Pilots Look For Road Win at LMU on Saturday
Complete Release (PDF) I Live Video I Live Audio I Live Stats I LMU Hoops
Portland Pilots (7-10, 0-2) at LMU Lions (8-8, 1-2)
Date: Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013
Tip-off: 7:00 p.m. (PST)
Location: Los Angeles, Calif.
Arena: Gersten Pavilion
Live Video: WCCSports.com
Radio: 800 AM
Overall Series: 40-46
At UP: 25-16
At LMU: 13-25
At Neutral: 2-5
Last: LMU 76, POR 62 (Feb. 9, 2012 at Portland)
GAME INFORMATION
• Portland continues its three-game West Coast Conference-opening road trip at Loyola Marymount on Saturday.
• Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Gersten Pavilion in Los Angeles, Calif.
GAME COVERAGE
• The game will have a free online video broadcast accessible through WCCSports.com.
• Jeff Lampe and Tracy Murray will call the action on the WCC Digital Package.
• All Portland basketball games will be broadcast live on True Talk 800 AM with Bill Johnson calling the play-by-play and a 30-minute pregame show. The audio simulcast will also be available on PortlandPilots.com.
COMING UP
• Portland will return home to host four consecutive WCC games beginning with a Jan. 17 matchup with No. 8 Gonzaga at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on ROOT Sports.
• Two days later the Pilots welcome defending WCC Champion Saint Mary’s for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off on ROOT Sports.
ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Portland (7-10) opened WCC play with a pair of road losses at San Diego (61-50) and at Pepperdine (54-47) last week.
• The Pilots held second half leads in both games, but struggled to offensively in the closing minutes.
• Sophomore C Thomas van der Mars scored a team-high 12 points with eight rebounds, while junior F Ryan Nicholas added 11 points and nine rebounds at USD.
• Freshman G Oskars Reinfelds had a season-high 11 points and senior G Derrick Rodgers added 10 in the loss at Pepperdine.
• Second leading scorer Kevin Bailey missed both games while recovering from surgery for a broken nose. Bailey is expected to return to the lineup Saturday at LMU.
• Sophomore PG David Carr suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in the loss at Pepperdine and will be lost for the remainder of the season.
• Nicholas, who averaged team highs of 11.5 points and 7.6 rebounds last season, is again leading the Pilots in scoring (13.2) and is second in the WCC in rebounding (9.6).
• Bailey is the only other Pilot averaging double figures (11.9).
• Head coach Eric Reveno returns for his seventh year on The Bluff. Assistant coaches Eric Jackson and Mike Wolf also return for their seventh year, while Colin Pfaff returns for his first year as an assistant coach after two years as Director of Basketball Operations. Marshall Cho (Director of Basketball Operations) and Kevin Bruinsma (Director of Basketball Technology) are new to the staff this year.
• Portland is coming off a 7-24 season after winning 60 games from 2008-2011, a stretch that included back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time in school history.
• Portland returns three starters and 10 lettermen from last year’s team that finished eighth in the WCC with a 3-13 league record.
• PG Derrick Rodgers is the team’s lone senior.
• The Pilots were picked to finish eighth in the nine-team West Coast Conference in the pre-season coaches poll.
• The Pilots were invited to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) for three consecutive seasons from 2008-2011.
• All 11 UP graduates in the last three years and have gone on to play pro ball.
• Portland announced the signing of PG Alec Wintering (Concord, N.C./United Faith Christian Academy) to a NLI on November 14.
ABOUT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT
• The Lions (8-8, 1-2 WCC) picked up a big 84-80 win over Santa Clara on Thursday at Gersten Pavilion.
• Junior PG Anthony Ireland scored a game-high 29 points and added eight assists to pace LMU.
• The Lions trailed by nine at the half, but made 19-of-23 second half free throws en route to outscoring the visiting Broncos 49-36 after the break.
• LMU had a rough open to the WCC losing road games at BYU (92-51) and Saint Mary’s (74-61).
• Ireland, an All-WCC selection last season, is second in the WCC in scoring at 20.7 points per game.
• Senior F Ashley Hamilton averages 15.0 points, while junior Ayodeji Egbeyemi adds 10.9 per game.
• Max Good is in his fifth season as head coach with the Lions.
• Good and the Lions were picked to finish fourth in the WCC by the league’s head coaches in the preseason poll.
CARR SUFFERS SEASON-ENDING KNEE INJURY
• Sophomore PG David Carr went down with a knee injury in the second half of Saturday’s loss at Pepperdine.
• An MRI earlier this week revealed a torn ACL and Carr will be lost for the season.
• The Portland native from Central Catholic HS averaged 4.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists while starting all 17 games this year for the Pilots.
BAILEY EXPECTED TO RETURN TO THE LINEUP
• Sophomore G Kevin Bailey is expected to return to the lineup on Saturday after missing the last two games following surgery on a broken nose suffered against Colorado State on Dec. 22.
• Bailey entered the Colorado State game averaging 22.3 points in his three previous games.
• Those averages took a hit when he suffered a broken nose from an elbow 30 seconds into the game.
• Bailey missed the remainder of the CSU game and sat out the game versus Bradley the following day.
• He returned to the lineup against UTPA on Dec. 29 wearing a protective mask, but struggled to a 3-for-14 shooting day and missed both games last week following surgery.
FRESHMEN STEPPING UP
• With Bailey missing games, freshmen guards Bryce Pressley and Oskars Reinfelds made the most of their opportunities.
• Pressley, the son of former NBA player and Villanova NCAA Champion Harold Pressley, scored seven points versus USD and then had four points, four rebounds and three blocked shots against Pepperdine.
• Reinfelds provided a lift off the bench with 10 second half points in the win over Bradley, added seven points against the Toreros, and a season-high 11 points at Pepperdine.
• Reinfelds, a teammate of sophomore C Thomas van der Mars at the Canarias Basketball Academy, was a member of the Latvian Under-18 National Team.
THE LONE SENIOR
• PG Derrick Rodgers is the team’s lone senior and has come on of late.
• He scored a career-high 13 points in the loss to UTPA and moved into the starting lineup against USD and had a solid all-around game with four points, three rebounds, three assists and four steals in 33 minutes.
• Rodgers added 10 points at Pepperdine, the third time he has reached double-figures in the last four games.
• A physical guard, Rodgers is one of Portland’s best perimeter defenders.
BARKER BREAKS OUT
• Sophomore C Riley Barker scored a career-high 16 points versus North Florida and had double-doubles against Portland Bible College (10 pts, 10 rebs) and Colorado State (11 pts, 10 rebs).
• Barker received a medical redshirt after missing all but seven games last year with a knee injury.
HOME SWEET HOME
• The Pilots are 6-2 at the Chiles Center this season and have rattled off a 47-17 home record since the start of the 2008-09 season.
• The Pilots had a 19-game home winning streak snapped by Gonzaga in 2011.
• 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.
NICHOLAS ERUPTS
• Junior F Ryan Nicholas had a career night against then-No. 18 UNLV with 15 points, 19 rebounds and six assists.
• The 19 rebounds are tied for the second most since Rick Raivio grabbed 20 on Jan. 18, 1979 at Air Force.
• He followed that with his third double-double of the year at No. 19 Kentucky with 15 points and 13 rebounds.
• Nicholas has led the Pilots in rebounds in all but two games this year.
• Nicknamed ‘Rhino’, he is averaging team-highs of 13.5 points and 9.6 rebounds, which is second in the WCC.
• After sitting behind All-WCC forward Luke Sikma and four-year starting center Kramer Knutson as a freshman, Nicholas had a breakout sophomore year (11.5 ppg, 7.6 rpg).
• He finished the year strong with a 19-point, 14-rebound effort in the regular season finale at BYU, followed by a 24-point, 11-rebound performance in the WCC Tournament opening round win over Santa Clara.
THIELEKE TAKES OVER
• Junior G Korey Thieleke has started the last 12 games for the Pilots and established career highs in all statistical categories.
• He had totals of 64 minutes and 12 points in his first two full seasons on The Bluff, but has taken advantage of his opportunity this season.
• The Bakersfield, Calif. native made the most of his first start of the season against Portland State on Nov. 21 by finishing with nine points, four assists, three rebounds, two blocked shots and two steals in 23 minutes of action.
• He followed up with 11 points, six rebounds, three assists, four blocked shots and four steals in 37 minutes against New Mexico.
HOME VERSUS ROAD
• Portland is 6-2 at home this season, but 0-7 on the road.
• At the Chiles Center the Pilots are scoring 70.0 points and allowing 60.8, while on the road UP is averaging 52.9 and surrendering 71.8 points.
• The Pilots have a +12.1 rebounding margin at home and -3.8 on the road.
YOUTH MOVEMENT
• Portland once again has one of the youngest rosters in the nation.
• The Pilots have just one senior and three juniors.
• In addition to Pressley and Reinfelds, freshman F Jake Ehlers is the two-time Oregon 5A State Player of the Year after leading Corvallis HS to consecutive state championships.
• Freshman G David Ahern has not suited up for a game this season.
SOPHOMORE SURGE?
• UP’s sophomore class proved to be the most productive freshman class in Coach Reveno’s six years on The Bluff.
• The group accounted for at least 40 percent of nearly all key statistical categories this season for the Pilots.
• By the end of last season David Carr, Kevin Bailey and Thomas van der Mars were starting.
• Among the nine WCC programs, the Pilots led the league in freshman rebounding and were second to only San Diego in minutes played and scoring.
TOUGH SCHEDULE...AGAIN
• For the second straight year, the Pilots will play one of the most challenging schedules in the nation.
• Ken Pomeroy listed Portland’s non-conference strength of schedule No. 8 nationally last year.
• The 2012-13 schedule features 15 regular season games against teams that reached postseason play last year, including 10 contests against NCAA Tournament squads.
• Road games include at Kentucky (NCAA Champions), Ohio (Sweet 16) and New Mexico (Third Round).
• Portland also hosted UNLV (NCAA First Round) on Dec. 4 and will play No. 8 Gonzaga (Third Round), BYU (Second Round) and Saint Mary’s (Second Round) twice each during league play.
• ESPN gave Portland a rank of 10-out-of-10 on non-conference schedule strength, highest in the WCC.
CHILES CENTER RENOVATIONS
• The men’s basketball locker room was renovated this summer as part of a $2.5 million investment.
• A new state-of-the-art ‘Pilot Teaching Board’ was installed in the locker room, as well as modern lockers and a more spacious wet area.
• The men’s basketball coaching staff moved into new offices as part of the build-out, while the Chiles Center training and weight rooms were also upgraded.
13 of 16 WCC GAMES TELEVISED
• Portland announced its 2013 WCC television schedule and 13 of the 16 games are expected to be televised live in the Portland market.
• ROOT Sports will air seven games, CSN-NW has aired one, ESPNU one, and BYUtv one. Three other games are being contractually finalized.
• The three non-televised game will be produced in broadcast-quality format and available online at WCCSports.com
PILOTS SIGN POINT GUARD ALEC WINTERING
• Portland signed point guard Alec Wintering (Concord, N.C./United Faith Christian Academy) to a National Letter of Intent on Nov. 14.
• Wintering is beginning his senior season at United Faith and is coached by former NBA point guard, Muggsy Bogues.
• Bogues isn’t the only notable point guard with ties to Wintering. Former Pilot great T.J. Campbell attended Sunnyslope HS in Arizona, where Wintering began his prep career.
