Vikings hoops look to rebound this winter
Men feature almost entirely new squad while women roll out a reunited lineup
There was a theme building as the Portland State men’s basketball team built its roster this offseason.
Last year’s squad was almost entirely gone, all but four players graduating or moving on to other programs. It’s become a theme at the Pavilion the last four seasons, with the Viks turning over an average of nine players each year, with 10 players being flipped in two of the last three seasons.
The roster churn allowed Viks coach Jase Coburn an opportunity to shape the roster to his personality in his first full offseason as head coach.
As those players started to roll in, they started to fit a mold. All of them were staunch defenders — a trademark of Coburn’s team that began to take hold in the back half of last season as the Viks closed the season with 10 wins in their last 14 games — and they all fit a similar profile.
All but one was between 6-foot-4 and 6-8, all built to handle themselves physically and able to guard — or play — multiple positions.
The result, the Viks new squad is built to play bully ball: able to push around any team in the conference and switch everything on the perimeter.
It’s likely to be one of the strongest defensive teams in the conference, something that Coburn keyed on in his preseason podcast with the school website, noting that nearly every guy, “gets after it.”
The rub?
No one is quite sure where the offense is going to come from.
New addition Cameron Parker was a gunner at Montana the last few seasons, averaging 8.2 points in limited minutes for the Griz, but steps into a new role for the Viks. Returners like Mikal Starks and Jacob Eyman have had big games for the Viks but haven’t been asked to carry the team offensively.
There are a number of players who athletically can fit the bill but there isn’t an obvious candidate for lead scorer, which may hold the Viks back early.
The Viks were projected to finish seventh in the conference this preseason, in large part due to the massive roster turnover leaving a bunch of unanswered questions. The top two teams, Montana State and Northern Colorado, return all-conference players and familiar names that make it easier to predict a landing spot. The same goes for perennial contenders Montana and Weber State.
It’s harder at this point to peg exactly the plan for Portland State or how effective it will be once the Viks are on the floor.
However the Viks choose to line up, we’ll find out pretty quickly if the team can stack up against top competition.
Portland State opens against Portland on The Bluff, looking to reverse a three-game losing streak to the crosstown rival that shot up the WCC standings last season under new coach Shantay Legans.
The Viks play three of their first four games on the road, ending the stretch against Oregon State in Corvallis before playing the Phil Knight Legacy tournament on what is technically a neutral court at Memorial Coliseum against preseason national No. 2 Gonzaga.
The men play Air Force and a series of California schools to close the nonconference schedule before opening the first three games of the Big Sky slate on the road.
There’s not a lot of buffer space on the schedule, though I imagine the coaching staff wouldn’t want it any other way.
In contrast, the women’s team conducted its offseason in almost the completely opposite manner.
The Viks, who open play tonight (Nov. 3) with an exhibition against Lewis & Clark, only leave Portland three times in their first 13 games, a stretch that extends to Jan. 12.
PSU also will avoid the rigorous travel schedule from last season, forgoing a multi-team event this season and playing all of its nonconference games on the West Coast. It should also get a reprieve from the grueling three-game-a-week grind from last season’s COVID compacted season.
That runway should help the Viks get off the ground with a squad that shouldn’t take much time to jell, given the squad returns nearly every player from last season, including four of five starters.
The team will also get the services of Nakia Boston, who lost last season to an injury but played nearly 20 minutes and 5.3 points as a freshman.
Boston’s return highlights a logjam at the guard position, with the Viks leading contributors — Jada Lewis, Esme Morales, Mia ‘Uhila and Alaya Fitzgerald — all occupying the backcourt.
It makes for a small lineup, with only three women on the team listed at 6-foot-1 or taller, an issue that plagued the Viks against teams like Sacramento State that could roll out waves of frontcourt players that would outmuscle PSU in the post and make its zone defense irrelevant.
It’s for much of that reason that the Viks were a nearly unanimous pick to finish last in the league this season.
The PSU zone defense showed improvement at times last season as the predominantly freshmen-led lineup learned the nuances of the system and the late-season tail off should correct itself as the young group finds its legs at this level.
Small lineups have won the league in the past, with Idaho State winning the league the last two seasons with a guard-driven starting group. That requires deft shooting, speed and a team-wide commitment to defense for the entire season, something that may still be a tough ask from such a young Vikings group.
For her part, Viks head coach Chelsey Gregg is aware that the excuse of youth isn’t going to go very far this season.
“No longer can we hide under the guise that we’re young,” Gregg said to the school website. “We still have eight sophomores or freshmen on our team but the reality is that’s not something that we want to fall back on as an excuse anymore.”
The Viks open their regular season schedule at home on Monday against Warner Pacific.