2019-2020 schedule

Horrible non conference schedule

Dean Murdoch wrote:I guess Randy Bennett put together UP's schedule this year.

Finally had a chance to look at the schedule, and for the most part, I like it!

For UP,  a team that can at best be described as “mediocre” after last season’s results, to have a schedule that includes 14 preseason games against D1 opponents, including 9 teams that finished 2018-19 ranked higher than UP, gives the Pilots a balanced schedule that should give a number of players a chance to earn a spot in the rotation.

The toughest games this preseason will be on the road or in Hawaii (USC, Houston, Boise St. or Georgia Tech, and Seattle), but having 9 home games (including an exhibition and two additional non-D1 games) will give Portlanders and students a chance to get behind the Pilots in games that should be competitive, for a change.

Even though these games are always very competitive, it’s disappointing that non-D1 teams are on the schedule, but virtually all schools play these non-D1 teams early in the season, and from experience, playing Evergreen St. instead of a stronger team immediately after finals makes sense.

The Pilots will play 32 “counters” this season (there was a time when teams were limited to only 28 games), so there are bound to be some games that won’t be big draws for some fans, but for those who just enjoy watching college basketball and the social experience that goes with it, this might be a preseason to enjoy…at least some of the time.

As for the regular WCC season, I guess we’ll have to make another trip to Moraga if we want to see the Gaels, a team that is supposed to give Gonzaga a run for the title this year…

DoubleDipper wrote:

Dean Murdoch wrote:I guess Randy Bennett put together UP's schedule this year.

Finally had a chance to look at the schedule, and for the most part, I like it!

I'm actually with you, I just couldn't resist taking a pot shot at Bennett's soft schedules of the past. And it's certainly not applicable this year considering who they've got lined up!

As for the Pilots...I know JimmAlacki and I have a fundamental disagreement on this. By all metrics the Pilots are a ~300-ish team right now and they've scheduled as such.

I'm still curious if the USC game means the Trojans will be coming to Chiles at some point.

Let me get this correct, you don't think this is a poor (weak) non conference schedule.

If you are saying the UP program is abysmal and so let's schedule numerous other weak teams then you are correct.

I think the administration needs to see exactly how weak they have allowed this team to sink. And to try and hide it by playing the Willamettes, Incarnate Words etc of the country is sad.

JimmAlacki wrote:Let me get this correct, you don't think this is a poor (weak) non conference schedule.

The home non-conference schedule is particularly bad and uninspiring. The best opponents are Davis (kenpom 252) and CSUN (253).

There are some respectable games away from Chiles, though. At USC, and the games in Hawaii.

Overall, the schedule fits the Pilots' caliber of play. I just wish there were one or two bigger name home games, especially since we don't get to see SMC at home.

The UP website version of the schedule uses the logo of Eastern Tennessee for Evergreen State. How does that error get made? The logo includes the silhouette of the state of Tennessee!

Coincidentally, if we were playing Eastern Tennessee instead of Evergreen State, that would be our best non-con home game, by far. ETU finished last season at 24-10, good for #80 in kenpom.

In truth it has to be pretty hard for UP to convince anyone of note that it is worthwhile to come to Portland to play them outside of a PK80 style set up. We don't really bring anything to the table as a road opponent right now

JimmAlacki wrote:Let me get this correct, you don't think this is a poor (weak) non conference schedule.

If you are saying the UP program is abysmal and so let's schedule numerous other weak teams then you are correct.

I think the administration needs to see exactly how weak they have allowed this team to sink. And to try and hide it by playing the Willamettes, Incarnate Words etc of the country is sad.

Oh gosh no, it's a tremendously weak schedule. Just like it was last year when non-conference SOS was 337th out of 353, and that ranking could be even lower this year.

I think where you and I disagree is the order of improvement - I think the on-court play needs to improve in order to earn a harder schedule, you think a tougher schedule would help play a role in improving the on-court product. But I don't consider this schedule an attempt to try to "hide" poor performance, I consider it simply a case of a 300+ ranked team scheduling other 300+ ranked teams.

I've got no issue with Incarnate Word, at least they're D1. I'll always agree with you on scheduling non-D1s.

Check out Incarnate's record last year. Maine had 5 wins.

My fear is the administration will consider anything more than 7 wins as a major achievement and will praise this coaching staff. 8 wins would be considered turning the corner.

I love college basketball. I would rather see a better schedule and suffer the losses. This year I am not going to spend my money on season tickets after 5 years of buying them. The athletic department doesn't invest the time and effort to convince the fans that there is a definite attempt and desire to get below #300 in the rankings. After last year something should have been arranged to talk to the fans.

JimmAlacki wrote:Check out Incarnate's record last year. Maine had 5 wins.

My fear is the administration will consider anything more than 7 wins as a major achievement and will praise this coaching staff. 8 wins would be considered turning the corner.

I love college basketball. I would rather see a better schedule and suffer the losses. This year I am not going to spend my money on season tickets after 5 years of buying them. The athletic department doesn't invest the time and effort to convince the fans that there is a definite attempt and desire to get below #300 in the rankings. After last year something should have been arranged to talk to the fans.

Personally I'm ok with it in premise, this is too weak but I can understand creating a weaker schedule in an effort to try to build some momentum. The group of returners has to be feeling so beat down that I can't help but think that it would do them some good to get a good string of wins put together...
Not even sure I buy my own argument but its the other side of the coin as opposed to consistently getting beat down by RPI top 150 teams.

SoCal_Pilot wrote:In truth it has to be pretty hard for UP to convince anyone of note that it is worthwhile to come to Portland to play them outside of a PK80 style set up. We don't really bring anything to the table as a road opponent right now

Dean Murdoch wrote:I've got no issue with Incarnate Word, at least they're D1. I'll always agree with you on scheduling non-D1s.

It is VERY difficult to get top-tier teams to come to the Chiles Center because a win is expected and it doesn't do much for the visiting team's NET, but a loss could be devastating to a team with postseason aspirations.

Nobody likes non-D1 games, including those who make the UP schedule, but with the required two extra preseason games created by the Gonzaga mandated 16 game WCC schedule, it's very tough to find teams willing to come to Portland unless it's a pretty big payday for them.

It's my understanding that $90,000-$100,000 is close to the going price to bring in an average team, but a Pac-12 equivalent team would want much, much more until the Pilots are competitive enough to get a home-and-home series going.  A few years back, under Coach Reveno, UP and OSU got a series going in the Rose Garden, but that fizzled-out when UP was no longer competitive.

Curious as to what record would UP fans consider either a "success" or "turning the corner".

JimmAlacki wrote:I love college basketball. I would rather see a better schedule and suffer the losses.

Completely reasonable.

JimmAlacki wrote:Curious as to what record would UP fans consider either a "success" or "turning the corner".

17-13 heading into Vegas.

Dean Murdoch wrote:I'm still curious if the USC game means the Trojans will be coming to Chiles at some point.

No...at least not in the foreseeable future.

The Pilots game at USC is an opportunity to recoup some of the money UP is paying other opponents to come to the Chiles Center...a "buy game."

NoPoNeighbor wrote:The UP website version of the schedule uses the logo of Eastern Tennessee for Evergreen State. How does that error get made? The logo includes the silhouette of the state of Tennessee!

Fixed, indicating correctly that UP will be playing the Geoducks!

DoubleDipper wrote:A few years back, under Coach Reveno, UP and OSU got a series going in the Rose Garden, but that fizzled-out when UP was no longer competitive.

A bit of revisionist history here. OSU didn't schedule us again after we beat them at the Rose Garden in Porter's first year on the bench.

I can't remember the rules. With only one exhibition game is it likely the Pilots have a D1 scrimmage scheduled at some point?

Dean Murdoch wrote:I can't remember the rules. With only one exhibition game is it likely the Pilots have a D1 scrimmage scheduled at some point?

17.02.10 Organized Competition. Athletics competition shall be considered organized if any of the following conditions exists: (Revised: 4/29/10, 7/31/14)
(a) Competition is scheduled and publicized in advance;
(b) Official score is kept;
(c) Individual or team standings are maintained;
(d) Official timer or game officials are used;
(e) Admission is charged;
(f) Teams are regularly formed or team rosters are predetermined;
(g) Team uniforms are used;
(h) A team is privately or commercially sponsored; or
(i) The competition is either directly or indirectly sponsored, promoted or administered by an individual, an organization or any other agency.
17.02.11 Outside Competition. Outside competition is athletics competition against any other athletics team (including an alumni team) that does not represent the intercollegiate athletics program of the same institution.

No surprise, I  guess:

The WCC Coaches Poll once again has the Pilots coming in dead last in conference play this season, and zero Pilots made the preseason All-WCC Team.

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2019/10/3/mens-basketball-wcc-announces-mens-hoops-preseason-coaches-poll.aspx

DoubleDipper wrote:No surprise, I  guess:

The WCC Coaches Poll once again has the Pilots coming in dead last in conference play this season, and zero Pilots made the preseason All-WCC Team.

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2019/10/3/mens-basketball-wcc-announces-mens-hoops-preseason-coaches-poll.aspx

Nowhere to go but up.

DoubleDipper wrote:No surprise, I  guess:

The WCC Coaches Poll once again has the Pilots coming in dead last in conference play this season, and zero Pilots made the preseason All-WCC Team.

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2019/10/3/mens-basketball-wcc-announces-mens-hoops-preseason-coaches-poll.aspx

And we only got nine points, which means every single coach voted us bottom. Sigh.

Considering the Pilots turn over half of a winless roster, I’d have been shocked if any of the other nine coaches had UP anywhere but last!

I recently made the difficult decision to forgo buying season tickets this year. In an e-mail to the UP ticket office, I explained my two reasons for making this decision:

1) The home schedule is very disappointing. I don't want to pay for two games against non-DI opponents. The most "exciting" non-conference home game is against UC Davis. And the ridiculous new WCC schedule robs us of the chance to see Saint Mary's, a top 25 team, here at home.

2) The team is not competitive. They seemed to get worse as the year went on last year. I came home from most games last season feeling frustrated and I didn't have very much fun at most games.

I also wrote that I hope this year's team will prove me wrong, and play so well that I'll have no choice but to attend a lot of games anyway.

Does anyone see more than 6 or 7 wins on this schedule?

Woodless 2.0 wrote:Does anyone see more than 6 or 7 wins on this schedule?

I feel like this team has a shot to at least hit the 8-11 win range. There are plenty of soft games at Home and I find it very hard to believe that we'll go winless in the WCC again. Not saying we are gonna be anywhere near .500 but 8-11 feels at least plausible in the grand scheme of things.

Woodless 2.0 wrote:Does anyone see more than 6 or 7 wins on this schedule?

Willamette, Maine, Incarnate Word, Evergreen State, Florida A&M. Surely they’ll do better than 2-25 the rest of the way, won’t they?

(I’m terrified that this post won’t age well)