OMG

At 9:18 to go in the 2nd half, we were up by 18, 51-33.

Final score, we lose by 5, 66-71.

In that time, we turn it over 6 times, give up 5 steals, have 2 shots blocked, and Pepp shoots 6 out of 8 three pointers.

You cant ever ease up on an opponent. Ever.

This is the most dejected I've felt since we blew a 15 point second-half lead to Saint Mary's a couple of years ago and lost by one.

But then again, SMC wasn't tied for last place in the conference.

But we weren't either.

Crap.

That was just awful on so many levels. Can anyone pass out of a double team!? Pepperdine's close defense frazzled a team that should have better composure than this. That is the kind of game that loses long-time season-ticket holders and recruits, and the stands are already getting a bit too full of the other team's fans. Pepperdine should have been (and wasn't) a problem at home after losing their coach and four players. Just terrible.

One of the pre-game comments mentioned Pepperdine's athleticism, and it showed tonight. Pilot guards could not advance the ball, often got trapped, and the result was a multitude of turnovers. Plus there was a little relaxation on defense, and a Wave team that couldn't hit their hat in the first half all of a sudden makes 4 threes in a row, gets a little confidence, and there it is. Poof gone!

Good thing I'm practicing Pilot Zen, or I'd be throwing stuff. Can't wait for another round with GU and SMU.

I'm just sticking with... Wow!

Yeah, this was about as bad of gut punch loss as I've experienced in a while. Just really frustrating.

Ugh... I think I need to sleep this one off before I comment on it...

But I think it's probably safe to say that this is the lowest point of Reveno's tenure so far. I don't mean that to be critical of him - we're a young team that lost it's composure at the end in the face of a tight press and hot shooting.

It happens. But considering Pepperdine has lost its coach and several players, getting Shelley to foul out with 9 minutes to go, ahead by 18 with less than 10 minutes... eesh. No excuse for the loss. Let's just chalk it up as a learning experience for the kids, I guess, and hope that Rev and the rest of the staff can get the guys' heads screwed on right.

Goooo Pilots!

To up7587 -

No worries - I threw enough stuff for both of us.

So I know I don't post on here very often, but tonight's game made it difficult to keep my mouth shut. A couple of questions I was left with after the game:

-Why didn't Luke play more? The box score said he played 15 minutes and had 9 boards, but I can't recall him being in there during the comeback, which I thought was odd.

-Why in the blue hell can we not break a press? Our guards have trouble getting the ball past one guy! That should not be a problem for a Division I point guard

-The more I watch this team, the more I realize how few playmakers we have. They would have helped against a so-so Pepperdine press. (That wasn't really a question but thanks for letting me get that out anyway)

So there's my bout of venting...thoughts?

I think your observations are good ones, UPhoopfan. Luke was doing a good job on the boards, but he did make a few bad passes that I know ticked off Rev - especially the one right near the end of the first half.

For me, the thing that bugged me was that we didn't stay aggressive on offense during Pepperdine's streak. Up to that point in the second half, we were either getting it into Robin and he was delivering easy buckets or Nik was penetrating and either getting a shot off or dishing it out. What I really didn't understand was why we didn't keep on pounding it in once Malcolm Thomas got his fourth foul. I think he played the last 10 minutes of the game with four fouls, and I don't think we tried to get it down to his man more than once or twice. I know he didn't score a ton, but he was pulling down boards and eventually hit the go-ahead bucket. Seems like we really should have tried to get him fouled out... without him, their tallest guy out there would have been 6'6" I think.

But really Rico Tucker was the killer - just him being up in the grill of whoever was taking the ball up the court was enough to make us make way too many mistakes. But he picked up his fourth foul with five or so minutes to go (I think) and it would have been nice if we could have tried to attack him and get him to foul out too.

So lack of aggressiveness seemed to be my big issue. Once they went on their run, it seemed like we just wanted to survive and get the heck off the court... we just didn't bring it at the end - we didn't hit a bucket in the last three minutes.

Otherwise... don't want to point the fingers at the refs (thought they were OK) but I did think that one call down the stretch really hurt us. It was on an inbounds play with about a minute and a half to go. We were up by two - Sherrard passed it in to Robin, who battled for the ball for a second and then laid it in. But the ref whistled for a jump ball - probably the quickest jump ball call I've ever seen. It was Pepperdine's possession, and they ended up tying it. So we could have gone into the last minute up by four rather than tied... definitely was a big swing. But again, the reason we lost wasn't because of that... it was because we blew an 18 point lead with nine minutes left. But still... bummer of a call.

Anyway... don't know what's up with Taishi. He did a great job drawing charges, but other than that he had a tough game. He seemingly has no confidence in his shot at all and was making some lazy passes too. I know he's been through a lot this year and I'm not calling him out or anything, but the bottom line is that he needs to start playing better.

Nik... oh Nik. I love his competitiveness and he's our only consistent scorer, but jeesh... getting his pocket picked by Tucker when we were down by two and then throwing up a contested three with lots of time left on the clock there at the end... not the greatest 15 seconds of his life there.

I thought Ethan had another nice game, despite that weird shot in the first half where he hit the wrong side of the backboard. (What was that?) Seems to me like he has surpassed Sherrard on the depth charts, and I can't say that I disagree with that decision. Ethan brings a lot of hustle out there and is a good rebounder and passer... seeing him play like this right now is getting me excited about his future.

Robin had a nice game... wish we could have gone to him even more. Jasonn did some good things on defense - it was fun to see him get some extended minutes. But as UPhoopfan said... Sikma was killing it out there on the boards and was scoring points - maybe we would have been better off with him out there. Kramer got into foul trouble early and couldn't really get going. Jared got some points but was 1-5 from three... hadn't seen him miss that many threes in a while, though maybe I'm getting spoiled.

Bah... all in all it was just frustrating all around, but I just keep telling myself that games like this happen. Hopefully we can bounce back.

On an unrelated note... definitely saw Brad Tinsely there. Wish he would have left with nine minutes to go!

Pardon my ranting ahead of time.

We totally backed down when Pepp started the run... we did a great job of drawing the fouls for the first 3/4 of the game, had them in serious foul trouble, but then we backed off and didnt draw the 5th foul on Malcom, Tucker or Reed (like we did on Shelley).

Agreed on the lack of Sikma's playing time... it was obvious that Rev was not happy with him, but I dont fully understand that. (Rev wasnt very happy with anyone last night... I have never seen him yelling so much and so mad as he was last night, even when we were up big early in the second half... hopefully he is successful in lighting a fire in these guys).

The team seemed to panic, and we didnt have anyone on the court (i.e. a leader) to step up, calm the team down and make some plays. Sherrard was successful in doing that in some games earlier this year, but we are lacking a leader on the court... We dont seem to have a natural in Ito or Raivio, but someone must step up, especially with as young as we are.

I really hope Ito can snap out of it soon, he has had a very rough series of games. It just seems that if he could get a couple of shots to fall, the monkey would be off his back and he could bounce back quickly... I think he is the one that needs to step up and be the leader on the floor.

I didnt understand, either, why we were having such a problem with their press... we should have just attacked it and we would have been fine (like we did in the game @ Pepp, and did at times earlier in the game); instead we were tentative and seemed to wait for it. But allowing Pepp to repeatedly steal the ball/force the turnover one on one was really disappointing.

We keep saying that these guys are young and there will be games like this (which is very true, there will be), but if we are going to turn this program around the coaches & team REALLY need to step up in these situations and start getting it done. The broken record is starting to wear thin.

<end rant session.>

agree. Frustrating.

Yes, very disappointing loss. Portland has much to work on. I know they're young, but they have played tons
of basketball in their lives.

They obviously have trouble passing out of a double-teams. They need more savvy in feeling the pressure
and dumping the ball quickly to open teammates. Maybe if they wouldn't dribble so much they could move
the ball up the court quickly with passes and avoid the pressure. For gawd sake, anticipate the pressure
and get rid of the rock. It's basketball 101. But, as we know, the centers take forever to release the ball,
then the guards dribble, dribble, dribble up the court.

Play-makers are few. It underscores why they need to move the ball faster/wiser and let the open man take the
shot. Ravio and Robin have to quit thinking that they need to do it all alone out there. They need to share the ball more.

the "Quit thinking and share the ball more" seem to be something that Rev was harping on last night with Ravio. Several times he told Ravio something like "If you want to be the point, be a point." Rev was not happy that he was looking for his own shot so much. In fact his best shots seemed to come from some nice passes from Jared.

Wow,
The floor opened up and swallowed up the Pilots the last 12 minutes. I just got back from Portland and am stunned. After such a good victory over Loyola it looked like it was going to be 2 in a row. It's been a while since I have seen a college team collapse like that when pressed. But Pepperdine was hitting all their open threes and they were athletic.I was hoping the Pilots would put their depleted roster away. No such luck.
Some of the positives I saw were, Niedermiers energy and play, Stohl relaxing more as a starter, and Jasonn getting in some good minutes when Knutson was in foul trouble. I liked that screen that Jasonn set for an open basket.(He cleared out the whole right side of the floor).Last night Hannibal looked comfortable in there. The Pilots are going to need his size the next 3+ yrs.
But, losing a game they should have won is still a bummer!

This loss just boggles the mind. When Pepperdine was on their heels you shouldn,t back off. The substitution patterns were truly strange. Why was Thompson in the game at a crucial time? Where is the coaching for the guards? In the first exhibition game this year, the Pilots had trouble inbounding the ball! Basics, basics, basics. Also, Rev just getting mad at a player ie Sikma and sitting him down during Pepperdines run is not good coaching. A coach needs to be more flexible. Hopefully the staff is also having a learning process.