The University of Portland men’s basketball team tips off the hosts the Linfield Wildcats in an exhibition game on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Chiles Center. Portland, picked second in the West Coast Conference Preseason Coaches Poll, returns its top 12 players from last year’s breakthrough team. The Pilots will then open the regular season at Eastern Washington on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 1 p.m.
GAME COVERAGE
Saturday's exhibition game will have live stats and free live audio at portlandpilots.com. All regular season Portland men’s basketball games will be on the radio on Freedom 970 AM with a free live simulcast available through portlandpilots.com. Each game will be broadcast live beginning 30 minutes prior to tip-off with the pregame coaches’ show. Non-televised regular season home games will also be video streamed at pilotsvideo.com.
TICKET INFORMATION
Season tickets are still available through the Pilot Box Office at (503) 943-7525. Prices range from $99 to $230. Single game tickets are also on sale, while tickets for the Gonzaga game will go on-sale Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 11 a.m. Single game tickets are available through all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.com, over the phone at (800) 745-3000 or in-person at the Pilot Box Office. For complete basketball ticket information, click here.
CAPTAIN WALLY’S PRE-GAME, EVERY GAME!
Get to the games early and meet your friends at “Captain Wally’s.” New this season, fans can purchase Widmer beer and dollar dogs before every home game in the Hall of Fame Room. The pre-game also features a coaches’ chalk talk 40 minutes prior to tip-off. Open to all UP alumni, season ticket holders and friends of UP. Please have your “UP Alumni & Friends Benefit card” (complimentary through the Alumni Office at (503) 943-7328 or alumni@up.edu).
LAST WEEK
Portland 106, Concordia 78: Nik Raivio led six different players in double figures as the Portland Pilots defeated the Concordia Cavaliers Thursday evening in an exhibition game at the Chiles Center. Junior forward Luke Sikma added a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Junior center Kramer Knutson finished with 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting from the field and senior forward Ethan Niedermeyer drained 5-of-6 shots, including three three-pointers, en route to 13 points. Seniors Robin Smeulders and Taishi Ito added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Senior point guard T.J. Campbell had a game-high nine assists and junior guard Jared Stohl had four steals. The NAIA Cavaliers were led by Alex Tiefenthaler’s 19 points, while Drew Preuninger made 5-of-6 three-pointers to finish with 15 points. Starting all five seniors on the roster, Portland took the early lead behind the play of Ito who had seven early points. The Pilots made six three-pointers in the first period and cruised to a 57-39 lead at the half. The largest lead for the Pilots was 32 points late in regulation as all 13 players on the active roster saw action. Portland forced 24 Cavalier turnovers and gained a 28-9 margin in points off of turnovers. The Pilots also turned a 40-27 rebounding edge into a 14-2 advantage in second chance points.
2009-10 SEASON PREVIEW
With nearly the entire roster returning from a banner season, the University of Portland has NCAA Tournament aspirations in 2010. Now in his fourth year at the helm of the Pilots, reigning West Coast Conference Coach of the Year Eric Reveno has transformed the program. Behind the play of All-WCC First Team guards T.J. Campbell and Nik Raivio, the Pilots posted a 19-13 record last year and advanced to postseason play for the first time since 1996. It was the third best season in Portland’s 51-year history at the NCAA Division I level despite not having a senior on the roster.
With all of the talent returning, expectations have risen for Reveno and the Pilots as Portland was picked to finish second behind Gonzaga in the WCC Preseason Coaches Poll. It is the highest preseason listing ever for the Pilots. Campbell and Raivio were both named to the Preseason All-Conference Team as Portland and Gonzaga were the only two schools with more than one representative.
The Pilots carried the momentum from last year’s run to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament into a valuable offseason. All 12 returning players and staff went on a four-game foreign tour in Australia in May of 2009. With two weeks of full team practice allowed before the foreign tour, Portland had the opportunity for an experienced team to get quality bonding time and extra on-court instruction.
Reveno credits the stability of his coaching staff – assistants Joel Sobotka, Eric Jackson and Michael Wolf all came to Portland with Reveno prior to the 2006-07 season – as one of the many factors in the program’s growth. That stability has transformed a team that was the eighth youngest in the nation two years ago into one of the favorites in the WCC this season.
Signature wins over the University of Washington, Saint Mary’s College and University of Nevada gave the Pilots a taste of high-level success last year. With a challenging schedule that features Oregon, Washington, Nevada and UCLA at the 76 Classic this season, Portland will have more opportunities to establish itself as a national player.
ON THE PERIMETER
Portland developed a reputation last season as a dangerous perimeter team and finished second nationally in three-point percentage (.418). One of the main reasons for the successful campaign was the play of Campbell, a junior college All-American from Glendale CC. Campbell shot 53.1 percent from three-point range and was four makes short of leading the nation in that category. He converted a blistering 60 percent of his three-point attempts during WCC games. Campbell led the league in assists per game (league games only) during his first WCC season and finished the year with averages of 11.4 and 4.7 assists.
Raivio is 109 points shy of becoming the 31st player in school history with 1,000 career points and just the 12th to do it in three or less years with the program. He led the team last season in scoring (16.0) and rebounding (6.5) and was the only guard in the WCC to finish in the top 10 of both categories.
Junior sharpshooter Jared Stohl was 89-for-195 from downtown (.456) and third nationally in three-point percentage. He set a school record with nine three-pointers in a home win versus San Francisco. Stohl, an honorable mention All-WCC pick last year, is on pace to break the school record for career three-pointers this year. He was rated the No. 6 shooter in the nation this year by FoxSports.com’s Jeff Goodman.
Senior Ethan Niedermeyer and junior B.J. Porter split starting duties on the wing last year. Niedermeyer battled injuries after starting the season with a 14-point effort in the upset of Washington. Portland struggled to a 2-4 record in games Niedermeyer missed. Porter came on to earn the starting nod late in the season and provided multiple highlight reel dunks on the fast break. His shot has improved dramatically since first arriving on campus as a freshman.
Senior co-captain Taishi Ito provides a steady hand at the point guard position and is also the best perimeter defender for the Pilots. Sophomore Eric Waterford earned point guard minutes down the stretch last year and had his best performance in the WCC semifinals against Saint Mary’s.
Sophomore Nemanja Mitrovic is another player that can shoot it from deep and will look to crack the playing rotation in his second full year on The Bluff. Freshman walk-on Cody Mivshek provides toughness on the perimeter.
IN THE PAINT
Portland boasts an experienced frontline led by senior forward Robin Smeulders. At 6-feet, 10-inches, Smeulders used his athletic frame and good shooting touch to average 10.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game and earn All-WCC honorable mention status.
Two-year starting junior center Kramer Knutson and versatile 6-foot, 8-inch junior forward Luke Sikma also have played big-time minutes since their freshman seasons. Knutson does a lot of the dirty work underneath and shot a team-high 54.4 percent from the field last season. Sikma missed much of last year’s preseason training with a knee injury, but has shown the ability to be a dominant force at both ends of the floor. He nearly averaged a double-double in his first 10 games as a freshman.
Junior center Jasonn Hannibal has the best size on the team (6-10, 270) and looks to continue his improvement and be a regular member of the rotation this season. Freshman walk-on Ryan Schaefer is coming off of surgery repairing a torn ACL over the summer.
THE SCHEDULE
Highlighting the 2009-10 schedule will be the 76 Classic in Anaheim over Thanksgiving weekend. The eight-team field includes six teams that competed in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Portland will open the tourney against UCLA live on ESPN2 Thanksgiving Day at 7:30 p.m. and then play either Butler or Minnesota the following day. Other 76 Classic participants include West Virginia, Clemson, Texas A&M and Long Beach State.
Portland will open the regular season at Eastern Washington on Nov. 14. The Pilots have lost four straight to the Eagles and are looking to avenge last year’s 63-58 loss at the Chiles Center, one of only two all year at home for Portland. Other key non-conference games include home games against Oregon (Nov. 21) and Portland State (Dec. 2) road games at Washington (Dec. 19) and Nevada (Dec. 28). The Pilots will also play a home-and-home with upstart Idaho.
WCC play begins with a matchup of the two preseason favorites as Gonzaga visits the Chiles Center on Saturday Jan. 9. The WCC Championships will again be hosted by the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Mar. 5-8.
