Pilots vs. SMC, Thursday 7pm

No TV broadcast for this one.

SMC is trying to stay relevant for NCAA tourney consideration. Their offense was brutally efficient in the first match-up, but it has slumped lately with losses at BYU and to Pepperdine. Since scoring 89 points on 1/23 against the Pilots, they've averaged 64 points per game over the next five games. Hopefully the Pilots defense is not the cure for whatever ails their offense.

Pilots have swept Pepperdine, and Pepperdine has swept the Gaels, so, easy peasy, right?

Contrast in styles: SMC plays sloooow, and Pilots play fast. If the guys can hit some threes, they'll put pressure on SMC. Need to recover from the GU shooting debacle.

We often mention "must wins" for the Pilots, but tomorrow's game has got to be a "must win" for the Gaels if they are to make it to the NCAA Tournament this year without achieving the automatic bid by winning the WCC Tournament.

Their gaudy 20-4 not withstanding, SMC's two losses to PU are weighing down their Dance chances, and a loss to the Pilots could put them in dire straights.  

KenPom favors the Gaels by 9 and predicts that SMC has an 80% chance of beating the Pilots with the total score of 147.....16 points less than the Pilots loss in Moraga, 89-74.

SMC is a very young team with no seniors that contribute, and they really only averaged one year of D1 experience per player at the beginning of the season.  Sophomore Emmett Naar and junior Joe Rahon rarely leave the court and last I looked, Naar is 8th in the nation for 3-point percentage, shooting 36/73 for .493%.  Local hero Calvin Hermanson can also pull-up and pop, sinking 50 3-pointers for over 40%.

It will be a contrast in styles.....the difference for the Pilots will have to come from Jarrel and Alec, and the 3-point shooting of someone!!

@ESPNLunardi wrote:Overnight bubble shifts: IN (Butler, Alabama) and OUT (Vandy, Saint Mary's).

Lunardi has them on the outside looking in as of last night. I think they were a projected 9 seed until blowing it at home against Pepperdine.

In any event, Randy Bennett for WCC Coach of the Year. And as DD pointed out, doing it all with no contributing seniors. They look set for a while.

Pro tip for the 7pm weeknight games. Avoid some of the terrible Portland traffic, go early and get a pint at the Pilot house. $4 for a 16 oz., $5 for a 20 oz. Lots more choices than the Chiles Center. Serving starts at 4pm.

up7587 wrote:Pro tip for the 7pm weeknight games.  Avoid some of the terrible Portland traffic, go early and get a pint at the Pilot house. $4 for a 16 oz., $5 for a 20 oz.  Lots more choices than the Chiles Center. Serving starts at 4pm.

Or know all the side roads to take!

up7587 wrote:Pro tip for the 7pm weeknight games.  Avoid some of the terrible Portland traffic, go early and get a pint at the Pilot house. $4 for a 16 oz., $5 for a 20 oz.  Lots more choices than the Chiles Center. Serving starts at 4pm.

Yup, going to the Pilot House is good anytime, but if you'd rather not see the Pilots live tomorrow, you can always watch the game on TheW.tv there with the action being called by UP Alum, Bill Kruger.

Remember, the UP players will be wearing their black uniforms for the SMC game, and we too are supposed to wear black to help black-out the Chiles Center.  Hey, I'm all for doing anything that will help fire up the players and fans....including a trip to the Pilot House before the game.

Does the Pilot House have public wifi now or do you need a University account? I haven't checked the couple of times I have been in so far.

dholcombe wrote:Does the Pilot House have public wifi now or do you need a University account? I haven't checked the couple of times I have been in so far.

I've finally figured out the public wifi in the Chiles Center (my little sister had to help me ). I'd guess the Pilot House has something similar, but don't know for sure.

blacksheep wrote:

dholcombe wrote:Does the Pilot House have public wifi now or do you need a University account? I haven't checked the couple of times I have been in so far.

I've finally figured out the public wifi in the Chiles Center (my little sister had to help me ).  I'd guess the Pilot House has something similar, but don't know for sure.

The Pilot House does have public wifi. You have to go to your browser to accept it (hopefully my big brother can figure it out ).

pilotfan4life wrote:

blacksheep wrote:

dholcombe wrote:Does the Pilot House have public wifi now or do you need a University account? I haven't checked the couple of times I have been in so far.

I've finally figured out the public wifi in the Chiles Center (my little sister had to help me ).  I'd guess the Pilot House has something similar, but don't know for sure.

The Pilot House does have public wifi. You have to go to your browser to accept it (hopefully my big brother can figure it out ).

I thought I could get you to post!

Somebody needs to tell Randy that yes, his players do foul.

Well the last two minutes of the first half really showed the difference between a well-coached, composed, skilled team (SMC) and whatever the Pilots are. We were up 34-32, and then:

Marshall misses an easy layup
SMC hits a 3
Marshall misses an easy layup
SMC hits a 3
Wintering misses a 3
SMC misses a layup
Wintering makes a layup
SMC makes easy layup at the buzzer

A two point lead turns into a four point deficit.

I don't think coaching had too much to do with missing easy layups.  Coaching helped get the easy shots, players have to finish.  Also, I don't think Bennett's coaching was the factor in Gaels shooting 69% from 3P in the first half.  If it was, he did a terrible coaching job at halftime, because I think they missed all their 3Ps after the break.

Random thoughts:
-Teams are much better when the star players play like stars.
-If you're going to foul down low, don't let them make the basket, too.  Make the foul count.
-Gaels are really good with a lot of little sneaky elbow shots; physical team.
-Rebounding is all about effort and desire.  Good teams have more of it.
-Teams want the fans to get loud.  Teams need to play hard every night to deserve it.
-The "over-rated" chant is the worst chant ever: A) if you use it before the game is decided, karma always bites you; B) you want to give your team credit for beating a good team, not an over-rated one.

If the Pilots play that hard in their last three games and in the tournament, they'll will more games than they lose. If they let this loss deflate them, shame on them.

up7587 wrote:If the Pilots play that hard in their last three games and in the tournament, they'll will more games than they lose. If they let this loss deflate them, shame on them.

.....and that is where the coaching staff and the team captains will find their most difficult task going into Saturday's game and beyond.

The Pilots played their hearts out against a 21-4 team in a game they never trailed by more than 4 points.....and with 19 ties and 16 lead changes, it was really a wonderful college basketball game to watch.  But because the result shows nothing more than another "L" in the W-L column, the players are going to have to get over it, learn from it, and come out an play with the same passion again.

There's no doubt Bryce was finally feeling it again tonight, and his energy inspired the rest of the squad, but in the end, some layups and put backs one would expect to go down, did not.....but face it, SMC had seven blocks and caused at least that many misdirected shots.

Considering the size and strength of SMC's inside, I commend Rev for going with a small lineup with swatters and speed, because there was no way the Pilots big men were going to compete with any success.  And if this game had gone to overtime, that small lineup that caused four Gaels to commit 4 fouls each, could have made all the difference.

Good game Pilots....with just one more 3-pointer for the Pilots, it would have been one for the ages.....

Random thoughts...

• NoPo, we know how you feel about the coaching staff. This season, so far, has given you plenty of reason to push for change after the year is over - Idaho State, only five WCC wins to this point, I don't need to rehash. But as others have posted, last night we saw the Pilots take a tough, talented SMC team down to the wire. If you had told me that UP would be only 5-for-20 from three and SMC would shoot their usual 53% from the field and 40% from three I'd have guessed a 20-point win for SMC. But the Pilots minimized turnovers, actually won the rebounding battle despite being outsized, and came in with a pretty good game plan. Too bad they couldn't finish, but hard to pin blame on coaching/preparation for this one.

• Watched the first half on TheW.tv and was on the road for the second half, so listened to it on radio. Props to the new radio play-by-play guy who stepped into a tough situation having to fill in for Bill earlier this season. He's great! Calls a good game, a little bit homerish but not too much, definitely a real good find.

• If the Pilots are indeed headed towards a 7 seed in Vegas, I think I'd rather see them face an erratic BYU team than a SMC team that seemingly has their offence firing on all cylinders game in and game out. BYU will get that 2 seed if they win their last three at home (including Gonzaga) and SMC loses tomorrow in Spokane.

• How nice was it to see Bryce go off? Best game of his since he torched the Hustlin Owls.

Shame for Jarrell that he couldn't extend his run of good play; that would have made the difference. Only 4 points from a short bench last night. Teams have definitely keyed on shutting down D'Marques (they have to), and the other scorers need to make their opportunities.

wrv wrote:Reveno has no reason to feel as though he did not place this squad in a position to win. Thought the Pilots looked good most of the night with the end of the 1st half being the exception. We came out in the 2nd half and almost immediately tied the score, but our friend Bennet refused to resign on the spot despite being out coached for that run . . .

If we had a place for it, I would have inserted a "like" here.

Well said, wrv.

Terry Cahill wrote:Random thoughts...

• Watched the first half on TheW.tv and was on the road for the second half, so listened to it on radio. Props to the new radio play-by-play guy who stepped into a tough situation having to fill in for Bill earlier this season. He's great! Calls a good game, a little bit homerish but not too much, definitely a real good find.

The new radio guy is Jason Swygard. He's a producer for 1080 the Fan, which is affiliated with 910 ESPN where the games are carried. He's done play by play for high school football. I met him before the GU game, nice guy. I like his work.

I wish I could figure out why my computer will not play the "Listen Live" for 910 ESPN, but will for 1080. I rarely listen to radio at home, just in the truck.

I forgot to mention this, but I'd like to congratulate SMC for deigning to attend the National anthem this year, even though it wasn't Advance Australia Fair.

Terry Cahill wrote:

@ESPNLunardi wrote:Overnight bubble shifts: IN (Butler, Alabama) and OUT (Vandy, Saint Mary's).

Lunardi has them on the outside looking in as of last night. I think they were a projected 9 seed until blowing it at home against Pepperdine.

After their two point win over UP and the five point win in Spokane, Lunardi now has the Gaels back in the bracket and shows GU as one of the last four in.  

Either or both may have to go through UP to get a chance to Dance.....

Hmm, yeah they're both 11 seeds in today's Bracketology.

Only reason Gonzaga is still in there is because of St. Bonaventure's dirty loss to La Salle last week, and the Bonnies might jump right back in if they don't slip up again and beat St. Joseph's at home. You could also make a heck of a convincing case to have Oregon State in there instead of GU at this point...

Postseason talk is fun. Sure wish we could include the Pilots in the conversation at some point in my lifetime. Even NIT banter would be a blast.

Overlooked in our discussion here, and a moment that caused many of us to rise out of our seats with both arms in the air, was Jason Todd's 3-point shot toward the end of the first half.....his first made 3-pointer in almost a month.  

It came at the end of a wonderful play where UOP was 3 on 1 on a breakaway against Bryce, but he swatted the ball, recovered it, passed it to Alec who dribbled as if to drive, but instead found Jason in the right corner and BOOM!

Not only did it finally give Jason a 3-pointer, but it stopped a 6 minute Pilots scoring drought and ignited a 9-2 run for the Pilots that ended up with UP leading....a lead they never relinquished.

If that shot and the momentum it gave the Pilots gets Jason back to his one-time high level of play for the remainder of the season it could make all the difference for the Pilots chances going forward.