VMI @ Chiles, Friday, 12/3, at 7pm

The Pilots resume play Friday at home against Virginia Military Institute (VMI) from the Southern conference.  All students at VMI are cadets enrolled in ROTC.  The Keydets are from Lexington, Virginia.  Wiki says "Keydets" is slang for Cadets.

VMI is 3-4, with wins over Carlow (NAIA), La Plume (D3), and Central Arkansas.  Their losses are to Presbyterian (2x, home and away), @ Marist, and @ New Orleans.  This is their first game on a West Coast swing at UP and Seattle U.

They are led by three players averaging 30 min/g and double figures, 6'1" Jr G Kamdyn Curfman, 6'11" Sr C Jake Stephens, and 6'5" Jr G Sean Conway.  The center leads the team in assists, and both guards are good percentage from 3P range.

Just guessing, VMI will be a disciplined team, and the Pilots will need to take care of the ball, guard the perimeter, and watch for backdoor cuts.  VMI averages less than 12 TO/g, and as a team shoots 56% of their shots from 3P range, making 38%.  They make 54% of their 2P shots.

Radio on 910 ESPN, watch on the wccsports.com app.

up7587 wrote:All students at VMI are cadets enrolled in ROTC.  The Keydets are from Lexington, Virginia.  Wiki says "Keydets" is slang for Cadets.

Yes, all Virgina Military Institute students must enroll in either Navy, Army, or Air Force ROTC for four years, but unlike other ROTC institutions or the service academies, commissioning and serving is not mandatory, and only about 50% are actually commissioned.

The rigid and demanding discipline at VMI is not for everyone, and the freshman (known as rats because they must double-time along the rat-line close to the walls as rats do) attrition rate is higher than most other universities until the students are finally accepted as part of the cadre at about the 6-month point.  You will not see any shaggy-haired or unshaven players on the VMI team.

My neighbor's son just graduated from VMI and is now going through US Army Armor School (tanks) at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, and he tells me there are only around 1700 students enrolled at VMI, which must make it the smallest of D1 schools.  VMI and the Citadel are the only two D1 universities that I know of that do not have women's basketball...there just aren't enough women enrolled to make it work.

"Keydets," thought to be "cadets" with a southern drawl, is the most accepted/acceptable explanation for the nickname.

up7587 wrote:They are led by three players averaging 30 min/g and double figures, 6'1" Jr G Kamdyn Curfman, 6'11" Sr C Jake Stephens, and 6'5" Jr G Sean Conway.

Just guessing, VMI will be a disciplined team, and the Pilots will need to take care of the ball, guard the perimeter, and watch for backdoor cuts.  VMI averages less than 12 TO/g, and as a team shoots 56% of their shots from 3P range, making 38%.  They make 54% of their 2P shots.

After matching his career-high of five 3-pointers in a game 12 times, VMI junior guard Kamydn Curfman set new career-best with six 3-pointers in VMI's 73-67 win over Central Arkansas November 25. Curfman currently leads the Keydets in scoring with 18.4 points per game and has scored in double figures in all seven games with two 20+ games including a career-high 27 points at Marist November 20.

VMI is VERY disciplined as they are one of the top teams in the nation (72th) at preventing turnovers, and are very sneaky getting to the basket as evidenced by their shooting 54% from 2-point while taking over half their shots from beyond the arc. A team that expects to win at the free-throw line, they are (before their game tonight) 27th in the nation at the stripe while shooting 79%.

UP has NOT been good from deep, hitting only 30%, and they have NOT been good at preventing non-steal turnovers, ranking 328th, but UP's defense against both 3-pointers (29%/59th) and 2-pointers (46%/82nd) has been good.  The Pilots are shooting 51% from close (127th), and have been excellent at the free-throw line, 83%, good for 6th in the nation.

DoubleDipper wrote:VMI and the Citadel are the only two D1 universities that I know of that do not have women's basketball...

I consider myself to be a fountain of useless sports trivia, but today I learned...

FloridaPilot wrote:

I consider myself to be a fountain of useless sports trivia, but today I learned...

Clutter up your brain with the knowledge that Wabash, Hampden-Sidney, and Moorehouse have only male sports in D2.

Hopefully VMI is tiring themselves out with their big game against Clarks Summit tonight!

Dean Murdoch wrote:Hopefully VMI is tiring themselves out with their big game against Clarks Summit tonight!

Kamdyn Curfman was "just" 3-7 from behind the arc for 16 points in 23 minutes as VMI summited ​Clarks Summit, 88-40.

What is the status of Jack Perry's knee? I've seen nothing since the injury at PSU.

Jkerr wrote:What is the status of Jack Perry's knee?  I've seen nothing since the injury at PSU.

In the SEMO thread:

Dean Murdoch wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:Jack will not be back until the 2022-23 season.

Huge loss for this team. Obviously one of the leaders out there despite not filling the stat sheet on a regular basis. I feel bad for him.

I do not think any of the Keydets, including the 5 Rats on the roster, will be intimidated by anything the fans or players will be yelling...



https://vmikeydets.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster

Gameday!

KenPom: #289 UP 72 - #263 VMI 70

Las Vegas: Pilots by 4 (o/u 146.5)

Four weeks ago, KenPom had the Keydets scoring 11 more points, winning 81-76, and I believe that is due to UP's defense stepping up this season, not VMI's lack of offense.

DoubleDipper wrote:Gameday!

KenPom: #289 UP 72 - #263 VMI 70

Las Vegas: Pilots by 4 (o/u 146.5)

Four weeks ago, KenPom had the Keydets scoring 11 more points, winning 81-76, and I believe that is due to UP's defense stepping up this season, not VMI's lack of offense.

Real time RPI has UP (RPI 257j as 20 point favorites over VMI ( RPI 348).
(80-60 final score)
I think the only result they got wrong so far is PSU.

I checked out the VMI board. They describe the Pilots as having "upperclassmen seasoned tough by playing Gonzaga and Saint Mary's twice a season".

You'd think, but no. And for various reasons.

If I stretch things I can make that work...Technically we play Gonzaga and St Mary's both once which adds up to twice a season. And I'm sure there's a couple "seasoned tough" upper classmen in the band or something... They had to play through watching the tail end of the Porter era.

dholcombe wrote:If I stretch things I can make that work...Technically we play Gonzaga and St Mary's both once which adds up to twice a season. And I'm sure there's a couple "seasoned tough" upper classmen in the band or something... They had to play through watching the tail end of the Porter era.

They might have gotten confused with seasoned Pilot Nation veterans who sit around me.

We have been seasoned pretty tough through the Porter years.

Geezaldinho wrote:
Real time RPI has UP (RPI 257j as 20 point favorites over VMI ( RPI 348).
(80-60 final score)

Real Time has also rated the WCC team a bit differently than other sites:

#10 BYU
#14 USF
#39 GU
#57 SMC
#84 SCU
#143 LMU
#237 PU
#257 UP
#267 USD
#347 UOP

As the resident analytics nerd I'm begging everyone to stop exhuming the RPI and let it lie where the NCAA rightfully buried it a few years back!

Dean Murdoch wrote:As the resident analytics nerd I'm begging everyone to stop exhuming the RPI and let it lie where the NCAA rightfully buried it a few years back!

Nah, the RPI website even at this early stage has been better than kenpom with respect to UP.

Until he adjusts his algorithm it’s useless.he’s gotten more wrong than right.

So until some real rankings based on data come out, it’s the best we got.

https://watchstadium.com/live/vmi-at-portland/

In case WCC site is bad.

I didnt say anything for fear of jinxing things, but that ship sailed

UP continues to hold to the sacred tradition of sucking big time during exam week.

Highlight of the night: after being down 18 at the half the crowd was actually into it and cheering when the Pilots were down 14. The arena felt alive for the first time in a long time and I think that might be the most most I've heard from a crowd that size in Chiles ever for a team down that much. People believed the team could come back before they did rather than waiting to react to a big run.

Post-radio with Coach Legans: https://vocaroo.com/16J4aCc2XIUR

Geezaldinho wrote:UP continues to hold to the sacred tradition of sucking big time during exam week.

Actually, this has been "dead week" on campus, and final exams are next week.

So, no finals-week jinx, just a red hot VMI basketball team.

VMI was fun to watch, and that is what the Pilots were doing much of the first half.  The Keydets swarmed and switched and communicated, while forcing UP to shoot from long range, and if I am being honest, I had to admire the guys from Lexington for their teamwork.

Part of the VMI game plan was to get to the line, and they did, and that and rebounding was the final difference.  UP did not play poorly, and although his stat line may not be show it, Kristian Sjolund was all over the court making plays at both ends…we just have to hope that continues going forward as the Pilots will have little success in WCC play without him.

As mentioned, there was excellent student noise, but now we won’t see any students again until the full student-body is back for the January 20 game against USF, with some back early for the January 8 game against SCU.

Bottom line…it was disappointing to lose, but it was a very entertaining and competitive game…something all Pilot fans have been wanting to see for a long time.

StudentPilot wrote:

Geezaldinho wrote:UP continues to hold to the sacred tradition of sucking big time during exam week.

Actually, this has been "dead week" on campus, and final exams are next week.

So, no finals-week jinx, just a red hot VMI basketball team.

Splitting hairs. The famous loss to PSU when we were ranked 25 th was dead week. Same time period.

And VMI wasn’t so red hot, just more disciplined and aggressive on the boards, especially in the first half. The rebounding was 22-9 which indicated poor effort getting out rebounded both halves. There were only two offensive rebound in the first half, both by Robertson, neither of which resulted in second chance points.
 In the first half the pilots seem to put no players under the bucket for offensive rebounds.It resulted in what turned out to be an insurmountable lead. Great effort by the pilots for maybe 7 minutes to bring the gap to 1 with 7 or so left, but then they ran out of gas. That’s a pretty common syndrome for teams trying to come from way behind.

It’s the second game in a row where the pilots showed up for a quarter or less. It’s going to be a very long WCC season if that continues. This team has some talent, but not so much talent they can coast on less than 100% effort.