With just five games left in the regular season and the Pilots on an 11-game losing streak, the most recent coming on Thursday night to No. 20 Saint Mary’s, the first question that comes to mind is, “Can the University of Portland men’s basketball team win another game this year?”
It’s the program’s longest skid since losing 14 in a row in the 1988-89 season. They’re last place in the West Coast Conference. The Pilots have been scrambling for answers without their senior captain Alec Wintering who suffered an ACL tear on Jan. 19, ending his college career.
The short answer is yes, they should win one more game, at the very least. The team announced the addition of Walla Walla University — an NAIA school — to the regular season schedule. The Pilots should cruise to an easy victory over the Wolves, who are just 3-21 on the year and the game should provide a much-needed morale boost for Portland. But that doesn’t erase the team’s present woes. And it won’t magically bring their star player back in a Pilot uniform.
The Pilots are having to answer, “What is our identity without Wintering” a year earlier than expected.
“None of us are down… none of us is giving up,” sophomore Rashad Jackson said after the Jan. 23 loss to Gonzaga. “Al (Wintering) is on us to keep going and keep winning games so we’re not gonna quit.”
Assuming that is true, the team’s first task is figuring out how to make up the production of their best player— A WCC first-team performer last year and, statistically, one of the best point guards in America before he got injured.
But can one guy do it? Probably not. It’s going to take the effort of a combo, maybe a trio of players, to make up Wintering’s scoring and playmaking abilities.
Much of the responsibility falls to his backcourt partner, Jazz Johnson. The sophomore guard has done his part—he’s seventh in the WCC in scoring (15.7) and has logged double digit points in every game this season (25)— but the offense is more stagnant. Ball movement is at a standstill at times. And without Wintering’s speed and craftiness putting constant pressure on opposing defenses, opening up jumpers with his stubborn attack of the rim, Johnson has forced up tough shots at a high rate.
With Wintering on the floor, he shot just above 50 percent from the floor; In the seven games without him, he barely scratches 32 percent.
So the supporting cast needs to step up. But Jackson, a 2,000 point scorer in high school, is the only player that’s made a significant leap. He has started every game since Wintering went down and bumped his scoring average per contest from 4.1 to 9.3 points, including a career-high 15 against No. 1 Gonzaga at home.
Finding a consistent rotation has been a struggle, though. Head coach Terry Porter has used eight different starting lineups in the last 12 games.
“I don’t think we’re getting (NBA) draft picks so there is no need for me to throw games,” Porter said.
And yet, the Pilots don’t seem to have the firepower to compete. They’ve been outscored by an average of more than 16 points in their skid. So to win or at the least make games more tightly contested, defense and rebounding must drastically improve. This was a glaring issue even before Wintering’s injury.
Opponents have shot at least 10 percent higher from the floor than Portland in the last 11 games (46.3 to 34.8). And Portland’s bigs haven’t gotten the job done on the glass. The team has been outrebounded in 15 of their 25 games — In eight of those, by 10 or more.
So it would be foolhardy to expect significant progress in the final stretch of the season. Portland will look to its no. 17- ranked recruiting class for reinforcements in 2017-18; Porter, for a fresh start with players he has hand-selected. But what can the Pilots do now to compete?
It comes down to effort, as cliché as it may sound.
It’s diving for loose balls. Boxing out. Playing solid defense for the full 30 seconds of the shot clock. As critical as anyone can be about their play, the Pilots are the only ones that can look at themselves in the mirror and say, “Did I give it my all?”
“I think the identity of this team is just hustle… we have to grit every game out,” Jackson said. “It’s not going to be ‘cruise to victory’ wins for us. I think every game has to be dirty.”
Portland will take care of Walla Walla handily. Pacific, who’s second-to-last in the conference, is a winnable game on Feb. 16, too.
But hustle. That’s what Portland can do. Even without Wintering.
