Grambling State Tigers @ Pilots, 12/15, 7pm

I wonder how this game came about. The Tigers are from northern Louisiana. They played at UL Monroe tonight, losing 72-67. They play SE Louisiana on the 19th. In between, they fly to PDX and play the Pilots. They do have a couple regional players, one from Tacoma, the other from Meridian, ID. So that may explain their trip.

The Tigers are 4-6, and only 1-5 on the road. One of their wins was against an NAIA school, another against a bible college with 150 students. Dallas Polk-Hilliard, a 6'-7" Jr F, is their leading scorer and rebounder, averaging 13 ppg and 6 rpg. He is the only player to start all their games; a total of 9 players have started at least 2 games.

So far, only 23% of their shots have been 3P attempts (UP shoots 3P 36% of time), but they make 40% of them. They average 73 ppg.

If the good shooting Pilots show up, I expect this to be another win. It will be interesting to see if the Pilots adjust the line-up to the Tigers, or go big and try to dominate inside.

Grambling spent the better part of a decade as one of the 10 worst teams in all of Division I.

Those days are over, it would seem. They've been competitive well into the second half in all of their road games except a big loss to UCF on Saturday, most recently last night against ULM as up7587 mentioned. They also have a road win over a Niagara team that's likely of comparable quality to the Pilots.

I agree that it'll be interesting to see how the Pilots match up against this team on Saturday, especially if (fingers crossed) Tryon is healthy and ready to go. This Grambling team is actually quite large, to the point where they're around 60th in the nation in average height. Hogland coming off a breakout performance and the possibility of Tryon returning is a big positive with the possibility of foul trouble to Akwuba and/or Diabate against a team like this.

The numbers suggest that Grambling goes to the line a ton, and sends their opponents to the line a ton. Pilots are going to have to hit their freebies in this one.

Is this the game Xavier Hallinan (#55) is okay to play in? I seem to recall reading he would be eligible at the end of UP's fall semester which officially ended Thursday with students checking out of the dorms yesterday.

Shadrach wrote:Is this the game Xavier Hallinan (#55) is okay to play in?

Uh-Huh, and the rest of the season too....

How can you lose at home to Grambling?

It’s a low point

This is embarrassing.

In the pre-game coach talk, Ben Johnson said Grambling St. was comparable to PSU. I thought later I should of asked how they were planning to ensure a different outcome. Turns out, the outcome was the same. 4 of 27 from 3P, and give up 10 offensive rebounds. Awful performance.

Hugh played well, and may have earned a starting spot against Seattle U. on Monday.

That's all I got!

Hugh had good moments, but he also had plenty of moments of looking lost, out of position to rebound and losing his man.

I had hopes that this team would make strides forward this season... but... hmmm.

I thought Hugh was still struggling a bit with stamina. One time-out in the 2nd half, he was so gassed he was bent over with hands on knees during it.

up7587 wrote:I wonder how this game came about.  

I talked to their coach before the game, he said they like to "spread their brand for recruiting," and he always likes to get games where the "friends and families of his players who live a long way from Louisiana (in this case Tacoma and Meridian, ID) get a chance to see their guys play."

The only games left on the schedule as reasonable probability wins are Florida A&M, Santa Clara, and Pepperdine.

Conference play will be difficult. USF and LMU have their best teams in a long time and everyone else besides Santa Clara seems to be improving. This could be really nasty.

Really shocking loss to Grambling. That team is really, really bad and road-weary at that.

I have nothing to add other than that I expected this to be a blowout win. From the start, I was very disappointed with our shot selection.

Per Coach Geving, they got open looks for the shooters they wanted, but nobody could make a 3P shot. Take away the five 3P attempts tried in desperation at the end, and if they had been able to hit a mediocre 35% of their 22 attempts, that's 12 more points, and they probably win.

It is not just the three point shooting, the very poor free throw shooting and the 14 turnovers, especially when accompanied with the offensive fouls would have won the game alone.

The game was lost because of inability to hit a 3P shot, giving up too many offensive rebounds, and inconsistent FT shooting (67%). But the nail in the coffin was at 1:34 remaining. After closing from 10 down to only 4 down at 60-56 with some pressure defense, the Pilots got a three on one breakaway. Walker passed to Shaver on the wing, and a pass back should of guaranteed an uncontested layup. Instead, Shaver took it to the basket, was called for an offensive foul, Grambling immediately comes back down and makes a 3P shot, and any chance of coming back was gone. Marcus ended up as the leading scorer despite only making 4 of 13 shots, but that mistake was an indicator the players are desperate, and not willing to trust each other to get the job done.

If the coaches can pull this group back together as a team, and get them playing like they did against Sac. St., then the season will be OK. Not great, but OK. If not, . . .