USC Upstate @ Pilots, Nov 21

Don’t know a darn thing about USC Upstate besides that they were competitive against USC for a half and took VMI down to the wire on the road.

They start two seniors but pretty much their entire roster besides that is freshmen. Not surprisingly they rank 336 out of 353 D1 teams in experience (not that the Pilots are much better at 328).

News flash. 

Pilots lead at the half for the first time this year!

Geezaldinho wrote:News flash. 

Pilots lead at the half for the first time this year!

Are we finally a team now?

This is the most relaxed I can remember being in a long time while watching a Pilots game.

Serious question, when was the last time the Pilots led by 10+ points for an entire second half? In a game against a D1 team?

(Hogland just went down awkwardly, looked like a rolled ankle. Hope he’s okay)

Wow, Josh Phillips just came into the game. So much for the redshirt season.

Dean Murdoch wrote:Serious question, when was the last time the Pilots led by 10+ points for an entire second half? In a game against a D1 team?

I’m putting this into the “I wish I hadn’t looked this up” category - unless I’m missing something it’s Dec 21, 2015 in a blowout win over LMU.

Hugh was screaming loudly when he went down. Like it was a serious tear of something. That's probably why Phillips came in.

I was getting ready to write up a post about watching one of the most thorough clock cleaning Pilot victories over a D1 team I have ever seen.

I would have preferred to see the final margin stay at ~30 points but I am glad we got to empty the bench. The combination of inexperience and lack of an understanding of how to close a game with a huge lead likely led to that mini comeback that shrunk the final margin of victory. I guess we burned Philips redshirt too.

I’m hoping for good news for Hogland.

Overall, I agree with Deaner. That was such a relaxing game to watch for once. We still have areas to improve on: basketballl IQ and shot selection for me. But, I just enjoyed watching us dominate.

I think Hugh hurt the same ankle he injured Monday. Guessing he may need to recuperate for a couple weeks, unless it really is a bad sprain or tear. Thus burning Josh Phillip's redshirt.

up7587 wrote:I think Hugh hurt the same ankle he injured Monday.  Guessing he may need to recuperate for a couple weeks, unless it really is a bad sprain or tear.  Thus burning Josh Phillip's redshirt.

Even before Hugh hurt his ankle Monday, and then again the same ankle this evening, the staff was strongly considering burning JP's redshirt year as a means of guarding against a serious depth problem.

Tonight was a good example: Jacob is already hurt, Hugh is now hurt, and to guard against Theo or D also getting hurt, JP substituted at center and promptly slammed down an two-hander on a nice feed from Brian Smith after an inbound pass.  JP has much more to learn about the game than the rest of the scholarship players, and up to this point in the season was only dressing for games "in case of emergency," but now that he's burned his redshirt year he's going to need to find some minutes to develop his game in case someone else goes down with an injury.

Had a good talk with Crisshawn this evening, and he's really keeping his spirits up and being a team leader from the sidelines.  Despite the trainers telling him it will probably be the end of January before he's able to play again, Crisshawn has set January 5th as his targeted return date, the first WCC game.

Jacob is also helping coach the young posts from the sidelines while he awaits his return, which he is optimistically aiming for at Colorado...a week from today.

Pilots got 21 points from the bench, and the bench played 77 minutes (38.5%). No starter played more than 29 minutes (JoJo). Hope that helps come Saturday for the 5th game in 8 days.

Wednesday's game was my first game of the season as we don't yet get a suitable internet connection in parts of Puerto Rico...

I watched the game with a couple of former Syracuse players who were impressed when they learned Akwuba is just a freshman and is so good at altering shots and pulling down rebounds.

I would love to see the Pilots live, but probably won't reenroll at UP until at least next fall as I'm learning so much and enjoying the work of rebuilding Puerto Rico.

Looking forward to watching the next two games and reading the PN comments.