2022 - 2023 Schedule/Season

DoubleDipper wrote:Stanford also boasts the #1 recruit for 2022, 6-7 Lauren Betts...and so far, Betts has played off the bench and has averaged better than 1 point per minute.

Hey, the Pilots "held" Betts to just 8 points in 14 minutes.

But they seemed a bit star struck being on national TV and facing the #2 team in the nation. Hopefully, this game was a good steppingstone on their way to playing some tough WCC games in just over a month.

I'd really like to see more of Emma Strelein.  From what I've seen, she reminds me of Maisie - good height and strength and she's always looking for a path to the basket and not afraid to shoot.   Hopefully as the season progresses, she'll get a chance.

up7587 wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:Sunday's 2pm game against #2 Stanford is nationally televised on ESPN2.

Ouch.

This game was actually at a reasonable hour for me. The gulf between the top teams and everyone else is massive. #1 South Carolina beat #17 Maryland by 25 points just after beating ETSU by 70.

bullwinkle wrote:I'd really like to see more of Emma Strelein.

The fans who sit around me know I feel the same way.

Emma and Melika will eventually have their day, and yesterday's game (and to some extent the Hawaii game) would have been good opportunities for each of them to get more minutes.

Emma has played only "garbage time" this season but she is philosophical about saying, "I know have to be patient."  

Face it, Emma has really good and experienced players ahead of her and Coach Meek has to be the decider based upon practice, but yesterday would have an excellent time to see what she can do on game day.

Mark my words, Melika will one day be a star.

ExpatPilot wrote:This game was actually at a reasonable hour for me. The gulf between the top teams and everyone else is massive. #1 South Carolina beat #17 Maryland by 25 points just after beating ETSU by 70.

As Ann would say, Oh, Baby!

On Sunday, 11/20, and nationally televised on ABC, #1 South Carolina (3-0) visits Palo Alto to take on #2 Stanford (5-0).

The beer is in the fridge and the kettle corn is standing by...

Another tough game for the Pilots tonight, this time on the road vs. the San Diego St. Aztecs at 6pm.

The San Diego State Aztecs are 3-1 on the season, winning three straight after starting the year with a loss to No. 2 Stanford.
• They've posted an average winning margin of 39.3 during the win streak and have posted back-to-back 50+ point wins for the first time since 1984.
• SDSU is currently second in the Mountain West in scoring defense (52.5), field-goal percentage (34.2%) and rebounds per game (42.5).
• They are led by Sophia Ramo, one of three players in the nation with career totals of 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 400 assists.

The game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network, and if the quality matches that of the men's Air Force game on that network last night, it should be very good.


The bench and the fans helped guide this 3-point shot into the hoop...

DoubleDipper wrote:The game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network, and if the quality matches that of the men's Air Force game on that network last night, it should be very good.

Huh. My experience last night was several glitches where the video went fuzzy, then repeated a few seconds of play, eventually jumping back to live time.

up7587 wrote:Huh. My experience last night was several glitches where the video went fuzzy, then repeated a few seconds of play, eventually jumping back to live time.

Just a thought...

I've been told the internet and cable TV reception in some parts of Portland was intermittently interrupted by the strong east winds yesterday.

We did not seem to have that problem on the north side of the Columbia.

The first half was as about as ugly as I have seen in the Meek era.

Tied 21-21, the Pilots shot less than 30% and had 13 turnovers...but their defense was EXCELLENT.

Come on, Coach, fire the team up at halftime!!

Absolutely brutal game to watch.

Well, that was pissed away.

DoubleDipper wrote:The first half was as about as ugly as I have seen in the Meek era.

Tied 21-21, the Pilots shot less than 30% and had 13 turnovers...but their defense was EXCELLENT.

Come on, Coach, fire the team up at halftime!!

Yes not pretty. Messy passing quality unfortunately led to way too many turnovers.

Me and Emma's family will be at the next game so very excited to watch the girls for the first time in person! Hopefully they bring their A-game for us!!

Go pilots!

Another rather physical and ugly loss, this time to UC San Diego, 85-76.

Fifteen turnovers in the first half really dug a hole for the Pilots they could not recover from despite having only 4 turnovers in the second half.

Forty-six fouls between the teams made for dreadful continuity and flow.  Fowler was fouled repeatedly and was 12-16 from the line, but the Pilots couldn't stop one of the UCSD guards who was 7-12 from behind the arc and combined with another guard for 46 of the Triton points.

It was good to see MJ Bruno get the start, and the usually great defender contributed 11 points with 3-3 on 3-pointers.

Now the women head to Florida for games on Thanksgiving Day and Saturday.

After losing three games in a row, the Pilot women played on Thanksgiving against the Houston Cougars in Florida. Houston came in with one win. Pilots fell behind by 8 in the 1st quarter, trailed by 9 at the half, and were behind by 12 late in the 3rd quarter. They outscored the Cougars 28-10 to finish the game and win 66-60, going to work and scoring in the paint (finally). Alex Fowler was 9-12 with 2 FTs for 20 points. Maisie Burnham had 16 points, and Lucy Cochrane had 11. The team only made 1 3P on 7 attempts.

The women go 2-0 on their trip to St. Petersburg, Florida by beating Northeastern today, 67-41, despite hitting only 1-18 from behind the arc.

The Pilots never trailed and scored all but 15 of their points in the paint and added 8 from the free-throw line out of 15 attempts.

Lucy, Liana, and Alex combined for 36 points...however, there was still no sign of Haylee who was pointing toward this weekend for her return to play.

Next up: Evergreen at 11:00 in the morning on Wednesday in the Chiles Center,

The geoducks came with only 7 players available and it cost them, not that they had much chance anyway.

Nice to see the starters only needing a few minutes playing time and the bench getting opportunities to play.

The best part was seeing Hailee on the court, if only for 9 minutes of action.

The 11am game on a Wednesday was obviously difficult for many of us to attend, including half the Evergreen players, apparently, but as Geezer mentioned, Haylee finally played for the first time since going down with the torn ACL last season against BYU.

I had the opportunity to talk to a few of the WBB players during the men's game, and they agreed the Evergreen game was nothing more than a scrimmage that allowed them to work on a few things and before heading to Eugene on Saturday.

Especially noteworthy was Emily Sewell getting 23 minutes after being slowed by injuries all season, Emma Strelein getting 18 minutes of floor time after not playing in Florida due to a sprained ankle, and Melika Samia getting 16 minutes.

Was so great getting to see Emma play for our first time in person! And yes, Hayley looked confident and solid in her first game back which is so good!

The Pilots would love to hear you cheering for them tonight when they take on the Washington State Cougars in the Chiles Center at 6pm.

The Cougars are 6-1 on the season, and at one point were receiving votes for both Top 25 polls.

UP and WSU have not played for 12 years, so there is no sense looking back on the history of the two teams except that WSU has finally put more emphasis on its women's game.

Many of the WSU players are not only tall, but they are also large. #5 Charlisse Leger-Walker is the top scorer in the Pac-12 at 21 points per contest, ranking 11th nationally as well.

The team has had the luxury of playing the same starting-5 all season...4 of whom score in double figures. (#5, #55, #01, and #21).

Yes, the game is televised on the CW tonight, but wouldn't you rather support these young ladies in person!!

On the one hand, it's nice to know we lost to a very good team (and WSU played like a very good team in the second half).  On the other, it's so disappointing to lose to a very good team when it was a very winnable game for us.

Yes, disappointing for all concerned to be up by over 20 points and end up losing. Hopefully a learning experience for the team.

A few observations from my first visit to the Chiles Center this season:

The pre-game music is very loud, if you go to a game, bring earplugs.

For those of us sitting up several rows from the floor, we cannot hear specifically what Coach Meek is saying in his non-stop chattering to the players on the floor. Is he encouraging them? is he calling out plays? Those of you who sit close, what is going on?

A_Fan wrote:The pre-game music is very loud, if you go to a game, bring earplugs.

For whatever reason, the music was much louder at yesterday's game than it has been previously.

The Athletic Department is very proud of the new sound system that was finally installed at the beginning of the season...maybe they were testing our pain threshold.  

A_Fan wrote:For those of us sitting up several rows from the floor, we cannot hear specifically what Coach Meek is saying in his non-stop chattering to the players on the floor.  Is he encouraging them?  is he calling out plays?  Those of you who sit close, what is going on?

The short answer is, yes!!

As we watched the Pilots fall apart in the second half, I was impressed by the leadership and "take charge" attitude of the WSU floor leaders while the UP squad looked bewildered and were constantly looking to the sidelines for instructions.

All coaches give instructions and often call out plays, but Meek does it to the extreme, IMO.  

Practice, practice, practice, and turn the players loose with some guidance and then turn the team loose on the court letting the floor leaders/captains run the show would better serve the team, again, IMO.   

The Pilots like to play fast...and that's great, and fast can be fun to watch, and fast can win, but when the team turns the ball over in excess of 20 times per game, perhaps it is time to reevaluate just how fast is too fast...because if they don't start taking care of the ball, a middle of the pack finish in the WCC could be the team's destiny.

DoubleDipper wrote:As we watched the Pilots fall apart in the second half, I was impressed by the leadership and "take charge" attitude of the WSU floor leaders while the UP squad looked bewildered and were constantly looking to the sidelines for instructions.

All coaches give instructions and often call out plays, but Meek does it to the extreme, IMO.

Practice, practice, practice, and turn the players loose with some guidance and then turn the team loose on the court letting the floor leaders/captains run the show would better serve the team, again, IMO.

Yep, as a player hated having continual instructions in the ear. Not fun, makes you second guess yourself, and slows down players development of Game IQ too.

“Over-coaching can be more harmful than under-coaching. I think the tendency is for inexperienced coaches to give too much information. The younger coach sometimes is going to try to impress his youngsters with how much he knows. If you over-coach you don't do many things well.” JOHN WOODEN

https://www.basketballforcoaches.com/over-coaching/

Game Day!!

Let's see how the Pilots respond against cross-town rival PSU today at 3pm.

It's a doubleheader with the men playing at 5:30.  

Let's rally the troops to support UP's student-athletes!