Re: 2014-15 Opponents Thread: How are they doing?

by Geezaldinho Mon Jan 12, 2015 12:31 pm

Gotta work on that free throw D

by Guest Mon Jan 12, 2015 5:00 pm

Tighten up those rims.

by Geezaldinho Mon Jan 12, 2015 5:31 pm

Are we better at home or away?

by VillaGorilla Mon Jan 12, 2015 10:05 pm

DoubleDipper wrote:
DeanMurdoch wrote:Other random observation: Pilots currently rank 351st out of 351 NCAA teams in free throw percentage against. No team "allows" (?) their opponents to shoot better than UP at the line, currently 77.1%. And UP is also very good in this regard in their own right, 75.9% is 15th in the country.
Ha-ha, yeah, I've often seen that stat about UP allowing a high percentage of made free-throws. Coming into the USF @ UP game, USF was 348th in free throw percentage, but after burying 28 of 32 against UP, they've moved up to #339 at 60.7%.

On the other hand, UP was 348th, but the Pilots are now 351st on free throw percentage against.....just fouling the wrong guys, I guess, but everyone was hitting for USF last Saturday.

Feeling too lazy to look it up, but I recall that only a year or so ago we were one of the "best" in the country at FT% defense. Comes and goes I guess? Although there is something to say about fouling the wrong people.

by DoubleDipper Mon Jan 12, 2015 10:58 pm

Always lazy, but with time on my hands.....

Over the last 13 years the best the Pilots have done was during the 2009-10 season when the team finished 21-11 and ranked 33rd in free-throw percentage against.

But there may not be a correlation....the Pilots finished 9-23 and were 44th in free-throw percentage against during the 2006-07 season.

Generally the Pilots have been in the low to mid 200's; last year they were 160.

by NoPoNeighbor Tue Jan 13, 2015 11:39 pm

I'm curious how this compares to the other WCC teams. Perhaps the WCC is just an above-average conference for free throw percentage?

by **PilotNut** Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:23 am

Environment could be a bit of a factor, too... most of the WCC gyms are not above-average places to have to shoot FTs, from a crowd noise/distraction/intimidation factor.

This is one notable thing that I think everyone in Chiles could work on (fans, students, Athletic Dept, etc). We are waaaay too quiet when opponents are at the line.

by NoPoNeighbor Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:51 pm

PilotNut wrote:This is one notable thing that I think everyone in Chiles could work on (fans, students, Athletic Dept, etc). We are waaaay too quiet when opponents are at the line.

Well I don't know if that is fair... The crowd is just as loud when opponents are at the line as they are at all other key moments of the game!

by NoPoNeighbor Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:38 pm

I was too discouraged to do this after Saturday's game, so here's the belated update on the "Intra-Mid-6" standings, through 1/10:

SMC: 3-0
UP: 2-1
Pepp: 1-1
SCU: 1-2
USF: 1-2
USD: 1-3

Combined record against top-2: 1-7
Against bottom-2: 7-0

Tomorrow, the Pilots look to keep the Mid-6's perfect record going against he two bottom-feeders. Basically a must-win game if we want to stay in the hunt for a top-4 finish.

by pilotdad1 Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:19 am

Neither of these two games will be lay downs. Pepperdine especially is starting to play very well, Marty has the team on a track for improvement. LMU played well last week and with Payne returning to the lineup they will be a tough game especially since both are on the road.

I am hoping for a 2-0 weekend but I dont think either will be by an especially large margin of victory.

by Geezaldinho Thu Jan 15, 2015 6:28 pm

pilotdad1 wrote:Neither of these two games will be lay downs. Pepperdine especially is starting to play very well, Marty has the team on a track for improvement. LMU played well last week and with Payne returning to the lineup they will be a tough game especially since both are on the road.

I am hoping for a 2-0 weekend but I dont think either will be by an especially large margin of victory.

While I respect your opinion here, I'm wondering if we lose either of these two games we can be legitimately in the conversation for top 4 in the conference.

by Guest Thu Jan 15, 2015 7:51 pm

If we lose to LMU, can we legitimately be considered in the conversation for top 8?

by NoPoNeighbor Thu Jan 15, 2015 9:10 pm

up7587 wrote:If we lose to LMU, can we legitimately be considered in the conversation for top 8?

Whoops!

by **PilotNut** Thu Jan 15, 2015 9:47 pm

3:12 left to go in Malibu, GU only up 71-68 over Pepp. This one has been close the whole way; Pepp is looking tough.

by **PilotNut** Thu Jan 15, 2015 10:11 pm

Zags pull out the win 78-76, in spite of shooting 14-33 from the charity stripe.

by Guest Fri Jan 16, 2015 9:07 am

Well, with a clear top 4 emerging I guess that'll take care of all this "Intra Mid 6" talk in here. That sounded like an obscure JUCO league anyway.

by DoubleDipper Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:27 am

DeanMurdoch wrote:Well, with a clear top 4 emerging I guess that'll take care of all this "Intra Mid 6" talk in here. That sounded like an obscure JUCO league anyway.

Yeah, "The Fight for 6th Place" or "The Battle to Avoid Friday in Las Vegas" might be more appropriate, as the 7,8,9,10 teams must play on Friday night in the WCC Tournament.

For the Friday players, finishing 7th or 10th would be better than finishing 8th or 9th because the winner of 8/9 will have to play GU on Saturday. The winner of 7/10 would play the second seed.

Finishing 6th at least avoids the Friday game and gives the 6th place team a chance against the third seed on Saturday at NOON!....it might also make it possible for a more Pilots fans to make it to the game.

by NoPoNeighbor Sat Jan 17, 2015 12:22 am

Pretty disappointing that this is now what we are hoping for: a 6th place finish in what should be a "peak" year for the program.

by PurplePrideTrumpet Sat Jan 17, 2015 9:29 pm

Another Portland team and Pilot opponent is getting stronger as the season goes on. Concordia is in first place (8-2) in the Cascade Conference, one of the strongest NAIA leagues. Right behind them at 7-2 is Warner Pacific. The two meet at Warner next Friday in what I expect will be an excellent game (CU beat WPC by 3 in OT at home in December).

by DoubleDipper Sat Jan 17, 2015 10:32 pm

Interesting games/results tonight....

SCU beats USF at home
SMC beats BYU at home
UOP beats USD at home
And of course GU and PU won....

GU   7-0
SMC 7-0
PU    5-2
BYU  5-3
SCU 3-4
USF 2-5
UP    2-5
UOP 2-5
USD 2-6
LMU 1-6

by Guest Tue Jan 20, 2015 1:24 pm

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Pretty disappointing that this is now what we are hoping for: a 6th place finish in what should be a "peak" year for the program.

I think I've figured out what the problem is....the downturn of the Pilots started with ol' Deaner's first post on this forum. March 4, 2011 praising the broadcast quality of byuTV...the Pilots were upset later that night by LMU in the first round of the WCC tournament, a team that they had beaten by 20+ on the road only a couple weeks before.

The Pilots went on to lose to Hawaii in the CIT, thus ending the careers of Stohl/Sikma/Knutson. Then 2011-12 and 2012-13 happened (yuck). Glimmers of hope in 2013-14 including a couple of signature wins, but injuries killed the end of the year. And here we are in 2014-15...loads of potential, but as of yet largely unrealized.

There's also time to turn it around this year...but it's clear that if it's to be done, it'll have to be with the Deaner no longer a posting member of Pilot Nation. Can't believe it took me so long to figure out the association between me posting here and the downturn of the program after three strong years! (my bad)

Deaner, signing off....and looking forward to watching the ship turn around!

by Geezaldinho Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:07 pm

The Deaner's new avatar

2014-15 Opponents Thread: How are they doing? - Page 6 534f890ae74b4cff8b4c563f3ffd214e

by Dean Murdoch Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:27 pm

Geezaldinho wrote:The Deaner's new avatar

Hmmm. I guess that could have been a possibility, but I ended up going with something more traditional instead.

by DoubleDipper Tue Jan 20, 2015 10:54 pm

Hmm, I'm not sure that going from one hockey haired, beer swilling, head banging metal head Canuck to another can do much to help the Pilots fortunes on the court....but at least you're now the marginally taller of the two.

That's Terry Cahill on the left and Dean Murdoch on the right:
2014-15 Opponents Thread: How are they doing? - Page 6 Fubar-10

2014-15 Opponents Thread: How are they doing? - Page 6 Fubar-10

Welcome to PN, Terry. So long Deaner; we loved your well researched posts....even if they signaled the beginning of the Pilots' demise. Rolling Eyes

by blacksheep Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:04 am

[quote="Guest"]

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Can't believe it took me so long to figure out the association between me posting here and the downturn of the program after three strong years! (my bad)

I think the real cause is Mesa's absence. Any chance we can get him back? I'm waiting. . .