Portland at LMU: Conference Home Opener

[greendoberman]

Posted this elsewhere:

portland -10 LMU 128, 11pm Eastern, TV: ESPNU

Portland is finally starting to show the fruits of the labor of young coach Eric Reveno this year. Reveno, a former Stanford assistant, had to completely rebuild a program that for the most part has lingered near the bottom of the WCC standings for eternity. The Pilots have reeled of some headline non-conference wins beating Washington, Nevada, and Air Force on their way to an impressive 11-7 mark. Portland has also started off conference play with two home wins over USF and Santa Clara and a closer than the score indicated 50-67 loss at conference powerhouse Gonzaga.

The Pilots are led by guard Nik Raivio, brother of former Zags point-man Derek Raivio. Famous bloodlines continue with forward Luke Sikma, son of the NBA Sonics' Jack. Portland gets contributions from numerous players in a balanced effort featuring guards Jared Stohl and T.J. Campbell as well as inside men Robin Smeulders and Ethan Niedermeyer (NIEDERMAYER!!!). The Pilots like to play at a more pedestrian pace and run three-guard sets.

Those of you who have read my reports before no doubt know all about LMU's trials and tribulations this year. From coaching leaves of absences to the dreaded injury bug, the Lions have been forced to take the air out of the ball with a Robert Downey Jr.-esque "less than zero" bench depth. A three-headed diaper dandy set of PG Jarred Dubois, PF Kevin Young, and SF Laron Armstead have provided the majority of highlights in an otherwise down year. Occasional bursts from beyond the arc via former walkons Corey Counts and Chris Kanne are more an unexpected surprise when they happen.

The big news out of Westchester tonight is the return of sophomore Vernon Teel. Teel was the Lions leading scorer their first three games before breaking his foot early in their home sellout versus Notre Dame. While Teel is expected to see limited minutes and will have to work himself into shape, he will provided a much needed physical and psychological boost for the Lions. Being able to provide even a minute spell for the Lion Iron five will be of great benefit.

On the surface this game looks like another lowly Loyola mismatch. Looking closer at the record of Portland however, there is glaring disparity in the home/road splits. Portland has been PU, as in stinks, on the road with just two wins over UC Davis and Bakersfield. LMU played the same Davis squad tight in an early season tourney and got their lone win over Bakersfield. The Lions have been fairly competitive in most of their games at Gersten Pavilion despite superior oppositon. The ROAR pep booster will be especially fired up for the conference home opener and Max Good's debut as "official" head coach. The return of Teel will provide a huge mentally for the Lions even if he is not yet in playing shape. Portland does not have the inside game to exploit the Lions weakness and the backcourts should nullify each other.

Large 3 unit play:

LMU +10/even Portland

Prediction:
LMU 66 Portland 63

[fanblade]

Good writeup. I like our chances against a good Portland team. All eyes will be on Teel to see how responds to the soreness. Glad to have the lions back at home.

[ldawg]

Competitive half so far. We always struggle more in the 2nd half due to fatigue. If we can hold up we'll win only down by 3 at the half! Go Lions!

[ldawg]

Well it's been fun.......

[shredaahead]

Jan 22, 2009 16:33:25 GMT -5 greendoberman said:

Posted this elsewhere:

portland -10 LMU 128, 11pm Eastern, TV: ESPNU

Portland is finally starting to show the fruits of the labor of young coach Eric Reveno this year. Reveno, a former Stanford assistant, had to completely rebuild a program that for the most part has lingered near the bottom of the WCC standings for eternity. The Pilots have reeled of some headline non-conference wins beating Washington, Nevada, and Air Force on their way to an impressive 11-7 mark. Portland has also started off conference play with two home wins over USF and Santa Clara and a closer than the score indicated 50-67 loss at conference powerhouse Gonzaga.

The Pilots are led by guard Nik Raivio, brother of former Zags point-man Derek Raivio. Famous bloodlines continue with forward Luke Sikma, son of the NBA Sonics' Jack. Portland gets contributions from numerous players in a balanced effort featuring guards Jared Stohl and T.J. Campbell as well as inside men Robin Smeulders and Ethan Niedermeyer (NIEDERMAYER!!!). The Pilots like to play at a more pedestrian pace and run three-guard sets.

Those of you who have read my reports before no doubt know all about LMU's trials and tribulations this year. From coaching leaves of absences to the dreaded injury bug, the Lions have been forced to take the air out of the ball with a Robert Downey Jr.-esque "less than zero" bench depth. A three-headed diaper dandy set of PG Jarred Dubois, PF Kevin Young, and SF Laron Armstead have provided the majority of highlights in an otherwise down year. Occasional bursts from beyond the arc via former walkons Corey Counts and Chris Kanne are more an unexpected surprise when they happen.

The big news out of Westchester tonight is the return of sophomore Vernon Teel. Teel was the Lions leading scorer their first three games before breaking his foot early in their home sellout versus Notre Dame. While Teel is expected to see limited minutes and will have to work himself into shape, he will provided a much needed physical and psychological boost for the Lions. Being able to provide even a minute spell for the Lion Iron five will be of great benefit.

On the surface this game looks like another lowly Loyola mismatch. Looking closer at the record of Portland however, there is glaring disparity in the home/road splits. Portland has been PU, as in stinks, on the road with just two wins over UC Davis and Bakersfield. LMU played the same Davis squad tight in an early season tourney and got their lone win over Bakersfield. The Lions have been fairly competitive in most of their games at Gersten Pavilion despite superior oppositon. The ROAR pep booster will be especially fired up for the conference home opener and Max Good's debut as "official" head coach. The return of Teel will provide a huge mentally for the Lions even if he is not yet in playing shape. Portland does not have the inside game to exploit the Lions weakness and the backcourts should nullify each other.

Large 3 unit play:

LMU +10/even Portland

Prediction:
LMU 66 Portland 63

Well Done! Who wrote this?

[ironlions]

Some nice moments but really a downer.

[greendoberman]

Shredda,
I wrote it. If only my fantasy prediction could somehow transmogrify intself into reality on the court.

We certainly had the energy factor up with Vernon back. If not for a deadly first three minutes of the second stanza, it could have been a different ball game.

Props to Portland and Reveno for a well executed game though. They've made progress by leaps and bounds.

[shredaahead]

Jan 23, 2009 0:59:18 GMT -5 @ironlions said:

Some nice moments but really a downer.

IronShredaa, Come on! You giving up the faith in this University's hoops program would cause the eschaton. Looks like Kevin Young might have had a bit of a breakthrough type of game? You have to be excited about the return of Vernon MSG Teel? Pick it up Rob.

[crazycagegirl]

Am I missing something? A little Kanne maybe? I don't recall EVER seeing Chris on the court tonight, but I could totally be wrong....


but I do remember seeing a lot of DENNIS (lmupepbander) on TV!!!!!!


They broke my heart a little every time they threw those phantom passes to.....nowhere. An obvious sign of weariness? So sad. They had some GREAT steals and blocks though, WOW! Especially in the second half. If only they kept that up....I see so much potential! The defense felt so much stronger than it's been in the past 6 years!

[pilotnut]

Is lmupepbander the blue wigged, cowbell guy?

[sunkenlions]

Not a "Good" official start for Max and the staff. The team dies in the 2nd half almost every game all season long yet not only does he not learn from that, he only plays 7 players this game, one of the 7 coming off an injury, and another with a hurt ankle...and they die big-time in the second half. Wow.

[LMUpepbander]

No, I'm the really tall trombone guy. I do remember the camera guy panning my way quite a bit. ;D

Of course, most of the game consisted of my ex (who transferred in from a community college in Idaho this semester as a 24 year old sophomore) trying to stare a hole through me, but that'll be left for another day, and only if you have a few hours set aside to hear about it.

[ironlions]

Talk about a tale of two halves. I was optimistic about a W with our play in the first, but then Portland came out and punched us in the mouth right at the beginning of the second, and we never really recovered from that run. Portland was able to go inside where we had Laron and Brad trying to guard bigger guys. How about Sweezy blocking that 7 footer Hannibal the Cannibal. Marco of course was no help. Perhaps he is not the most talented offensive player but he can at least try and play defensive. It doesn't take much to box people out. At the start of the game a Portland player got such an easy board over him. Instead of having his hand up, they were around his waste. He might as well have been tying his shoe.

Really great to have Teel back in the line up. 12 point after being out for 2 months is pretty impressive. It could have been 20 if he didn't' miss some free throws and a few layups that were slightly off went in.

Nice games from Kevin,JD and Corey.

On a side note our schedule this year is a real killer. A lot of great teams : ND, UCLA, Tulsa ( who almost upset Memphis), Arizona. Three other teams we played are 12-6 right now. Add to that a 5000 mile road trip. And we have had to start conference playing the top teams in the WCC in St. Mary's, Portland, and San Diego and now the Zags.

This is certainly not the year to have this schedule. Somewhere in Palo Alto Rodney is chuckling.

Go Lions

[oldestlion]

Are you kidding, sunkenlions? Max learns something every day. He knows that there is always the possibility for a comeback regardless of how far down we are. He knows that every minute he plays a freshman, that freshman learns something, no matter how tired he is. He knows that every minute he plays a graduating bench player or a redshirt who probably won't be on the team next year, he is taking away the learning experience from a player with a future.

It's not rocket science. Competing coaches, as you saw last night, shown no mercy and they shouldn't. Portland sent in new players every time the clock stopped and ran our legs off. Max knows that and he also knows that with the exception of three and perhaps four players currently available, he can't match up against almost anyone we play, especially at the post. You need seven-eight good players to even compete.

Opposing coaches, as you also saw last night, continuously switch offensive sets. They have the available talent to do that while we don't. The positive part of that move is that our inexperienced freshmen learn what they have to do to prevent the offensive changes and that takes time. It doesn't matter this year how tired they are - they have to learn to play through it and file that knowledge for later season games and next season.

That's what it's all about. We may pull an upset this year but don't be surprised or disappointed if we don't win one conference game.

So, don't second guess Max Good. You don't have the legs to stand on and you haven't even played 30-40 minutes at this level, if any.

[ldawg]

A problems with loading our freshmen up with minutes and Good acknowledged in the pre-game is we open ourselves up to even more injury. Especially when we are expecting players to go out there for 30-40 minutes who are already injured or in recovery. We are stuck because on the flip side we cannot expect the walkons to compete against D1 competition and we cannot just give up......