Men’s Hoops Plays Santa Clara in 2012 Zappos.com WCC Basketball Championships Opening Round Game

Complete Release (PDF) I Tournament Central

#8 Portland Pilots (6-23, 3-13) vs #9 Santa Clara Broncos (8-21, 0-16)
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012
Tip-off: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Las Vegas, Nev.
Arena: Orleans Arena (7,845)
Live Video: WCCsports.com
Radio: 800 AM
Overall Series: 29-55
At UP: 20-20
At SCU: 8-31
At Neutral: 1-4
Last: POR 84, SCU 78 (Feb. 2, 2012 at Santa Clara)

COMING UP
• The Portland Pilots (6-23, 3-13 WCC) travel to the 2012 Zappos.com West Coast Conference Basketball Championships hosted by the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.
• The No. 8 Pilots open against the No. 9 Santa Clara Broncos (8-21, 0-16) in the opening round game Wednesday at 6 p.m.
• The winner will move on to Thursday’s second round matchup with No. 5 seeded San Francisco at 6 p.m.
• All Portland basketball games will be broadcast live on True Talk 800 AM, with a 30-minute pregame show. Bill Johnson will provide the play-by-play and an audio simulcast will also be available on www.PilotsVideo.com.


ABOUT THE PILOTS
• The Pilots dropped their sixth straight game with a 76-66 loss at BYU on Saturday.
• Sophomore F Ryan Nicholas matched a career-high with 19 points and also grabbed a career-best 14 rebounds in the loss. Sophomore G Tanner Riley finished with 16 points to match his career-high.
• Portland’s two seniors, guards Nemanja Mitrovic and Eric Waterford, were recognized on Senior Night last Thursday. The senior duo has accumulated a total of 66 wins on The Bluff, the fourth most in school history.
• Nicholas leads the Pilots in scoring (11.2) and rebounding (7.5), while collecting five double-doubles this season.
• Portland underclassmen are accounting for 78 percent of the minutes played and 80 percent of the team’s scoring thus far.
• UP’s five freshmen have been the most productive freshman class in Coach Reveno’s six years on The Bluff.  The group has accounted for at least 40 percent of nearly all key statistical categories this season.
• In five of the Pilots six wins this year, the team has held opponents under 40 percent shooting from the field.
• The Pilots played one of the most difficult non-conference schedules in the nation, including nine of 13 games away from the Chiles Center. Portland’s non-conference strength of schedule is No. 11 nationally, while the Pilots’ overall SOS entering Wednesday was No. 53 nationally, the fourth highest among non-BCS schools and tops in the WCC according to KenPom.com.
• The Pilots have been without sophomore C Riley Barker (knee) since Dec. 3 and he will not play on at the WCC Tournament.
• Head coach Eric Reveno and all three assistant coaches return for their sixth year together on The Bluff, the longest current stretch of any Division I coaching staff in the nation.
• 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.
 
LAST OUTING
• BYU 76, Portland 66 (Provo, Utah): The Pilots cut a 17-point second half deficit to six late in regulation before dropping a 76-66 decision to the BYU Cougars. Ryan Nicholas had 19 points and 14 rebounds to pick up his fifth double-double of the season for the Pilots. BYU sweeps the season series, despite Portland converting more field goals and three-pointers in both games. BYU (24-7, 12-4), which set a school record with 53 free throw attempts in a 79-60 victory at Portland on Feb. 4, once again gained a sizeable advantage from the free throw line. The Cougars made 21-of-31 from the foul line, while the Pilots were just 5-for-9. Portland was whistled for 28 fouls in the game to just 11 for BYU. The Cougars led 47-30 on a Brandon Davies layup with 18:05 remaining in regulation. The Pilots would chip away at the deficit as Tanner Riley scored eight straight points, including a pair of three-pointers. Two free throws by Tim Douglas and a transition layup from Thomas van der Mars made it 67-61 with 3:25 remaining, but BYU would make enough free throws down the stretch to hold off the visitors. Despite being held to just one field goal in the final 6:10, BYU would clinch the win from the free throw line by making 9-of-13 free throws over the same stretch.
 
ABOUT SANTA CLARA
• The Broncos (8-21, 0-16) finished winless in league action despite a hard-fought 68-64 loss at fourth-place LMU on Saturday.
• Santa Clara has played final 11 games of the season without leading scorer Kevin Foster (17.8 ppg) and he will not return to action at the WCC Tournament.
• The Broncos posted impressive non-conference wins over New Mexico (79-76, OT) and Villanova (65-64), but have dropped 12 league games by double digits.
• Sophomore Evan Roquemore averages 13.6 ppg and is 2nd in the WCC in assists (5.3).
• Sophomore F Niyi Harrison adds 10.5 ppg and a team-high 6.3 rebounds per game.
• Santa Clara won the 2011 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) and was picked to finish fifth in the WCC. SCU suffered a big blow when senior Marc Trasolini was lost for the season with a knee injury during a foreign tour in the summer.
• Portland swept the season series with an 84-74 home win in Portland and an 84-78 come-from-behind victory at Santa Clara.
• Kerry Keating is in his fifth season as the head coach and posts a 74-88 overall record.
 
SENIOR NIGHT
• Three members of the Portland basketball team were honored on Thursday for Senior Night: guards Nemanja Mitrovic and Eric Waterford, and team manager Derek Duman.
• This senior class has accumulated the fourth most wins (66) of any class since UP joined the Division I ranks for the 1958-59 season.
• Mitrovic was an All-WCC First Team selection last year and ranks on Portland’s all-time Top 10 list in three-pointers made (6th, 153) and three-point percentage (7th, .386).
• Waterford has battled injuries as a senior, but has appeared in 79 career games with 25 starts. He returned to the lineup last Thursday and played 13 minutes after missing the previous eight games with a knee injury.

LINEUP NOTES
• Eric Waterford (knee) returned to the lineup last Thursday after missing eight games.
• Sophomore C Riley Barker has missed the last 22 games (knee) and is out
• Head coach Eric Reveno has used 10 different starting lineups this year.
• Sophomore Ryan Nicholas is the only Pilot to start all 29 games this year, while 11 different Pilots have started at least one game.
• Three different freshmen have started at least five games.
• The Pilots tipped-off the regular season finale with three freshmen (Bailey, Carr, van der Mars) and two sophomores (Nicholas, Riley) in the starting five.
 
GETTING DEFENSIVE?
• In home wins over Santa Clara and Pepperdine, both teams shot under 40 percent shooting from the field.
• In five of the Pilots six wins, opponents have shot under 40 percent from the field. Opponents are shooting a combined 37.4 percent. In UP’s 23 losses, opponents have shot 49.1 percent from the floor.
• Portland is allowing 64.2 points in wins and 78.9 points in losses.
 
BAILEY BREAKING THROUGH
• Freshman G Kevin Bailey averaged 11.1 points in WCC games and has scored a season-high 22 points twice.
• Bailey scored all of his 18 points after halftime, including the game-tying three-pointer at the regulation buzzer to force overtime, on Feb. 16 at San Diego.
• He has reached double figures in seven of the last 11 games and is averaging 13.1 ppg over the last eight games.
• The Clovis, Calif. ranks 22nd in scoring in WCC games and fifth among freshmen.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
• Portland’s highly-touted four true freshmen have each appeared in all 29 games and are all averaging more than 16 minutes per game.
• Thomas van der Mars (Gouda, Netherlands) has started the last 24 games.
• Kevin Bailey (Clovis, Calif./East Clovis HS) has started the last 21 games.
• Dorian Cason (Fontana, Calif./Summit HS) is the team’s third leading rebounder (4.2).
• David Carr (Portland, Ore./Central Catholic HS) has transitioned to point guard and has a team-best 2.1 assist/turnover ratio in WCC games.  He also started the final regular season game at the point.
 
FRESHMEN PHENOMS
• UP’s 2011-12 freshman class is accounting for the most production of any freshman class in Reveno’s tenure as head coach.
• This year’s five freshman are logging 42 percent of the team’s minutes played, 41 percent of the scoring and 40 percent of the rebounds.
• Among the nine WCC programs, the Pilots lead the league in freshman rebounding and are second to only San Diego in minutes played and scoring.
• Thomas van der Mars is leading all WCC Freshman in rebounds per game (5.4) and is second in both FG percentage (.543, sixth overall) and blocked shots (24).
• In WCC games, van der Mars is also the top rebounding freshman (5.9) and second in blocked shots (18, ninth overall).

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).
 
NOT AN EASY ROAD
• The Pilots have played one of the most challenging schedules in the nation.
• Ken Pomeroy listed Portland’s non-conference strength of schedule No. 11 nationally and the Pilots’ overall SOS No. 60 nationally entering Friday, fourth highest among non-BCS schools and tops in the WCC.
• UP faces eight teams that made the post-season last year, while nine of the team’s 13 non-league games were away from the Chiles Center.
• Road games included: at Washington, at #2 Kentucky, at #23 Saint Louis, at Nevada, at UC Santa Barbara, at Utah and at Boise State.
• Entering Wednesday, UP’s non-conference D-I opponents are a combined 216-121 (.641).
 
YOUTH MOVEMENT
• Portland’s 2011-12 roster features only three upperclassmen in seniors Nemanja Mitrovic and Eric Waterford, along with junior Derrick Rodgers.
• 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 78 percent of the minutes played and 80 percent of the team’s scoring this year.
 
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 having a breakout year.
• Nicholas is averaging team-highs of 11.2 points (16th in the WCC) and 7.5 rebounds per game (fifth in the WCC).
• He recorded his first career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds in the season-opener against FAU. He has since recorded four more double-doubles, including 19 points and 14 rebounds against BYU on Feb. 25.
 
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 while averaging 22 points per game.