Ugh.

What a crappy night.

26.4% shooting.
20.8% from 3.
57% on free throws.

The really frustrating part, other than not being able to hit the broad side of a barn, was that the team seemed to start phoning it in after the run to start the 2nd half. As soon as GU scored, we seemed to just give in... we took poor/quick shots, made careless passes, didnt protect the ball and just looked lackadaisical.

Credit a lot of that to the Zags--they looked really good. But we looked really bad.

We looked fine in the 1st half and to start the 2nd half. Once the Zags called timeout the Pilots lost control...We didn't get enough rebounds either, the Zags dominated us. Let's hope we can bounce back after tonight.

Blech... bad game all around.

But it is what it is... a very talented team up against a very young team in a tough gym.

Yeah I'm disappointed and I severely wish we could have put on a better showing than that, but we were just way overmatched tonight. We needed a lot of things to go right to stay close, and all of those things went wrong.

Hopefully we can bounce back a bit and put up a better showing against SCU and SMC.

Oh my.

Sorry guys but I have to vent.
Ito has to start looking at the whole floor. We have to get some fast breaks going and he has to give it up to the open man up the floor. Our bigs have to look for the outlet up court other than Ito. Its no wonder we don't have much of a fast break potential.
Big guys have to kick it back out. Once it went in most of the time they must feel obligated to go to the hole and throw it up.
I can't begin to count the times stohl was open and we went the other way. He was hot, get him the ball while he is hot for crying out loud.
Ravio has to give the ball to the open guy when he is open instead of looking to drive or shoot and then hit the open guy if he has nothing. That kind of play allows the defense to recover and get a hand up on the once open man. Tougher shot rather than an easy open one.
It wasn't that Zags were that good, it was our guys not playing very well at all.

Ugh is right. Hard to spin this one any way positive, regardless if it's against a very good team. This team needs to put this one behind them very quickly, but also remember how horrible it feels to be embarassed like this.

Speaking of Santa Clara, I'm watcihng them play at USF right now on the new CSN channel 37 (what a great channel this is, a NW sports lover's dream!!!). I must say, I'm very,very impressed with the Broncos. They are just dismantling the Dons at War Memorial Gym. They have some unbelievable shooters and, of course, the big fella inside, John Bryant. No rest for the weary. 17-2 and 20th ranked St Marys and a very good looking SCU squad. They look like a completely different team.

The Pilots are going to really have to suck it up and find that road warrior mentality from within. They are going to have to scrap and claw just to keep these games from getting out of hand like it did tonight. Making a few shots would help matters as well.

navigator wrote:
I can't begin to count the times stohl was open and we went the other way. He was hot, get him the ball while he is hot for crying out loud.
................... it was our guys not playing very well at all.

I guess we are all frustrated, but let's admit we got beat in every category.

I agree about the second part, but as to Stohl being hot, the box said he was 3-10 from the field and 2-8 from 3 point range. Hardly a recipe for success. The only guy with positive numbers was Knutsen, and 2-2 won't get it done, either.

To tell you the truth, I didn't give us much chance. If you looked at the players on the floor, we were overmatched badly at every position on the floor, in terms experience. To expect a team of almost all freshmen (yeah, I count Robin and Nik in that group) will beat a tournament team that got burned themselves the game before in their house is silly.

I just was hoping the bottom wouldn't fall out. As it happened, it did. Let's hope they at least learned from it and let's move on.

The conference just got tighter - SD just beat St Mary's.

If we expect to win any more in the conference, we are going to have to just play better. As often happens with freshmen, they look worse now than at the beginning of the season, but they'll work through it.

I just hope they do it during what's left of this year.

Good perspective, Geezer.

I went to the gym and sweated out some frustrations, and feel much better now.

We are a VERY inexperienced team. Our only players with significant minutes tonight with D-I experience were Ito and Watson. Watson tried to push and lead the team early, but that didnt work out too well--but good to see the leadership from him. And Ito is still struggling with his shot, going 0-fer tonight. Add the late arrival to the mix, and it was the perfect storm of disaster.

Time to move on, but dont forget the sting. We have a big game @ SMC on Saturday. USD beat SMC tonight, so they will likely come out hungry... lets recover and grab a win at Moraga.

Tonight was no fun to watch. Doesn't help me look forward to the return game and having to see all those Zag fans whooping it up in our gym again.

Sorry to be a pessimist but I fear we'll not see another road win. If we get more than two wins the rest of the year I will be surprised. I'll try not to get too upset the rest of the year, and remember this is a long journey just getting started.

Sorry Geezer but the box score doesn't always reflect the game.
Shooters go in streaks, therefore the rule is if he is hitting them get him the ball. Watson was hot early on and we fed him the ball. Good job. Stohl wasn't fed the ball and cooled off.
Stohl took one three with a pass to his ankles.
Another nik passed him up when he was wide open, drove got stopped and then kicked it out to him with a guy in his face.
Sure he threw some up at the end of the game but it didn't matter at that point.
If you watched the same game he was clapping for the ball on the fast breaks and was ignored. He was wide open for some kick outs and instead we drove the lane and got swatted. Kick it in and out a few times. Lets not just go in one against three and get swatted or take some off balance crap and hope it goes in.
I am not saying Stohl is the savior. But man he is the best shooter out there and he deserves some open looks. It will only open up the paint in the long run and make it easier for the big guys to operate.

We are not getting the fast breaks. We dribble the ball too much. There were some oportunities that were just passed up. We have to move the ball up fast when these present themselves to put pressure on the other team.
Thats just what I saw in this game. Frustrating to watch.

Did any of you guys see Reveno go BALLISTIC on the team with about 8 minutes to go during Timeout. Usually he is pretty calm , mapping out plays etc... It was great to see him trying to light a fire under them even though the game was pretty much over. I thought it was great that even at that point with Nik and some other starters in he was'nt going to let them "give up" regardless of the score.