WT Administrator
Portland Pilots (West Coast Conference)
UK leads series 2-0
(Saturday at 7PMEST/6PMCST) FSSouth/UK IMG#
# Game delayed on UK IMG Sports Network (UK IMG)
Live video via ESPN3
Location: Portland, Ore.
Enrollment: 3,300
Arena: 4,852
Conference: West Coast Conference
Head Coach: Eric Reveno
Career Record: 78-81 (49.1%) 5 Seasons all at Portland
2010-11 Record: 20-12
2010-11 WCC Record: 7-7
2010-11 Postseason Record: College Insider Tourney 0-1
2011-12 Record: 2-3
Portland 70 Florida Atlantic 65
Portland 66 Georgia State 61
Washington 93 Portland 63
Washington State 83 Portland 73
UC Santa Barbara 83 Portland 69
Portland Stats
PPG-68.2
FG%-40.3%
3 Pt%-27.9%
FT%-73.9%
RPG-37.0
APG-11.0
TO’s-14.8
SPG-3.8
BPG-0.6
Probable Starting Lineup
Ryan Nicholas F-6’7” Fr……………...PPG-11.8
Riley Barker C-6’10” So……………...PPG-2.4
Nemanja Mitrovic G 6’5” Sr……….…PPG-11.8
David Carr G-6’3” Fr……………….…PPG-5.0
Tim Douglas G 5’10” So…………..….PPG-9.8
Other Key Players
Thomas van der Mars F-6’11” Fr………PPG-6.2
Derrick Rodgers G- 6’1” Jr……………..PPG-8.4
Kevin BaileyG-6’5” Fr………………….PPG-5.2
Portland is a member of the West Coast Conference which includes such teams as Gonzaga, BYU, Saint Mary’s and San Francisco. Last season Portland finished 5th in the 9 team conference and this season the Pilots are picked in the 6th or 7th position.
The Pilots lost 3 starters from last season’s team including Jared Stohl who hit 91-213 perimeter shots for 42.7%. Returning starter Canadian Nemanja Mitrovic hit 93-201 perimeter shots last season for a 6th best 46.3% in college basketball. However, thus far, Mitrovic has struggled from the perimeter hitting only 9-31 for an anemic 29.0%. In fact, the team as a whole is only hitting 27.9% thus far from long distance. Unfortunately, the Pilots are having difficulty with their overall FG %.....hitting just 40.3%.
Portland is starting 2 freshmen and 2 sophomores along with one senior….and their 3 top subs are 2 freshmen and one senior. Obviously, this is a young inexperienced Pilot team that will rely heavily on their youth to mature quickly or it could be a long season. One freshman that coach Reveno is counting on to mature quickly is 6’11” Thomas van der Mars from the Netherlands.
The leading scorers are Mitrovic, Nicholas and Douglas…..while Nicholas leads in rebounds and Douglas leads in assists.
The Pilots opened the season with 2 wins, but now will be arriving in Lexington after losing their past 3 games. Unfortunately, for Portland they have zero chance of leaving Rupp arena with a win.
UK went to Portland last year as part of a two game contract….and it allows Jones and Wiltjer to play against their home town team. The Cats easily defeated Portland last season and should easily defeat the Pilots at Rupp arena Saturday.
UK faces Portland with a 5-0 record after easily defeating an overmatched Radford team 88-40. Eight Cats got 12 or more minutes and all the starters were in double figures. Marquis Teague, who has been struggling at PG, scored 13 points with 5 assists and only 2 TO’s…..very nice outing. The Cats shot 50% from the field and importantly made 21-24 free throws….this was great to see. The 16 TO’s is more than coach Cal would like to see, but an improvement over some past games. All in all, an easy win that allowed the Cats to work on improving some facets of their offense and defense and get good minutes for key players off the bench.
Portland promises to be a better opponent, but not by much. I look for another easy UK win….by 30 or more points. GO CATS!
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment