Sacramento St. Hornets @ Pilots – 12/8 @ 7pm

The 4-1 Hornets are off to one of their best starts ever with wins over Simpson College, UC-Davis, Cal St. Fullerton, and a 20 point win over CSUN a week ago. Their loan loss was at UCSB, and their game at Cal Poly was cancelled due to the Camp Fire.

#219 Sacramento St. is not too dissimilar to PSU in that they can score, they put up 87 and 88 points in their last two wins, but it’s their pressure defense that has also shined thus far. The Hornets currently rank among the nation's top 20 teams in 3-point field goal percentage defense (10th, .258), steals per game (12th, 9.6) and turnovers forced per game (19th, 17.9).

#264 UP handled PSU’s pressure pretty well in their loss on Wednesday, but as everyone knows, they often couldn’t find the basket and had no concept of blocking-out their opponents when attempting to rebound. UP is still without their two projected starters, Jacob and Crisshawn, as both await medical clearance.

The bettors and analysts can’t agree on which team will win tonight’s game, but most are favoring the Hornets by 1 or 2, while KenPom.com picks the Pilots by 1 because of the “home court advantage.”

UP students are just coming out of “dead week” and Fall Term finals begin on Monday.  Regardless of how much uninterrupted practice the team gets next week, Rashad Jackson is expected to graduate on Friday and Xavier Hallinan, who will graduate in May, is expected to be eligible to play on Saturday.

Has UP ever won a game after dead week?

New topic! Why did they change the platform Pilot sports had before? This new venue is much more difficult to garner stories, stats and almost anything else. Can anyone say why this an easiee and more informational setting?

Geezaldinho wrote:Has UP ever won a game after dead week?

Haha, my memory only goes back a few years, but it was just three years ago UP beat Sacramento St., and last year they beat San Jose St at the end of Dead Week.  Two years ago, they were supposed to travel to Boise St, but I think there was freezing fog that didn't allow the Pilots to travel by air or ground.

My question is, what do the UP students get up to during dead week these days?  There used to be a prohibition against professors giving new work, but there was not a prohibition against quizzes and tests. It’s probably still is a very stressful week of projects and papers and studying for next week's finals, but what else?  

In the 60's there was an attempt, or two, to rally everyone to run naked through the library to relieve stress like they did at Yale and Cal, but as I recall, when the Dean of Students got wind of it, everyone was warned they would be permanently expelled if caught participating.  And as it was during the Vietnam War, and men over 18 would be drafted into the Army if not in school, the plan fizzled before it got started, thankfully.

When this team’s big three of Walker, Shaver, and Hogland get going, look out!!!

DD wrote:In the 60's there was an attempt, or two, to rally everyone to run naked through the library to relieve stress like they did at Yale and Cal, but as I recall, when the Dean of Students got wind of it, everyone was warned they would be permanently expelled if caught participating.  And as it was during the Vietnam War, and men over 18 would be drafted into the Army if not in school, the plan fizzled before it got started, thankfully.

At Yale and Cal and where I went we knew the administration would have no jobs without students.


And we wore Zoro masks.

hooray we won

Post Game Radio with Hugh: https://vocaroo.com/i/s1JUQ7EK80bI
Post Game Radio with Coach Cantu: https://vocaroo.com/i/s14eUJ9Bxc7J
Post Game Video with Jojo (Audio only): https://vocaroo.com/i/s0njoENPMzFL

Victory was a nice relief after the Timbers match.

DoubleDipper wrote:#219 Sacramento St. is not too dissimilar to PSU in that they can score, they put up 87 and 88 points in their last two wins, but it’s their pressure defense that has also shined thus far. The Hornets currently rank among the nation's top 20 teams in 3-point field goal percentage defense (10th, .258), steals per game (12th, 9.6) and turnovers forced per game (19th, 17.9).

The Pilots did some good things to counter Sac. State's strengths. They focused on scoring inside, and only took 12 3-point shots.  And they hit 8 of them, very effective. The Hornets did get 11 steals, and the Pilots committed 23(!) turnovers, not all forced. They really struggled at the free throw line, only hitting 15 of 27 tries. And playing in catch-up mode late, they threw up a lot of 3P shots, but only hit 4 of 19.  Meanwhile the Pilots hit 18 of their 34 2-point shots (53%), and outrebounded the Hornets 39 to 34.  The game did open with a couple Hornet offensive rebounds for scores, and they got 14 total OREB, but while visions of the PSU debacle danced in our heads, the Pilots toughened up and began rebounding better.

Wasn’t able to watch this one but I noticed that Akwuba and Diabate both started. I don’t recall seeing the Pilots with two bigs at all this year up until yesterday...nice to see them try something different and get rewarded for it.

Dean Murdoch wrote:Wasn’t able to watch this one but I noticed that Akwuba and Diabate both started. I don’t recall seeing the Pilots with two bigs at all this year up until yesterday...nice to see them try something different and get rewarded for it.

Coach Geving before the game and Coach Cantu after the game said the game plan and starting lineup was to give the Pilots the size advantage to "pound it inside" against the Hornets.  

It was definitely a team effort with JoJo and Marcus showing more maturity than past games, and Hugh finally showing some aggressiveness, something the coaches have been trying to get him to do since he arrived last year. I don't think there is any doubt it helped him to redshirt a year and play against Phil everyday, and now play against D and Theo in practice.

Tyler also said the starting lineup will generally be dictated by matchups against opponents going forward, and the game plan against PSU worked, except the Pilots couldn't hit their shots and the Vikings shot much better than previously even with tight defense.

IMO, last night's game against the Hornets was similar to the PSU game, but the roles were reversed, the Pilots hit their shots (56.5), and the Hornets didn't (35.3%).

A lot of those 23 turnovers came late when Sac State was pressing and harassing, and IMO it would really have helped during that part of the game to have Malcolm or Brian, or starting next game, Xavier filling a third guard spot instead of Franklin.

Most of the team's academic finals are early in the week, and starting Tuesday they will practice at their normal time in preparation for the rest of the preseason.

DoubleDipper wrote:A lot of those 23 turnovers came late when Sac State was pressing and harassing, and IMO it would really have helped during that part of the game to have Malcolm or Brian, or starting next game, Xavier filling a third guard spot instead of Franklin.

The problem is that in those late game situations, it is critical that the ball handlers be able to make their free throws (cue Bill Schonley).  The only players exceeding 70% on FTs this year are Josh (91%), Hugh (90%, missed his first last night, 9-10), Marcus (78%, was 86% last year), and JoJo (71%).  Franklin did shoot 75% last year, but he's only 68% this year.  Malcolm is not consistent at the FT line, and Brian does not have enough attempts to evaluate his reliability in the clutch. Xavier did shoot 71% two year ago, with limited attempts (10-14).

It would be nice if the Porter boys could exceed their dad's FT stats (84% over 17 NBA seasons).

A few really good positives from the Sac St game, from my perspective...

- Hugh Hogland. Yes! More of that, please. He has some skills scoring down low, with both hands. I hope he gets more minutes.

- Shooting. We shot a good percentage, in part because we were taking good shots. Good ball movement and shot selection.

- No early-second-half run by the opposition. As noted by others, that has killed us in earlier games. It didn't happen on Saturday.

- Found a way to win without any offense from McSwiggan.

Suggestions moving forward...

- We still gave up way too many easy offensive rebounds. I'd like to see the following starting line-up: Walker, Shaver, F. Porter, Diabate, Hogland. Give Porter a defensive rebounding assignment. Coach him to prioritize crashing the glass so that we have three tough, strong guys going for every board, with Walker and Shaver leaking out to start the fast break.

- Akwuba, M. Porter and McSwiggan come off the bench. We all had hopes that McSwiggan would be a Kevin Bailey-esque player -- someone who is an all-around, consistent offensive threat. I think it is becoming clear that he's more like a D'Marques Tyson. Effective as a 6th-man coming off the bench to shoot some threes and keep the defense honest. Down low, I think Diabate and Hogland provide the most balance of offense, defense and rebounding. Cycle Akwuba in as needed. He's going to be great in the coming years.

McSwiggan is still averaging 14 ppg. He's had two clunkers, last Saturday and CSUN. He scored 22 against Colorado. He is averaging 5.73 rebounds per 40 minutes played. Franklin is averaging 6.04 rebounds per 40 minutes played. Statistically they are pretty even in most categories, other than scoring (Franklin is at 8 ppg). Not sure I'd give up on Josh yet. But I did like the ball movement from Franklin against Sac. St.

Things will get shook up anyway when Tryon gets back in the rotation, if he can consistently hit from outside, and rebound on defense.