USD’s basketball program has suffered through a year of injuries, blown leads and inconsistency. At 9-18, the Toreros are at the bottom of the West Coast Conference standings. And third-year head coach Bill Grier admits, it’s a season that has worn him down and tried him mentally.
After Toreros’ practice on Wednesday, Coach Grier sat down courtside with 619 Sports’ Craig Elsten to talk about the season, the challenges facing the USD program, and how he personally holds up amidst the losing:
When you’re coming off a game in which you allowed your opponent to shoot an astonishing 63-percent from the field as the USD men’s basketball team did in losing at San Francisco last Sunday, you figure your coach — especially a guy like Bill Grier — is going to focus on nothing but defense when you get back to work in the gym.
So as the Toreros went through their paces this week at practice, they were certainly in a defensive frame of mind. Back in action Thursday night at the Jenny Craig Pavilion against Portland, however, it was a rather offensive performance that saddled them with a second consecutive West Coast Conference loss, this time a 63-54 setback to the Pilots.
The defense was much improved, limiting Portland to a 44.7-percent shooting effort. The offensive part, though, was at the other end of the floor. USD hit just 37-percent of its shots and scored only 24 points in the second half in falling to 8-11 overall and 1-2 in the WCC.
The Toreros led 38-36 with 16 minutes to play, but then went cold — hitting on just one of their 15 shots over the next 11 minutes as Portland (10-6, 1-1) eased its way through a 15-3 run and took control of the game.
619 Sports photo gallery: Portland vs. USD after the jump: Continue Reading →
ShareTo say the least, it was a rather tumultuous day on Montezuma Mesa. The evening provided a nice respite from the craziness.
Playing at Viejas Arena, across the street from where it was announced earlier Thursday that Athletic Director Jeff Schemmel had resigned his post after he was caught using University money to help pay for weekend trysts with a [...]
