Pepperdine -- Saturday @ 1 PM on Root

From Jim Beseda:  Nicholas Focused on Strong Finish as Senior Day Approaches

http://www.portlandpilots.com/news/2014/2/14/MBB_0214143244.aspx

Man, it is hard to believe it is time for this already....  

The timing is good, however...  I like having a little extra focus for Nicholas and the team on a pivotal game that will go a long way towards determining a top 6 finish for either team.  A Pilot win, coupled with a USD win @Pacific would give the Pilots a 2 game lead over the 7th place team...  

The other WCC games on Saturday:
BYU @ SMC, 5pm, ESPN2.  The battle for 2nd place. A BYU win helps us in tie-breaking scenarios, as we have beat them, but this is not as critical, as we have the win over GU.

LMU @ GU, 5pm, Root.  We should want GU to win out for tie breaker purposes, but we already have the series sweep over LMU, so this game does not have much implication for us (upcoming GU wins @USD & @Pacific are more important...  of course the Pilots winning both of those games would be preferable!!).

USD @ Pacific, 7pm, theW.tv.  A USD win keeps both teams at 5 wins, vs. our 6 (7 with a win tomorrow).  A Pacific win gives the Tigers 6 wins, however we have already beat Pacific once, so even if we lose to them on the road, we have the win over GU (assuming GU beats them) as tiebreaker if need be...

USF @ SCU, 8pm, ESPNU.  Go Dons!  Looking at the remaining games to be played, I don't see us catching USF... so a SCU loss keeps them in the bottom 4.


So....  if we beat Pepperdine (we better play a lot better than last night and hope that KB is back), we would be at 7-7, and they would be 7-8.  The Waves' remaining games are @LMU (rivalry game), USF, SCU.  We certainly have the more difficult remaining schedule, so we probably need a win tomorrow, and at least 2 wins out of the last 4 to tie the Waves for 5th place, and win the tiebreaker with the win over GU.  

Or I could just wait to talk about this once the games have played out.   

PilotNut wrote:.....Or I could just wait to talk about this once the games have played out.   

Wow, very good synopsis, Nut.....it had my head spinning.

Did you have Valentine’s Day off from work?  

I just hope the players, and especially coaching staff, can stay focused on the task at hand and don't let this get to their heads:

http://collegeinsider.com/top100/

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:I just hope the players, and especially coaching staff, can stay focused on the task at hand and don't let this get to their heads:

http://collegeinsider.com/top100/

Ha-ha, yea, I saw that earlier, but figured since Coach Pfaff was selected as one of the sexiest coaches in America, it had to be a spoof.....  

As a fan this is a must win game to me. And I hate to say that out loud. But the Pilots only have 1 two game winning streak in league play. If they can't win this game I will have little hope for any conference tournament success.

The team has shown so much promise this year. They need to continue their growth and play with confidence. Just because you miss a couple shots in a row doesn't mean you should stop shooting.

When Tanner gets playing time he needs to take advantage of it and shoot when he is open. He is getting playing time for only one reason.

I also wish VDM would shoot the ball when he is 5-8 feet from the hoop and facing up with no one guarding him. He had 4-5 opportunities against the LMU zone and looked like he never seen a basketball before.

PilotNut wrote:The other WCC games on Saturday:

Las Vegas predicts all the home teams will win...

UP by 3.5 vs. PU
GU by 18 vs. LMU
SMC by 3.5 vs. BYU
UOP by 6.5 vs. USD
SCU by 1 vs. USF

Pilot2002 wrote:
I also wish VDM would shoot the ball when he is 5-8 feet from the hoop and facing up with no one guarding him.  He had 4-5 opportunities against the LMU zone and looked like he never seen a basketball before.

Yeah. I bet he could have gotten a double-double or more!

I really enjoyed this one! Some thoughts on the game:

• Classy move by Reveno to start the 4 seniors. It was great to see Tanner Riley and Korey Thieleke step up with great performances. I do wish they could have got John Bailey on the scoreboard, or at least gotten him out on the floor again at the very end of the game.

• I'm impressed by the team play these last couple of games without KB. It bodes well to be able to win without him. The Pilots have actually had a lot of practice playing with KB on the bench, though. He's been in foul trouble in several of the conference games.

• After being the leading scorer in only 2 of the first 23 games, Nicholas has stepped up BIG TIME over the past two weeks. He's been the leading scorer for each of the last 3 games.

• I was really disappointed by the student section today. Considering this was the last home game of the year, and senior day, it was both a bad turn-out and a particularly disinterested group of students. Where were the guys standing up in front cheering? I guess they only come out for the 2 games each season when we're on national TV. Why were those who did show up sitting on their hands or staring at their glowing internet boxes the whole time? This is a college basketball game! And a BIG GAME, at that! And the final home game of the entire season! I imagine that it doesn't feel very good for the players, especially the seniors, to see that the student body is so apathetic towards the team. If there were any recruits there today, that's gotta be a huge strike against UP as they weigh their college decisions.

• Let's keep this momentum going and beat San Diego on Thursday! Here's hoping KB will be back. We'll be going for our second 3-game win streak of the season, and first in conference play.

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but I was really impressed with Portland's composure at the end of both games this weekend. In both cases the score was within a couple possessions in the last 2-3 minutes, but they got big baskets and made their free throws to close out the wins.

Finally, thanks to John, Korey, Tanner, and Ryan for coming to Portland. Hard to believe it's the last time I'll see them live, but a great performance to go out on.

Does anyone know what the T was for towards the end of the game on Korey?

The Technical was for hanging on the rim... I need to see a replay, but from my vantage point, it seemed like a BS call, as there was a Pepp player nearby underneath him.

PilotNut wrote:
BYU @ SMC, 5pm, ESPN2.  The battle for 2nd place. A BYU win helps us in tie-breaking scenarios, as we have beat them, but this is not as critical, as we have the win over GU.

This is a pretty good one. BYU was down 10 at the half but now they're within 3 with 12 minutes to go.

Zogman58 wrote:Does anyone know what the T was for towards the end of the game on Korey?

Ha-ha, it was just one of at least 3 flagrantly ridiculous and WRONG calls made against the Pilots today….but the only one that didn’t directly involve Thomas.

Disregarding the need to protect player safety, one of the refs decided Korey hung on the rim after his missed/blocked dunk.  Watching it live it looked like an absolutely terrible call, but taped replays shows it was worse than that.

The Four Amigos.......

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:

PilotNut wrote:
BYU @ SMC, 5pm, ESPN2.  The battle for 2nd place. A BYU win helps us in tie-breaking scenarios, as we have beat them, but this is not as critical, as we have the win over GU.

This is a pretty good one. BYU was down 10 at the half but  now they're within 3 with 12 minutes to go.

And BYU pulls it off!

USD also doing us a favor by hammering Pacific, up 20+ just before halftime.

I was actually hoping SMC would beat BYU. A BYU loss would have put them at 6 losses, with the Pilots at only 7 losses.

IF that had happened, and if both games went favorably on this coming Thursday, we would have been going into the Marriott Center at 8-7, and BYU at 9-7. We would have then been playing to overtake them in the standings. Ah well.

There's still a chance that we could pull within a half game of the Cougars next week... If BYU loses to GU, we win any tie-break scenario with them.

This USD v UOP game is looking good for us, though. We'd rather have both teams with 5 wins than have UOP with 6.

Updated standings after games on 2/15, with a (+) next to teams we own the tiebreaker, (-) next to teams that own the tiebreaker over us, and (?) with tiebreaker TBD:

GON 13-1  (-) we can't catch them
BYU 10-5 (+) our GU win, potential series sweep
SMC 9-5 (?)
USF 9-5  (-) series sweep
POR 7-7
PEP 7-8 (+) our GU win
PAC 5-9 (+) our GU win, potential series sweep
USD 5-10 (?)
SCU 4-10 (+) our GU win
LMU 3-12 (+) series sweep

As you can see, our game @USD is huge... a win and we own the tiebreaker (our GU win, as long as they don't beat GU on Saturday), and if they win, they own the tiebreaker via a series sweep, and would only be 1 win behind us.

So, after today the only thing that is certain is that we cannot be the #10 seed, as LMU cannot overtake us. Woo!

Great win today. Tanner Riley got 'em off to a good start and they just went from there. Was great to see!

Agree that it was a class move to start all four seniors - sometimes seems like a given but that doesn't always happen. And they didn't even sub out the non-regulars after the first whistle, John Bailey got a healthy four-minute shift to start things out! (Hey, and he even tracked down a big offensive rebound that I think led to Riley's pull-up J)

PilotNut wrote:Updated standings after games on 2/15:

GON 13-1  
BYU 10-5
SMC 9-5  
USF 9-5  
POR 7-7
PEP 7-8  
PAC 5-9
USD 5-10  
SCU 4-10  
LMU 3-12

I think the simple goal for this team has always been a top-six finish, so how close are the Pilots to locking that up?

LMU (3-12) - can't catch UP
SCU (4-10) - needs to go 4-0 to pass UP. Play Pacific/SMC at home and LMU/Pepperdine away
USD (5-10) - needs to go 2-1 to pass UP. Play UP/Gonzaga/BYU at home
PAC (5-9) - needs to go 3-1 to pass UP. Play SCU/USF away and UP/Gonzaga at home

Above, of course, assuming that the Pilots stay at seven wins which we hope they don't. Looking good for the Pilots to be able to sit back and watch the first round of the WCC Tournament but there's still plenty of work to be done.

Also - it is just me, or has Voldy developed a weird-looking hitch in his free throw that he didn't have at the beginning of this season?

DeanMurdoch wrote:LMU (3-12) - can't catch UP
SCU (4-10) - needs to go 4-0 to pass UP. Play Pacific/SMC at home and LMU/Pepperdine away
USD (5-10) - needs to go 2-1 to pass UP. Play UP/Gonzaga/BYU at home
PAC (5-9) - needs to go 3-1 to pass UP. Play SCU/USF away and UP/Gonzaga at home

Above, of course, assuming that the Pilots stay at seven wins which we hope they don't. Looking good for the Pilots to be able to sit back and watch the first round of the WCC Tournament but there's still plenty of work to be done.

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."

--- William Shakespeare

Was out of town yesterday, just watched my recording of the game. I found it hard to watch. Those were some terrible calls, and the Root crew of Barry Tompkins and John Chapin(?) called them out several times: a Thomas foul call, the "jump" ball with Thomas and Lane, and Korey's T. Too many (15) ORebs for PU. Some untimely TOs. Some ugly FTs (Voldy, Bobby missing front end of a 1&1?). But the defense was strong, Pepperdine shot poorly, and the guys kept composure at the end. Nice to see the guys go 11 deep, counting John B, considering Kevin was out. I thought the Seniors were very well prepared to start that game, and played really well. Tanner's great start set the pace for the whole game. And Korey took a 3pt, and made it! Korey, we've been begging for you all season to shoot.

Looking good for a top six finish. Don't leave it to the other guys to lose though. Beat USD, and steal one more, finish 9-9!

NoPoNeighbor wrote:I was actually hoping SMC would beat BYU. A BYU loss would have put them at 6 losses, with the Pilots at only 7 losses.

Both BYU and SMC will be very tough games on the road. But I think BYU will be much harder to beat than SMC, even though we already (editor: we? OK the Pilots) beat them.  I have not thought that SMC is playing all that great, and they will be focused on GU when we play them (hopefully).

Article from pilotscourtside blog about JB…..

http://www.pilotscourtside.com/2014/02/senior-week-so-long-john-bailey.html?spref=tw

Not a lot of playing time for JB this year, but IMO he’s been instrumental in the development of others and a central part of the team in that respect.