Big Sky Conference

Vikings continue to surprise despite trying week of travel

on

Tyler Geving wondered how his Vikings would respond after a less than ideal travel week. In the midst of the trials, Portland State stubbed its toe. Once back home however, the response from the Viks could not have been better.

On Tuesday, January 10, Portland State practiced on its home floor in the evening before heading to the airport. The Vikings planned to fly from Portland to Phoenix that night in preparation for a game at Northern Arizona two days later. The team boarded the plane but as the de-icing commenced, the Pineapple Express weather system hit the City of Roses, halting travel of any sort.

Portland State eighth-year head coach Ty Geving/photo courtesy of PSU athletics

Portland State eighth-year head coach Tyler Geving/photo courtesy of PSU athletics

“It was like one of those got to get out of town now or you aren’t going to get out,” Geving said on Wednesday. “We ended up sitting on the plane for two hours on Tuesday night and they ended up canceling the flight.”

By the time the team returned to the Portland State campus, Tuesday night had turned into Wednesday morning. The Big Sky Conference pulled some strings and rescheduled the NAU game for five days later on Monday, January 16. Instead, Portland State got on a flight to Salt Lake City on Thursday before bussing to Cedar City, Utah on Friday. PSU posted an 88-77 win over Southern Utah on Saturday and boarded a bus to Flagstaff that night.

On Monday, the Vikings struggled. The perimeter-oriented team shot just 23 percent from beyond the 3-point arc and lost the battle of the boards 51-26 to NAU as the Lumberjacks posted their first and only league victory, 83-76.

Immediately after the loss, the Viks rode a bus to Phoenix but their flight from Arizona’s capital city to PDX was again cancelled. PSU flew into Seattle on Tuesday and bussed up to Portland, arriving home at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

“The good thing about is our kids had great attitudes about it,” Geving said. “Sometimes, you can get in those situations and the kids start pissing and moaning. That was pretty cool. Our guys had a great approach about it.”

Portland State eighth-year head coach Ty Geving and assistant Jeff Hironaka, left, coaching last season

Portland State eighth-year head coach Ty Geving and assistant Jeff Hironaka, left, coaching last season

That good attitude played out on Thursday night as the Vikings earned a crucial league victory at the Stott Center in Portland. Outside the NAU loss, Portland State has been one of the surprise teams in the Big Sky this season and that notion earned affirmation as the Vikings built a 26-point second half lead before hanging on for an 88-79 win over previously red-hot Montana.

The win moved PSU to 4-2 in league play, 11-6 overall and 7-1 on its home court. The victory also snapped Montana’s four-game losing streak and denied the Griz a chance to move into a first-place tie with Weber State after the Wildcats fell at North Dakota on Thursday.

“It was going to be a grind it out game,” Geving said after the win. “They are good, and I think we are good too. So it was two teams slugging it out.”

Portland State has a chance to keep pace with the perennial powers of Weber, Montana and Eastern Washington along with upstart UND with Montana State visiting the Stott Center on Saturday night. The Bobcats earned their first road win since last February with a 74-65 victory at Sacramento State on Thursday.

 

PSU has been able to secure a spot in the top third of the standings thanks to a revamped style that pushes the pace as much as anyone in the country. The Vikings are averaging 87.2 points per game, first in the Big Sky and 10th in all of Division I. The Viks are shooting 50 percent from the floor as a team and five players are averaging double figures scoring. PSU leads the league in assists (17.4 per game), steals (10.4 per game) and turnover margin (+5.12).

MSU head coach Brian Fish

MSU head coach Brian Fish

“I think they are seventh in the nation in steals so when you pressure the ball and force people to turn it over, you can run and they do a very good job of that,” Montana State head coach Brian Fish said on Tuesday. “They have won seven of their last nine and have a lot momentum.

“They probably had the most positive first five or six games of the season as anybody and this season, they’ve probably been the surprise team in the league.”

PSU posted a 7-4 non-conference record with wins at Pepperdine, at San Francisco and at Portland. The Vikings also posted a 4-0 home record against non-Big Sky teams. PSU’s only home loss came in a 73-59 defeat to Northern Colorado two nights after Portland State put the rest of the league on high alert by notching 19 steals, forcing 26 turnovers and routing North Dakota 99-62.

The up-tempo style has been a systematic change that occurred toward the end of last season. With seven games remaining down the stretch, Geving elected to bring Georgia transfer Cameron Forte, an eventual second-team All-Big Sky selection who averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds in conference play, off the bench in favor of a smaller lineup. Geving moved De’Sean Parsons, a rangy 6-foot-7 athlete originally recruited from junior college to play on the perimeter to the starting power forward spot.

Portland State forward Cameron Forte scored 26 points in a victory vs Northern Colorado in the first round of the BSC tournament/by Brooks Nuanez

Portland State forward Cameron Forte  in the first round of the BSC tournament

PSU surged through the final stretch, winning five of seven. The two losses came at North Dakota (80-77) and to Weber State in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Tournament. The Vikings eliminated Northern Colorado in the first round of the Big Sky Tournament before pushing the eventual tournament champion Wildcats down to the wire before falling 78-74.

“It’s carried over to this year,” Geving said. “We have some of the same guys back and the same style. It helped we had a better identity of what we wanted to look like going into the year. Sometimes, when you get some junior college guys and new guys in the program, it takes you awhile. But with the amount of guys we had coming back that are in our rotation, it made the transition easier.”

PSU had to find replacements for Forte, slasher Isaiah Pineiro (transferred to San Diego) and senior center Collin Spickerman. The emergence of junior college transfers Deontae North, Bryce Canda and Traylin Ferris, the steady play of Parsons and senior Zach Gengler and the resurgence by senior point guard Calaen Robinson have all helped Portland State achieve the second-most overall victories in the Big Sky .

Robinson in particular has been PSU’s catalyst. The 6-2 southpaw point guard originally signed with Arizona State in his native Tempe after earning a ranking as the 19th-best point guard in the nation as a high school senior. He played a total of 120 minutes in two seasons before transferring and sitting out two seasons ago.

Last season, Robinson averaged 10.2 points and 3.3 assists per game. But he shot 39.2 percent from the floor and 34.1 percent from beyond the arc. This season, Robinson is PSU’s leading scorer at 14.0 points per outing. He is shooting 45 percent for a team with six players shooting 49 percent or better and three players shooting above 61 percent. Robinson has hit 36 percent of his shots from beyond the arc and is dishing out four assists per contest.

Portland State senior Calaen Robinson/courtesy of PSU athletics

Portland State senior Calaen Robinson/courtesy of PSU athletics

“There’s more confidence and consistency him,” Geving said. “Last year, he was really up and down and we went as he went from a perimeter standpoint. At Arizona State, he didn’t play, sat on the bench, then he transfers and sits out and you go three years without playing any minutes. I think we forget that sometimes. It took him a year to gain his confidence back and get out there and play again. I think last year was good for him and this year, it’s clicked.”

Saturday’s showdown features the top two scoring teams in the Big Sky. The Bobcats like to play fast and shoot as many 3-pointers as any team in the country. The contest will mark the fourth game in a week for the Vikings, but the last three have proven to Geving that his team knows how to respond no matter the trials.

“This time of the year, I’m not sure kids like to practice. They like to play games,” Geving said. “Let’s get ready and go play the next game.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved. 

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

Recommended for you