Checking Out the Portland State Vikings

Portland State has had some decent years in the Big Sky Conference, but has never won the auto-bid, and as such has no tournament record. Also "as such, per se", I must admit that I also know nothing about them at all. So we'll undergo this journey together.

But why? Why the sudden interest? Because the Portland State Vikings are on the cusp of their first big dance appearance. They are pillaging the nation's wide-open spaces, running up a 10-2 record in the Big Sky. Northern Arizona is their nearest threat, at a rather distant 8-5. Should the Vikes stay steady in the conference tournament, they'll probably be a low seed, maybe even a play-in game participant, but I think they'll happily take it.

There are a few cool things about Portland State right off the bat. First, their coach goes by the awesome name of Ken Bone, and this is his third season running the rain-soaked school. Their statistics are dominated by the high-low combo of 5'6" Sophomore Guard Jeremiah Dominguez, and 6'11" Senior Center Scott Morrison (seen above). The only other player who ekes into the superlatives is Freshman Guard Justynn Hammond, a three-point specialist who's shooting 44% from behind the arc in just 14 games played, mostly in-conference.

The Vikings have taken on some quality opponents, losing to most, but coming away with a couple of profile-freshening wins. In November, they beat high-performing mids Akron and IUPUI, and played gutsy ball in early losses to Pac-10 stalwarts Washington, Washington State, and UCLA.

The Big Sky is the type of league that rewards the regular-season champ with home dates in the league tournament, so keeping the wins coming is very important to the Vikings. It galls us mightily when dominant teams come up on the losing end of a championship game and have to sit home in March, so we'll keep an eye on the Sky around the 11th of that month, with the implicit assumption that the road to the NCAA tourney will go through The Rose Garden.