Im pretty critical of the D too….I agree with you buckets. Horrendous.
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A mixed bag of a game, but more good than bad.
The good: dominance on the glass, a 39/24 advantage and 14 offensive boards. They nearly pulled down half their missed shots.
Turnovers weren’t much of an issue either, and they shot well inside and outside the arc.
Not-so-Good: For most of the game, an inability to get stops, or take advantage of a turnover-prone opponent. Portland started out white-hot, hitting 10 of their first 12 threes (they went 4/16 after), and most of their threes didn’t seem very contested. I also want to call out what I think was a strategic failure: Tyler Robertson picked up his third foul a couple of minutes into the second half. By that time it was apparent to everyone in the building that he was Portland’s go-to guy, and without him they’d be sunk. It seems to me the thing to do was attack him, make him pick up that fourth and fifth foul to get him off the court. They didn’t do that, and he single-handedly kept this game closer than it should have been.
The Ugly: The officiating, especially in the second half. I rarely complain about officiating, but this crew was something else. It wasn’t just that the Pilots took 29 FTs to SCU’s 12; it was that every time Robertson got the ball in the post the whistle blew. He was like a bull in a china shop, backing in. Sure, there was some contact, but he was initiating it. Most of those fouls were him banging into someone. They should have been no calls. As a result, Robertson alone went to the line more often (18) than the entire Bronco team.
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Playing at home vs opponent with +300 net means little to nothing. St.Mary’s, Zags, and USF are our only opponents this league season, everyone else is absolute garbage.
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The D has been this way for much of the season.
The D schemes are generally pretty vanilla. And most of our guys simply aren’t great individual, 1on1 defenders especially against dribble penetration. Guys frequently get beat off the dribble which forces help and defensive rotation…then we’re in scramble mode and susceptible to kickouts for 3’s.
The reason I also focused on the O despite scoring 101 is because we jacked up 39 3’s in back to back games, shooting 40ish % each game which is good but not lights out. But it was against weak opponents who don’t defend well. It’s fools gold to think that’s repeatable against good teams and the teams the games they really matter (vs. SMC, USF, GU). My fear is they continue to fall in love the 3’s and settle for a lot of quick 3’s. We don’t have to take a ton of 3’s to beat good teams…we beat UofO on just 17 3pt attempts and Duquesne with just 15 attempts.
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Average NET of LMU, Pepp, SD, UOP, Portland?
265. We should defeat each by 30+, especially when at home. Anything less is a negative.
You think Herb was happy today? After UOP?
Doubt it
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A little more on the bad / good theme:
The Good:
Another good night for Ensminger, 10pts, 8rebs, 4assists, 0 TO’s in 27mins. He’s backing up both O’Neil at the 4 and Marshall at the 3 and more than half of his minutes were at the 3 tonight. IMO, he helps the player and ball movement on offense…something this team needs given all the 1on1 play we’ve often seen this season.
The Bad:
Bal 1/8 from 3 tonight after 1/7 on Thurs.; hopefully those are outliers and not a trend and he gets back to shooting it well. He otherwise played well on offense with 9 assists vs. 0 TO’s.
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Had no problem calling Cam on the charge for SAME exact move Robertson was making. Also very frustrated that guards have backed away from the pick and roll. Had maybe two games of it - and now our bigs are back to jumping jacks with NO LOOK inside.
I agree. That perimeter game is NOT going to exist with a USF, GU or St Marys. And I don’t want another humiliation. Our boys should go back with revenge.
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Robertson is a savvy, smart player. He’s like the 40year old at the local gym pick-up game, past his physical prime, a few extra pounds along the wasteline but with sound skills and fundamentals who schools the 25 year olds with an array of moves and bag of tricks they aren’t accustomed to.
Cam did lower his shoulder a bit IMO, Robertson took advantage of it and flopped to draw the charge. Robertson did get the benefit of a couple of bad calls IMO but he draws so much contact and puts defenders in bad position enough that it’s going to work out for him more often than not.
O’Neil isn’t strong enough and lost the center of gravity battle in Robertson’s back downs. He only guarded him a few possession but I thought Bryan did the best on Robertson. Bryan is stronger and plays more physical than O’Neil or Bal while also having the athleticism that can bother Robertson. Marshall also has some muscle that maybe would have been better matchup than O’Neil but still think Bryan would have been the best choice.
While the defense stunk overall, not just against Robertson, you have to be careful not to overreact too much to what Robertson did. He’s a unique player and a tough matchup for a lot of teams and there isn’t anyone else like him in the league.
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BK feature up in case anyone wants to take a look!
energetic and offensive barnburner yesterday. Just need to keep on chugging and winning until the SMC showdown again
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Femme, curious as to why Cam even gave Robertson a CHANCE to sell a charge? Cam has a clear physical advantage. What not just catch it, a quick move and right up with it?
Question for the pundits, which I am not: what are/were the pros and cons of double-teaming Robertson? It seems like in many games one guy goes off and we don’t focus on that hot player, who it seems is unstoppable one-one-one, and force others to make plays.
Tough to double Robertson in the post as he’s a good passer. That’s part of Pilots design…play inside out through Robertson…let him go to work 1on1, if he’s doubled, hit cutters for layups or kickout to open 3pt shooters.
Doubling him on the perimeter in ball screens does makes more sense.
Doubling ball screens is one of several methods (there are six+) to defend pick and roll…wish we did more of it, instead of mostly just switching. In Robertson’s case it would force the ball out of his hands and force someone else to be the playmaker.
Best bet overall to defend Robertson or someone like him is to have the right matchup on him. We had O’Neil on him most of the time, I imagine the logic was to bother/contest his shot with O’Neil’s 4" height advantage. The problem is O’Neil isn’t the strongest or physical and was giving up ~25lbs (Robertson is listed at 235lbs). I would have preferred Cam who has the requisite size/strength/physicality or Bryan. Bryan would be giving up some weight but he seems to play more physical than any of the other candidates O’Neil/Bal/Marshall and arguably has the best athleticism and lateral quickness of that bunch which deters Robertson’s ability to drive or turn the corner. Once Robertson’s gets to the defender’s hip he can bully them or draw fouls…don’t let him get to the hip in the first place and you have a chance to stop him…that’s where the later quickness matters.
Just my take…fortunately the talent level and contributions from Robertson’s teammates is modest so a team can survive him going off and still beat them.
The Pilots were more dangerous last year with Moses Wood (now starting for U of Wash) and Kristen Sjolund (pro in Europe), two forwards who were good 3pt shooters and solid athletes with skill. Portland could invert their offense more effectively with wing Robertson doing his thing through the post and forwards camped outside for 3’s drawing opposing bigs away from the basket. Created even more matchup challenges then this year’s Pilots squad.
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AMEN!! So frustrating to see us play so soft vs. perimeter screens
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Thanks so much. I learned a lot.
Agree Buckets.
Use SMC and their Top 20 defense as the example/comparison…they are more aggressive defending ball screens, they often either temporarily double/trap, forcing the ball handler to retreat or swing the pass (usually to someone along the perimeter, not the screener rolling) and then they recover back to their primary man. or they aggressively hedge which ends up looking similar to doubling/trapping.
They also switch some…the takeaways: 1) they are more aggressive in general in how the defend pic/roll and 2) they use a wider variety of coverages which makes it harder for the opposing team to prepare for and harder for the opponent to adapt/adjust in game as it’s less predictable how they will defend on a particular possession. And they do what they do with fairly average athletes…Mahaney, Ducas, Saxen aren’t going to win any track meets or dunk contests.
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The more often the opponent with the ball is contested, the more chances there are that the opponent with the ball will make a mistake (turnover or violation).
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Because going into games dry, cold, and after the rhythm has been set is tough. When you come off a bench and are trying to invite contact for a foul, its tough when the tempo has been set and you as a player off the bench are not yet in sync with the play of the game. I played 6th man for a few years overseas and its harder coming off the bench than starting. And you can sit here and talk about being “game ready” when your number is called, that part is true. But when you know you HAVE to perform or you are yanked, it is a lot harder to move fluidly or freely.
HIs contact invite has had him on the FT line at a higher percentage than guys with lots of minutes. He has been to the FT line 17 times in 196 mins vs 11 times at 538 mins. So USUALLY, it works. Not always.