PK85

[Pounder]

You could argue that PSU hung with Gonzaga for 30 out of 40 minutes. But minutes 10-20 were blerg.

Thing is, in comparing the team that stood out in PK80 to this, while you could argue that Holland Woods was a better finisher, I could argue that Cameron Parker, if allowed to, can make this team better. Obviously couldn’t get past West Virginia.

Though this should also be said… Gonzaga is overrated. Perhaps substantially so. Drew Timme might be the 4th or 5th best post player in this tournament.

What got me is watching Alabama. They played stupid fast against Michigan State and beat them (using the Portland State plan, but with size and some really quick releases), but last night, Connecticut made them pay for it. The ball is always faster when used properly.

Can you create chaos on defense and yet, in amongst the resulting offensive chaos, just calm it down a bit? Have someone who can facilitate when necessary and break someone down off the dribble otherwise? We’ll see. I know 5 years ago that things looked really good for PSU after this tournament and then Big Sky play got taken for granted. This time, it’s not as obvious, but there’s also a way forward.

 

[bigskyconf]

You could argue that PSU hung with Gonzaga for 30 out of 40 minutes. But minutes 10-20 were blerg.

Thing is, in comparing the team that stood out in PK80 to this, while you could argue that Holland Woods was a better finisher, I could argue that Cameron Parker, if allowed to, can make this team better. Obviously couldn’t get past West Virginia.

Though this should also be said… Gonzaga is overrated. Perhaps substantially so. Drew Timme might be the 4th or 5th best post player in this tournament.

What got me is watching Alabama. They played stupid fast against Michigan State and beat them (using the Portland State plan, but with size and some really quick releases), but last night, Connecticut made them pay for it. The ball is always faster when used properly.

Can you create chaos on defense and yet, in amongst the resulting offensive chaos, just calm it down a bit? Have someone who can facilitate when necessary and break someone down off the dribble otherwise? We’ll see. I know 5 years ago that things looked really good for PSU after this tournament and then Big Sky play got taken for granted. This time, it’s not as obvious, but there’s also a way forward.

We did get a mention in Gonzaga's 10 observations from the game. Here's the link and they made a good point about the team at #10.

https://www.slipperstillfits.com/2022/11/25/23477455/10-observations-from-gonzagas-win-over-portland-state

We've had the fortune (or misfortune, whichever way you look at it), of having Jay Bilas on color for each of our two contests and he actually had some positive things to say about the program and about Coburn. I've been conversing with some of my conference buddies and we all are thinking the conference is way down this year in terms of play. If we can parlay this experience into conference action, we will be OK. Maybe not March Madness OK but we should be fine in the conference. But we just can't walk in and say we played in the PK tournament and expect our conference mates to just roll over.

I also think Parker was a gem of a find.

One person on the PK80 team that made a difference in the tournament was North. If he would not have been such a knucklehead, that team would have went further than they did. I can remember watching him against Duke, and they had no answer for him.