Portland Pilots

[vancouvercougar]

My thoughts on the game.

Attending this game was a birthday present from my wife. It was pretty cool to see Ty take Jimmer's place as the scoring leader. I am sure that when the Pilots play any other team in Portland that you could probaby say your prayers in there. We had a lot more BYU fans there than the Pilots did, so most of the fans were counting down from 7 as Ty started scoring to open the game.

Our lack of experience in the post shows up against Portland, but I am encouraged for the future. Can't wait to see Mika play with Andrus and Kafusi.

The fouls in the 2nd half were madening. At one point they were in the double bonus shooting 2 free throws, yet the pilots only had 2 fouls on them. Some of that was the aggressive D we played n the 2nd half. It was really cool to hear the fans yell DEFENSE whenever Portland had the ball.

My son was watching the game in SLC. He texted a screenshot of his TV that showed my wife and I in the stands. We were a couple rows above Marty Hawes righ tbehind the Cougar bench. Glad it wasn't a triple overtime game because I have to be at work at 6:00 in the morning.

Portland's gym appears to be is as nice as any in the WCC. I'd really like to take in a game there. I like Portland a LOTY I like Van Der Mars as a player. We've had really good games with these guys and I wish I could have been there, but it was great watcing it on TV when we had our run in the second half to have the place sounding like a home game.

Also, I was pulling my heair out at the rfoul disparity at the start of the second half, but then I realized that we were gaining on them and pulling away durring this time, and ROse wasnt upset at any of the fouls called. We needed ot be the agressor and it worked.

It was a fun game to watch.

The game was really physical the first half with few fouls called on either team. The second half was frustrating at the opening because of the disparity. We deserved quite a few of the fouls, but there were a few ticky tack ones as well, and we were getting held and hacked at the other end without fouls called on the pilots. The physical play however really helped us in the 2nd half. It might have made a bigger difference if Portland had hit more of their foul shots as they were in the double bonus early on.

[EM_Puma]

The game was really physical the first half with few fouls called on either team. The second half was frustrating at the opening because of the disparity. We deserved quite a few of the fouls, but there were a few ticky tack ones as well, and we were getting held and hacked at the other end without fouls called on the pilots. The physical play however really helped us in the 2nd half. It might have made a bigger difference if Portland had hit more of their foul shots as they were in the double bonus early on.

As seems usual, Haws's body was all red from all the bumping he took. The classic shot was where we weren't long removed from the review the officials did on one of the fouls in the 2nd half. Haws was shown moving off his screen and coming straight down the key toward the basket. The Portland player wasn't trying to cover Tyler, but he clearly raises his elbow up and gives Haws an intentional jolting shot with his shoulder as he passed by. It was most definitely a flagrant foul and looked suspiciously like the Portland coaching staff had counseled their players to give Haws a hostile shot every time they were able, which had been the WCC standard play plan vs. Tyler Haws for the last few years. Speculation on my part, but very suspicious as the player went out of his way to give Tyler a piece of himself.

I assume the refs did not see it, but cannot a coach ask for an official review in such instances of suspected flagrant fouls or does that come completely by the suspicion of the refs?

[EM_Puma]

What would it feel like to actually walk away from a game with so very few questionable calls that you could actually call the game call good? I watch enough BB to see a trend in WCC play, but I haven't been that searching to note if all WCC games have that taste to them. I simply do not understand how paid professionals could call the first half of the game where they were letting them all "rattle-n-roll" and then come out in the 2nd and nail BYU for even looking sideways. If it had really been a situation where we had fouled 6 times to their every 1 foul, fine, but that isn't what I was seeing and yet that was the fact of how the game was called to start the 2nd half. Very frustrating as a fan.