Silver Lining...

Tough and disappointing loss, but hey... it's impossible to not be thrilled with how Nik Raivio is playing right now. 28 points last night? Dang! He's got to be close to averaging 20 points over the past five games. And he's shooting the ball well too... he's up to 42% from behind the arc for the season.

Looks like he has stepped up and taken on the role of being the team's top scorer. And the thing I love about his game is that he's pretty fearless - he's got the guts to take (and make) the big shots.

Anyway... honestly, I kind of expected a bit of a let-down after the UW game, but I still did think we'd pick up the W. Oh well. That's what we will get with a young team. Let's just hope they can put it behind them and take care of business against Northern Colorado on Friday.

One thing I noticed in the write-up on portlandpilots.com was that Rev made the comment of "there are no excuses for not winning this game" NOTE: not a direct quote, but paraphrase. I think this is something new wqith him. In the past, he has offered up "excuses" (valid I believe) of being young, inexperienced, and learning a new style of play. To me, this indicates that Rev has turned a corner with his expectations of this team, and also indicates that he believes progress and improvement has happened, and should continue to happen.

Good signs if you ask me.

Yeah, that sounded like a tough one. I thought we were going to get that win.

Raivio has been really tough of late, and it looks like Hannible might be improving as well (7 points, 3-for-3). I suppose inconsistency from a young team should be expected, but that's a game we've gotta win. They need to finish strong with the rest of a pretty easy nonconference schedule and get some momentum going into conference.

I agree the Nik has become the leader of the team. However, he did comment in the Oregonian's article "We had it; we just let it slip away...we can learn from this and build on it." Then he continued, "...I think a couple of guys didn't come out ready to play." Not to put a fly in the ointment but, I believe, that sort of statement is better behind closed doors. Furthermore, I hope it doesn't have a negative effect on the team.

I have noticed that Nik seems to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder, just from observation while playing, on the bench, etc... not a bad thing, we need an emotional leader.

But agreed that maybe that shouldnt have been said to the press...

I agree with pilotpurple,between Kramer and Jasonn they did a good job with 13 pts. Hopefully that will open up some shots for Luke. It would be nice to see him and Ravio be able to play a two man game(inside-outside).I watched Gonzaga on TV and I believe the pilots will need all 10 fouls from Kramer and Jasonn just to not be dominated inside.
I hope Ravio keeps up his excellent play,but i think if he keeps making comments about his teamates that will not help in the long run.