Vikings opt for continuancy

Just got word that the Vikings will announce their new men's basketball coach and the winner of the contest should come as no surprise.

For the last two years, Tyler Geving has roamed the sidelines, adjusted the defense and recruited the heck out of the Northwest and California. All of these characteristics, plus a few others made Geving a likely choice.

Portland State will be hosting a 2 p.m. press conference tomorrow at the Stott Center. Check dailyvanguard.com or back here for the full story later tomorrow or Tuesday morning.

Guest Post from our outspoken Student Commentator

Here is another guest blog post from our student contributor Marnix Brinkhoff.

My post this week is in response to the disappointing news that Coach Bone has left the Portland State Athletic Department to become a Cougar.

Dear Coach Bone,

It is with great sadness that I write to you to wish you the best of luck at Washington State University.

As a student and fan I will certainly miss your presence on the PSU campus. You were always willing to reciprocate a friendly greeting in passing on campus and you had an amazing style and approach to the game of basketball. It’s unfortunate you made the decision to leave 'Viking Nation' and I hope you have completely thought through your decision, because there are a couple points I would like to mention to you that I thought would have been enough to keep you around.

1) Potential: I understand the stigma and prowess of the Pac10 was enticing, but Viking Nation (with you at the helm) had the potential to be the next Gonzaga or even Memphis.

2) Pullman Sucks: I know you’ve been to Pullman because you have coached in the Northwest your entire career so you must realize what an awful place it is. You will never be able to recruit a Seattle-area product and will be forced to resort with the farmers of Spokane and the other surrounding rural areas.

3) Long-Term: No offense, but I hope you aren’t planning on staying at WSU for long. I hope your plan is to win at that program and step up to a better program, because not even your excellent coaching will be able to sustain a competitive program in the beleaguered WSU Athletic Department.

Again, I wish you all the best even though I think you are making a huge mistake by jumping ship just as you had a consistent program established that had the potential to become the next mid-major powerhouse. I thought you had the potential to be the next Mark Few, but you threw that all away for some larger digits in the paycheck and for that I’m disappointed.

Can the confident Vikings pull an upset? Thoughts from Thursday’s shootaround from Taco Bell Arena

The Portland State players have never lacked a confident attitude in what so far has been a roller coaster of a season. On Thursday the No. 13 seeded team from the South Park Blocks came into Boise determined to compete.

But one underlying question regarding this team is, can they play their best basketball game of the season for 40 minutes and defeat no. 4 seeded Xavier, who is playing in their fourth consecutive NCAA tournament.

“Last year we were just happy to get the 16 seed,” said senior guard Andre Murray in a press conference before practice. “But now we’re coming here hungry. We’re looking to get a win or two.”

In order for the Vikings to reach their goal of the second round, they will have to take down a tough and much bigger Xavier squad.

The Musketeers are led by Senior guard B.J. Raymond who averages 14 points per game and played a significant role in the team’s run to the Elite Eight last season.

“When you look at his statistics, the senior season that he’s had arguably is one of the best that we have had in recent times at Xavier,” said Musketeers head coach Sean Miller, who is in his fifth season coaching the team from Cincinatti.

The Vikings took the court at Boise State’s Taco Bell Arena for a brief practice at 5:55 Mountain Standard Time Thursday evening.

Players rotated taking shots and ran various full court drills.Throughout the practice, the players were quiet and seemed to be playing very hesitantly as they adjusted to the new scene.

Unlike their opponent who ran practice about 90 minutes prior to Portland State, the Xavier players were very loose and acted off their prior NCAA tournament experiences.

One advantage the Vikings do have over Xavier is their ability to run the floor. If the Vikings want to compete in tomorrow’s game they must out-run Xavier and get transition buckets.

“I would like us to initiate the tempo of the game, try to get out, try to push it, see if we can’t get a good look at the basket in transition,” said Portland State head coach Ken Bone.

A few thoughts about the game:

I expect senior point guard Jeremiah Dominguez to have a solid game. The Big Sky tournament MVP has willed this team back to the NCAA tournament.

The defensive matchup against BJ Raymond will be interesting. It is unclear which Portland State defender will start off on Raymond although it will most likely be junior wing Phil Nelson. Junior forward Kyle Coston has played solid defense of late, in particular a nice effort in the conference championship game against Montana State

The Vikings Big men vs. Xavier Big men: If Jamie Jones and Julius Thomas can out run Xavier’s Jared Love, the Vikings can have easy scoring opportunities in transition.

Waters-Thomas combination: The Vikings bench will have to outplay Xavier’s lack of depth. In the conference tournament Dominic Waters and Julius Thomas connected frequently, with Waters dishing out brilliant assists that typically resulted in highlight dunks from Thomas.

Posted by Tom Sedun, Vanguard staff
All photos taken by Rodrigo Melgarejo, Vanguard photographer

Men's Basketball Preview

What: NCAA Tournament East Regional First Round Game

Who: No. 13 seed Portland State (23-9) vs. No. 4 seed Xavier (25-7)

When: Friday, March 16, 4:25 p.m.

Where: Taco Bell Arena, Boise, ID

On the air: TV: CBS/ KOIN 6, radio: 800 AM (KPDQ)

2008 Tournament History:

No. 3 seed Xavier lost to No. 1 seed UCLA 76-57 in West Regional Final. Defeated Georgia, Purdue, and West Virginia.

No 16. Portland State lost to No.1 seed Kansas 85-61 in the South Regional first round.

Just a taste: The Musketeers of Xavier enter the big dance as regular season conference champion of the Atlantic 10 conference and are ranked 22^nd in the coaches polls.

Their last game was a two-point loss to Temple in the A10 conference tournament semifinal. Temple went on to win the tournament securing an NCAA tournament berth.

Xavier has an impressive tournament resume with victories over last year’s National Champion runner-up, Memphis, and SEC conference champion Louisiana State. Notable losses for the Musketeers from teams competing in the NCAA tournament include an 18-point loss at Duke and a nine-point loss to Butler.

Two-time Big Sky tournament champion Portland State will come to Boise riding a season high six-game winning streak.

The Vikings were surprised by a No. 13 seed from the tournament committee after last year’s drawing of a 16 seed and a date with eventual tournament champion Kansas.

Portland State’s victory at Gonzaga stands out as the biggest win for the season while a one-point loss to PAC-10 regular season champion Washington shows that the Vikings can compete with teams that were given high seeds in the tournament. Washington, like Xavier, is a No. four seed in the West Regional.

Stars: Xavier has three starters that average double digits in scoring. Senior B.J. Raymond leads the team in scoring averaging 14 points per game, while forwards Derrick Brown and C.J. Anderson score 13.8 and 10 points each contest respectively. The Musketeers rely heavily on their rebounding. They are eighth in the country in total rebounds while holding opponents to an average of 62.3 points a game.

BJ Raymond

The Vikings will be led by senior captain and Big Sky tournament MVP Jeremiah Dominguez. Dominguez has scored in double digits in the last five games averaging 16.8 points in those games.

PSU will also rely heavily from fellow starting guard and senior Andrew Murray, who played a significant role in getting the Vikings back to the big dance for the second year in a row. Starting forward Phil Nelson and Jamie Jones will also need productive games for the Vikings to get the upset over Xavier. Both players struggled with scoring in the conference tournament.

X-Factor Matchup: Xavier’s Bench vs. Portland State’s Bench

The Vikings look to have a much deeper bench than the Musketeers. Junior guard Dominic Waters and forward Julius Thomas have developed a nice two-man game that has been difficult for defenders to stop. Waters is a threat from the outside while Thomas is a force underneath the basket. No player from the Xavier bench averages more than five points a game.

Written by Tom Sedun, Vanguard staff

Vikings matched up with Xavier in first round: Portland State earns a No. 13 seed and will face the Musketeers in Boise on Friday

The Vikings learned what a difference one year makes on Sunday afternoon when the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee slotted the repeat Big Sky Champions as a surprising 13 seed and rewarded head coach Ken Bone’s squad with a first round game in Boise, Idaho.

Last season, the Vikings rolled through the Big Sky Conference and tournament but lacked a signature non-conference win and were seeded No. 16 leading to a difficult first round matchup with eventual national champion Kansas.

But this year, a December victory against Gonzaga coupled with a Portland State victory for the second consecutive year at the Big Sky Tournament earned the Vikings a much-improved and more winnable game against Xavier of the Atlantic-10 Conference.

The Musketeers seemed like a lock for a better seed until they were upset by Temple in the A-10 Semifinals on Friday. They boast a 25-7 record and were 12-4 in conference play.

Included in those seven defeats were losses at Duke, Duquesne, Dayton, Charlotte, Temple and Richmond. The Musketeers lost only one home game all season, on Dec. 23 (the same day the Vikings defeated Gonzaga) to Butler. Three of their seven losses came to NCAA Tournament teams but Xavier has posted impressive wins over Missouri, Virginia Tech, Memphis, Auburn, Cincinnati and Virginia.

Xavier is led in scoring by 6-6 senior forward B.J. Raymond who averages 14.1 points per game and shoots 42 percent from beyond the three-point arc. Junior forward Derrick Brown provides the interior presence for the Musketeers averaging 13.8 points and 6 rebounds per game.

The matchup will be the first in the history of the two schools and the Vikings have never faced an opponent from the Atlantic 10. Game time for the first round contest has yet to be announced.

Portland State and Xavier will join Florida State, Wisconsin, Marquette, Utah State, Missouri and Cornell in first round games at Taco Bell Arena on the campus of Boise State University.

Vikings look to be pulling away: lead 71-62

If your dancing shoes got a little dusty over the past 12 months, you better shine them up because it looks like the Vikings are pulling away from Montana State. A win, of course, would earn the club their second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Men’s Basketball Preview: Big Sky Championship Edition

What: Portland State (22-9, 12-5 BSC) vs. Montana State (14-16, 7-10)
Where: Dee Events Center, Ogden, Utah
When: 7:30 p.m., Tonight
On the air: 800 AM KPDQ (audio, Tom Hewitt play-by-play), ESPN2 (Comcast channel 36)

Stars: Montana State has had an inconsistent year thus far, but when the Bobcats have played well it has been based heavily on the inside presence of senior All Big Sky center Divaldo Mbunga.

Mbunga, the Zach Randolph lookalike, is a force on the glass and on defense. In their win over Weber State he had 11 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks and 1 steal.

The Montana State backcourt tandem of Marquis Navarre and Will Bynum form a strong duo of players capable of running the offense and scoring. Combined, they average 15 points per game but have been effective in hounding opposing ball handlers with their quickness.

In addition to those three stars, Junior Branden Johnson was the player of the game for Montana State in their semifinal victory. The southpaw shooter hit four of his six threes en route to a team high 16 points.

Portland State will need a strong game from at least two of their perimeter players. In their semifinal victory over Idaho State, it was junior Dominic Waters who sparked the team in the first half and senior guard Andre Murray who brought the team to life in a stagnant second half.

A key matchup should be Johnson and Portland State junior forward Kyle Coston. Both players like to roam outside the three point line and three’s by either will help either team establish the spacing and tempo that both of these teams will want to play at.

Just a taste: An unlikely pairing, the two squads will meet for the third time this season, but this time a Big Sky Championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament will be on the line.

Montana State has bulldozed through two of the top three seeds in the conference, all on the road, and will have an opportunity to knock off the Vikings and earn the school’s third ever trip to the Big Dance.

Portland State is making their second consecutive trip to the championship game and will have to give a more consistent effort should they earn a subsequent berth in the NCAA Tournament.

The Vikings have struggled with consistency within games this season and only played well during the first half of their 61-53 semifinal victory over the Bengals.

The two teams split their matchups this season, with Montana State eking out a narrow three point victory in Bozeman and Portland State picking up a six point win at the Stott Center.

With host Weber State dropping their semifinal yesterday and nearby Idaho State also stumbling, the Big Sky Championship will likely be played in front of just a few hundred fans as neither Montana State nor Portland State looked well supported in their semifinal.

This will be the second time this season that the Vikings have appeared in a ESPN game. Portland State defeated Boise Stat on Feb. 21 in the other game.

The two squads met last in the Big Sky Tournament in 2007, when Portland State defeated the Bobcats, 96-71 in a quarterfinal game played at the Stott Center.

Favorites shocked: Weber State falls in a stunner to No. 6 seed Montana State

In a game that not a soul was bold enough to predict, Montana State defeated Weber State in the Big Sky Tournament Semifinals, 70-61.

The win advances Montana State, an unlikely participant, to the Big Sky Championship where they will face the No. 2 seeded Portland State in the championship game tomorrow evening. At stake will be a spot in the NCAA Tournament, the first for Montana State since 1996.

The Bobcats trounced the host Wildcats, who they had fallen to by 20 points just one week ago, behind a terrific defensive performance and sharpshooting from the perimeter.

Weber State managed to hit just four of their 26 three-point attempts while Montana State shot an efficient 40 percent from beyond the arc. The Wildcats shot just 33 percent from the field for the game and had just eight team assists.

“They played really hard,” Kellen McCoy, Weber State’s senior guard said. “We just didn’t hit our shots and they came in with a lot of heart. Everything changed from two weeks ago.”

The loss left the 5,162 in attendance devastated, and the host Wildcats wondering what went wrong.

Montana State, who barely snuck into the Big Sky Tournament, upset rival Montana in a road game last Saturday to earn their ticket to Ogden.

On Tuesday night, they made believers out of the rest of the conference by handing Weber State just their second loss of the conference season.

“Our guys persevered through a lot this season,” said Montana State head coach Brad Huse. “This win is exciting for our program, exciting for our university.”

The Big Sky MVP, McCoy, had an off-night and was hounded by defensive pressure from Marquis Navarre and Will Bynum. McCoy finished with just 16 points but struggled from the perimeter and hit just four of 10 field goal attempts. He also had six turnovers.

Navarre and Bynum had 17 total points and joined Branden Johnson, Erik Rush and Divaldo Mbunga in holding off a furious Weber State rally in the waning moments.

The Weber State freshman combination of Damian Lillard and Kyle Bullinger that spurned Big Sky opponents during the regular season was held in check for the majority of the game. They combined for just 10 total points.

Momentum may have swung as early as the final moments of the first half when a Bynum steal led to a thunderous transition dunk over Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year, Weber State forward Daviin Davis.

Bynum’s play and the subsequent technical foul he earned for jawing with Davis infuriated the crowd but ignited a strong run by the Bobcats to close the half.

Despite the heartbreaking loss, Weber State will continue their season in the NIT. Due to the defeat, the Wildcats will claim the conference’s automatic bid to the tournament and could possibly host a first-round game next week.

Montana State will move on to keep their streaking run through the Big Sky Tournament with a chance to take their lackluster 13-16 record to the NCAA Tournament with a victory over Portland State tomorrow night.

Vikings Stumble into Big Sky Championship

Written by: Tom Sedun, Vanguard staff

Ogden, Utah- For the second consecutive season, the Portland State Vikings have reached the Big Sky conference tournament championship game. And for the second consecutive year they reached the conference championship by defeating Idaho State.

The Vikings were able to pull out a 61-53 victory in front of 2779 at the Dee Events Center on the campus of Weber State.

The road back to the final did not come easy for the Vikings who let Idaho State rally from a 19-point halftime deficit.

“Well it wasn’t the prettiest of games but we are glad that we were able to win,” said Portland State head coach Ken Bone. “It feels great to be back in the championship game. It’s something we have been striving for all season long.”

Andre Murray led all scorers with 24 points and scored 13 of Portland State’s 19 points in the second half. “They were beating us in transition,” Murray said. “I felt I needed to score the ball for us.”

Portland State went on a 22-2 run in the first half to give the defending Big Sky champions a 42-23 halftime advantage, Phil Nelson scored 12 of his 14 in the first half.

But much like their earlier meeting in Pocatello, the Bengals opened the second half with an 18-3 run and had all the momentum late in the ball game.

“I told the guys that this game was just like that one. Idaho State is a very good team and could have very well been in the championship game,” Bone said.

With the Bengals only trailing the Vikings by three with Jeremiah Dominguez sealed the Portland State victory by hitting three free throws, all in the final minute.

“It’s great we are back in the championship game,” said the first team all Big Sky guard. “But we need to play focused for forty minutes in order to win tomorrow.”

Even though the game was not the finest performance from the Vikings, the victory was satisfying enough, at least for one night.

“A win is a win,” said Andre Murray. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a blowout or by one point, I’ll take it.”

Odds are set at 3:1 that Kyle Coston earns a technical foul in Ogden

After doing some preliminary research on the subject, the evidence is in. Junior forward Kyle Coston , a man with many talents, is the most likely player at the Big Sky Tournament to earn himself a technical foul.

Coston, a junior lefty with a strong outside shooting touch, is leading the team in fouls heading into the Big Sky Tourney. This comes despite Coston often being handed the least physical of the opposition's front-line players, with either Jamie Jones or Julius Thomas typically defending the bigger and better opposing post.

Kyle also leads the team in technical fouls--he has earned two in the past four games. Now, certainly he isn't approaching Rasheed-level status but a closer look and a trip down memory lane demonstrates that if the Big Sky Tournament had some prop bets for the action in Ogden, put your money on a Coston infraction.

He may have only technically (ha, ha) earned two technical fouls but fans of the Vikings will remember a few other points of evidence that could work against the Southpaw.

1- Coston and Portland forward Robin Smeulders tangle underneath the hoop in the Vikings Stott Center opener. No technicals are assessed but there was certainly some extracurricular activity, if you know what I'm saying.

2- Coston and Seattle Redhawks' Austen Powers and Mike Boxley get tangled up on several occasions. Again, no whistle but there could have been.

3- The Vikings and Idaho State scuffle on the way to the locker rooms at the end of the first half at the Stott Center. Surely, Coston isn't solely responsible for the altercation but he was definitely there and definitely involved.

4- Chris Kaba of Northern Colorado and Coston go nose to nose after a physical play in the second half. Finally some game control by the zebras, as both are assessed T's.

5- The great dunker that he is, Coston is whistled for dunking during warmups of the Eastern Washington game. Not necessarily a fight but you can label it in the bonehead category.

Now, what do all of these bodies of evidence tell us? I don't think they say that Coston is a dirty player or that he is cheap or anything like that. I think these pieces of evidence and my own personal knowledge of Coston indicate more than anything, that he is a maturing young man and he still has some growth left in him in that sense.

Sometimes he just doesn't make the best decisions on the court, especially when emotions are high.

Now, on to the readings of the week-
Jim Moore of the Seattle PI has a good story about a former high-school and college star who suddenly was diagnosed with cancer.

The annoying logos that the NCAA had previously used on all their NCAA Tournament courts are going by the way side because players were slipping all over them.

No that it matters really but CollegeRpi has the following from the Big Sky Teams
Weber State: 95
Portland State: 119
Montana: 164
Idaho State: 201
Northern Colorado: 261
Montana State: 242

Eastern Washington: 237
Northern Arizona: 295
Sacramento State: 341 (of 344 teams)

Joe Lunardi has the Wildcats advancing from the Big Sky Championships and drawing a No. 14 seed. He also said PSU would get no worse than a No. 15 seed last year so take it for what its worth.

Anyways make sure to stay tuned- The Stumptown Sports Hook is headed to Ogden next week!

Vikings grab No. 2 seed in conference tourney and something special for the second week in a row...

After four straight wins to close the regular season, the men's basketball team earned a first round bye in the Big Sky Tournament and will not open the tournament until the semifinals next Tuesday night.

If the chalk holds out, and its a safe assumption, you can bet that PSU will likely take on Montana in that semifinal game. My feelings about the squad not playing until nine days from now are mixed.

Another home game and you obviously have the chance to keep improving and continue perfecting the offensive scheme of working inside-out. But of course there is always the possibility that the Vikings could lose that game and given the fact that they got beat by Montana State (who would have been their opponent) in Bozeman earlier in the year, it might be a good thing.

Anyhow, we will definitely have a more thorough breakdown of the Big Sky Tournament later this week. As for now, on to other things...

Last week our guest commentator, a Portland State student and fan, made known his feelings about the fans that made their presence known in front of the ESPN cameras... This week he is ranting about another itch: the possible renovation of the Stott Center.

Feelings around campus are mixed. As any observer could tell you, the student section is hardly full and rarely boisterous. Why should we quadruple the seating capacity of the gym when it does not sellout currently?

Well our man Marnix has a solid take on it.

There are many who feel that the Stott Center Renovation is a pointless and wasteful project that Portland State shouldn’t waste there time with. To those “nay sayers” I would like you to think about the following…

As the men’s team wraps up their 2008-2009 season with a 12-1 home record and the women’s team going 13-2, I don’t see any reason why the athletes that represent the PSU colors on the hard-court don't deserve to play in a legitimate gymnasium.

If money is the issue maybe we should take some money from “high-profile” but under-performing coaches (Glanville) or programs (football).

If your complaint is that Portland State should focus on academics, I would propose the notion that investing and building a national athletics program is the road to such an idea. Think about it, outside of the Ivy League schools, all the national powerhouses in either football or basketball are considered to have highly reputable academic institutions.

For example, USC with Football, Duke or North Carolina with Basketball, or Texas that dominates in just about every athletic event are all highly regarded academically in addition to being powerhouses in sports.

Whether or not they are good at academics because they are good at sports is not a concrete correlation, but the fact that its works more times than not is a compelling idea.

With that said, I guess I look forward to coming back to campus in a couple of years and seeing the new beautiful stadium the athletic department is working so diligently to build.

Then again, actually filling the new, larger stadium will be a different story (see my posting from Tuesday, Feb. 24).

A decent effort from Marnix in his second such posting of the year... We'll leave you today with a pretty solid youtube video of Northern Idaho Junior College point guard Melvin Jones hitting an impressive shot to help his current squad defeat CSI, which I believe stands for College of Southern Idaho and not something else.

Who is Melvin Jones? Possibly the man who will replace Jeremiah Dominguez as the Vikings starting point guard next season.

Guest Commentary from a Portland State student and fan

Disclaimer: While we here at the Vanguard pride ourselves in maintaining our journalistic integrity and not having a rooting interest it is often difficult to not get attached to the athletes, teams and coaches that we cover. With that said, our ethical responsibility is to report the truth regardless of what light it depicts our university in.

Luckily enough, we have a guest commentator to give us the PSU Fans' perspective.

His name is Marnix Brinkhoff and he is a senior majoring in Business Accounting. Check out the picture for a glimpse at what this Dutchman looks like...

Marnix will be contributing to the sports blog on a semi-regular basis. Check out his first blog entry as he digs on the Vikings fans that manage to make all the PSU games, as long as they are on national television.

Viking Fans,

With the stars out (well, at least Greg Oden) and the bright lights of ESPN shining on the Stott Center in Saturday’s men’s basketball match up against Boise State, the Portland State student’s showed up to electrify the gymnasium.

Similar to Jeremiah Dominguez’s game, the students of PSU came out of a near year-long hiatus to once again show up in force for an ESPN televised game. The last game with so much support was the Big Sky Championship last March, the last time that the Vikings played on ESPN.

As a devoted fan to the basketball program, I realize how much better basketball at the Stott Center can be with the energy of so many rowdy students.

However, the fact that student’s only show up for a glimpse at the big stage of ESPN is disturbing.

With competitive basketball in the Park Blocks this year, I anticipated some large crowds to cheer on the defending Big Sky Champions, but with most athletic events, I was sorely disappointed in the student turnout this season.

My writing, I hope, will not deter students from attending more games or cheering vigorously but instead will ignite a spark for ALL students to come out to ALL games.

Think about the impact the sold-out crowd had on the game (as the team led by 23 at halftime) and think about what the season would look like right now if those students had been there all year.

With the last home game this Wednesday, my hope is to see just as many vibrant PSU fans this

week as there was for the game last weekend, even without the stigma of ESPN coverage.

Go Vikings!

Who's going to Ogden? Big Sky Tournament update...

As we head into the final week of the regular season much of the conference tournament field is being narrowed down. We already now that the Big Sky Tournament will be at the Dee Events Center in Ogden and Weber State will be the host.

Up to this point the Wildcats have looked downright dominant. While Lillard and Bullinger get a bunch of credit and McCoy seems like a lock for POY, Weber State is the team that they are because of a strong inside game from Steve Panos and real leadership from senior guard Daviin Davis, who you can catch a glimpse of his athleticism on this video.

Anyhow I thought it would be good to break down the tournament scenarios for everybody...Here goes:

# 1 Seed: Weber State- (see above).

#2 Seed: Likely Montana-The Griz are 11-4 after taking down Idaho State on Saturday. They play at Northern Colorado on Thursday and control their own destiny. If they win, they are the automatic No. 2 seed. If they lose... that's when things get interesting.

#3 Seed: Portland State- The Vikings have a home game against Montana State on Wednesday, and it's certainly no gimme. If Portland State can play like they did against Boise State on Saturday: inspired and confident they should get a win. The tougher test might come on Saturday when they play at Eastern Washington, a team that could be fighting for its playoff lives.

#4 Seed: Idaho State- The Pocatello pokies seem poised to host another Big Sky Tournament game. They have two easy games this week to wrap up the regular season.

#5 Seed: Montana State- The Bobcats still have three games remaining but will probably find a way to get wins in at least two of them. The game of the year could be Saturday when Montana State travels to Greeley to take on the Bears with the playoffs on the line.

#6 Seed: Northern Colorado- Not sure why I have the Bears here ahead of Eastern Washington, but I feel strongly that they will be able to get at least one victory out of the Montana schools this week. Eastern Washington has the misfortune of having just one conference game left- against Portland State, a team that they do not match up with very well...

We'll of course know more after this week... In fact we'll know everything.

If my guesses are correct, the Vikings would host Northern Colorado in a rematch of last week's game that went down to the final buzzer and Idaho State would take on Montana State in Pocatello. My guess is that the chalk would advance and you would be looking at a pretty solid Big Sky Final Four.

Wanted to let everybody know that we will have a feature post from a new guest writer later tonight or sometime soon. Unlike the Vanguard sports section staff, he is not a partial writer covering a team, but is instead a fan and wants his voice to be heard. More details later...

Bombs Away: PSU's 12 threes helps Vikings take 58-35 lead into the break

In one of the more exciting games that this author has ever been privy to witness, the Vikings are playing perhaps as good as they possibly could and leading Boise State convincingly at halftime.

Just about everybody on the roster has hit at least one three pointer. Jeremiah Dominguez has three triples and Phil Nelson, Andre Murray and Kyle Coston each have two three pointers.

The Vikings got off to a scorching start, scoring on 12 of their first 17 possessions, including eight three pointers. Simply put, this is the team that Portland State fans have been waiting to see the entire season.

The Broncos have looked steady at times but unsure of themselves and without a strong offensive presence outside of junior guard Jamar Greene who has penetrated at will and hit shots from the perimeter with ease en route to 12 first half points.

As a team, the Vikings are 12 for 21 from three point land in the first half and shooting a scorching 65 percent from the field. More impressively, they have won the rebounding battle and have 16 team assists. The Vikings have also forced the Broncos into 13 turnovers leading to 23 points.

Quite the atmosphere here in the Stott Center if I may say so myself. Not only is the team playing superbly but the fans are cheering as if they know what they are doing... Its a good day to be involved in Portland State athletics. I can see Torre Chisholm beaming from here.

Oh yeah and one more topper: Greg Oden just walked in.

I don't think we're at Taco Bell Arena anymore...

I decided to get to the Stott Center early and its a good thing I did... On Thursday night there were nearly 500 announced open seats here for a conference game with Northern Colorado.

Today, at 4 p.m., one half hour before tip off, the arena is alive and jumping with a brand of energy that may not have ever been here.

You can attribute it to ESPN's presence, Boise State's natural proxemic rivalry or some other things. But any way you look at it, the celebrities are out, the alumni are here and the student section is packed with more spandex than I have seen since the Big Sky Volleyball Tournament. Should be an exciting couple of hours. If you're not here yet, get here quick.

The big talk before the game was about PSU's chances to possibly claim a decent seed should they somehow snap out of the funk that they're in and run the table. This would include a big win today and taking the other two conference games as well as trounicng their opponents in the Big Sky Tournament.

My gut feeling is that if the Vikings could do that- run the table and win the rest of their games they maybe could claim a No. 15 seed. Obviously they have some other things to worry about. Check back for more updates.

Vikings need to find identity starting tonight

The Portland State men’s basketball team entered this season with high and expected expectations. And it seemed that all those expectations were going to be true to form for instance when the team beat Gonzaga on the road and got off to a 6-1 Big Sky conference start. However the Vikings have lost 4 out of their last 6 and getting to March Madness for a second year in a row seems doubtful.



All year the team has been clinging to the words of energy and effort. I believe that more times than not both of those ingredients have been there for the Vikings. However what is missing for this team is consistency and an identity.

The team has struggled to find a dominant scorer to rely on day in and day out. Phil Nelson is defiantly not that scorer; he has not scored in double digits in the last four games.

It seems that Jeremiah Dominguez senses this lack of consistency and is putting the team’s performance on his shoulders. But there is too much talent on this team for one player to carry. Jamie Jones can score in the paint, and Andre Murray can be an aggressive scorer only when he wants to be.

Fact of the matter is that that Vikings are in a rare position to build an established identity this late into a season. I think coach Bone believes it and is banking on the fact that his team can build momentum into the conference tournament. Only problem is that the result of trying to prove something this late can either work out brilliantly or fail miserably.

Tonight against Northern Colorado will be the first chance for PSU start playing with consistency and a changed identity.

Posted by Tom Sedun, Vanguard staff

Vikings defeat Sac St, 59-42

It surely wasn't pretty, but the Vikings defended their home court, and picked up a victory to keep pace in the race for Big Sky Conference supremacy by defeating Sacramento State, 59-42.

The victory, which came without junior center Jamie Jones, was one of the slowest paced games that the Vikings have played in all season. Sac. State head coach Brian Katz deployed a slow paced game and deliberated on each play call as if he were a Supreme Court judge.

The talk of the game was how the Vikings responded without Jones, the man who had started at center every game and provided much of the interior scoring for the squad this year.

Julius Thomas filled in nicely with a double-double while Kyle Coston and Tyrell Mara each had their best interior game since conference play began, each grabbing six rebounds. The trio combined to score 27 points and 22 rebounds.

It was interesting to watch Katz attempt to thwart the high powered offense by forcing his team to waste the majority of the shot clock on each posession by dribbling around near mid court. He then would methodically signal in a play that his team would run, usually with only a moderate amount of success.

It was an usual strategy, especially for a first year coach that has a roster of entirely new faces that each are in their first year since transferring from a junior college. Most people would have probably suggested that the Hornets try to beat the Vikings at their own game, out scoring the home squad.

But Sac St opted to slow the game down and despite the low scoring output from both teams, nobody at the game, including the Hornet players, looked like they thought it would work.

It was interesting to see and hear the television announcers call the game from the sideline. Former Portland State player Rashad Floyd was on the commentary and while he occasionally bumbled through information, a la Woody Paige on Around the Horn, they did a decent job, although the final word may come tonight when the broadcast actually airs.

The Vikings are going to have to get standout performances from Dominguez, Waters, Murray and Nelson if they are to have a shot to beat Weber State on Saturday. The Idaho State game is no cakewalk either, although it looks like the Bengals may be without conference leading scorer Amarrow Morgan who is with an ailing family member.

I will leave you with the aforementioned Floyd's highlight video... good stuff...

PSU and Sac. State gridlocked at 8-8

After playing more than eight minutes in the first half, its clear that the Hornets game plan is to keep the ball away from the Portland State offense.

Sacramento State is holding the ball near half court the majority of the shot clock before initializing their play, and usually being successful at that play.

The Vikings are struggling on offense, committing several turnovers and missing most of the shots that they typically would make. Word is trickling down slowly about the injury of Jamie Jones who suffered some sort of foot injury (more on that later) and may be out the rest of the regular season.

Obviously Jones' absence could be devastating for the Vikings chances in the Big Sky.

Vikings take on Sac. St pregame

Here in the unusually empty Stott Center, there is an usually large media sighting...

The Altitude Network is making their only appearance in the Stott Center this year and the two announcers are sitting next to yours truly. It's a good thing I shaved today...

In other news---

The Stott is unusually empty. My guess is that Ken Bone would have rather played this game on a Saturday night.

Jamie Jones is out with a collection of injuries to his ankle and wrist. The junior will miss his first game of the year despite being hampered by the wrist injury for quite some time. Julius Thomas will get the start in his stead.

PSU kicks it into gear in the second half, 70-47

After a sporadic first half in which the home squad scored just 32 points, the Vikings have exploded for 38 points after just 12 minutes of second half play.

The ginormous offensive surge was prompted by 15 second half points by junior guard Phil Nelson and some terrific perimeter defense by Nelson, Dominguez and Andre Murray.

Murray, now with 15 points, has totally shutdown Benny Valentine and Eastern Washington looks close to throwing in the towel here at the Stott Center.

Nelson, meanwhile, has been all over the court, scoring at will and looking like the player that most thought he would be when the smooth electrician, and yes I coined that nickname, transferred from Washington.

With under six minutes to play, I think its safe to say that the Vikings likely have this one in the bag and it was an impressive showing no doubt about it.