UP @ SAC 12/14 1705

Let's Fire up the WABAC Machine as it's been a long while since the Pilots made their way to Sacramento!

The last time the Pilots were in my present neck of the woods, Rob Chavez was still coaching, the hometown player, Bryce Pressley was very early in his schooling days, the game was played at the Memorial Auditorium, not on campus and Y2K was imminent.

Since then, both schools have had their times in the digital sunlight. The Hornets had their own Stohl-like sharpshooter, Dylan Garrity, nail a 75-foot 3 to knock off Weber State in the Hornet's Nest last year:

Coming into the game, the Hornets bring an 11-0 run that put away Cal State Fullerton and a 5-3 record including losses to Gonzaga and Abilene Christian.

The Hornet's Nest is roughly the size of the Stott Center and the camera feed isn't that great. To watch online you do need a free America ONE account and download a few plug-ins, hence the heads-up.

Both teams have high hopes for this season so it should be an interesting watch before the post-finals road trip ends in Vegas for the UNLV return game Wednesday.

DJ Sherman wrote:The Hornets had their own Stohl-like sharpshooter, Dylan Garrity, nail a 75-foot 3 to knock off Weber State in the Hornet's Nest last year:

Great video! I'm a sucker for a good three-quarter shot at the buzzer.

KenPom has the Pilots at #149 and Sac State at #256 heading into this one, and predicts a 67-66 win for the Pilots.

DeanMurdoch wrote:KenPom has the Pilots at #149 and Sac State at #256 heading into this one, and predicts a 67-66 win for the Pilots.

Las Vegas has the Pilots by 2.

IMO, KenPom and Vegas have no idea what the Pilots will do next.....do any of us?

This road game could be an indicator of the direction the team is going just prior to WCC play commencing.  The Pilots are coming off the disheartening loss to OSU eight days ago and term-ending finals, whereas the Hornets (5-3) are coming off of a 74-59 home win against Cal State Fullerton on Thursday

There should be a good Pilots' presence in the stands for this afternoon's (5 PM) game with all of Bryce's family and friends and Colin Russell's family and friends filling at least some of the 1,000 seat Nest.

What happened at 76-72? I lost the feed when we got a timeout just before being called for a 10 second violation. When I got the feed back we had lost the ball after the inbound somehow and it was 76-75. And then...all kinds of terrible basketball on both sides ensued.

dholcombe wrote:What happened at 76-72?

Pressley threw it to one of his buddies in the crowd, then their #5 hit a three.

Shoot 53% for the game...45% from 3...if they hadn't turned the ball over 19 (!) times the Pilots win this one by 15-20.

Actually lots of positives from this one. VDM 9-for-10, Sharp with four 3s, Tyson with a couple threes off the bench, 34-23 rebounding advantage and only 4 offensive rebounds given up. But man, weak turnovers just won't cut it against UNLV.

Also, Wintering over 52% from 3 this year including tonight. Can we get him more than his 1-3 looks from the perimeter than he usually gets? I know he's an incredible ball distributor - 12 more assists tonight - but dude can shoot!

Although one of his three point attempts was an air ball. I suspect that won't help his confidence in taking more 3's even though his % is high.

dholcombe wrote:Although one of his three point attempts was an air ball. I suspect that won't help his confidence in taking more 3's even though his % is high.

And the other miss was from well beyond the three-point line with the shot clock about to expire in the first half.

One last Wintering observation - Pilots were +15 with him on the floor. He played 34 minutes.

That means in the six minutes he didn't play, the Pilots were -10. Yuck.

DoubleDipper wrote:

IMO, KenPom and Vegas have no idea what the Pilots will do next.....do any of us?

They should call me. I had UP by 5.

DeanMurdoch wrote:
Actually lots of positives from this one. VDM 9-for-10, Sharp with four 3s, Tyson with a couple threes off the bench, 34-23 rebounding advantage and only 4 offensive rebounds given up. But man, weak turnovers just won't cut it against UNLV.

There are no positives from this game. VDM was held to 4pts in the second half. While it's nice to see Bobby dropping 3's again the truth is he'll never be that open again (maybe against Lewis and Clark). Can he make 3's against tough defense? I was hoping to see Pressley step up in front of his home crowd. To give up 32pts to #10 is unforgivable. Geruns 10 boards might've been the only bright spot but when you put that against his offensive ineffectiveness in the second half you get depressed again. Barker 4 pts, 4TO's, 4 PF's.

Sac State isn't a team that should be able to compete with us if we're serious about being contenders in the WCC. The Hornets had so many opportunities to move in front but they couldn't buy a basket. IMO Sac State beat themselves.

Good experience for, and solid play from, the "new guys" tonight who would normally be spending more time on the bench if KB were healthy.

From what I could tell from the video, Jason was very solid setting screens and defending, and D'Marques' shooting was very accurate in his fewer minutes.

Another positive from my perspective was Bobby's free throw shooting during crunch time.

I have yet to see the box score, but I honestly can't remember Thomas missing a shot tonight.....maybe one at the most.    And as Dean wrote, only 4 offensive boards for the Hornets!  

Rev said the Hornets probably had the best tandem guards they Pilots had faced this year....yes, they were good, but Pilots TEAM was better.

It had been a long time (2010) since UP won a preseason road game (outside of Portland)....now they have two!

Bradley 2012

Bradley and Princeton 2013

We only played osu and Michigan state on the road preseason otherwise in 2013.

newpilotfan wrote:There are no positives from this game.

You can't even find one teeny, tiny little positive?

Gonzaga beat this team by....46. We never trailed, but if we want to be competitive we should have stretched the lead to 20 even on the road and not let them have a comeback.

Geezaldinho wrote:2012 Bradley.

In 2013 we only played two on the road, one of which was Michigan.

Umm, I think your iPad has let you down...again.  

The win over Bradley was in Las Vegas in 2012 just after the Pilots were beaten by Colorado St. there, and the Pilots actually lost at Michigan State, not Michigan in 2013, after previously losing in Corvallis to the Beavers......

dholcombe wrote:Gonzaga beat this team by....46. We never trailed, but if we want to be competitive we should have stretched the lead to 20 even on the road and not let them have a comeback.

IMO you're setting yourself up for a great deal of disappointment if you're expecting UP to be nationally competitive with GU....fewer than 10 teams are!

I was speaking of being competitive in conference. That doesn't necessarily mean being #1 in the conference, but you have to be within a reasonable distance of #1. Having a chance to beat them on a good night such as we did last year vs. losing by 15 on a good night instead of losing by 40 for example.

dholcombe wrote:Gonzaga beat this team by....46. We never trailed, but if we want to be competitive we should have stretched the lead to 20 even on the road and not let them have a comeback.

I agree that we just don't seem to be able to put teams away.  We need to consistently handle the defenses and pressure instead of turning it over...  If we are going to be a top half WCC program, we need to be much better than beating a Big Sky team by 5 points!

DoubleDipper wrote:!  

It had been a long time (2010) since UP won a preseason road game (outside of Portland)....now they have two!

DoubleDipper wrote:
Umm, I think your iPad has let you down...again.  

The win over Bradley was in Las Vegas in 2012 just after the Pilots were beaten by Colorado St. there, and the Pilots actually lost at Michigan State, not Michigan in 2013, after previously losing in Corvallis to the Beavers......

Yeah, I corrected mine. to Michigan state..

My ipad, however, says we won in Vegas against Princeton and Bradley in 2013.  It also says that's more recent than 2010.Maybe you have you get a more recent calendar.

A win is a win. But I agree with newpilotfan and others that this win leaves a lot to be desired. There are a few negative hallmarks of Reveno's teams over the years that I have noticed: trouble with inbounds plays, turnovers and inability to put teams away after getting leads are some of them. All three were on full display tonight.

I'm glad to see Sharp and VDM have solid performances, but I am very discouraged by the back-to-back games in which we had solid leads late in the game but could not put the other team away. Against OSU that resulted in a loss. Tonight against Sacramento State, we are VERY fortunate to have won. As newpilotfan said, the Hornets really beat themselves in the last minute of the game.

Congrats to Thomas for hitting the 1000 point mark tonight!!!!!

dholcombe wrote:Gonzaga beat this team by....46. We never trailed, but if we want to be competitive we should have stretched the lead to 20 even on the road and not let them have a comeback.

GU played them at home, the first game of the season. That's a very intimidating environment for any team.  For UP, any road win is a good win. And we are not going to be competitive with GU this year, no matter how much better the Pilots play.  Just what it is.  Nobody else in the WCC is going to be, either.  

p.s. late to this party, I see DD already addressed this.

Geezaldinho wrote:My ipad, however, says we won in Vegas against Princeton and Bradley in 2013.  It also says that's more recent than 2010.Maybe you have you get a more recent calendar.

Hahaha....face it, neither one of us is going to give in....maybe we're just trying to avoid writing about today's women's game against Montana. 

But, the category is ROAD wins outside of Portland....meaning not a PSU.  All of UP's preseason wins outside of Portland have been at NEUTRAL sites in the 4 years since their last preseason ROAD win on November 20, 2010 after the team flew in 3 separate small planes to Moscow, Idaho immediately after losing to Kentucky in the Rose Garden (as it was then called).

Anyway...IMO last year's team was playing better at this point of the season than the current team, but this year's squad is a lot better than some I've seen since I started attending Pilots' games in 1962.  Realistic expectations are in order when watching UP basketball....played by either gender.

If you don't sleep in your own bed you are on the road.

But I like your reasoning.

By your standard the Zags have only won one game on the road this year ( UCLA) and one last year ( WVA).

In 2012 they won  two games, but One was WSU and by both our reconings thats not really on the road. That leaves them with Oklahoma St. as their only road win.

In 2011 they also  only won one (Xavier) by your standard.

In 2010 they went 2-2.  I would have called it 2-1 because one of the losses was WSU and they probably did sleep in their own beds. You would have to call it 2-1 because it's local. We both lose.

So since 2010, we have three fewer wins on the road than the Zags, as you recon it.

Best stat we have. I wonder who was on the road more?

Geezaldinho wrote:If you don't sleep in your own bed you are on the road.

Which means 90% of PN Regulars are on the road again tonight: