2017-2018 Conference Schedule

PilotNut wrote:Phil was talking quite a bit... he probably deserved a T after he was called for a charge on his 3rd or 4th foul (I don't recall which it was), and he had a few words for the defender.  Something along the lines of encouraging him to return to an upright position...

Yeah, when he came back to the bench after his 5th and 6th (technical) foul, the coaches, who were also pretty fed up by this point, just remained seated and waved him down to the end of the bench without saying a word or even looking at him.

Hate to admit it, but refs and coaches are also human and often react in human ways to boorish behavior....

Yeah, Phil's 3rd foul was the defender flop when he was backing in. The refs did repay the favor when the Pilots (can't remember which one) flopped against their Japanese player, who struggled all night after roasting UP the first game. His 4th foul was following a Zag across the key, and he was called for (slightly) extending his arm. By the time of his 5th foul, he'd had it with the refs.

I was also surprised how closely the Pilots, mostly JoJo, guarded Perkins, getting right in his face when he didn't have the ball. I don't remember any fouls called for that work.

PilotDrummer wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:

Geezaldinho wrote:I didn’t know you could get 6 fouls in college.

Haha, yeah, but if anyone can do it, it's Phil.  

He generally just "talks" to the refs and opposing players, but maybe the ref tonight can understand German.....

It was "are you kidding?" that got him T'd up. After the whistle for his fifth foul.

He also pointed in the general direction of the scorers table or bench. Maybe suggesting the ref should look at a replay on the monitor?

I very much have enjoyed seeing Hartwich's development...but in his four years here, I don't recall him agreeing with a single foul that's been called against him!

Dean Murdoch wrote:I very much have enjoyed seeing Hartwich's development...but in his four years here, I don't recall him agreeing with a single foul that's been called against him!

Here's what Phil has to say....

Hopefully Josh will come out aggressive , or maybe Franklin will be excited to play his former team and come out firing...

Well at least D and Jo Jo are playing offense.

Pretty disappointing so far, at least the Porter boys are playing pretty well tonight.

Josh had a tough game.

Getting nightmares of the home game w/ SMC last year. Everything falling for them, nothing falling for us.

Sound Voltex wrote:Getting nightmares of the home game w/ SMC last year. Everything falling for them, nothing falling for us.

SMC is very good offensively. They have played a weak schedule which is probably going to have them somewhere between 7 and 10 seed. Good chance they pull an upset and make the Sweet 16. Even with their incredible record they're only #29 in the RPI, and tonight's win will probably drop them a bit.

Better effort in the second half. Would've liked to see Jackson or Stone get some sort of minutes near the end as the Gaels were putting the far end of their bench in, but it was pretty much Shaver, Diabate, Tyson, and Porter brothers the rest of the way.

No coaches stopped by for post game radio tonight.

Sound Voltex wrote:Better effort in the second half.

Or at least SMC didn't play perfect again. Shooting woes and/or SMC defense hurt the Pilots. Hartwich and McSwiggan were combined 0-8, no points. 35% from 3Pt, when SMC shot 52% on 23 shots. Walker had a really good game with 15 points on 5 of 7 (he missed his only two 2Pt shots). He had no assists, but I guess your teammates have to make buckets for the PG to get an assist.

SMC only had 4 offensive rebounds, but then they didn't miss many shots. Landale was averaging 23 ppg, held him to 6, but Ford got 20 when he averages 8.6.

+: Hartwich's defense on Landale, Walker's 3pt shooting
-: Most everything else

McSwiggan and F. Porter struggled mightily shooting.

In the second half we ran the offense pretty well. Good passing resulted in a lot of good, open shots. We missed way too many.

I laughed out loud when one of the announcers repeatedly asked why the guards weren't passing it to Hartwich on the block. Did he not see Hartwich's three ugly misses from point-blank range? Diabate also missed several gimmes right at the rim. I give him more leeway as a freshman.

At the moment our best offensive players look like Shaver, Walker, M. Porter. I'd like to see the coaches go to Malcolm a lot earlier in the game, especially when the offense looks stuck. He has a real knack for getting into the lane and getting a bucket when everyone else is putting up bricks or turning it over.

8. Portland Pilots (8-15, 2-8 )

Last week: L 95-79 vs. Gonzaga, L 72-55 at Saint Mary’s
This week: Feb. 1 vs. Pepperdine, Feb. 3 vs. Loyola Marymount
Previous: Eighth

The good: The Pilots are a young team with a second year head coach in Terry Porter. They played some great teams in the PK80 and have looked like a cohesive, motivated squad since. Plus, they’re loaded with shooters.

The bad: This is still a rebuilding process in its second year. Of their eight wins, three have come against non-D1 teams.

Outlook: They’re not the worst team in the WCC, and the future looks rather bright, but this season they’re stuck near the bottom. Should be a good start to the home stretch with both teams below them in our rankings, and the standings, visiting the Rose City this weekend.

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2018/1/30/16948210/wcc-power-rankings-state-of-the-season-edition-zags-smc-gaels-college-basketball-byu-cougars-landale

First half thoughts:
- Stone finally gets some playing time!
- Diabate continues to be a beast.
- Had a 15 point lead at one point but Pepperdine closed it to 1 possession. Can we close it out?

Sound Voltex wrote:First half thoughts:
- Stone finally gets some playing time!
- Diabate continues to be a beast.
- Had a 15 point lead at one point but Pepperdine closed it to 1 possession. Can we close it out?

Ditto, I am just glad they pulled it out in OT...It was great to see the ball in Shavers hand's to secure the win.

Scrappy 2nd half with a lot of foul trouble and it took a OT, but we got the W this time.

Diabate was the real MVP this whole game, my god.

I know it’s only Pepperdine and there’ll be far bigger fish to fry if the Pilots ever hope to make a move up the conference, but man. This team has some nice pieces of the puzzle that will hopefully still be on the Bluff for quite some time. Diabate and Shaver showed me a ton tonight. How good was Diabate even saddled with four fouls??

Nice to see them show some mental toughness to come back strong in overtime after what happened at the end of regulation.

Post game radio with Tyson: https://vocaroo.com/i/s0HqV3FMK9Zy

Post game radio with Coach Kramer: https://vocaroo.com/i/s1IjNZMF0G8h

Wow...

Great job pulling it together in OT, and thank goodness Pepp went cold after a circus 3 to tie it up in regulation.

Diabate is a beast. And a freshman. I he carried us tonight!

First half, Pilots up 41-29 with 4:11 to go, PU makes 8 FTs, a layup and a 3Pt to finish the half on a 13-4 run.

Glad to see Franklin make 4 FTs to close out the OT, as in the 2nd half he missed the front end of a 1&1 with 8 minutes to go, was the inbounder on the TO up 3 with 23 seconds to go, and missed the layup at the regulation buzzer.

BTW, not only did that seem a really quick whistle on that inbounds turnover, but the set play was awful for that location. It took too long for someone to get in receiving position, and when they were covered, there was nowhere else to throw it. They had a similar inbounds in OT, ran a much better play with four guys lined up in front of the inbounder, and got it in easy. All in all, the out of bounds plays, especially under the basket, have been a big improvement this year from previous years.

80% on FTs tonight. At one point, PU had a big advantage on FTs (11 points I think), but by the end both teams had 20 made FTs, with UP only 4 fewer attempts. Phil missed his 3 attempts. PU tried to foul him deliberately, but it didn't work out for them.

From the floor, the team shot 48%, and that includes Walker and Shaver going 3 of 17. Everybody else shot 61%.

Joseph Smoyer got 2 shots, 1 basket, 2 rebounds, 2 turnovers, and 4 fouls, in 8 minutes of work. That's getting your money's worth with your time.

They don't want to take the easy way out, I guess. But a win is a win, and an exciting one at that.

Diabate has improved so much in just a few months. Night and day. He won't win newcomer of the year (as once predicted here on Pilot Nation), but he has a case for the all-freshman team for the conference (as does Shaver).

Pretty impressive to win with the two lead guards having such bad nights offensively. Shaver and Walker had been our best offensive threats over the previous few games. And Hartwich wasn't much of a factor, either. The other guys really stepped up, and tonight was a real team effort. Five players with at least 9 points.

Nice to see Stone back on the court.

A great way to keep the FT% up is to keep Hartwich away from the foul line. That's happened for the most part during conference play.

Stat line of the night goes to Franklin Porter:
12points, 3/4 shooting, 6/7 FT, 5 reb, 3 ast, 26 min

Most notable is the lack of wild, off-balance, ill-advised shots that he is often prone to. Taking only 4 shots in 26 minutes suits him better, as long as they are the high-quality shots he took tonight.

I also want to especially recognize Tyson's performance. 16 points in 20 minutes. 4-5 on three pointers. 4-4 on free throws. Quiet veteran leadership off the bench.

I'm not sure I can add too much to the discussion at this point. I did watch the first half before I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.

At this point, this season is a success for me. We have surpassed our WCC win total already and look to add some more. We can beat our overall win total from last season too. I know some will say that we had 3 non-D1 wins this year -- last year we had two. I am feeling really optimistic right now, but I might be wearing my purple-tinted glasses after a victory.

Diabate looks leaps and bounds better than before. I agree with NoPo that he won't be Freshmen of the Year but he should be All-Conference Freshmen team material. I love that he, Shaver, Walker, and McSwiggan have been getting so much floor time together. They are really all coming along so nicely and will likely be a part of our starting lineup together for the next 3-4 years.

Tyson is absolutely worthy of recognition. He seems to play selfless despite his veteran status. The Porter brothers continue to impress and Malcolm has that awesome floater.

Stone saw the floor, so I hope we can get back to basketball with regard to that. Smoyer's first foul was missed by the commentators, but I saw it on my TV and it was a silly shove coming back down the court. Really not sure why he did that. It only added to our bad foul situation with the bigs. I was disappointed that we let that 15-point lead slip away, but during that time period both Hartwich and Diabate were on the bench with Smoyer and Stone in. Philipp is really the heart of our defense. Take him out, and we tend to let the other team's shots fall.

Anyway, that is my first half analysis. I see that we won in overtime, so I guess I missed some good/bad basketball.

Side note: I watched the Connecticut-South Carolina women's game in person last night. I have NEVER watched such GOOD basketball being played before by a team. Those UConn women are something else. I was really impressed albeit sad at the same time. I don't know why more people aren't trying to do what they do (minus the women's to men's game translation).

NoPoNeighbor wrote:I also want to especially recognize Tyson's performance. 16 points in 20 minutes. 4-5 on three pointers. 4-4 on free throws. Quiet veteran leadership off the bench.

D'Marques is not only the captain of the team, he is acting like the captain by doing whatever it takes to help his teammates and his team.

His offense has never been questioned (yes, he's definitely a streaky shooter), but his defense is what has improved the most and is keeping him in the game.

"Selfless" is the adjective I'd use to describe him this season....

DoubleDipper wrote:

NoPoNeighbor wrote:I also want to especially recognize Tyson's performance. 16 points in 20 minutes. 4-5 on three pointers. 4-4 on free throws. Quiet veteran leadership off the bench.

D'Marques is not only the captain of the team, he is acting like the captain by doing whatever it takes to help his teammates and his team.

His offense has never been questioned (yes, he's definitely a streaky shooter), but his defense is what has improved the most and is keeping him in the game.

"Selfless" is the adjective I'd use to describe him this season....

Can Tyson reach 1000 career points? He's sitting at 921 right now, with 8 games left. He needs to average 10 to get it done. I'm pulling for him! However, he's only averaging 7.4 on the season thus far.

He is having the best year of his career in terms of three-point accuracy, at .442. He's also averaging 10 fewer minutes per game than last year (16.4 vs 26.4).

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Can Tyson reach 1000 career points? He's sitting at 921 right now, with 8 games left. He needs to average 10 to get it done. I'm pulling for him! However, he's only averaging 7.4 on the season thus far.

He is having the best year of his career in terms of three-point accuracy, at .442. He's also averaging 10 fewer minutes per game than last year (16.4 vs 26.4).

I'm rooting for him too.

I'm too lazy to actually look at the stats, but it seems as though he has been playing a lot more minutes - and scoring a lot more points - over the past few weeks than he did earlier in the season. With his seeming increased minutes and opportunities (he's clearly shooting very well right now), I think it's possible he could hit 1,000.