Pilots vs. Incarnate Word, Sunday 11/29 @ 5:00 PM

The Pilots will likely be double-digit favourites here as they try to run their winning streak to five games on Sunday.

Incarnate Word was picked to finish last in the Southland Conference in the preseason poll and the Cardinals are 0-5 against D1 teams this year, including a home loss to an SIU Edwardsville team which just got hammered by Pacific a couple days ago. They'll start at least three freshmen and will bring mostly freshmen and sophomores off the bench (352nd out of 353 D1 teams in experience, with the 353rd being Penny Hardaway's Memphis team).

That said, they probably should have beat Eastern Illinois at home last time out. They led 60-51 before EIU closed with a 21-3 run, and that's been a common theme. UIW has been able to remain competitive into at least halftime in four of their five losses before completely losing it in the second half, a situation which may sound familiar to anyone that watched the Pilots last year.

Let's hope Walker can return. The Pilots can't afford to get caught looking past this game, but it's absolutely one that they should win.

Stay worried, my friends.

This needs to turn around in a hurry or else it’s going in the UT Pan American wing of the Pilot loss hall of fame.

The game plan was to work it into the bigs, especially Diabate. and take advantage of our height. The first half result was several turnovers, some misses inside, and White being completely uninvolved in the offense. Incarnate Word played with 4 guards and a 6'7" forward, and got 17 offensive rebounds. Maddening.

Finally with about 10 minutes to go, the defense picked up, they quit turning it over, got some blocks and made enough free throws to pull away.

Post game Coach Geving said he and Coach Johnson saw it coming. Guys starting to look at their record, plus a long layoff and "turkey legs". Hope they get that out of their system in a hurry, with 2 more games this week, and 5 total before they go to Hawai'i.

3 point shooting continues to be a strength, going 8 of 17, 47%. First half FTs were 10-10, but second half was only 5-11, with misses by Malcom and JoJo in crunch time. Something else to worry about.

A tough night for both White and Adams, the two guys who are usually the catalyst for the team's performance, so it was good to see the rest of the team pick it up late for the victory.

It really wasn't until the last 8 minutes that UP finally showed some defensive intensity on the perimeter, which led UIW making inaccurate passes, poor shot selection, and turnovers which led to fast break points for the Pilots...all 14 fast break points coming in the latter stages of the second half.

Good to see JoJo back in the lineup and playing well after missing the UCD game...I'm not sure the Pilots could have won without him.

Just two more games before UP gets Theo back to help with the rebounding and shot blocking, and who knows, now that he's bigger and stronger, an inch taller with an added 15 pounds of muscle, he could also be scoring threat.

Definitely wasn't an attractive game but finding a way to win is also an important skill to have!

17 offensive rebounds for UIW, 19 defensive rebounds for the Pilots. Yeesh.

They missed the spark that Fahrensohn has given them off the bench the past several games. Where was he tonight?

Dean Murdoch wrote:They missed the spark that Fahrensohn has given them off the bench the past several games. Where was he tonight?

A heavy hit to his sternum during practice that made him "feel like he had a heavy chest cold."

DoubleDipper wrote:Just two more games before UP gets Theo back to help with the rebounding and shot blocking, and who knows, now that he's bigger and stronger, an inch taller with an added 15 pounds of muscle, he could also be scoring threat.

A case for redshirting Akwuba:

• We don't actually need another center this year. With Diabate, Tryon and Hoagland, we have enough depth at the position. And all three of those guys are more experienced than Akwuba. We almost never play two of those three on the court at the same time, so there aren't really enough minutes to go around already. No need to throw in a fourth guy.
  
• If there is a weird, rare situation in which we need a fourth big guy to play in a given game, throw Collinsworth out there. The coaches already burned his potential redshirt year by playing him against Willamette (why??!?). Any minutes going to a fourth big man would likely be spot minutes, so it's okay if they go to a guy not expected to be very productive (e.g. the true freshman Collinsworth).
  
• Akwuba will have missed the first 1/3 of this season. It will likely take him several games to get his sea legs under him. Why not save his eligibility so that he can play three more complete seasons, instead of burning one of those years on a partial season now?
  
• He could focus the rest of this year on his individual skill and strength development, while also helping prepare his teammates by playing tough in practice. That formula has worked wonders for big men at that school over in the northeast corner of Washington.
  
• He could come back next year ready to go from opening day, and allow Collinsworth the opportunity to follow in his footsteps by taking a redshirt year.
  

All in all, I see far more positives for both Akwuba and the team if he redshirts this year, as opposed to coming back for an abbreviated season.

I anticipate that some will argue Akwuba should play immediately because he will help with rebounding. I don't buy it, because he will only be on the floor instead of another big guy, not in addition to one of the other big guys. We're not all of a sudden going to start sending two centers out there (ala Reveno's brief experiment with van der Mars and Barker both in the starting lineup in 2014). Having Akwuba out there instead of Tryon or Hoagland doesn't make the Pilots a better rebounding team.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Having Akwuba out there instead of Tryon or Hoagland doesn't make the Pilots a better rebounding team.

It does if he puts a body on somebody. We are still gettin seriously outplayed on the boards.

An undersized incarnate word doubled our offensive rebounds and only had tree fewer at the other end.