or lost to Montana State? Do we get the BYU team that lost to LMU and Pepperdine or the BYU team that beat Stanford and Texas away from Provo?

Couple inconsistent teams here!

That was just two good college basketball teams going back and forth.

Massive props to this Pilots team...what a fun team to watch play basketball. We'll work on the ELOBs for next game and be good to go.

What a great game to watch, regardless of the final outcome.

That was pretty nice

I didn't realize Haws had 48 until I got home and read the post-game stuff.

These guys....what a great win.

Initial reactions:

1) PHEW! What a wild ride!
2) Great win!
3) We are damn lucky to have escaped with a victory. We shot ourselves in the foot so many times with missed free throws and our old nemesis, inbounds plays. Can you imagine the black mark on Rev's coaching reputation if we had lost this one as a result of three turnovers on inbounds plays? Especially after that being a persistent problem over the past three seasons...
4) Haws is unreal.
5) Bobby Sharp is unreal.
6) We remain undefeated when Pressley scores in double digits.

Playing 55 minutes is one way to get your players more minutes, but I'd prefer to win in regulation when it looks like we should have the game put away.

I know Stohl had 10 3's in one game (and in just 40 minutes). What was his second best? Is Sharp 2nd on the list or does Stohl have multiple games with 8+?

What a game from Thomas...47 minutes, 27 points, 18 rebounds!

Bobby with 8 three's. 2 clutch late in the 2nd OT, after the Pilots fell behind by 8!

DeanMurdoch wrote:This one's a weird one. Do we get the Pilots team that thumped Gonzaga or lost to Montana State? Do we get the BYU team that lost to LMU and Pepperdine or the BYU team that beat Stanford and Texas away from Provo?

I say yes. Yes we did.

That game was exhilarating, then disappointing, then exhilarating, then disappointing, then finally exhilarating!  Wow what an entertaining game!   If I'm this hoarse and exhausted, I can't imagine how the players feel... probably pretty darn good

What an emotional roller coaster. BYU comes back from down 7 late in the first OT, when I was thinking FTs to ice it. Pilots came back from down 8 in the 2nd, when it looked like the Cougars were going to run away with it. Gritty tough win by the whole team.

up7587 wrote:UOP over LMU? By 7.5? Hmmm.

LMU 92, Pacific 81. Had a feeling about that one.

USD took GU to the wire, losing 59-56. Hope they left a lot on the court, because the Pilots are exhausted.

And SMC beat Pepp 80-74.

Quick to criticize the students apathetic behavior at games in the past, I want to go on record by saying tonight the students were in wonderfully rare form that countered the many BYU fans in attendance and willed and yelled the Pilots to victory.

Kudos to the UP Student Section tonight.....well done!!

Perspective is a funny thing. We were incensed about the refs tonight; I called it 5 against 8. Checking some comments on the ESPN site, and the BYU fans were bitching about no calls. Waa?   

FYI, the game is replayed on ROOT Sports at 7:30 Friday evening. For those that didn't tape it, like me, or didn't let it record long enough.

DoubleDipper wrote:Quick to criticize the students apathetic behavior at games in the past, I want to go on record by saying tonight the students were in wonderfully rare form that countered the many BYU fans in attendance and willed and yelled the Pilots to victory.

Kudos to the UP Student Section tonight.....well done!!

AGREED! Great showing from the students.

It's a shame that there weren't even 3,000 in the building tonight though. Those who were there sure got their money's worth. I don't have any specific suggestions at this point, but it would have been nice if the Athletic Dept could have found a way to translate the publicity and good vibes surrounding the Gonzaga win into more Pilots fans in the seats tonight. Aside from the students, I think there were at least as many BYU fans as Pilots fans at Chiles.

For those of you who only allotted 210 minutes for the game on your DVR like I did, as UP7587 wrote, it is scheduled to be re-broadcast on Root at 7:30 on Friday evening.  

Root has only made room for a 2 hour game, so I hope they show the entire 3 hour 15 minute game by going 45 minutes into the Alaska (Fairbanks) at St. Martin’s game that is scheduled for 9:30.

I really want to see this game over in its entirety, and I want to see if my frequent criticism of the refs was justified.....I guess I'll have to invite a BYU fan to watch with me for perspective.