Ito's Disappearance

What does the UP pipeline look like for point guards? Ito's stats for the last 2 games: 0 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. I have caught a few of UP's games this season and had hoped for a better showing especially after the strong games at UW and OSU.

Looking at the rest of the WCC, the upper tier of teams all seem to have average to above average talent at the one and two positions.

Yeah... this hasn't really been a great year for Taishi, though he hasn't been bad by any stretch. He hasn't been scoring much and his shooting has been off, but up until these past two games he was tops in the WCC in assist-to-turnover ratio and has been doing a good job on defense.

More than anything, I think the Pilots were so over-matched in the last two games that they were not taking good shots and were relying on three pointers or throwing up prayers as opposed to a good, disciplined offensive attack - it's tough to get many assists when your team is shooting 25%.

As for the pipeline... we are pretty well set with Ito and Raivio (SOs) and Stohl (FR). BJ Porter, a freshman who is redshirting this year, can jump out of the gym but still is pretty raw. Not sure if his future is as a SG or a SF. We still have an open scholarship, and I think an athletic PG might be a nice compliment to the guys we have. And of course we would welcome Brad Tinsley or Paul McCoy with open arms.

In gerneral terms, though, don't judge UP just on these past two games. GU and SMC are both really strong, veteran teams... asking any team to go into Gonzaga after they just lost to Memphis and into Saint Mary's after they just lost to San Diego is a tough order, let alone a team that plays mainly FR and SOs and who have really only three guys who play significant minutes that had D1 experience coming into this season.

I was really disappointed in those losses, but I still do think that we can bounce back and win some games. Really, if we make one or two more shots at LMU, we don't commit stupid fouls in the last minute against USF, and Brandon Johnson doesn't hit a circus three at the buzzer, we could be 4-2 in the WCC in stead of 1-5. Sigh.......

Yeah I agree with you Stonehouse on the Conference woes, outside the Zags and St Marys the other 3 games could have gone the other way.
I would like to see Reveno try a starting lineup of Ravio-G,Watson-G, Smuelders-F, Sikma-F,Knutson-C with Ito first sparkplug off the bench.
I just think with Robin in there at the same time with Knutson and Sikma that he and Luke (Watson too) could get off a MID-RANGE SHOT instead of these 3 pointers that are LOWER-PERCENTAGE shots. HAS ANYBODY SEEN THOSE THREE IN AT THE SAME TIME??? I would just like to see how it would work tonight against a large center and a couple of full-sized fowards. Just a 5 minute expeirment

Oh well, back to reality, at least I've got the Sub routine down:Game starts,Knutson's first foul-Smuelders in , Knutson out, .............

I have alot of faith in Reveno and his staff still though, I like the mix of players and can only see their unity,young age, and skill level getting better. It sure would be nice if he could get that Oregon kid to sign.

I think the reason we haven't seen Smeulders at the three is a concern about foul trouble (Robin is pretty darn foul prone)... if both Kramer and Robin start picking up fouls, that will result in a lot of minutes for Jasonn, which can be problematic.

Also, I think there is some concern about Robin being able to defend well against an athletic small forward. Robin is a good rebounder and a decent post defender, but I'm not sure how he'd do against an athletic guy that isolates him on the wing.

Anyway, I do think that Robin has a future at the SF though. If Rev would have been able to get that Somogyi kid, I think the idea was that Robin could slide over to the three and Somogyi could have become the back-up center.

If/when Jasonn can develop enough to play a solid 10-15 every game regardless of match-up, then I think we could definitely see a Robin, Luke, Kramer line-up.

Or we could try and find a good big with our open scholarship... maybe a JuCo guy that can step right in?

What I see with this team is that it relies so much on outside shooting, and has very little, if any, inside game. They play outside -in as opposed to inside-out, and inside is usually an after thought, mainly due to the skill sets of most of the players on the team. Smeulders has some nice moves, but needs to get stronger so he can get better position lower on the block. When the outside shots aren't falling, we really struggle. Remember Curt Ranta? Wouldn't it be nice to have someone like that who can get low post position and had his footwork and touch? I have hope that Sikma can develop into a low post scorer. Maybe Dad needs to teach him the arms over head shot that he perfected.

Ito last yr 3pt%- 3.75 , this year 3pt%-1.97 I hope he can get his shot going at least as good as last year . I think he can still be a major asset with his other skills. But that shooting needs to pick up or Stohl or Thompson or somebody else needs more P.T.
I am not worried about the big men, were not dealing with Beasley or Kevin Love here, these guys will be here 4 years, graduate, and are at the mid-major level. One other thing about big men is that they mature much slower than guards. I have full confidence in Reveno's "Big Men" coaching, I have to remember at Stanford he coached and mentored 5 big men to the National Basketball Association (NBA) . He can only run the offense through freshman so much,and I think it will be better each year as they mature and Physically grow. Alot of these big guys just turned 18(I believe Ravio is 22), I remember when I was 18 I wasn't at a D-1 School Playing Basketball ,taking a full load of classes at a difficult university, flying more than 6,000 miles across country and back for a Christmas Break. That's hard on any frosh , not just the Pilots big men. It's a big adjustment from the H.S. gym ,AAU ball, and living with your parents.
That being said, I would LOVE to see more inside touches by Sikma, Knutson,Hannibal. Like I said before live by the 3 die by the 3. I totally agree that outside to inside play doesn't work all the time. Smuelders shooting was pretty dismal. Hopefully someday he can get an assist to another big man instead of having to force up a bad shot because right now he's pretty much the only one who can create his own shot inside.