2015-2016 Schedule--Rumors & Facts

http://www.oregonlive.com/pilots/index.ssf/2015/03/eric_reveno_and_portland_pilot.html

After reading Jason Quick's Oregonian article I started getting pumped-up for next season thinking about where and who the Pilots will be playing.

 One thing we know for sure, next year's NCAA Tournament will be slightly earlier than this year's tournament (beginning on Tuesday March 15 and ending in Houston on April 4), which means the WCC Tournament will be earlier and WCC play will begin BEFORE Christmas.

The WCC Tournament in Las Vegas for the men will likely begin on Friday March 4 with the final to be played on Tuesday March 8, causing the regular season to commence on December 19 or 21!!  Obviously, with WCC play beginning so early and finals week falling just before that, the December schedule will be very compressed.

Last season many of us found Nashville just too far, complicated, and expensive to get to for Thanksgiving....but this year it will be a bit better....Corpus Christi, Texas!!  A two day tournament, November 27-28, against two unknown (to me) opponents.  Southwest Airlines connecting in Houston is the quickest and easiest from Portland.  

Too soon to start thinking about UP's schedule?  Probably, but I'm looking forward to the new on-court leadership and six new players leading the Pilots into the WCC top four next season.

Sheesh, the post-season banquet hasn't been served yet, and you're already looking for tickets to Corpus Christi? 

I will say that Coach has been pretty talkative about Chiir Maker, which I doubt he'd be if they were worried about him getting NCAA approval for admission.

up7587 wrote:Sheesh, the post-season banquet hasn't been served yet, and you're already looking for tickets to Corpus Christi? 

I will say that Coach has been pretty talkative about Chiir Maker, which I doubt he'd be if they were worried about him getting NCAA approval for admission.

Unless he's in a precarious employment situation (which he was), in which case he would want to remind everyone -- repeatedly -- that Maker might back-out of his NLI if there is a coaching change.

Other schedule tid-bits:

- We should be at PSU
- At UC Davis
- I heard an interview with Leykam on Greg Crawford's internet radio show a few months back, in which I'm pretty sure he said they were working on a game with Colorado.
- Do we owe return trips to Montana St. or SIU-Edwardsville?
- Is Sacramento St. coming to Chiles?
- When you have players on your roster from across the country, many teams attempt to schedule games near their hometowns at some point during their careers. (This is probably what prompted SIU-E's road trip to Portland last fall; they had a player from Clark County, WA.) It would be great if UP could schedule a game in North Carolina so that Alec's friends and family can see him (and Mugsy Bouges!). There are 18 Division-I programs in the state of North Carolina, spanning 9 conferences. Seems like we should be able to get a game somewhere.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:

up7587 wrote:Sheesh, the post-season banquet hasn't been served yet, and you're already looking for tickets to Corpus Christi? 

I will say that Coach has been pretty talkative about Chiir Maker, which I doubt he'd be if they were worried about him getting NCAA approval for admission.

Unless he's in a precarious employment situation (which he was), in which case he would want to remind everyone -- repeatedly -- that Maker might back-out of his NLI if there is a coaching change.

A player who signs a NLI cannot back out when a coach leaves or is fired.  Always several disgruntled signees after Signing Day when all the football coaches change jobs.  From the National Letter web site:

What happens if I change my mind about attending the institution with which I signed?
And I want to attend another NLI institution instead:
- The NLI basic penalty is that you lose one year of competition in all sports and must serve one year in residence at your next NLI institution.
But I do not want to attend another NLI institution:
- The penalty does not have to be served unless you attend an NLI institution.

www.nationalletter.org

UP granted waivers to players who wanted to leave with coaching changes in the past. No reason to think they wouldn't do it again.

And I think that was an institutional decision.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Other schedule tid-bits:
- We should be at PSU
- At UC Davis
- I heard an interview with Leykam on Greg Crawford's internet radio show a few months back, in which I'm pretty sure he said they were working on a game with Colorado.

All true, as far as I know.

From what I can glean, there are only three preseason road games this year, and four at neutral sites.  One of the road games is at UC Davis, and there are two neutral games in Corpus Christi and two in the Moda Center as part of the (new) Far West Classic with Oregon State playing in Portland.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:- We should be at PSU
- At UC Davis
- I heard an interview with Leykam on Greg Crawford's internet radio show a few months back, in which I'm pretty sure he said they were working on a game with Colorado.

Yup, that looks like that's it for the three preseason "away" games in 2015.

@PSU, @Colorado, and @ UC-Davis.

Seems like we could rally a few die-hard Pilots fans to travel to at least one or two of those games....

Not die hard but I'd be there @CU. Love watching the Buffs lose.

pilotram wrote:Not die hard but I'd be there @CU. Love watching the Buffs lose.

Haha, I would imagine we'll see DTLegend at the game also.

How would feel about a game against Colorado St?  I think there's a possibility the Pilots will play the Rams in Corpus Christi during the Thanksgiving weekend.  

(OBTW, after attempting to make a Southwest reservation to Corpus Christi yesterday, I was told the airline is currently only taking reservations through the end of October.)    

Neat. Would likely be a more interesting matchup than last time they played.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:- Do we owe return trips to Montana St. or SIU-Edwardsville?
- Is Sacramento St. coming to Chiles?

From the discussions/interviews I remember, the answer is probably, No, No, Yes!

A game against Sacramento St will be an interesting contrast to the recently played game at the Chiles Center.....UP loses three starters including the all-important bigs, and Sac St. will be without the amazing guard tandem, McKinney and Garrity.

Some insight into the schedule process:

Final Four "Speed-dating"

Hey, that is a good and insightful article!

Unless Coach Wolf can find that elusive home game in December, the Pilots may end up playing 4 preseason games on the road instead of 3.  At least we know that if UP ends up playing a non-D1 school, it won't be for lack of trying to find one.

Just reading between the lines, it would appear the rest of the schedule is set, but with such a young bunch returning next year I doubt there will be a $100,000 game.  But if there were, I can sure see the reasoning to schedule such a game....especially if the money were needed to pay coaches or help sustain excellent non-revenue sports like X-C.

As previously mentioned, December is going to be a compressed schedule because of finals week in mid-month, WCC play beginning before Christmas (Dec 21), and the Far West Classic competition just a couple of days before that.

Okay, so there should be nine non-conference games not including the exempt event (Corpus Christi). Colorado, Portland State, UC Davis on the road as above, Far West Classic for another two, Sac State at home, and I guess three to be determined?

I think the Pilots will get four games out of the Corpus Christi tournament. It's been an eight-team event with four games over two weekends, with the first weekend hosted at "campus sites" - so the first weekend could be two home or two away. We already know half the teams - UP, Southern Illinois (first weekend host), UTEP (first weekend host), and Oakland.

Terry Cahill wrote:I think the Pilots will get four games out of the Corpus Christi tournament. It's been an eight-team event with four games over two weekends, with the first weekend hosted at "campus sites" - so the first weekend could be two home or two away.

Based upon what I was hearing from various sources in Las Vegas, UP will be a first weekend host, and those two games will be the first D1 HOME games of the season.

I expect UP will play one exhibition game against a non-D1 opponent and another super-secret scrimmage against a Pac-12 opponent before beginning the actual preseason on the road.

As OSU and UP will be the home teams in the Far West Classic, it's my guess OSU will be UP's scrimmage opponent before preseason play begins......once again depriving NPN and the rest of us a chance to watch the Pilots in action, regardless of the opponent.

Terry Cahill wrote:I think the Pilots will get four games out of the Corpus Christi tournament......We already know half the teams - UP, Southern Illinois (first weekend host), UTEP (first weekend host), and Oakland.

Hmm, I think we now know who will be playing in Corpus Christi on November 27 & 28.

Until TC's post, I don't think we knew that UTEP and Southern Illinois were first weekend hosts, but we previously learned that Colorado St. and UP were the other first weekend hosts....so, the four teams in Corpus Christi will be:

Portland
Southern Illinois
Texas-El Paso
Colorado St.

I'm sure we won't know who's playing who until the schedule comes out in late summer, but we now know who we'll see if we're going to Texas for Thanksgiving.

BTW, if anyone is planning to fly Southwest Airlines to Corpus Christi, the first time you can make a reservation for November/December is May 14th.....

The schedule continues to take shape....this article discusses the (New) Far West Classic in the Moda Center and gives us the teams:
http://www.buildingthedam.com/2015/4/10/8382571/far-west-classic-returns-sort-of

Friday 12/18:
UP vs. Weber St.
OSU vs. UCSB

Saturday 12/19:
UP vs. UCSB
OSU vs. Tulsa

DoubleDipper wrote:Saturday 12/19:
UP vs. UCSB

Hey, good thing Alan Williams graduated!

Here's some creative thinking from San Diego. We obviously can't play an outdoors game in December in Portland, but something creative could be done to spice up the Pilots-Vikings annual game!

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/apr/10/sdsu-basketball-petco-park-usd/

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Here's some creative thinking from San Diego. We obviously can't play an outdoors game in December in Portland, but something creative could be done to spice up the Pilots-Vikings annual game!

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/apr/10/sdsu-basketball-petco-park-usd/

You mean like a fake handshake?

DoubleDipper wrote:The schedule continues to take shape....this article discusses the (New) Far West Classic in the Moda Center and gives us the teams:http://www.buildingthedam.com/2015/4/10/8382571/far-west-classic-returns-sort-of

Friday 12/18:
UP vs. Weber St.
OSU vs. UCSB Cal State Fullerton

Saturday 12/19:
UP vs. UCSB Cal State Fullerton
OSU vs. Tulsa

Hard to say if the first article was incorrect or if there was simply a change, but the revised schedule is now quoted above....

This newer article from UP mentions OSU season ticket holders will have Far West Classic tickets as part of their packet....no mention yet if Pilots fans will have the same situation.  

Apparently UP plays at 6 each evening followed by the Beavers at 8:30ish.

http://portlandpilots.com/news/2015/5/7/MBB_0507151853.aspx

Nice link for a summary of early season tournaments.
http://www.bloggingthebracket.com/2013/12/2/5166356/2015-16-college-basketball-early-season-tournaments-events-MTE

pilotram wrote:Nice link for a summary of early season tournaments.

Did you notice that one of the sources for the Corpus Christi Challenge matchup was PilotNation.  

I guess we better up our accuracy game if we are to be a "source."  

To bad they weren't around for the Marta signing.