Men's Hoops Hosts Pacific to Kick off Suits and Sneakers Week

Complete Release (pdf) I Video I Audio I Stats

Portland Pilots (11-8, 2-5) vs. Pacific Tigers (10-9, 2-5)
Date: Jan. 22, 2015
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Portland, Ore.
Venue: Chiles Center (4,852)
TV: ROOT Sports NW
Radio: Sports 910 (KMTT)

POR vs. PAC Series
Overall Series: 9-21
Home/Road: 6-6/2-15
Neutral: 1-0
Last 5/10: 1-4/4-6
Last: PAC 68, POR 65 (3/1/14 at Pacific)

THIS WEEK
• The Pilots continue West Coast Conference play with a pair of home games against the Pacific Tigers and Saint Mary's Gaels as part of the Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers Awareness Week.
• Portland hosts Pacific on Thursday at 7 p.m. The game will be televised live on ROOT Sports NW with Tom Glasgow and Jack Sikma calling the action.
• Saturday's game versus Saint Mary's will tip-off at 7 p.m. and have video coverage on TheW.tv with Tom Glasgow and Bill Krueger providing commentary.
• All Portland basketball games will be aired live on Sports 910 (KMTT) with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes prior to tip-off. Bill Johnson will call the play-by-play all season long.
• Live stats, audio and video links are available at PortlandPilots.com.


ABOUT THE  PILOTS
• Portland (11-8, 2-5 WCC) is on a three-game losing streak after a road sweep against Loyola Marymount (80-68) and Pepperdine (67-63) last week.
• Sophomore PG Alec Wintering scored a team-high 17 points and freshman F Gabe Taylor added 12 in Thursday's loss at LMU.
• Coach Reveno inserted Taylor and fellow freshman G Jason Todd into the starting lineup two days later against Pepperdine as seniors Kevin Bailey and Thomas van der Mars came off the bench.
• Bailey responded with a game-high 28 points, while van der Mars added nine points and 12 rebounds as Portland led a majority of the game. The contest had eight ties and 13 lead changes, but the Waves held on at the end.
• Bailey missed eight games with a foot injury suffered against Portland State on Dec. 3 before returning to the court versus Santa Clara on Jan. 8.
• Senior C Riley Barker suffered a season-ending knee injury vs. Santa Clara.
• Junior G Bryce Pressley (concussion) missed the Jan. 8 and Jan. 10 games with a concussion, but returned to the lineup last week.
• Wintering ranks top six in the WCC in assists, free throw percentage, steals, three-point percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio. He is the WCC leader in three-point percentage (.512).
• Portland is 4-2 this season in games decided by five points or less after finishing 1-7 last season.
•  The Pilots rank 28th nationally in free throw percentage (.741), 34th in rebounding margin (+6.1) and assists per game (15.4), and 46th in three-point percentage (.380).
• 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 ranks 17th in career points and ninth all-time in blocked shots at Portland.
• Van der Mars is also a four-year starter and he's the 37th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points. He was a Preseason All-WCC selection by the league's head coaches and an Academic All-American last year.
• 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).
• Freshmen Jason Todd, D'Marques Tyson and Gabe Taylor have grown into key rotation players early in the WCC season with Todd and Taylor each earning their first career start Saturday at Pepperdine.
• Head Coach Eric 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.
• The Pilots have signed three high school seniors to NLI's already: Jazz Johnson (Lake Oswego, Ore/Lake Oswego HS), Colin Russell (Folsom, Calif./Folsom HS) and Chiir Maker (Sydney, Australia/Newington College). Johnson broke the Les Schwab Invitational scoring record by averaging 35.0 points per game against elite national competition earlier this year... Russell is a McDonald's All-America nominee... Maker recently scored 49 points in a loss to Rainier Beach (Wash.) as part of a Pacific Northwest Tour with Newington College.


ABOUT PACIFIC
• The Tigers (10-9, 2-5 WCC) are tied for sixth place in the WCC standings with the Pilots after splitting a homestand last week. Pacific lost to BYU (93-80) before knocking off San Diego (59-57).
• Guards T.J. Wallace (13.3) and Dulani Robinson (10.0) are the lone Tigers averaging double figures.
• Second year head coach Ron Verlin compiled an 18-16 record and 6-12 mark in the program's return to the WCC last season. Verlin was an assistant under long-time head coach Bob Thomason before taking over.
• The Pilots split last year's season series against Pacific with a 72-64 win in Portland and 68-65 loss to close the regular season in Stockton.

SUITS AND SNEAKERS AWARENESS WEEK
• Coaches vs. Cancer Suits And Sneakers™ Awareness Week, a collaborative initiative of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and the American Cancer Society, will take place Jan. 19-25, 2015.
• More than 4,000 high school and college men's basketball coaches, including Coach Reveno and the Portland staff, will swap their dress shoes for sneakers with their usual game attire this week to show their support for the American Cancer Society's fight to save lives from cancer.
• Show your support by visiting cancer.org to see how you can get involved.

INJURY UPDATES
• Senior C Riley Barker suffered a season-ending knee injury early in the Jan. 8 win against Santa Clara.
• Senior G Kevin Bailey returned to the lineup on Jan. 8 after missing the previous eight games with a foot injury suffered in the first half against Portland State on Dec. 3.
• Junior G Bryce Pressley suffered a concussion late in a Jan. 3 loss against Gonzaga. He sat out the Jan. 8 and Jan. 10 games, but returned to the lineup last week.
• Senior G David Carr is out for the season with a torn ACL suffered in the offseason.

LINEUP CHANGES
• Following Thursday's loss at LMU, head coach Eric Reveno inserted freshmen Gabe Taylor and Jason Todd into the starting lineup against Pepperdine.
• It marked the first career start for each player as Taylor finished with six points and seven rebounds, while Todd added nine points and three assists.
• Seniors Kevin Bailey and Thomas van der Mars came off the bench and ignited Portland. Bailey finished with a season-high 28 points, while van der Mars had nine points and 12 rebounds.
• Portland used the same starting lineup for the first seven regular season games before Bailey's foot injury: Wintering, Pressley, Bailey, Gerun, van der Mars.
• The Pilots have had to juggle the rotation due to various injuries to key players since, using six different starting lineups in the last 12 games.
• Wintering and Gerun are the only players to start all 19 games.

'XUBI' PROVIDES DEFENSIVE SPARK
• Aitor Zubizarreta, who goes by Xubi (pronounced shoe-bee) by his teammates, has provided a defensive spark in recent games.
• He started against Santa Clara with Pressley injured and helped limit the potent Broncos backcourt in a 78-61 victory.
• Xubi also came on in the second half at LMU, helping lead the Pilots on a 13-0 run midway through the period to cut the deficit to one point.
• He also came on early and played nine minutes off the bench at Pepperdine with great energy.

WINTERING CONTINUES BREAKOUT CAMPAIGN
• Sophomore PG Alec Wintering continues to break personal records and climb the Portland single-game and career charts. His 17.1 points per game in WCC play is third in the league.
• He recorded his sixth 20-point game with 26 points, four rebounds and four assists against Santa Clara on Jan. 8. He has scored 20 or more points in three of the last six games. Previously he finished with 20 points and eight assists versus Gonzaga  and dropped a career-high 30 points at BYU.
• Wintering opened WCC play by burying a step-back three-pointer to win the game at San Diego with 0.3 seconds left.
• His effort at BYU was the first 30-point game for a Pilot since Jared Stohl tallied 30 against Idaho on Dec. 22, 2009.
• He also finished 15-of-17 from the free throw line, marking the first 15 makes from the foul line since Darren Cooper versus Oregon on Dec. 22, 2005.
• Wintering dished out a season-high 12 assists at Sacramento State and followed up with 24 points and five assists at UNLV.
• He had 27 points with six assists against Portland State on Dec. 3 after going 7-of-12 from the field and 11-of-13 at the foul line.
• That effort bettered his career-high of 24 points at San Jose State on 7-of-11 from the field, 4-of-4 from three-point range, and 6-of-6 at the foul line.
• The Charlotte, N.C. native is shooting the ball with much more confidence this season. He leads the WCC in three-point percentage (.512, 22-of-43) and is sixth in free throw percentage (.840).
• Wintering also ranks third in the league in assists (5.6),  and is fifth in both assist-to-turnover ratio (2.2) and steals (1.4). 
• Wintering 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) last year.
• 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.
 
FRESHMEN TAKING ADVANTAGE
• Freshman G Jason Todd has played effective minutes since moving into the rotation over the last 15 games.
• Todd is averaging 5.1 points and 3.4 rebounds per game while shooting 54 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range. More importantly, Todd has been one of the team's best perimeter defenders and can play multiple positions on the wing or as a stretch four.
• Todd, the two-time Washington Gatorade State Player of the Year at Mill Creek HS, grabbed a season-high eight rebounds versus Montana State and scored 12 points versus Santa Clara.
• Freshman F Gabe Taylor was pressed into more court time following Riley Barker's injury. The Portland native responded with a season-high 12 points in 26 minutes of action against Santa Clara. He followed with eight points and three rebounds against USF and finished 9-of-10 from the field in the two games. He is averaging 9.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and shooting 64 percent from the field over the last four games.
• Taylor led Valley Catholic School to consecutive Oregon 3A State Titles playing under former Pilot assistant coach, Joel Sobotka.
• Freshman G D'Marques Tyson has also had a great impact. He scored a season-high 25 points off the bench in Portland's loss to Valparaiso at the Challenge in Music City. Tyson finished the game 9-for-11 from the field and 6-for-8 from three-point range. He also had 13 first half points in the road win at San Diego and 12 points against San Francisco.
• Tyson is second on the team with 31 three-pointers made this season and is shooting 42 percent from beyond the arc.
• The Bothell, Wash. native played last season at Quality Education Academy in North Carolina after helping lead Lakeside HS to the Washington 3A title game as a junior.

OFFENSIVE EFFICIENCY
• The Pilots rank third in the WCC and 65th nationally in points per game (73.0)
• Portland's 38.0 percent from three-point range ranks 46th nationally, while the team's 74.1 from the free throw line is 28th in the nation.
• Portland has shot 71 percent or better from the free throw line in the last 13 of the last 16 games.

REBOUNDS AND BLOCKED SHOTS
• Portland has used its size and experience to become a good rebounding team and the No. 1 shot blocking squad in the WCC.
• The Pilots have outrebounded 14 of the 19 opponents this season and rank 34th nationally with a +6.1 rebounding margin.
• Portland averages 4.2 blocked shots per game, tops in the WCC.

VAN DER MARS REACHES MILESTONES
• With 20 points during a win at Sacramento State on Dec. 14, Thomas van der Mars became the 37th player in school history to score 1,000 career points.
• He now has 1,105 career points and also is second in school history in blocked shots (93) and fourth in field goal percentage (.560).
• A native of The Netherlands, van der Mars ranks ninth on the UP career rebounding charts (715).
• Van der mars had a dominating performance against Portland State on Dec. 3 with 19 points and 14 rebounds. He was 9-for-9 from the field.
• A third team Academic All-American and WCC honorable mention pick last year, van der Mars was named to the Preseason All-WCC Team this season.
 
BARKER'S SEASON, COLLEGIATE CAREER OVER
• Riley Barker stepped up big this season, including a season-high 14 points and seven rebounds versus UNLV in his first start this year.
• He added 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots at BYU.
• One of the top shot blockers in school history, he was on pace to break the school record before a season-ending knee injury versus Santa Clara on Jan. 8.
• The Surrey, British Columbia native concludes his career with 91 blocked shots, 12 shy of the Pilot all-time leader, Tim Frost (2000-02).

GERUN GETS GOING
• Senior F Volodymyr "Voldy" Gerun recorded his third double-double of the season with 13 points and a career-high 14 rebounds at San Diego on Dec. 27.
• He was named to the Challenge in Music City All-Tournament Team and has been solid all season after moving into the starting rotation.
• He 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 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 SJSU.
• Gerun earned the starting nod in place of the graduated Ryan Nicholas and is averaging 9.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, and ranks fourth in the WCC in field goal percentage (.563).
 
CLOSE CALLS
• Portland has played three overtime games this season and are 4-2 in games decided by five points or less.
• Portland opened the season with an overtime win at San Jose State, lost in OT at home to Oregon State and then dropped another extended game at UNLV.
• Games at Sacramento State and versus Murray State in Nashville also came down to the closing seconds with the Pilots pulling out both wins.
• The latest thriller came at San Diego, with Alec Wintering winning the game with a three-pointer with less than one second remaining.
• Last season, the team went 1-7 in games decided by five or less and was 1-1 in overtime games.

BAILEY IS BACK
• Senior G Kevin Bailey got off to a fast start averaging 13.1 points per game, but the Clovis, Calif. native injured his foot against Portland State and missed the next eight games.
• He returned to the lineup off the bench on Jan. 8 versus Santa Clara and finished with four points in 11 minutes of action. He followed with 20 points against USF and a season-high 28 points against Pepperdine on Saturday.
• Prior to the injury, Bailey made some big plays early in the season. He hit a clutch jumper and two free throws late against Murray State to clinch the win against the Racers and also ignited Portland's second half rally against San Jose State with 13 points over the final 10:29, including the game-tying three-pointer with 3:14 remaining.
• Bailey has 1,169 career points which ranks 17th in school history.
 
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).
• Ryan Nicholas was also the recipient of the 2014 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.

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.
 
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. 
 
EARLY NLI SIGNINGS
• Jazz Johnson (Lake Oswego, Ore/Lake Oswego HS), Colin Russell (Folsom, Calif./Folsom HS) and Chiir Maker (Sydney, Australia/Newington College) signed NLI's in November and 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. Last week he broke the Les Schwab Invitational scoring record by averaging 35.0 points per game against elite national competition.
• 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. He his prep team recently concluded a 10-game tour through the Pacific Northwest highlighted by Maker scoring 49 points against Rainier Beach (Wash.).
 
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.