Alcorn State @ Portland, November 13, 2021

Third game in 5 nights. Good thing it is early season and the bench got a lot of time in the Willamette blowout.

The Alcorn State Braves, an historically black land-grant college from Mississippi, come to Chiles after losing at WSU on Tuesday (67-85) and at Seattle U on Wednesday (66-69). They play in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and they were 6 - 13 last year. Their leading scorer and rebounder from last year is gone. They are playing 11 or 12 players so far this year, with nobody playing more than 25 to 27 minutes, and nine players getting double digit minutes. Scoring is spread out over the team, with five players averaging 7 to 11 ppg. They have not been great from 3P, hitting 29%.

Go Pilots!

I watched the Alcorn State/WSU game on opening day and there is no way this is the 25th worst team in the country. Alcorn also had every chance to beat Seattle until they got Cameron Tysoned there at the end.

Kenpom has Portland at 329 and Alcorn at 334. These are two teams that are probably both significantly better than their rankings currently suggest.

Random tidbit, Alcorn has the second toughest non-conference schedule in all of D1 according to barttorvik.com (second only to Prairie View A&M, who just played SMC and USF).

Yeah, Cameron Tyson (who should be a Pilot) hit the buzzer-beater 3-pointer to down a good Alcorn St. team that had to be feeling the effects of playing WSU the night before.

One of the reasons Alcorn has a difficult non-conference schedule is because they NEVER play at home!!     Their first home game is January 15th.

It is the same for Prairie View, although they do play a neutral site game in Washington DC tomorrow against Michigan before playing their first home game on New Year's Day...

Alcorn is an athletic team that likes to get up and down the court and should be strong competition for UP. Last line I saw on the game was UP by just 3 points.

DoubleDipper wrote:It is the same for Prairie View, although they do play a neutral site game in Washington DC tomorrow against Michigan before playing their first home game on New Year's Day...

Allow me to get completely off-topic for a second here.

I just checked out PVAMU's schedule and they play against Michigan in DC tomorrow night at 7:00 Eastern. Which is fine, but... they then have a game against Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 Central.

That's two tip-offs 20 hours apart with a flight halfway across the country in between. Not sure I've seen anything like that before.

Oh, and then PVAMU plays the NEXT day in Lubbock against Texas Tech. Crazy.

First one to 50 wins!

Pilots had this one well in hand with a few minutes to go.

Pilots no longer have this one well in hand. One-possession game with a minute and a half to go.

Online radio didn't seem to have the game (or maybe only for the women's game) so no post-game radio from me.

Up 14 with 7 minutes to go... had a bit of a minor blip there at the end as Alcorn's pressure finally got to the Pilots.

Great to have Tyler Robertson back! How come Kristian Sjolund didn't play?

Dean Murdoch wrote:Great to have Tyler Robertson back! How come Kristian Sjolund didn't play?

Coaches decision...the scrappiness (I call it helter-skelter) of this game just doesn't suit Kristian's more deliberate style of play.  

I spoke with Coach Legans after the game, he was not displeased with the team and felt that 3 games in 5 nights did have some effect, but is looking forward to getting back on track against Arkansas Pine Bluff.

NOTE: the Morgan State game next Saturday has been moved to a 5pm tipoff to accommodate local TV (KCRW - The CW).

Best vignette of the night was when UP got its first three pointer to go in on its 13th attempt and coach Legens clasped his hands together and looked skyward in what I’m sure was an earnest prayer of thanksgiving.

Dean Murdoch wrote:Up 14 with 7 minutes to go... had a bit of a minor blip there at the end as Alcorn's pressure finally got to the Pilots.

Nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Snus Junction wrote:“Officials” then tightened it up and started calling fouls....until they didn’t again. And then they did toward the end.

Yeah, the refs generally let them play and it took a while for the Pilots to get any calls, and when they did get to the line they made just enough to win, outscoring the Braves by 6 points on 21 of 23 shooting.**

Tyler Roberston was the man of the match, but not because of his 19 points but because of his steadying influence when the Braves ratcheted up the pressure.  

** According to KenPom, the Pilots are 7th in the nation shooting 91.2% from the stripe.

Tyler Robertson post game comments

Chris Austin post game comments

Alcorn State played GU tonight. They got down by 24 at halftime, and lost by 27, 84-57. GU starters didn't play heavy minutes. #2 Byron Joshua for Alcorn St, who put up 20 against the Pilots, was held to 3 points on 1-7 shooting.

#3 for Alcorn St., Justin Thomas, was recruited to come to UP as a grad-transfer by Coach Porter, but instead stayed at Alcorn.

I spoke with Thomas before and after the game (really nice kid), and he was sure Mike Meadows' forearm broke his nose while going for the ball under the rim but he was in the GU game without any nose protection and scored 10 on 5 of 12 shooting in 26 minutes...the same number of points Drew Timme scored in 19 minutes.