Complete Release (PDF) I Live Audio

Portland Pilots (3-5) at Boise State Broncos (7-1)
Date: Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011
Tip-off: 6:00 p.m. (PST)
Location: Boise, Idaho
Arena: Taco Bell Arena (12,480)
Radio: 800 AM
Live Audio: Pilotsvideo.com
Overall Series: POR leads 7-6
At UP: Tied 3-3
At BSU: Tied 3-3
At Neutral: POR leads 1-0
Last: POR 88, BSU 79 (Dec. 22, 2010 at Portland)

THIS WEEK
• Portland continues its rigorous non-conference road schedule with a game at Boise State (7-1) on Wednesday at 6 p.m. (PST).
• The Pilots will then return to the Chiles Center on Saturday for a 7 p.m. tip-off against Ohio (5-1).
• Wednesday’s game is a return from when the Broncos visited the Pilots last season. Portland won that contest 88-79 and owns a 7-6 edge in the all-time series.

GAME COVERAGE
• All Portland basketball games will be broadcast live on True Talk 800 AM, with a 30-minute pregame show. Bill Johnson will call the action courtside and an audio simulcast will also be available on www.PilotsVideo.com. 

ABOUT THE PILOTS
• The Pilots lost at No. 23 Saint Louis by a 73-53 margin on the road Saturday. It was Portland’s second straight road loss to a ranked team after dropping an 87-63 decision at current No. 1 Kentucky on Nov. 26.
• Freshman C Thomas van der Mars has led the Pilots in scoring each of the last two games after finishing with 12 points against SLU despite fouling out. van der Mars is averaging 10.8 points and 5.2 rebounds over the last five games.
• All four Pilot true freshmen are averaging more than 12.3 minutes per game. UP underclassmen are accounting for 75 percent of the minutes played thus far.
• Portland has outrebounded six of eight opponents this year.
• The Pilots are playing one of the most difficult non-conference schedules in the nation, including nine of 13 games away from the Chiles Center. Portland’s strength of schedule entering Wednesday in No. 4 nationally, according to KenPom.com.
• Head coach Eric Reveno and all three assistant coaches return for their sixth year together on The Bluff. No other current Division I coaching staff in the nation has retained the same four-member coaching staff longer than Reveno and his staff.
• Portland is coming off of back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time ever.
• The Pilots were invited to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) for the third consecutive season in 2011.
• Portland returns two starters and nine lettermen from last year’s team that finished 20-12 overall and 7-7 in the WCC.
• All nine UP graduates in the last two years and have gone on to play pro ball.
• The Pilots were picked to finish seventh in the nine-team West Coast Conference, while senior G Nemanja Mitrovic was named to the preseason all-conference team.
• A total of 17 UP games this are scheduled to be televised, including three nationally on the ESPN family of networks.


ABOUT BOISE STATE
• The Broncos (7-1) enter Wednesday with a perfect 7-0 home record and have been routing opponents by an average of 24.4 points per game.
• Boise State’s only loss with a 72-62 defeat on the road against Long Beach State.
• BSU has been an offensive juggernaut early on and is ranked No. 2 nationally in three-pointers made (85), No. 8 in three-point percentage (.436) and No. 9 in scoring (84.0 ppg). 
• Freshman G Anthony Drmic leads a balanced scoring attack and averages 15.4 points per game. Ten players averaged at least 5.9 ppg.
• Head coach Leon Rice, a former long-time Gonzaga assistant, is in his second season at BSU. Rice led the Broncos to a 22-13 record and a run to the semifinals of the CBI tournament last year.
• The Broncos are competing in the Mountain West Conference this year, after spending a decade in the WAC.

LAST OUTING
• #23 Saint Louis 73, Portland 53 (Saint Louis, Mo.): The Pilots dropped their second straight road game to a ranked opponent before 7,087 fans at Chaifetz Arena on Saturday night. Thomas van der Mars led the Pilots in scoring for the second straight game, finishing with 12 points before fouling out midway through the second half. Tanner Riley and Ryan Nicholas added 11 points each for Portland, while Tim Douglas finished with 10. Portland trailed by as much as 26 points early in the second half before going on a 15-4 run to cut the deficit to 50-35. That would be as close as the Pilots would get as SLU continued to knock down shots throughout. SLU shot 52 percent from the field for the game, compared to Portland’s 47 percent. The Billikens made 7-of-17 three-pointers, while the Pilots made 3-of-9 from beyond the arc. The Pilots committed 16 turnovers in the game, including 12 in the first half when SLU built a late 25-point lead. The Billikens gained a 24-10 edge in points off of turnovers and 15-7 margin in second chance points.
 
MITROVIC MAKES ALL-TOURNEY TEAM 
• Senior G Nemanja Mitrovic was named to the World Vision Classic All-Tournament Team after leading the Pilots to a 2-1 record and averaging 12.0 points per game.
• Mitrovic finished last season No. 6 in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (.463) and 20th in three-pointers made per game (2.9).
• One of only two seniors on the roster, Mitrovic was voted a team captain this year along with sophomore PG, Tim Douglas.
• A native of Toronto, Mitrovic played just 43 minutes as a freshman and 312 minutes as a sophomore before averaging 13.5 ppg and earning All-WCC honors last year.
 
RILEY FINDS HIS STROKE
• Sophomore G Tanner Riley showed signs of being a big-time scorer early in his freshman season and after a slow start this year, he has been a deadeye shooter of late.
• In the last four games Riley is averaging 11.0 points and has made 11-of-24 three-point shots (.458).
• Riley missed a good portion of preseason training with an ankle injury.

FRESHMEN FIRSTS
• Portland’s highly-touted four true freshmen have each appeared in all eight games and are all averaging more than 12.3 minutes per game.
• Thomas van der Mars (Gouda, Netherlands) has started the last three games and is averaging 10.8 points and 5.2 rebounds over the last five games. He has led the team in scoring in the last two outings, including a season-high 19 points versus Lewis & Clark.
• Kevin Bailey (Clovis, Calif./East Clovis HS) has scored a season-high of 14 points twice, against Lewis & Clark and Washington State.
• David Carr (Portland, Ore./Central Catholic HS) has started four games at guard and is averaging 16.3 minutes per game.
• Dorian Cason (Fontana, Calif./Summit HS) averages 15.3 minutes per game along with 4.1 ppg and 3.9 rpg.
• Redshirt freshman F John Bailey (Mesa, Ariz./Dobson HS) scored the first points of his career last Tuesday against Lewis & Clark.

NICHOLAS’ TIME IS NOW
• After sitting behind All-WCC forward Luke Sikma and four-year starting center Kramer Knutson last season as a freshman, Ryan Nicholas is off to a fast start this year.
• Making his first eight career starts, Nicholas is averaging 10.6 points and 7.9 rebounds per game.
• He recorded career-highs of 13 points and 11 rebounds in the opener against FAU for his first career double-double, and topped his career high with 16 points at UCSB.
• The Spokane, Wash. native is also 23-for-29 (.793) at the free throw line.

DOUGLAS GIVEN THE KEYS
• Sophomore PG Tim Douglas moved into the starting lineup during WCC play last season, but missed the team’s final three games due to injury (all losses). He was voted team co-captain by his peers entering this season.
• He was named the WCC Player of the Week twice as a freshman, joining Elias Harris (Gonzaga, 2010), Patrick Mills (Saint Mary’s, 2008), Darrell Tucker (San Francisco, 2000) and Greg Anthony (Portland, 1987) as the only freshmen in league history to do so.
• Douglas scored a game-high 17 points against Washington on Nov. 14 and is leading the Pilots in assists (27) and third on the team in scoring (9.5).


NOT AN EASY ROAD
• The Pilots have one of the most challenging non-conference schedules in the nation.
• Stats guru Ken Pomeroy lists Portland’s strength of schedule No. 4 nationally entering Wednesday’s game (www.kenpom.com).
• UP faces eight teams that made the post-season last year, while nine of the 13 non-league games will be away from the Chiles Center.
• In addition to the World Vision Classic, road games include: at #2 Kentucky, at #23 Saint Louis, at Nevada, at UC Santa Barbara, at Utah and at Boise State
• The home non-league schedule is highlighted by Washington State, Montana and Ohio.
• Entering Friday, UP’s non-conference Division I opponents are a combined 56-33 (.629).


HOME SWEET HOME
• Portland has rattled off a 39-7 home record since the start of the 2008-09 season.
• The Pilots’ 19-game home win streak was snapped by Gonzaga last February.
• Signature home wins have come against Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Saint Mary’s three times.
• Portland finished the 2010-11 regular season with a 13-2 record at the Chiles Center for the second straight season.

STAFF STABILITY
• Eric Reveno was named the 2009 WCC and District 9 Coach of the Year after leading UP to a 10-win improvement during the 2008-09 season.
• Now in his sixth year on The Bluff, Reveno credits the stability of his coaching staff as key to the program’s turnaround.
• All three assistants that joined Reveno when he was hired in April of 2006 have remained on the Portland bench ever since.
• No other current Division I coaching staff in the nation has retained the same four-member coaching staff longer than Reveno and his staff.
• Reveno is the third longest tenured WCC coach behind Gonzaga’s Mark Few (13) and Saint Mary’s Randy Bennett (11).

THREE-POINT THREATS
• Portland was the No. 1 three-point shooting team in the nation over the previous three seasons combined (.412, 752-1825).
• The Pilots led the nation in three-point percentage in 2009 (.418), were No. 5 in 2010 (.407), and No. 3 in 2011 (.412).
• Portland is struggling this season far from beyond the arc (.324, 45-139).

PILOTS TO THE PROS
• Portland has graduated all nine players over the last two years and all nine have gone on to play professionally.
• All five 2010 graduates played professionally last season, while Portland’s four graduated seniors from the 2011 class are all playing in Europe this season.
• Jared Stohl signed with the Crailsheim Merlins of Germany, Luke Sikma inked with La Palma in Spain. Kramer Knutson and Jasonn Hannibal signed in Switzerland and Slovenia, respectively.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
• Portland’s 2011-12 roster features only three upperclassmen in seniors Nemanja Mitrovic and Eric Waterford, along with junior Derrick Rodgers.
• The six-player sophomore class played significant minutes as freshmen last year.
• Freshman G Kevin Bailey is the first top 100 recruit that the Pilots have landed, while freshman G David Carr is the first local Portland product to sign with the Pilots since Reveno took over the program.
• Underclassmen have accounted for 75 percent of the minutes played this year.

RODGER’S ROLE
• Junior G Derrick Rodgers has moved into the starting lineup the last three games after providing a big spark off the bench earlier this season.
•He made big plays late in both Pilot wins to open the season and is averaging 6.0 points per game this year, compared to 2.3 ppg last year.
• Known as a defensive stopper, Rodgers made the biggest basket against Florida Atlantic with a go-ahead runner in the lane with 28 seconds left in regulation.
• Rodgers also grabs 3.0 rebounds per game out of the backcourt.

OREGON STATE PLAYER OF THE YEAR SIGNS WITH PILOTS
• Portland signed the reigning Oregon ‘5A’ State Player of the Year, Jake Ehlers, to a National Letter of Intent on Nov. 9.
• Ehlers (6-7, 200) led Corvallis High School to a 27-1 record and the Oregon ‘5A’ state championship as a junior last season.
• He averaged 22 points on 58 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent from three-point range. He also carried the Spartans to a 79-73 double overtime win in the state championship game over Benson, finishing with 36 points on 13-of-18 shooting.
• Ehlers was recently named to Oregon’s All-State First Team by ESPN.com and is rated as the No. 68 power forward on the same site.

NEW-LOOK WCC
• BYU has joined the West Coast Conference for the 2011-12 season.
• Of the eight Division I teams that have won at least 25 games in each of the last four seasons, three are in the WCC (BYU, Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s).
• Six of the nine WCC schools played in the postseason in 2010-11. BYU made the NCAA Sweet 16, and Santa Clara won the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT).

LIVE ON THE AM DIAL
• KPDQ 800 AM will once again be the Pilots’ home on the radio as the True Talk Station and UP enter another year as broadcast partners. All Portland games will be aired live with a 30-minute pre-game show. Bill Johnson returns to call the play-by-play for the second year in a row.

TELEVISION EXPOSURE
• Over the past three seasons Portland has had 43 games televised, including 13 on national ESPN broadcasts.
• Portland will be on the ESPN family of networks at least three times this year. Portland hosts Gonzaga on ESPN2 and will be aired on ESPNU at Santa Clara and at home versus Saint Mary’s.
• The Pilots are expected to be on TV at least 17 times again this season. Stay tuned to portlandpilots.com for the finalized television package.