Usd was brutal, pilots don’t really scare me though - only pulled away in the last 8min.
The Pilots put 89 pts on us last game. Our defense was weak, I think USD did a better job defensively tonight against Portland than we did last game.
I’m just hoping that the Pilots have heavy legs tomorrow night.
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I definitely hope we cleaned some things up on defense this past week, although this late in the season the team’s defensive DNA has pretty much been established. Meadows from Portland was out tonight (not sure if he plays tomorrow). He is a solid player but more shots for Wood and Sjolund is not the worst thing for the Pilots.
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The bad news: the game will be super late. It will come after a packed house for BYU-USF. Whatever fans stay after that game will probably be in Portland’s camp being that they’re the underdog, plus Portland’s 40ish rowdy fans that were at tonight’s game. So SCU needs to plan for a mostly-hostile environment, though it will depend on how many people hang on for a game that may not start until 10:30 pm.
Plus, Portland just has the “it” factor. They play with some real attitude and confidence.
The good news: Portland got nothing from the bench yet again. Almost no points or minutes or anything. SCU should just be sprinting the whole time, knowing that a win gets them a day off to recover anyways. Legans doesn’t trust his bench, and the starting 5 must have some limits.
And, honestly, Portland isn’t that good. They’re a halfway decent team that plays with an outsize amount of heart. I’d love to have Nduka and Robertson in a Broncos uniform, but I’m not sure there’s any Portland starter who’s actually better than his SCU counterpart.
Play fast and with grit and turn that mighty mite spirit sour on them.
Our current Net Rating is 72. Maybe we should leave sheets in the chairs (kidding) explaining to BYU/USF fans that if we lose , BYU’s loss to us becomes Quad 2. USF will have Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins shifted to Quad 2 and Quad 3. Ha. Portland is 183 in NET and even if they beat us, they aren’t going to jump up to 160 to improve USF’s home loss quadrant.
Quad 1 : 1-30 home, 1-50 neutral, 1-75 road
Quad 2 : 31-75 home, 51-100 neutral, 76-135 road
Quad 3 : 76-160 home, 101-200 neutral, 136-240 road
Quad 4 : 161-358 home, 201-358 neutral, 241-358 road
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Bart Torvik projects it as Santa Clara winning 82-75 tomorrow. I expect the line to be between 6-8.
Moses Wood of Portland who had a great game tonight dropping a "We're gonna show them (Santa Clara) we are the better team" quote after the game. Now that's confidence. They face Santa Clara in the WCC Quarterfinals tomorrow night.
— Ian Cameron (@bobano) March 5, 2022
In case our guys need some motivation of their own.
This will be a great test for the Broncos. Portland wants to beat us so badly - it’ll make their season and perhaps ruin ours.
We are a resilient team but not a tough team and Portland can be both on a good night.
Past Bronco teams relished these type games as we were more often than not the tougher team.
Broncos by 9 in a midnight finish!!
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Worth noting that the Lady Broncos won their 2nd round game over 6th seed USD, 86-79. They play 3rd seed USF at 3:30 today. The Broncos split their games with USF in the WCC.
Unfortunately, according to the game story, leading scorer Lindsey VanAllen left the game mid-1st half after taking a hard foul and injuring her wrist on the fall. The USD player was ejected from the game (not just T’d up) so it must have been a very flagrant foul.
3rd game in 3 days will be a heavy lift for the Broncos, particularly so if VanAllen is unavailable. The Broncos are already missing two starting guards who went down with season ending injuries a couple of months ago.
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There were 88 free throws attempted in that game. Must have been a real gem to watch.