2017-2018 Conference Schedule

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:
Working on my rant post. Need some time to let it ferment. Feels a little angry right now. It's also at least three and a half pages single-spaced so far. Maybe I will scrap it.

bobtcat2 wrote:Hard to blame you for ranting.  This team seems to be going backward.

Sound Voltex wrote:Interview with Hugh Hogland / Tahirou Diabate:

DoubleDipper wrote:BTW, despite his name, Tahirou apparently has no Japanese heritage, and is not shown as part of the Mali National Team....yet.

Because when they were high school kids, Rui Hachimura and Tahirou Diabate had the sizzle, the steak, the jam and the bread.

And they were big in Japan, at least as big as the game gets there.

Here, they’re just part of the magical international melting pot – it’s more of a vat, really – that is college basketball these days, Hachimura budding into a star at Gonzaga in his second year, Diabate finding his way in freshman fits and starts at Portland.

Still, to be on the same floor again, but 5,000 miles from home, took some getting used to Thursday night – at least for Hachimura.

“That was fun,” he acknowledged. “Different.”

And it came with one big bonus.

“He speaks Japanese well,” said Hachimura, happy for the opportunity to converse in his native language. “He’s a cool guy.”

...

For Diabate, it was nothing nearly that smooth – but it’s that kind of year. Portland’s lack of size all but forced him into the starting lineup early and he was overwhelmed in the PK80 tournament against teams like North Carolina. He responded last weekend with games of 13 and 15 points against San Diego and Santa Clara, but his hard work in 31 minutes Thursday produced just two points and five rebounds – and a lesson.

“They crash the boards,” he said of the Zags. “If we’re going to think about beating Gonzaga, we’re going to have to work more on boxing out after the shot because they got too many offensive rebounds.”

But to see a familiar face in the postgame handshake line some 5,000 miles from home might have been a little salve.

A native of Mali, Diabate’s lived with his family in France and the Canary Islands, as well, and is sort of Portland’s answer to Ronny Turiaf – speaking five languages (Bambara, English, Spanish, French and Japanese) and being something of a social magnet.

He and Hachimura were a year apart in high school – Rui winning three straight Japan high school championships with Meisei in the Tohoku region, Diabate averaging 31 points a game – and 101 in one – for Teikyo Nagaoka in the Niigata prefecture maybe three hours away. They played against each other a couple of times before Hachimura left for GU – and Diabate said his game hasn’t changed much.

“I wasn’t surprised to see him out there driving and pump faking and doing all his stuff,” Diabate said. “But he’s built a better body. He’s gotten stronger.”

...

Michaelson said he thought having Diabate in the other lineup “resonated with Rui and maybe dialed him in a little more. There was something on the line.”

Because they’re big in Japan.

DoubleDipper wrote:Question: Is Austin back?
Answer from coach: He's back, but won't be on the bench as we work through some issues.

Division I basketball coaches are judged by wins and losses, and so far, Terry Porter's numbers don't indicate a lot of progress.

Porter's Portland Pilots are 6-13 overall and 0-6 in West Coast Conference play after Saturday's 66-54 home loss to Damon Stoudamire's Pacific Tigers.

In Porter's first season on The Bluff, the Pilots went 11-22, struggling through the second half of the season after losing senior point guard Alec Wintering to injury.

The former Trail Blazers great brought in eight recruits to join redshirt sons Franklin and Malcolm Porter and holdovers Philipp Hartwich, D'Marques Tyson and Joseph Smoyer.

Hartwich and Tyson, both seniors, are the only players with significant D-1 experience, and the results thus far have shown it's a cast not yet ready for prime-time play this season.

"Our guys are working hard," Terry Porter said after the loss to Pacific. "We have young guys, and we haven't been winning close games. That would change things a lot. There were two or three games in conference where we were right there and our youth hurt us."

The Pilots have been blown out in three of their WCC defeats — 69-45 to Brigham Young, 84-61 to San Francisco and 103-57 to Gonzaga. They were close in an 81-74 overtime loss to San Diego and a 70-68 setback to Santa Clara.

Portland starts a pair of freshmen — 6-1 point guard JoJo Walker from Puerto Rico and 6-9 power forward Tahirou Diabate from Japan — along with the 7-2 Hartwich, 6-4 sophomore Franklin Porter and 6-7 small forward Josh McSwiggan from England.

Hartwich — the school record-holder for career blocked shots — is an outstanding rebounder and defender who had 16 boards against Pacific. He has little offensive game, though, and not much help from teammates to provide an offensive post presence.

"We don't have the interior offensive punch we need," Porter said. "Phil has had some growth, but he needs to continue to get better in that area."

The Pilots shot only .388 from the field, including 5 for 24 from 3-point range, yet hung in with Pacific for more than a half. Malcolm Porter's 3 from just shy of midcourt as the buzzer sounded brought Portland to within 31-29 at intermission. The Tigers used a 13-2 run to forge a 44-33 lead early in the second, and the Pilots got no closer than four points the rest of the way.

"We struggled to score," Porter said. "We just didn't get in a good rhythm offensively. We did a good job defensively. It was good enough to win."

Portland is tied with Pepperdine at the bottom of the WCC, and Terry Porter will depend on development from his young players to make a move up the standings the rest of the season.

McSwiggan — who reminds much of Mike Dunleavy Jr. in his game and the way he carries himself on the court — came into the game shooting .476 from 3-point range but was off target against Pacific, finishing with five points and going 0 for 5 from behind the 3-point line in his 37 minutes.

Point guards Walker and Marcus Shaver Jr. — the latter a 6-2 freshman — have plenty of get up and go and work hard at the defensive end, but must improve their perimeter shot.

The Porter brothers — Franklin a sophomore, Malcolm a freshman — are strong and excellent with the drive to the basket, but also lack proficiency from range.

The Pilots will lose only Hartwich and Tyson — the latter a 6-5 guard who was 4 for 6 on 3-pointers and led his team with 14 points against Pacific — after this season. They have signed Josh Phillips, a 6-8, 190-pound prep senior from Huntington Beach, California, as an incoming freshman next season, and have one more scholarship to give.

A dozen more WCC games, along with the conference tournament, remain on Portland's schedule. Wins will be difficult to come by. Terry Porter is going to require patience, and he'll need his players to show some, too, as they battle through the adversity they'll continue to face the rest of this season.

"I'm pleased with the effort we're getting," the UP coach said. "The challenge for us is to continue to get better and to eliminate some of the mistakes when you have youth and guys who haven't played a lot of Division I basketball. We have to keep working so we can execute better and get wins."

Dean Murdoch wrote:1-6

Dean Murdoch wrote:1-6