Pilots vs. Santa Clara

I'm just going to pretend that the game against Saint Mary's didn't happen. Much easier and healthier that way.

The real question will be how we will do against a Santa Clara team that lost an absolute gut punch game to Gonzaga on Saturday in double OT. They had the game won in regulation, but then Brody Angley (their senior PG who scored 28 points that night) made one of the worst decisions ever... seriously, what in the heck was he thinking? Some would argue that the refs shouldn't have called a foul with .3 seconds that far away from the basket, but still... he did run into him. If you haven't seen the highlight, watch (and grimmace) here - it starts with GU having the ball with 13 seconds left and down by two - jump forward to 2:18 if you just want to see the bonehead play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYSRSBui-uo

Anyway, obviously John Bryant will be a really tough match-up for us. He's just big and strong and has gotten in much better shape over the past few years. He'll be a load to deal with for sure - he's tops in the WCC in FG% and blocks and is second in scoring and rebounding.

And Angley has been tearing it up during WCC play - he's socred over 20 points in a bunch of games and leads the WCC in assists.

They're a good three point shooting team too with Gunderson and Calvin Johnson, though they don't really bomb away too much.

Anyway, it will really be a story about which team can bounce back better - Portland after GU and SMC mopped the floor with them, or Santa Clara after literally handing the game away to Gonzaga.

Here's hoping and praying that it will be the former.

Oh, and the game is on ESPNU starting at 8... we know that OnDeck isn't the place to go... maybe Tom's?

This will indeed be a gut check for both teams... both with difficult previous game(s) for very different reasons.

It will also be interesting to see how Angley comes out tonight--what a difficult situation for him.

Tom's sounds good to me... Are we sure they have ESPNU?

Gonzaga had no answer for Bryant or Angely in their game. If it wasn't for that mistake. theyd still be celebrating at Toso.

(What do they call that arena now?)

This is going to be another tough one for the Pilots. They have to play better.


I did a quick search on the forum -- Congrats to PilotNut for being the first person on the forum to use the phrase "Gut Check".

It was long overdue.

Agreed, we really need to step up and play better; we are long overdue. If we can get back to playing like we did against Montana & UW..... Our guys need to learn to play through adversity, suck it up and come out and play with some attitude! Get fired up!

The next 3 games are all winnable games for this team if we play well and execute (@SCU, LMU & Pepp @ home).

I really hope that Ito can snap out of his funk soon; we need him as a scoring threat to open things up. If we get Ito and Sikma scoring again, we should be okay.

Our team does a good job of drawing charges on opposing teams; it would be clutch to get Bryant in some early foul trouble. If we put Hannibal on Bryant, there wont be room for anyone else in the paint...

Geez--I cant believe it took me that long to use the phrase... I mean, I check my gut every time I look in the mirror...

"play though adversity"
"suck it up"
"play with attutude"


Now you're just piling it on..... show some mercy.

Ugh, I have been listening to my boss too much, apparently. He is the King of Buzzwords.

At least I didnt throw out the "Low Hanging Fruit" or "Taking a Bite of the Reality Sandwich"... I did consider "Dynamic" and "Customer-Centered", though...

We can win this one. But we gotta body-up on the big guy and really bang in there - take it to the rack, find the answer to Angley, not throw up bricks. Then we have to dish the rock to the guy with the hot hand. We gotta move the ball coast-to coast.
Jared needs come in off the pines and give us some instant offense and the team needs to be perfect from the charity stripe.

No question we have to score the ball.

Then we can steal this one.

My personal pet peeve new buzz word is "change agent".

But if one of our guys wants to be a change agent tonight and score 20+ points and get us a win, I'd be down with that.

Also, I called Tom's and they do have ESPNU and they will be open til midnight. And it's owned by a UP alum... sounds like it will work just fine!

Geez,
That would be the Leavey Center.
The band went to the WCC Tournament at SCU my freshman year, the last year of Toso and the inflatable dome. It featured hard metal benches painted an ugly shade of brown and an annoying buzz from the giant fans that kept the roof up.
I saw pictures of the new arena the next year and my jaw dropped--it looks fantastic!
As for using buzz words, well, it is what it is

Uh oh... got some not so good news. Sounds like both Knutson and Sikma are battling the same flu that Niedermeyer had on Saturday. Hopefully they can both play, but jeesh.... if one or both of those guys will be limited, we're going to have a heck of a time dealing with Bryant.

Jasonn, this might be your day to step up!

Oh man, that is not good news at all...

Did I hear that Ethan had pneumonia?!

There will be a change in the starting lineup tonight.Knutson's Mom says she hasn't heard anything about him being sick.

Talk about a change in the starting lineup

Raivio
Smeulders
Stohl
Watson
Hannibal

I have a feeling that this was a "shake-up" to get the guys attention. I hope that it works (we at least had the lead for a short period of time)

23-24 at the half. We're actually making a game of it

UP 35% from the field, 44% from 3 point. Jared 3-3 from the arc.

SCU is 45% from the field and only 29% from 3 point range

amazingly, we are out rebounding them 14-12. Bryant got 2 fouls early.

Heartbreaker... 50-52... darn.

From a two point lead with 14:12 remaining, then 11 straight missed shots, 6 of them 3-point tries, to down 8 with 5:15 to go. Comeback falls short to lose by two. Another close loss with a long dead stretch.

I have to say that I'm really impressed by the way the team fought back in the last three minutes. Hopefully, that becomes a turning point for our team as we head into the back half of WCC play . . . tied for last place with Pepperdine.

It also shows that Santa Clara has real problems closing out games.

I'm still puzzled as to why we take so many threes when we're not at all an outside-oriented team. As far as pure shooters go, we have Jared Stohl. That's it. But when he's not hot, who do we turn to? Raivio can knock down a few, Watson can make a couple, and our bigs have some range, but it just boggles my mind that we're taking 20 threes a game when our primary strength is inside.

Yeah... it was great to see them make a game of it (Nik Raivio really stepped it up), but it was that loooooong stretch of no scoring in the second half that did us in. We just couldn't bounce back from that.

Still... I thought we did a great job defensively against Bryant, and hey - any time you have a shot to win the game, you have to at least be glad that the game was competitive in the end.

I have lots more to say, but it's late... let's bounce back and win two at home!

Our defense was really pretty good... but we continue to struggle offensively. Dionnfan is right on.

We cant go long stretches in BOTH halves w/o scoring and expect to win.

Hopefully being back at home can get us going again; we MUST win BOTH games this weekend.

It also merits pointing out that we caught Santa Clara on the tail end of a really, really, really bad hangover from that Gonzaga game. I seem to recall an LMU press release from Holton's last year that called it "the Gonzaga effect." So while I don't at all want to take away from the grit that we displayed over the last three minutes of the game, it's important to note that we didn't catch the Broncos on their best night.

We need a sweep, but it's not going to be easy. Pepperdine's playing with quite a bit of confidence right now, and the Lions just got a nice win over USF at home.

The "Gonzaga effect" works both ways.
A lot of teams get pounded by the Zags and come out like gangbusters against UP.

You're absolutely right Geez, but I think it's safe to say that SCU was not one of those teams.

Another thing that hasn't yet been mentioned: According to Tom Kolker's radio broadcast, Rev designed the final shot during Santa Clara's timeout. Having now watched the play on ESPN.com, that was fantastic coaching, even if it didn't quite work. Kudos to Rev and the staff.

It wasn't taking threes that hurt us. Robin killed us with his double team triple team drives to the basket and throwing up his off balance junk.

Stohl 3/3 and 2/2 and he doesn't get another shot until 8:21 left in the game????...Wow!! Your hottest shooter and you let him cool off??? Need to find a way to get some open looks for him. Nice to see him finally take it to the hole, he passes up too many opportunities.

Nice to see Nik come up with good game. Hitting some big shots.

The bigs seem committed to take it to the hole once they get it in the paint.
Got to give it up, and work it for a better shot.

This was a game they should have won.

Agreed, Navigator. It almost seemed like we were just pig-headedly determined to score in the paint, and Robin was just throwing up brick after brick. It was frustrating for sure.

As for Stohl, I think Santa Clara made an adjustment on him during half-time and made certain that his defender never left his side and also recognized when we were trying to run him off of screens.

Still... when we were going through that very long dry spell, you'd think that we would have tried to get him some shots.

Speaking of which... why didn't we try to get Nik or Jared the ball at the end when we had the ball and were down by three? I think Sherrard panicked a bit when he launched up that NBA three with 6+ seconds on the clock... would have been nice to get it to the hot hands. Oh well... he didn't have a bad look.

And Dionnfan - agreed on that final play! Couldn't ask for anything better than what happened on it, even if the shot didn't go down. Santa Clara really needs to work on their inbound plays while up by two and under five seconds to go. For crying out loud... just pass it in short and get fouled! Why are they messing around with that stupid long-bomb play? It ended up costing them the game against GU and would have cost them the game agaisnt us had that last shot went down.

Force it University. I'm so tired of watching Robin just throw up shots.
He gets the ball inside, puts his head down, bulls thru people and
chucks it up. His decision making is horrible. How often does he take
a good shot? If I were the coach I'd yank him and send a message.
This has been going on all season. Robin needs to kick it out when he
feels the pressure. The inside-out action will open up the shooters for
better shots.

Robin's not the only one who forces shots. But last night it was just
ugly to watch. That is why over and over this year they go long stretches
without scoring. Mainly cause their shot selection is horrible bordering
on desperation.

When will Portland start playing like a team and use each other strengths?
I watch these guys and they don't play together. They don't understand
who to get the ball to in most situations. Too much one-on-one action.
Too much dribbling. One pass and they force the shot.
Where is the unselfishness? They should make each other better.
It's as if they all try to be the savior by throwing up junk and looking out for themselves first.

Transition. Where is the fast break. When we get a rebound we need to push
the ball up the floor. Too often players just hold it and don't look downcourt.
Let's move the ball. Let's run and get good shots in the open court.

I agree starting Stohl. He's explosive and can change a game. Even more
so if his teammate would understand how to get him the ball and when
to get him the ball. They have a long way to go in that aspect.

Sorry to sound so negative, but really have you all been watching?
These are the little things which make a big difference. Let's play smart and
use each other's talents.