Pilots vs. Pepperdine

Game time 7pm, Chiles Center.

It will be interesting to see what Pepperdine looks like tonight, after all they have gone through. The Waves got pasted at GU on Saturday, but they also put a whippin' on LMU at home and played close in losses to USF & USD at home (sounds familiar!).

We should, again, be able to dominate the paint. We were very successful in breaking their press last time around, hopefully that will continue.

A win tonight, and assuming GU beats LMU and USD beats USF, we take over sole possession of 5th place... yeah we should be better than 5th, but baby steps...

Just throwing up a game thread... this would be a big win for us, if only to position ourselves comfortably ahead of Pepperdine in the WCC standings and should put us ahead of LMU and USF too, assuming they lose tonight at Gonzaga and at San Diego, respectively.

Pepperdine is really short-handed after several player departures, but they have played pretty well in a few of their games since the Walberg firing - obviously not including Saturday's stinkbomb against the Zags.

The big thing that Pepperdine can hurt us with is athleticism - Tyron Shelley and Malcolm Thomas are both great athletes and good scorers, and Rico Tucker is a quick point guard. But they hardly have any size and I would expect Robin, Kramer, and Luke to have a field day in the paint. As long as they don't come out hot and hit a bunch of threes, I think we should be in a pretty good position to pick up the win.

Anyway, here's hoping that we can play like we did on Saturday - not turn the ball over too much, play solid defense, and distribute the ball well to the open man. If we can do all that, we will should be sitting pretty in 5th place! (Ah, the wonders of depleted expectations!)

See you all there tonight!

Ha! Looks like we had the same idea...

Any chance any former Pepperdine recruits will be at the game tonight???

You know, I was thinking the same thing.

I'll keep an eye out for Tinsley and McCoy... though it might be kind of weird for them to show up, given what all went down. I don't know...

Speaking of Tinsley, the Pepperdine board is saying that North Carolina is after him. Holy smokes! I had heard Wake Forest and Marquette, but not UNC. I think it's safe to say that if we could somehow get him, it would be beyond huge.

if Tinsley and /or McCoy show up, it won't be with the Pilots in mind...Tinsley especially isn't interested in the type of ball we play, that's really why he didn't stay signed with Pepperdine when Walberg left ... McCoy is maybe a possibility, but do you really want rats who will jump the ship when things get a little tense? Doesn't show me much...r

Nah, I disagree.

I think the situation at Pepperdine got really messy, and I don't blame them one bit for seeking other options once the coach that they committed to quite amid NCAA violations. Now, I've heard rumors and what not about all kinds of other nastiness going on behind the scenes with Bridgeland and Walberg, and if that's true... all the more reason for those kids to want to leave a clearly problematic situation. The way I look at it, the school (Pepperdine) obviously couldn't hold up its commitment to the players (coach quite, NCAA violations, etc.), so why should they expect kids like Tinsley and McCoy to keep a commitment to the school? Pepperdine had its chance and blew it.

I think more than anything else, Tinsley wants to go to a school where he feels comfortable and can make an immediate contribution. Maybe he does want an up-tempo style, maybe not (how can we know?) - but I get the sense that he is just looking for a spot where he trusts and likes the coaches, feels like he fits in, and can be a prominent part of the team right away.

As for McCoy, his HS coach has gone on record saying that he (McCoy) wants to go to a school that has football. You never really can tell if those kinds of quotes are totally accurate, but I get the sense that he'll end up at a bigger program.

I wouldn't count UP out of the Tinsley chase though. Sure, we're a long shot and he's getting some amazing offers from big-time schools, but you never can look past the benefits of playing close to home and with a family atmopshere type program.

Tinsley said Pepperdine played too slow----he ain't comin'--r

Yeah, OK...

As I said, it's probably a long shot, but UP is in a unique position to offer him something that no other program can - a place to play close to home and a place where he would be a starter from day 1.

On top of that, it's a good school with a clean program and a very dedicated coach. Maybe they don't have a ton of wins, but it's got way better facilities than a place like Pepperdine and has a better record over the past few years than Pepperdine too.

So it's not like we should just not try at all because maybe he said somewhere that he likes to play up temp. (And come on... what kid doesn't like playing an up temp, no defense style? But there's a reason hardly any coach at the D1 level plays like that - because gimmick offenses tend not to work the higher up the food chain you go.)

Any chance the Waves' recruits were at the game monday?....yikes! [no defense?---up-temp, no defense?---hmmm]

No defense?

Looks to me like the trap worked petty well for them.

I saw Tinsley there. I dont know about McCoy.

Maybe Tinsely saw what an instant impact he could have on the Pilots....

Well... generally speaking, pressing and trapping equates to "no defense", since all it really does is either lead to a turnover or lead to an easy bucket for the opponent. It's not a systematic, disciplined, lock-down style of defense.

Now, if a team doesn't have the athleticism, ball-handling skills or decision making to effectively beat a trapping press, than, well... yeah. IT can be very effective.