Re: OSU @ Portland, 12/6, 7pm

by jumpstop Sun Dec 07, 2014 10:34 am

newpilotfan wrote:Our bigs just aren't WCC level bigs. Thomas has one go to move that every team in our conference will take away. Too many 50/50 balls slip through his fingers. Most of our turnovers come from trying to get him the ball. Barker and Gerun are playing well this season but only by our lowly UP standards. They're not close to being comparable to other 7 footers in the conference. We haven't seen enough of Hartwich to know for sure but my sense is he's cut from the same cloth as our other bigs. Back in the days we used to call them non-contact bigs. The kind of bigs that disappear quickly when the game gets physical.

I'm just as frustrated as anyone else, but I actually think the Pilot bigs aren't bad. I know they didn't show it last night. In fact, the WCC head coaches picked Thomas as a pre-season all-conference center. I know pre-season awards mean nothing, but it does show that other conference coaches see him as a pretty good center.

I think a problem is that the bench isn't nearly as strong as people seem to think it is. Portland really can't afford any injuries to anyone, or it could be a long season. You take Kevin Bailey out of the lineup and they lose to a poor OSU squad. If he was healthy, I think Pilots win and we're all happily talking about how they are 7-1.

by **PilotNut** Sun Dec 07, 2014 12:36 pm

newpilotfan wrote: Here's the crazy part. We have very good guards. Bailey is one of the best slashing wings in the conference. Bryce is better attacking the rim than he is from outside. I watched Tyson a lot in HS and while he does have a hell of an outside shot he's also very good when putting the ball on the floor and getting to the rim, and he's super athletic as well. I rarely see us open driving lanes for our guards to get easy layups. We almost never run them off double screens to get them easy looks, with the exception of Bobby Sharp.

Speaking of shooters, can someone explain why after a hot start Tyson saw limited minutes down the stretch?

I would encourage you to forumulate these thoughts into respectful questions to Coach Rev for the Coach's Show on Monday nights. You can ask them on Twitter with the #AskCoachRev tag. If you don't use Twitter, I can get questions posted on there for you (see below). Or, you can call in...

For everyone else: there is no need to wait until Mondays to ask the questions. Pose your questions at any point during the week when you are thinking about it, and it will get their attention on Monday... You can post questions here on the forum, or you can private message me with the question and I will "confidentially" ask the question via the new @Pilot__Nation Twitter account (LINK).

by NoPoNeighbor Sun Dec 07, 2014 12:47 pm

Contrary to Reveno's comments in the media, the problem was not that OSU's defense was stifling. The problem was that the Pilots missed numerous open shots, especially three pointers and lay-ups.

And OSU got WAY too many offensive rebounds, several of which happened when Beavers ripped the ball away from van der Mars after he was the first one to get his hands on it.

Maybe we would have won with Bailey in the line-up, but honestly his shooting is just as erratic as anyone else on the team's. I thought we ran our offense pretty well and got lots of good shoots, both inside and outside. We just missed almost all of them.

At halftime we had 7 made field goals, and I thought, "Surely we will pick it up in the second half and blow them out of the water." But nope. 7 field goals in the 2nd half, too. And then 1-9 shooting in overtime.

by NoPoNeighbor Sun Dec 07, 2014 1:06 pm

newpilotfan wrote:We shot 27% from the field yesterday because every shot our guards took was highly contested. All OSU did was pressure our 3 point shooters in the second half and that took away all of our offense. Speaking of shooters, can someone explain why after a hot start Tyson saw limited minutes down the stretch?

I disagree. I thought we had lots of open looks. And we missed almost all of them. As for getting Tyson more minutes, I'm not sure what that would do for us. He's 2-11 on three-pointers over the last two games, which is even worse than Sharp's 5-20. Pressley, our best three-point shooter from last season, is 1-6 over the last two games, and 6-20 on the year. I was optimistic that three-point shooting would be a major strength and advantage for our team this year. It's now become as a glaring liability.

by Geezaldinho Sun Dec 07, 2014 3:53 pm

Players aren't comfortable. They are passing up open shots and taking contested ones.

They looked like they were told no threes early in the clock.

by Guest Mon Dec 08, 2014 9:23 am

newpilotfan wrote:Our bigs just aren't WCC level bigs. Thomas has one go to move that every team in our conference will take away.

Like they did last year? (van der Mars: 14.1 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 59% from the field, 6 double-doubles in 19 games against WCC opponents)

It was definitely frustrating to see the Pilots let one slip away on Saturday against an Oregon State team that was clearly prepared and well coached. Wintering came in well over 50% from three-point range and only had ONE attempt on a night they were having trouble hitting shots. I don't know enough about hoops like you guys do so I can't offer any thoughts on what adjustments I would have made...but I do know that this basketball team won't win many games where they're 5-for-24 from three.

Opportunity lost, as NoPoNeighbor said. And fortunately for the Pilots, opportunities upcoming on the road against Sac State and a UNLV team which is should be right around UP's caliber.

by Guest Mon Dec 08, 2014 11:11 am

Geezaldinho wrote:Players aren't comfortable. They are passing up open shots and taking contested ones.

They looked like they were told no threes early in the clock.

Because a rushed three late in the clock is always a good play.

by pilotram Mon Dec 08, 2014 5:19 pm

Did I see Stoney playing nurse in one of the UP commercials?

by VillaGorilla Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:24 pm

I was pretty jazzed going into the season and after watching the game Saturday, I'm still confident. As much as OSU looked like a team in disarray (and boy did they look bad), we got a lot of clean looks that just didn't fall. Couple that with one fewer turnover, being even on the boards with one of the nation's top rebounding teams, having assists on two thirds of our field goals to their one third, and playing our fifth game in nine days, we looked fine considering we were missing our top playmaker. If we had gotten even halfway to our season FG%, this would have been an easy win to go to 7-1.

The sky is not falling. We just need to hit the good looks we're getting.

We may still get beat up a bit in conference, but that speaks to the strength and depth of the WCC.

by Guest Mon Dec 08, 2014 8:37 pm

VG, thanks for your post. I'm still on the ledge, but I haven't jumped yet.

by **PilotNut** Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:06 am

I'm on the ledge, too. I guess the bad feeling I have is that this is a veteran team. This is what the program has been building towards the last few years... *this* year. Next year is probably a step backward due to graduation.

If we finish mid-WCC, well, that doesn't really cut it for me, when the intervening years have been so poor. But now I am way ahead of myself.

by NoPoNeighbor Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:16 am

PilotNut wrote:I'm on the ledge, too. I guess the bad feeling I have is that this is a veteran team. This is what the program has been building towards the last few years... *this* year. Next year is probably a step backward due to graduation.

If we finish mid-WCC, well, that doesn't really cut it for me, when the intervening years have been so poor. But now I am way ahead of myself.

I agree 100%. This should be a "peak" year. This is the year when we should win games like the one we just lost to OSU -- even with a key player injured. Wherever we finish this season in the WCC, that may be as high as we get for the next couple of seasons. I still think we can do well in the conference, but whatever happens, this season is a barometer for the overall state of the program.

by **PilotNut** Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:09 am

During last night's Coach's Show, Rev mentioned that he is really focusing on the WCC season, and hopes that lessons learned now might help down the road. While I understand that you generally want to focus on conference play, if you are going to build credibility, awareness and a brand for the program you HAVE TO win games like OSU. It is also an important game for your fans... I wish they would remember & acknowledge that; I feel like that gets brushed off too easily.

by newpilotfan Tue Dec 09, 2014 3:54 pm

DeanMurdoch wrote:
newpilotfan wrote:Our bigs just aren't WCC level bigs. Thomas has one go to move that every team in our conference will take away.

Like they did last year? (van der Mars: 14.1 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 59% from the field, 6 double-doubles in 19 games against WCC opponents)

Remind me again how we finished last year. I'm willing to bet that we have a much different result with a healthy Bailey and Wintering and no van der Mars. We have 3 (almost) seven footers. We should put fear in the hearts of all our opponents when we take the court and that doesn't happen. Points in the paint? Check the OSU box score and see how afraid those guys were to come inside. Rebounds? We're not winning that battle by big numbers. Our bigs are afraid of contact. They don't box out. And they don't dominate the offensive paint. Yet we spend so much of our energy working the ball inside, eliminating driving lanes and decimating the shot clock. It stifles the offense and puts tremendous pressure on our shooters to make difficult shots or Bailey to operate out of a double team and force shots late in the clock. That's not how you win in the WCC.

by blacksheep Tue Dec 09, 2014 5:22 pm

PilotNut wrote:I'm on the ledge, too. I guess the bad feeling I have is that this is a veteran team.

While we may have a veteran team, we do not have a deep team. Without Bailey, we just aren't the same. If he doesn't come back healthy, or we have anther injury to the starting lineup, I'm right there on the ledge with you. Until then, I'm still cautiously optimistic for the season.

by Geezaldinho Tue Dec 09, 2014 7:34 pm

You guys need to get your lithium levels sorted out.

A month ago you had us as a 6 seed

by newpilotfan Tue Dec 09, 2014 8:30 pm

Geezaldinho wrote:You guys need to get your lithium levels sorted out.

A month ago you had us as a 6 seed

OSU @ Portland, 12/6, 7pm - Page 2 Xanax11

by pilotdad1 Tue Dec 09, 2014 10:03 pm

This is my take, and it reflects only my opinion.

Last year we fed Thomas to great success. He had great numbers, especially in the WCC. Why is his season off to a rocky start this year? Last year Thomas enjoyed 1-1 post play in almost every game. He was able to turn over his left shoulder time and time again. The reason was because he wasnt double teamed very often. The reality is that Ryan kept teams honest because of his outside shooting. In addition teams were hesitant to sag off the wing because we had Bryce and Bobby ready to play inside out.
This year we dont have a stretch 4 and our wings are shooting such a low percentage that it only makes sense to put more attention on Thomas. If Rev wants to score more points in the paint he needs to make more shots from the outside. Simple
Newpilotfan you do have a good point regarding rebounding. We need to start rebounding outside our "zone". I heard that term used on TV a lot the last couple years about what made Ryan such a good rebounder for a 6'6" player. I learned it means that he went out and grabbed boards that required him to hawk to the ball, not just stand there and rebound the ones that come to where he was standing. Thomas and Voldy both have the potential and skill to own the glass but rebounding isnt about height its about heart.

I think this whole ship can be righted with one player getting back to form. Bryce needs to get back to being the offensively effective player that he was last year. He is such a great defender, such a solid passer that those intangibles will always be reflected in his play. This team needs him to be a 12ppg guy. Period. If he was able to do that, the rest will fall into place.