Pilots Visit Nashville for the Challenge in Music City

Complete Release (PDF) I Live Audio I Live Stats

Dates: Nov. 28-30, 2014
Location: Nashville, Tenn.
Arena: Municipal Auditorium
TV/Video: None
Radio: Sports 910 (KMTT)
Audio/Stats: PortlandPilots.com

FRIDAY, NOV. 28
Drake vs. Valparaiso, 3:00 p.m. (PT)
Portland vs. Murray State, 5:30 p.m. (PT)

SATURDAY, NOV. 29
Portland vs. Drake, 3:00 p.m. (PT)
Valparaiso vs. Murray State, 5:30 p.m. (PT)

SUNDAY, NOV. 30
Portland vs. Valparaiso, 11:00 a.m. (PT)
Murray State vs. Drake, 1:30 p.m. (PT)

PORTLAND vs. MURRAY STATE
Overall Series:.................... MSU leads 2-0
Last Meeting:. MSU 71, POR 49 (1984-85)
PORTLAND vs. DRAKE
Overall Series:....................... DU leads 1-0
Last Meeting:.... DU 66, POR 44 (1982-83)
PORTLAND vs. VALPARAISO
Overall Series:    Valpo leads 1-0
Last Meeting:        VU 63, POR 52 (1967-68)

THIS WEEK
• The Pilots travel to Nashville, Tenn. for the Challenge in Music City over Thanksgiving weekend.
• Portland will face Murray State on Friday, Drake on Saturday and Valparaiso on Sunday.
 
GAME COVERAGE
• Friday's game will be audio streamed live on PortlandPilots.com beginning with a 20-minute pregame show.
• Portland's Saturday and Sunday games, as well as all remaining games this season, will be aired live on Sports 910 (KMTT) with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes prior to tip-off. Ben Creighton will fill in on play-by-play and Jason Brough will be the radio analyst this weekend.
• Radio simulcasts and live statistics will be available on PortlandPilots.com.
 
ABOUT THE  PILOTS
• Portland remained unbeaten with a convincing 75-53 victory over the SIU-Edwardsville Cougars on Saturday at the Chiles Center.
• Senior F Volodymyr Gerun scored a game and career high 21 points while going 10-of-12 from the field. Senior G Kevin Bailey added 12 points to help lead a balanced attack.
• The Pilots previously overcame a 13-point second half road deficit to knock off San Jose State in overtime 73-68 on Nov. 16 behind 24 points and six steals by sophomore PG Alec Wintering.
• Portland opened the regular season with an 87-59 victory over Concordia (Ore).
• Portland returns four starters and seven of the top eight scorers from last year's team that finished 15-16 overall.
• Bailey, a four-year starter, averaged 16.5 points per game a year ago before missing the final seven games with a leg injury. He is off to a fast start this season averaging 18.7 points and dishing out 12 assists with just one turnover.
• Junior C Thomas van der Mars is also a four-year starter and approaching 1,000 career points. He was a Preseason All-WCC selection by the league's head coaches.
• Wintering started the first 27 games of last season as a true freshman before a leg injury sidelined him the last four outings. He topped all WCC freshmen in assists, assist/turnover ratio, and steals and was top five among all players in the league in each category.
• Portland added five newcomers to the roster this season with four freshmen and a junior college transfer. Four of the newcomers have Pacific Northwest ties, while the fifth is 7-footer Philipp Hartwich (Cologne, Germany).
• Head Coach Eric Reveno returns for his ninth year on The Bluff. Assistant Coach Eric Jackson and Special Assistant to the Head Coach Mike Wolf also return for their ninth years, while Colin Pfaff is back for his third year as an assistant coach after two years as Director of Basketball Operations.
• Reveno added experience to his staff in the offseason with the addition of veteran NBA head coach Herb Brown and former Portland Trail Blazers video coordinator Tim Grass.
• Portland looks to return to the form it had from 2008-2011, a stretch that included back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time in school history and 60 wins over three seasons.
• The Pilots were invited to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) for three consecutive seasons from 2008-2011.
 
CHALLENGE IN MUSIC CITY OPPONENT NOTES
• Murray State (2-2) is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference and won the CIT last season... Head Coach Steve Prohm relies on sophomore point guard Cameron Payne (18.5 ppg).
• Drake (1-3) went 0-3 without starting guard Gary Ricks, but knocked off IUPUI 73-60 in Ricks' first game back... Head Coach Ray Giacoletti former was the head coach at Eastern Washington and Utah, and most recently was an assistant at Gonzaga... Reed Timmer leads the Bulldogs in scoring (14.3 ppg).
• Valparaiso of the Horizon League is coached by Bryce Drew... The Crusaders lone loss was a 56-41 decision at Missouri... Alec Peters (19.6 ppg) leads three players averaging double figures.
 
FAST STARTS
• Portland is 3-0 to start the season for the first time since the 2011-12 season.
• As a Division I program, the Pilots have opened with 4-0 records only five times.
• The Pilots best start during Reveno's tenure was 5-0 to open the 2009-10 season as Portland cracked the AP Top 25 following wins over UCLA and Minnesota.
• The most consecutive wins to open a season in program history is 13 (1978-79)… Second most was a 6-0 start in 1995-96, the last year Portland made the NCAA Tournament... Portland also opened the 1964-65 and 1983-84 seasons with 4-0 records.
 
COMEBACK KIDS
• Portland trailed by 13 points at San Jose State with 10:42 remaining in regulation.
• The Pilots then used an 18-5 run over the next seven minutes to tie the game.
• Kevin Bailey scored 13 points during the run, including the tying three-pointer with 3:14 remaining.
• Volodymyr Gerun then sent the game to overtime with a baseline jumper with 22 seconds remaining.
• SJSU took an early four-point lead in OT, but the Pilots would hold the Spartans scoreless for a 4-minute, 30-second stretch and hold on for the win.
 
WINTERING TAKES NEXT STEP
• Sophomore PG Alec Wintering had a huge game against San Jose State, finishing with career highs of 24 points and six steals.
• Wintering finished the game 7-of-11 from the field, 4-of-4 from three-point range, and 6-of-6 at the foul line.
• He kept Portland in the game early when the team was struggling with clutch plays at both ends of the court and then iced the game in overtime with free throws.
• The Charlotte, N.C. native is shooting the ball with much more confidence this season. He has not missed a free throw and is 7-of-9 from three-point range.
• He had a phenomenal freshman campaign in which he started the first 27 games before a leg injury sidelined him the final four games of the season – Portland went 0-4 without him.
• Wintering ranked third in the WCC in assist/turnover ratio (2.2), fourth in assists (4.5), fifth in steals (1.6) and ninth in FT percentage (.833)
• His 13 assists against San Francisco were the most by a Pilot against a D-I school in program history, and one shy of the school record.
 
BAILEY BLOSSOMING
• Senior G Kevin Bailey is off to a fast start averaging 18.7 points per game.
• Bailey ignited Portland's second half rally against SJSU with 13 points over the final 10:29, including the game-tying three-pointer with 3:14 remaining.
• Perhaps most impressive for Bailey is his 12 assists with just one turnover in the first three games.
• The Clovis, Calif. native has 1,076 career points which ranks No. 21 in school history… He is 190 points shy of cracking the top 10.
 
GERUN GETS GOING
• Senior F Volodymyr "Voldy" Gerun erupted for a career high 21 points on 10-of-12 shooting against SIU-Edwardsville.
• That came six days after recording his first career double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds at San Jose State.
• Gerun joined the Pilots last season after a brief stop at West Virginia, but playing behind a pair of three-year starters in the post averaged just 11.2 minutes per game.
• He dropped 15 pounds over the last offseason and it showed as he logged 41 active minutes against the Spartans.
• Gerun earned the starting nod in place of the graduated Ryan Nicholas and is averaging 14.3 points and a team-high 9.0 rebounds per game thus far.
 
VAN DER MARS APPROACHING MILESTONES
• Senior C Thomas van der Mars is on pace to become the 37th player in school history with 1,000 career points.
• He enters the weekend with 928 points.
• Van der Mars also ranks fourth in school history in field goal percentage (.559), seventh in blocked shots (75) and 13th in rebounds (590).
• A four-year starter for the Pilots, van der Mars was named the Preseason All-WCC Team.
 
GETTING TO KNOW THE NEWCOMERS
• Portland welcomes four freshmen and a junior transfer to the 2014-15 roster.
• Northwest products Gabe Taylor (Portland, Ore./Valley Catholic HS), Jason Todd (Mill Creek, Wash./Jackson HS), and D'Marques Tyson (Seattle, Wash.) all had highly successful prep careers and join the Pilots as freshmen.
• Taylor was the two-time Oregon State Player of the Year, Todd was the back-to-back Gatorade Washington State Player of the Year, while Tyson was transferred to Quality Education Academy (N.C.) as a senior and was the League Player of the Year in a talented prep school conference.
• Seven-foot freshman center Philipp Hartwich (Cologne, Germany) is a former junior national team standout in team handball and has a bright future.
• Another local product, junior Max Livingston (Lake Oswego, Ore.), provides another versatile perimeter threat after shooting 48 percent from three-point range in his lone season at Clark College in Vancouver, Wash.
 
DEFENSIVE ASSIGNMENTS
• Portland has been focused on defense throughout the preseason and early regular season.
• The coaching staff is tracking how many times per game the Pilots record three consecutive defensive stops.
• The goal? Seven is the target per game. 
 
IT'S ALL-ACADEMIC
• Under Coach Reveno the Pilots have thrived academically.
• Last season Thomas van der Mars was named a third team CoSIDA Academic All-American, becoming just the second men's basketball player in program history to earn the honor (Rick Raivio, 1980).
• Senior F Ryan Nicholas was also the recipient of the Division I-AAA Athletic Director's Association Postgraduate Scholarship and joined van der Mars on the 10-player national all-academic team.
• The team boasts a 100% graduation rate, a near-perfect rating in the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate, and 14 WCC All-Academic selections since 2007.
 
EARLY NLI SIGNINGS
• Portland announced three NLI signings during November's early signing period.
• Jazz Johnson (Lake Oswego, Ore/Lake Oswego HS), Colin Russell (Folsom, Calif./Folsom HS) and Chiir Maker (Sydney, Australia/Newington College) will join the Pilots as freshmen next year.
• Johnson (6-0, 175) is a combo guard that earned Oregon 6A All-State honorable mention honors last season. He was a Three Rivers League First Team selection in his first year with the Lakers after leading the league in scoring.
• Russell (6-8, 220) is an active post presence and has raised his profile over the last two seasons while playing for highly competitive prep and club teams. He helped Folsom High School win the California Division 2 Northern Region Championship and led the team to a runner-up finish at the state championship.
• Maker (6-7, 190) is a versatile wing with good size and athleticism. Throughout his prep career at Newington College he put up big numbers while displaying a nice shooting stroke with good range.
 
STAFF ADDITIONS
• Head Coach Eric Reveno bolstered his staff with an infusion of NBA-level expertise in the offseason.
• Herb Brown, who has 45 years of coaching experience including four NBA Championship rings, joined the bench as an assistant coach.
• Former Portland Trail Blazers Video Coordinator, Tim Grass, was hired as Portland's Video Technology Coordinator.
 
TELEVISION SCHEDULE
• Ten Portland games will be featured on regional or national television.
• The Pilots host Gonzaga on ESPN2 on Saturday, Jan. 3.
• Portland will be featured on the Time Warner Cable SportsNet Game of the Week in matchups versus San Francisco (Jan. 10) and San Diego (Feb. 28). Those games will also air live on ROOT Sports Northwest.
• ROOT will also broadcast five other Pilot games, the contest at BYU will air on BYUtv, and the road matchup with Pepperdine is on Time Warner Cable SportsNet.
 
SPORTS 910 ONCE AGAIN IS THE HOME OF THE PILOTS
• The Pilots have returned to Sports 910 (KMTT) for all men's basketball games as well as the Monday night Portland Pilots Basketball Show.
• Coverage for all home and road games begins with a 30-minute pregame show and concludes with postgame highlights, stats and interviews.
• Veteran voice of the Pilots Bill Johnson is back to call the action and host the Portland Pilots Basketball Show, which airs each Monday 7-8 p.m. throughout the season and features head coach Eric Reveno in studio.
• Fans are encouraged to call in with questions and comments about the program to (503) 542-0910. The show will be streamed live via both Sports 910 and PortlandPilots.com. Fans can interact and ask questions via Twitter using the hashtag #AskCoachRev.
 
BUFFALO WILD WINGS WATCH PARTIES
• Watch parties for all televised Pilot road games will once again be hosted by Buffalo Wild Wings Lloyd District this season.
• The first gathering will be for the Dec. 1 Portland Pilots Basketball Show, which will be hosted at the restaurant from 7-8 p.m. Coach Reveno will be on site with Bill Johnson talking Pilot hoops.
• The first watch party will be on Wednesday, Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m. when the Pilots play at UNLV. The complete list of scheduled watch parties are:
 
Dec. 17 vs. UNLV, 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 27 vs. San Diego, 6 p.m.
Dec. 29 vs. Brigham Young, 6 p.m.
Jan. 15 vs. Loyola Marymount, 7 p.m.
Jan. 17 vs. Pepperdine, 5 p.m.
Jan. 29 vs. Gonzaga, 6 p.m.
Feb. 5 vs. San Francisco, 6 p.m.
Feb. 7 vs. Santa Clara, 5 p.m.
Feb. 19 vs. Saint Mary's, 8 p.m.
Feb. 21 vs. Pacific, 7 p.m.
Mar. 5-10, WCC Tournament