Portland @ LMU - 1/15/2015 - 7:00 PM

DATE: Jan. 15, 2015
TIME: 7:00 pm
LOCATION: Gersten Pavilion, LMU
RADIO: 910 AM
VIDEO: http://www.thew.tv

Portland (11-6, 2-3 WCC)
Best win: 64-61 over #74 Murray State (N)
Another good win: 61-58 over #123 San Diego (A) #Wintering
Worst loss: 89-77 to #140 San Francisco (H)
Starting: Alec Wintering (5-11/160 So), Bryce Pressley (6-4/200 Jr), Kevin Bailey (6-5/205 Sr), Voldy Gerun (6-10/250 Sr), Thomas van der Mars (6-11/235 Sr)
Off the Bench: Jason Todd (6-6/200 Fr), D'Marques Tyson (6-6/200 Fr), Gabe Taylor (6-8/200 Fr)

KenPom	•	Sagarin	•	RPI
129		120		134

Loyola Marymount (4-13, 0-5 WCC)
Best win: 72-69 over #169 DePaul (N)
Worst loss: 77-63 to #237 Pacific (H)
Starting: Chase Flint (6-2/185 Sr), Evan Payne (6-1/195 So), Ayodeji Egbeyemi (6-3/210 Sr), Godwin Okonki (6-8/220 Sr), Patson Siame (6-11/225 So)
Off the Bench: David Humphries (6-4/210 Jr), Marin Mornar (6-9/205 Jr)

KenPom	•	Sagarin	•	RPI
287		271		273

KenPom Prediction: Portland 70, LMU 66

Evan Payne sat out the BYU game. "LMU basketball spokesperson John Shaffer said Payne was held out of the game due to a "coach’s decision." He said Payne didn’t violate team rules and was not injured, but he didn’t elaborate further."

I'm sure the assumption is that LMU will be back to full strength tomorrow night with their leading scorer Payne back in the lineup.

Thursday and Saturday will be a good chance to use those Buffalo Wild Wings 3-pointer scratch-its we have been getting... remember that BWW at Lloyd Center hosts official Pilot Watch Parties for all road games.

LMU looked pretty darn good @BYU without Payne; do not let their record deceive you!

PilotNut wrote:LMU looked pretty darn good @BYU without Payne; do not let their record deceive you!

We're only one year removed from a season in which the Pilots beat BYU and Gonzaga, and lost at home to North Texas and Montana State. I'm not sure if it's possible as a Pilots fan to suffer from overconfidence!

The full game notes indicate that Bryce is expected to return this week. Thank goodness!

I would also hope for rapid improvement for Kevin Bailey getting into 'game shape'. Re-watching the USF game, there were 2 possessions near the end of the first half where KB was lost on defense and USF cut to the basket for easy lay-ups.

DeanMurdoch wrote:We're only one year removed from a season in which the Pilots beat BYU and Gonzaga, and lost at home to North Texas and Montana State. I'm not sure if it's possible as a Pilots fan to suffer from overconfidence!

Not to mention only one week removed from a home loss to USF.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:

DeanMurdoch wrote:We're only one year removed from a season in which the Pilots beat BYU and Gonzaga, and lost at home to North Texas and Montana State. I'm not sure if it's possible as a Pilots fan to suffer from overconfidence!

Not to mention only one week removed from a home loss to USF.

My New Year's resolution:

Hahahaha....absolutely, if you don't it will eat you up.

Thanks, now that song is stuck in my head for another week or so......

My 5, 7, and 9 year-old grand nieces were constantly singing that while visiting during Christmas....and I almost had to let them go!!

Go Pilots! As Colin said today, "win the day"

I am planning on going to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the game tonight.  I hope to see a few of you there.

It is nice having our starting 5 from the beginning of the year back tonight.  Will see how this impacts the play.  I hope Bobby coming off the bench can find his shooting touch.  Will see how the rotation goes if Philipp gets some playing time or Jason Todd plays some at the 4 spot.  Will probably see Gabe get more playing time.

Hey LMU, get a bigger half court logo. I can barely read the 12,000-point font!

We're terrible. I'm throwing in the towel.

What a disaster all around. Guys just standing around; very disappointing for a veteran team and coaching staff.

newpilotfan wrote:We're terrible. I'm throwing in the towel.

I have no confidence in the direction of this program anymore.

Remember how when we were falling apart last year we were thinking about this year? And the year before that? and the one before that?

Bailey 1-10 (1-6 3P) 5 points
Van Der Mars 0-3 2 rebounds 1 point
Pressley 1-5 (1-3 3P) 3 points

That's your three team leaders, all with horrible performances. Alec had as many rebounds as those three combined!

up7587 wrote:I would also hope for rapid improvement for Kevin Bailey getting into 'game shape'.  Re-watching the USF game, there were 2 possessions near the end of the first half where KB was lost on defense and USF cut to the basket for easy lay-ups.

Kevin continued to force wild shots and play out of control. He needs to sit if he can't contribute within the offense.

There was one bright spot from today's game: Doug Christie's color commentary on the CampusInsiders broadcast. He was great!

Didn't see the game....I was at the Chiles Center watching the UP women beat LMU....but a couple of stats stood out for me.

Free throw shooting: UP 8-13 (61.5%) and LMU 20-26 (76.9%)
Three-point shooting: UP 8-27 (29.6%) and LMU 8-12 (66.7%)

I would appear that Coach Dunlap had an excellent game plan in place on both ends of the court....and his players carried it out to perfection.  His guys were obviously drawing fouls on one end and were keyed on stopping Kevin, Thomas, and Bryce on the other.

Well done Lions....usually LMU waits until Las Vegas to beat the Pilots.

Are we ever going to be done with this ineptitude?
Keep telling me how good a coach Revemo is...can't even make up all the excuses that are posited about the failure of Pilot Basketball.
Face it he's a terrible game coach. Inbounds plays, anyone? He's brought in some very good players, but some recruits tend to leave me saying "why were you so desperate to sign them"?
IH, I keep hearing he's such a great big man coach...look at the results. Sorry, I'm not impressed!

DoubleDipper wrote:Didn't see the game....I was at the Chiles Center watching the UP women beat LMU....but a couple of stats stood out for me.

Free throw shooting: UP 8-13 (61.5%) and LMU 20-26 (76.9%)
Three-point shooting: UP 8-27 (29.6%) and LMU 8-12 (66.7%)

I would appear that Coach Dunlap had an excellent game plan in place on both ends of the court....and his players carried it out to perfection.  His guys were obviously drawing fouls on one end and were keyed on stopping Kevin, Thomas, and Bryce on the other.

Well done Lions....usually LMU waits until Las Vegas to beat the Pilots.

Im not sure how much "keying" was done, this was a self inflicted wound.

Re: Big Man Coach.  We hear this a lot (but less lately).  I tend to agree in that I question it.  If you look at the bigs in Rev's tenure that were standouts, I would say Nicholas, Sikma, and van der Mars (especially prior to this year).  Gerun has improved notably this year. Did they really develop more under to Rev than they would have somewhere else?  Have our bigs developed at a better rate than the rest of the WCC?

Smeulders, Knutson, John Bailey, Barker, Hannibal (admitted project)...  Hegarty and Ehler left early...

pilotdad1 wrote:Im not sure how much "keying" was done, this was a self inflicted wound.

Agreed. DD, If you value your good mood after the Women's game, I would avoid any and all replay of the Men's game. It was u-g-l-y.

Im watching Pepperdine right now and I have to say, if we dont change something before Saturday we are 0-2 this week. I realize everyone gets "up" for Gonzaga but these cats work very hard, are athletic and they are the #1 team in the country in defending the 3. Considering the way we shot it tonight the bigs absolutely can not have a performance like tonight.

PilotNut wrote:

pilotdad1 wrote:Im not sure how much "keying" was done, this was a self inflicted wound.

Agreed.  DD, If you value your good mood after the Women's game, I would avoid any and all replay of the Men's game.  It was u-g-l-y.  

Yeah, I gotta admit that after watching the Pilots Women defeat LMU and then downing a pint at the T-Room (next year that pint will be on campus), my basketball mood was very good......but then I saw all these PN posts about the men's team. 

So based on what is being written....it was not LMU's defense, but simply poor play on the part of the Pilots?  Strange that last year's struggling player, Voldy continues to play so well, yet the rest of the upperclassmen, who did so well last year, have gone into a real WCC funk of late. 

I'm not basketball smart enough to explain it.  I figured the coaching staffs of the opposing teams were just installing great game plans to stop the Pilots, but if it's "self inflicted," it's unexplainable IMO.