2017-2018 Conference Schedule

New thread for your UP WCC games chatter.

Pilots open up with a difficult first five WCC games. We kick off @BYU. The two home games without students on campus are USD and USF, the two best non-big 3 WCC teams. The only game against an expected bottom five team is a road game at SCU. Then finish the first five with @GU. Tough rows to hoe.

Go Pilots!

up7587 wrote:New thread for your UP WCC games chatter.

Pilots open up with a difficult first five WCC games.  We kick off @BYU. The two home games without students on campus are USD and USF, the two best non-big 3 WCC teams. The only game against an expected bottom five team is a road game at SCU. Then finish the first five with @GU.  Tough rows to hoe.

Go Pilots!

Think they can improve to 5-13. It' s tough when you have 0-6 right out of the gate with Gonzaga/SMU/BYU. Going to have to steal a couple on the road. Bet they can get up to 272 in kenpom by end of the year which is a good improvement.

At the beginning of WCC play, KenPom predicts UP will only beat PU and SCU in the Chiles Center, but could win as many as 5 WCC games….tied for 9th with Pepperdine.

Below are KenPom’s rankings today vs. before the season started. In [ ] is each team’s strength of schedule against preseason opponents, followed by the team’s records against D1 opponents:

GU: 13/20 (+7) [82] 10-3  
SMC: 30/30 (0) [291] 11-2
BYU: 60/72 (+12) [204] 11-2
USD: 124/187 (+63) [292] 8-3
USF: 155/116 (-39) [266] 7-5
LMU: 206/254 (+48) [224] 4-6
UOP: 216/253 (+37) [146] 4-8
SCU: 223/126 (-97) [328] 2-8
PU: 299/286 (-13) [214] 2-9
UP: 303/305 (+2) [176] 3-7

Before the season began, the computers predicted UP would beat PSU, Fullerton, San Jose, and Hartford; the Pilots beat San Jose, Hartford and Sac St. (I don't think anyone expected PSU to have only three losses (Duke, Butler, and Oregon) at the end of the preseason.....strength of schedule better than any WCC school: 62nd!

X is back!

• Xavier Hallinan returned to the Portland roster over winter break. Hallinan was a walk-on for two years and played significant minutes down the stretch last season, starting the last six games. He will sit out this season, but can practice with the team.

http://portlandpilots.com/news/2017/12/26/mens-basketball-portland-opens-wcc-play-at-byu-and-then-hosts-san-francisco.aspx

Sound Voltex wrote:X is back!

There is some concern he will not be eligible to play until a year from now (has to sit a full year), but the hope is the compliance office will get things sorted out so he can play at the beginning of next season.

Another ranking perspective, and the one that is used extensively when deciding Tournament seeding, is the NCAA’s RPI (national ranking and SOS).  It gives UP a little bit of love:

48 GU (96)
49 SMC (149)
54 BYU (163)
113 USD (219)
144 USF (104)
222 UOP (147)
227 UP (85)
234 LMU (257)
298 PU (172)
348 SCU (318)

Note: PSU’s RPI (47) is better than any WCC team, and their SOS (106) is bested by only GU and UP.

Interesting that Georgetown, the team that pulled out of PK-80 so as not to be "embarrassed" in Patrick Ewing's coaching debut, is now 10-1, but their RPI is only 216 (SOS:350).

Random notes:

UP Basketball YouTube channel went on another uploading spree two weeks ago with full games (and more old player highlights) ranging from 2014 up until the SJSU game from a few weeks ago though it's kinda in random order. Some have sound, I think most do not.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOtqHEBSAu-Tk4_B_Rv4cDg/videos

Tucked away in the most recent WCC Men’s Basketball Player of the Week page is Portland's first nominee of the 2017-18 season.

Also Nominated: James Batemon, Loyola Marymount; Yoeli Childs, BYU; Matt McCarthy, San Francisco; Josh McSwiggan, Portland; Johnathan Williams, Gonzaga; Isaiah Wright, San Diego

http://www.wccsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/122517aaa.html

Going to Provo this time of year is a difficult trip to play a very difficult game, but at least the trip and the game will be out of the way early in the season.

As noted by up7587, this game will be televised on BYUtv with a 6 o'clock PST start time.  

BYU is favored by 18-22 points, and rightly so, but if UP can hit free-throws and play a solid second half at the 4600 foot elevation in front of a large crowd, they will certainly have a chance....if just a slim one.  

It's good the 33,000 students at BYU are on break, but it really won't diminish the crowd much as all the locals with their Coke buzzed kids will still pack the Marriott Center.

I really don't see how Phil can stop 6-8/225 sophomore sensation Yoeli Childs, so the key may be to stop the rest of BYU's 11-2 team, especially guards Elijah Bryant and TJ Hawes.  Note: this BYU team will be around awhile, they have 9 underclassmen and zero seniors on their roster.

My advice is to play hard early, but if the game starts getting out of hand, just rest the starters and get them safely home to Portland ready to go against USF on Saturday in a game that is winnable.

Salt Lake Tribune projects Pilots 6th in the WCC! Nice to see that FWIW.

In addition to be televised on BYUtv and streamed on BYUtv.org, tonight's game will also be live-streamed on ESPN3. I'm told the radio broadcast on 910 ESPN will be delayed until 10pm as Les Schwab Invitational high school basketball will be broadcast at  3:45pm, 5:30pm, 7pm, and 8:30pm.

For all you basketball junkies and WCC scouts, four of the five WCC games played today will be on TV in the Portland area:

6:00 UP @ BYU on BYUtv
6:00 UOP @ GU on ESPN2
6:00 USF @ USD on ROOT
8:00 LMU @ SMC on ROOT

Caution: Your DVR may not be able to handle all those games and the bowl games too....

Frustrating first half here against BYU. Really bad shooting by the Pilots (especially Franklin Porter, who is 0-7). Bad shot selection by several guys. We're 4-15 on two-point shots. TERRIBLE free throw shooting (1-7).

Six TOs, with almost all of those being self-inflicted: dumb, obvious passes that were easily intercepted; dribbling the ball out of bounds, etc.

We closed the half with four empty possessions: three terrible outside shots and one turnover. We're lucky to be down by only 7.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Frustrating first half here against BYU. Really bad shooting by the Pilots (especially Franklin Porter, who is 0-7). Bad shot selection by several guys. We're 4-15 on two-point shots. TERRIBLE free throw shooting (1-7).

Six TOs, with almost all of those being self-inflicted: dumb, obvious passes that were easily intercepted; dribbling the ball out of bounds, etc.

We closed the half with four empty possessions: three terrible outside shots and one turnover. We're lucky to be down by only 7.

Hartwich is hitting just 29.5% of his FT now. Simply amazing progression as he has gotten worse as his career goes on. His form doesn't look that bad, can't figure this one out.

At one point we had it close in the second half there. It was fun/upsetting to peek over at CougarBoard during that time. Fun: we were really frustrating them. Upsetting: half the posts were about "this crap conference full of nobodys." Then, once they took control in the late second half, it was back to normal for them.

Bobcat was right about the flow of the game.

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:At one point we had it close in the second half there. It was fun/upsetting to peek over at CougarBoard during that time. Fun: we were really frustrating them. Upsetting: half the posts were about "this crap conference full of nobodys." Then, once they took control in the late second half, it was back to normal for them.

Bobcat was right about the flow of the game.

SF game will be competitive. Maybe lose by 7 or 8? I still don't understand how this team is so bad shooting free throws.

Couple of observations:

Phil tends to leave the center of the zone to go out to the wing seeking a block if opposing player is driving toward the bucket; he does this even when the opposing player is covered by our wing. More than a couple of times it resulted in their center having a lane to the basket, resulting in a high percentage dunk. Phil is a force on defense for the most part. I think at times he is drifting from his primary responsibility to the detriment of the defense. I understand rotations occur and that Phil's spot should be filled too, but there seems a too eager urge to leave the center position in the zone.

Another former Blazer(or so I believe) with Pilot connections was once quoted as saying "you live by the three, you die by the three." Without some inside presence we go from hot to cold and back again but inevitably, this season, have found cold streaks which take us out of the game. Given the personnel I am not sure you run a different offense but it would help if we had more of an inside presence on offense. What do we do when the three is not falling?

You nailed it. No post presence. Degree of difficulty is continuing to increase on the 3's since they're not coming inside-out. Essential for Diabate to develop a post game for next year. I'm still in awe over Hartwich's free throw struggles. Going to be a big issue in close games as teams go to Hack-a-Hartwich.

Phil missed his only two FTs early in the game. I was disappointed to see others follow suit. The team was 31% for the game. In the first half, that was the difference in the score. Diabate missed 4 of 5, with some real clunkers. He's only 33% for the year on limited tries. And Malcolm only made 2 of 4 attempts. He's 72% on the year, but I thought he just threw one up without taking any time to shoot it well.

I've scouted a few USF games this season, and they're pretty good (#158 according to KenPom), but their second year coach, Kyle Smith (who once described the UP coaching job as the worst in the conference), is just not as fun to yell at compared to Rex Walters....

The Dons are favored by 5.5 points today (remember it's a 6 o'clock tip and it's being televised on ROOT TV), but once again if the Pilots can find a way to pose a threat in the paint to free up the outside shooters, they have a chance to win this game....providing they can hit enough free-throws in crunch time.

UP has one more road win than does USF, but senior forward Chase Foster, who has always given UP fits, is the guy to stop if the Pilots are to keep that edge.  The really skinny kid who has impressed me the most for USF is 6-3/145 freshman Souley Boum from across the Bay in Oakland.  Boum doesn't usually start, but he's a pure shooter who is leading the team in scoring with almost 15ppg....including over 90% from the foul line and 45% from 3-point range.

KenPom predicts the only WCC losses USF will suffer this season will be in games against BYU, GU, and SMC.....if the Pilots are going pull off the upset, they're going to have to play some defense and hit free-throws!  Duh!

DoubleDipper wrote:....providing they can hit enough free-throws in crunch time.

Safe to assume that Austin Stone is no longer on the team? I know he didn’t ever play much anyway, but man, our lack of depth in the front court is glaring.

Yikes. This team is falling apart. Bad, bad play. Zero effort. Bad attitudes. Train wreck.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Yikes. This team is falling apart. Bad, bad play. Zero effort. Bad attitudes. Train wreck.

Almost describes the livestream exactly. I think I might stick to radio for all of the second half.

Perfectly summed up the half for me. Only positives I saw were forcing the turnovers (which they couldn't finish most of the time) and Diabate bringing in some energy and hustle.

No Hoagland on the bench either. Is he off the team, too?

It may be time to insert Diabate into the starting lineup. We need the rebounding. Diabate makes a positive contribution on offense as well. Bring Franklin Porter off the bench; likely to reduce turnovers as well.The Dons dominated on the boards, 51 to 23?

We need to pursue offensive rebounds--shots go up and we head back without effort to collect an offensive rebound, save occasionally for Hatwich/Diabate.

Shaver was out of control for much of the game.

How many layups on fastbreaks can you miss? On fastbreaks we often either blew the layup or turned the ball over.

Hope that Hoagland's absence has an explanation other than leaving the program.

Jojo Walker can play.

I watched the game in SF with a couple of my classmates from high school who go to USF, and before the game I was bragging about our two freshmen guards, Walker and Shaver. By the end of the game it was pretty clear that USF has the better freshman guard, Souley Boum.

I realize scoring isn't everything, but Boum was 8-11, including 3-6 behind the arc, and was 7-9 at the line for 26 points in 29 minutes....a pretty good line.  And he's not just a shooter, he was blowing by our guys for athletic layups.

I know UP talks a lot about the future, but USF looks to have an even brighter one.