Re: 2022 Recruiting

by Dean Murdoch Fri Apr 08, 2022 8:58 am

DoubleDipper wrote:Difficult to say for sure, but we know from experience that there is usually not a lot of chatter if the Pilots are recruiting international players.

That was my uneducated guess on the situation.

up7567 wrote:Maybe not enough for Deaner and CanadaGael, but plenty for the rest of us.

In our defense, we might have slowed up a bit in the pregame if we'd known there was going to be a Pilot hospitality area in the arena.

by Dean Murdoch Fri Apr 08, 2022 9:10 am

Pilot14 wrote:Interesting. What are the Portland Generals?

I was wondering that myself. My best guess is that it's a team made of high-level players close to the Portland area put together specifically to scrimmage against Team USA that will be playing in the Nike Hoop Summit this weekend.

I'd assume the Generals name is a nod to the Washington Generals.

by DoubleDipper Fri Apr 08, 2022 4:52 pm

Sound Voltex wrote:
up7587 wrote:
James Crepea OregonLive wrote:Oregon men’s basketball is losing a center.
Freshman Isaac Johnson entered the transfer portal on Tuesday, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

The 7-footer has three years of eligibility remaining.
Nope, he wants to return to Utah.

There is another Oregon big in the portal, 6-11/250 Franck Kepnang, originally from Cameroon but played high school ball in the US.

Kepnang played in all 35 games for the Ducks. Not a big scorer (yet), but is a very good rim protector who could blossom under UP's staff. Three years to play.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1511411227582517261

by StudentPilot Sat Apr 09, 2022 1:52 pm

BIG white dude on campus...probably 6-10/250.

Sorry, that is all I know because this is only secondhand knowledge from a student.

I will try to learn more.

by DoubleDipper Sat Apr 09, 2022 8:32 pm

Pilot14 wrote:Interesting. What are the Portland Generals?

by Sound Voltex Sun Apr 10, 2022 9:54 am

StudentPilot wrote:BIG white dude on campus...probably 6-10/250.

Sorry, that is all I know because this is only secondhand knowledge from a student.

I will try to learn more.

This might be the mystery visitor.

@jakelieberman2 wrote:Milwaukee transfer Joey St. Pierre (@jstpier44) tells me that he’s currently visiting University of Portland.

St. Pierre averaged 6.3 points and 5.7 rebounds.

https://twitter.com/jakelieberman2/status/1513158835380183044

https://mkepanthers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/joey-st-pierre/11997

by StudentPilot Sun Apr 10, 2022 11:08 am

Sound Voltex wrote:This might be the mystery visitor.
@jakelieberman2 wrote:Milwaukee transfer Joey St. Pierre (@jstpier44) tells me that he’s currently visiting University of Portland.
St. Pierre averaged 6.3 points and 5.7 rebounds.

That's him! Joey St. Pierre.

by DoubleDipper Sun Apr 10, 2022 11:55 am

Well done StudentPilot and Sound Voltex!

As many people are big on stats, I would not be concerned about St. Pierre's stats because it is all about how he would fit into the Pilots' system...and IMO, he would be an excellent fit.

A big man who will create a wide berth in the paint, he is an excellent distributor of the ball and can play with his back to the basket...a skill the team has lacked for a while even though Silviera had some good preseason games in that position.

As proven this season and during the recent Nike Hoops Summit games, Moses Wood is a standout performer at UP after coming in with poor stats from Tulane and UNLV...so stats do not tell the whole story. I doubt St. Pierre had the teammates, system, and coaches to have better stats then he did at Milwaukee.

From the Chicago area, St. Pierre started out at UTEP in the summer of 2017 but left the team before the season started and enrolled at D2 Parkside in Wisconsin where he played 3 seasons before transferring to Milwaukee.

Wherever St. Pierre goes, he will be a grad-transfer with one season of eligibility remaining.

by DoubleDipper Sun Apr 10, 2022 1:24 pm

Dean Murdoch wrote:I'd assume the Generals name is a nod to the Washington Generals.

Well, it is not really a nod, but more of a rub-it-in taunt at a certain blogger who once compared the Nike Summit practice team to the team that acted as stooges for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Back in the day, the practice rivals for the USA and World teams in the Nike Hoop Summit were Nike employees but later skilled high school and college players from the Portland area were selected to play practice games against the USA Junior National team and a world-select team of 19-year-olds and younger.

Of course like today, this local area team had never played together before and had little practice time, and the story goes that an NBA blogger named Nate Duncan once wrote that this team of Portland area players was as "bad as the Washington Generals," and the name was adopted.

In subsequent years, I am told that Portland Coach Marshal Cho has asked his players to line up after the game to introduce themselves to Duncan by telling him their names while emphasizing they are, "Portland Generals," and proud of it! bounce

by NoPoNeighbor Sun Apr 10, 2022 10:03 pm

DoubleDipper wrote:

Here are three guys proud to be representing their country! USA! USA!

by dholcombe Sun Apr 10, 2022 10:07 pm

A country anyways Basketball

by DoubleDipper Sun Apr 10, 2022 10:24 pm

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Here are three guys proud to be representing their country! USA! USA!

For a bucket-o-beer, which of the three was/were born in the USA??

First reply has to be correct, or the second bucket-o-beer will not be awarded in Las Vegas. drunken

by up7587 Sun Apr 10, 2022 10:37 pm

I will go with none of them.

by dholcombe Sun Apr 10, 2022 10:44 pm

Moses Wood is the only one born in the USA so no 🪣

by DoubleDipper Sun Apr 10, 2022 11:13 pm

up7587 wrote:I will go with none of them.

Close..

dholcombe wrote:Moses Wood is the only one born in the USA so no 🪣

Nope!

Kristian Sjolund is the only one of the three born in the USA...Vancouver, Washington. scratch

As you would expect, Tyler Robertson was born in Australia, and Moses Wood was born in France when his dad was playing professional basketball there.

I am sure there will be more opportunities for beer between now and Las Vegas.

by up7587 Mon Apr 11, 2022 7:48 am

DoubleDipper wrote:
up7587 wrote:I will go with none of them.
Close..
dholcombe wrote:Moses Wood is the only one born in the USA so no 🪣
Nope!

Kristian Sjolund is the only one of the three born in the USA...Vancouver, Washington.

As you would expect, Tyler Robertson was born in Australia, and Moses Wood was born in France when his dad was playing professional basketball there.

I am sure there will be more opportunities for beer between now and Las Vegas.

Sjolund was my original answer, then I thought maybe you were throwing a trick question at us, so I changed it. That was always my downfall in taking tests.

by dholcombe Mon Apr 11, 2022 8:13 am

Well I've learned something new today. Here I was thinking Moses was born in Reno all year

by DoubleDipper Tue Apr 12, 2022 11:43 am

Dean Murdoch wrote:(Crystal ball prediction on Bonham - he’ll be off to Chattanooga)

by DoubleDipper Wed Apr 13, 2022 8:29 am

Remember the Willamette (D3) game when Mike Meadows put up the first triple-double in UP history?

In that same game, Bearcat freshman Cedric Coward scored 24 points with 7 rebounds and 5 assists in 24 minutes.

Cedric is now in the transfer portal...

by DoubleDipper Wed Apr 13, 2022 8:45 am

With NLI signing day here there is just not the excitement there once was...and I blame the transfer portal for that!

We used to follow the progress of high school seniors, often hoping they'd do well, but not so well that bigger programs would snatch them up. We'd post videos and game reports of high school prospects, but now we simply wait for someone on twitter to say so-and-so is getting interest from some school.

I am quite sure Coach Legans wants to build the program by bringing in freshman and watching them grow, much as he did at EWU, but for this year at least, it would appear UP is going to the portal in order to lengthen the bench...with one exception, Juanse Gorosito who should be sending his signed NLI in electronically from Argentina.

by up7587 Wed Apr 13, 2022 9:21 am

Anxiously standing by the fax machine waiting for commitments is no longer a thing? Rolling Eyes

by **Rob's Jacket** Wed Apr 13, 2022 10:35 am

DoubleDipper wrote:Remember the Willamette (D3) game when Mike Meadows put up the first triple-double in UP history?

In that same game, Bearcat freshman Cedric Coward scored 24 points with 7 rebounds and 5 assists in 24 minutes.

Cedric is now in the transfer portal...

[Deep sigh.]

NWC Freshman of the Year, First Team All-NWC, Second Team All-Region, and Region 10 Rookie of the Year, averaging 19 points, 12 boards, 3 assists, and 2 blocks per game ... on a team that went 6-18 overall and 3-13 in conference. I don't blame him at all--he's a great kid and deserves a D1 shot--but as a fan of this once very proud D3 program that's now going on 13 years without a winning season, it's still depressing.

by DoubleDipper Thu Apr 14, 2022 9:37 am

DoubleDipper wrote:I am quite sure Coach Legans wants to build the program by bringing in freshman and watching them grow, much as he did at EWU, but for this year at least, it would appear UP is going to the portal in order to lengthen the bench...with one exception, Juanse Gorosito, who should be sending his signed NLI in electronically from Argentina.

No wonder it takes so long, that's a lot of paper!

by wrv Thu Apr 14, 2022 10:08 am

And, as if on cue, the U's website confirms signing.

Nice picture of proud parents.

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2022/4/14/mens-basketball-mens-hoops-signs-dynamic-guard-juan-sebastian-gorosito-to-nli.aspx

I'll add that the story does indicate these are, with Dingdit, the "first two" of the incoming class members. Tell us more.

by Dean Murdoch Thu Apr 14, 2022 10:13 am

wrv wrote:https://portlandpilots.com/news/2022/4/14/mens-basketball-mens-hoops-signs-dynamic-guard-juan-sebastian-gorosito-to-nli.aspx

Welcome Juan!

I had to read the last paragraph in Juan's release twice...

The Pilots are set to return the top six scorers and all major contributors from the 19-win team that Legans put together for his first year on The Bluff. Portland recorded the first postseason win at the NCAA level and matched the fourth-most wins in a season since joining the Division I ranks in 1958. Other highlights included a road win against NCAA Tournament participant San Francisco, a 7-7 West Coast Conference record, and a six-game win streak late in the season.