When I bought season tickets for the Portland Pilots, the whole thing was kind of a joke. I thought it would be nice to take my daughter to a few college basketball games, to expose her to what life on a college campus looked like. I also thought it would be the perfect antidote to spending thousands of dollars on Portland Trailblazers’ tickets which, to be honest, is a huge waste of money until the playoffs roll around. I didn’t think the Pilots would be this good.
To review, last week they took North Carolina down to the wire, beat Villanova and lost by one point to Michigan State. Sure Carolina isn’t playing well, Villanova isn’t Villanova until Justin Moore and Cam Whitmore return form injury and Michigan State was without two of its best players. But still, this is the University of Portland we’re talking about. And they’re actually good at basketball.
They have a chubby star player in Tyler Robertson who reminds me so much of former Utah Jazz great Joe Ingles. Like Ingles, Robertson is slow, Australian and plays entirely under the rim. And like Ingles, after every game you’re left wondering how he found a way to score so many points. There’s a crazy athletic forward in 6’8 Kristian Sjoulund who previously played at Georgia Tech and UTEP. Watching him you get the feeling that if he hadn’t grown up in Norway where everyone eats organic brussel sprouts and allows cars to merge without so much as politely tapping the horn, he’d demand the ball in the post and score at will against weaker defenders. And then there’s my favorite player, 6 foot freshman guard Juan Sebastian Gorosito from Argentina. A beautiful shooter with serious handles, watching Gorosito is like watching old VHS tapes of a seventh grade Manu Ginobili. They both play with a sense of joy and reckless abandon that you don’t often see in stateside players.
Portland’s current odds to win the West Coast Conference is +20000. That’s crazy given the competition they’ve faced and the fact that Gonzaga has major issues. BYU is +3000, San Francisco is +5500, Santa Clara is +9500 and there’s a good chance Portland is better than all three of those schools. Heck, there’s a decent chance Portland is this year’s St. Mary’s, the only other team in the conference capable of challenging Gonzaga for west coast supremacy.
Other Thoughts:
Zach Edey is +480 to win the Wooden Award and while it’s very early, one can easily see him running away with it. If Purdue stays competitive in the Big 10, and they sure look like they will, Edey will put up big numbers. Plus (and this is underrated) he’s just so loveable. Like Herman Munster, you just wanna go out and hug Zach Edey every time you see him or invite him to get in his PJ’s and sleepover at the house while you eat pizza and watch The Goonies. That alone makes Edey +480 a smart bet.
I really need Houston to win their conference title. And they should. No one plays better defense in America than Houston. But offensively, it can be a little rough around the edges. If Sasser is off, do they have enough guys who can create their own shots off the dribble? Time will tell but that 49-44 win over Kent State wasn’t exactly inspiring.
Texas and Virginia are #2 and #3 in the AP poll. That’s great for Texas and Virginia but not so great for fans who love to see the ball go through the hoop. Although this year may be different. This is Virginia’s best offensive team in years. They’re not quite Golden State yet but they are ranked third in offensive efficiency on Kenpom which is pretty amazing for Virginia.
Duke is not good. They may be good by the end of the year but right now they’re not good. It’s amazing that Purdue had no freshman ranked in the top 100, Duke has 3 in the top 15 and Purdue is way better than Duke. That’s why college basketball is so amazing. Guys that fit a system and play well together will beat individual talane every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Excited for conference play to get going. This is the fun part.
