2019 University Credit Union WCC Basketball Championships – First Round
Portland Pilots (7-24, 0-16 WCC) vs. San Diego Toreros (18-13, 7-9 WCC)
Date: Thursday, March 7, 2019
Time: 8:00 p.m. (PT)
City: Las Vegas, Nev.
Arena: Orleans Arena
TV: ROOT Sports NW, NBC Sports CA, AT&T SportsNet RM, Spectrum SN, BYUtv
Radio: 910 ESPN-Portland
Live Links: Video I Audio I Stats
Overall Series: USD leads 55-31 (H: 16-26, A: 12-27, N: 3-2)
Last Meeting: San Diego 63, Portland 52 (2/21/19 at San Diego)

GAME INFORMATION
Portland opens the 2019 University Credit Union WCC Championships as the No. 10 seed on Thursday night against No. 7 San Diego (18-3, 7-9 WCC). The first round match-up tips at 8 p.m. at the Orleans Arena. The winner advances to face No. 6 Santa Clara on Friday at 8 p.m. The tournament quarterfinals will take place on Saturday, while semifinals and championship games are Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

GAME COVERAGE
The game will be televised on ROOT Sports NW and various other regional networks. Radio coverage on 910 ESPN-Portland (KMTT) with Jason Swygard begins 30 minutes prior to tip-off and will conclude with a post-game show featuring highlights and interviews.

PORTLAND NOTES
• Portland dropped a 78-62 decision on Senior Night to Santa Clara to finish the regular season 7-24 overall and 0-16 in WCC play. Sophomore G Marcus Shaver Jr. scored a team-high 16 points, while sophomore F Jacob Tryon added 10 points off the bench.
• The Pilots will face San Diego in a rematch of a 2017 WCC first round match-up. Portland entered that game having lost 16 straight Division I games, but knocked off the Toreros by a 60-55 margin. UP enters Thursday's meeting having lost 17 in a row.
• Shaver Jr. earned WCC honorable mention honors for the second straight season. He is the first Pilot to earn all-league recognition as a freshman and sophomore since the league began recognizing honorable mentions in 1997. Last year, Shaver Jr. became the first Pilot to earn All-WCC Freshman Team honors since Taishi Ito in 2007 and first UP freshman to garner honorable mention status since Donald Wilson in 2003. Shaver Jr. is 14th in the WCC in scoring (15.0) and dropped a career-high 30 points at Pacific on Jan. 26.
• RS-Junior G Crisshawn Clark made his season debut on Jan. 10 at BYU after having not played in an official game since the end of his freshman season at Cañada College in 2015 due to various injuries.
• Sophomore G JoJo Walker has scored 20 or more points four times this year. He leads the team and ranks eighth in the WCC in assists per game (3.4).
• Freshman C Theo Akwuba has started 25 games, ranks second in the WCC in blocked shots (1.6) and is averaging a team-high 4.1 rebounds per game.
• The Pilots return four starters and six of the team's seven leading scorers from a year ago. Portland also adds four redshirts to the lineup this season in Clark, Hugh Hogland and Takiula Fahrensohn, and junior Xavier Hallinan.
• Six other newcomers join the roster highlighted by sophomore F Jacob Tryon. The freshmen newcomers include Akwuba, F Josh Phillips, G Miles Turner, and F Wyatt Watson, while sophomore F Dillon Scarboro joined the roster in December.
• Former Portland State head coach Tyler Geving joined the Pilots as an assistant in October. Geving brings 20-plus years of coaching experience including eight at the helm of the Vikings.
• Portland signed two players to NLI's in November. 6-2 G Donyae McCaskill (St. Louis, Mo./Vashon HS) and 7-1 F/C Cody Collinsworth (Lindale, Texas/Lindale HS).
• A total of 16 former Pilots are currently playing professionally overseas, while alum Erik Spoelstra ('92) is the head coach of the Miami HEAT.
• Former NBA All-Star Terry Porter is in his third year as the head coach of the Pilots and is one of 15 Division I coaches in the nation to coach his son(s) this season.
 
ABOUT SAN DIEGO
• San Diego (18-13, 7-9 WCC) has lost five of the last seven games entering the WCC Tournament. The Toreros did pull off an impressive comeback win at San Francisco last Thursday (91-90, OT).
• USD posted impressive non-conference wins against Colorado, San Diego State, Washington State and Grand Canyon, with close losses to Washington, Ole Miss, Oregon and Drake in double overtime.
• Senior F Isaiah Pineiro averages a team-best 19.2 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, while seniors Olin Carter III (15.9) and Isaiah Wright (13.2) also average double figures.
• Sam Scholl took over at the end of last season as interim head coach and was named the permanent head coach in the offseason.
• The Toreros swept the Pilots in the regular season.

PILOTS AT THE WCC TOURNAMENT
• Portland is 12-30 all-time at the WCC Championships and 5-10 in Las Vegas.
• The Pilots defeated San Diego in the last meeting between the teams at the WCC Tournament in 2017 by a 60-55 margin in the first round.
• The Pilots won the 1996 WCC Tournament to earn the automatic NCAA bid and were defeated in the finals of the 1995 tournament by Gonzaga, the only two finals appearances in school history.
• Portland has reached the semifinals five times, most recently in 2015.

SHAVER JR. EARNS ALL-WCC HONORS
Marcus Shaver Jr. averaged 15.3 points in league play and established new career-highs twice during the stretch, both against Pacific. He recorded 25 points on 9-for-12 shooting on Jan. 12 in Portland, and then erupted for 30 points on 9-of-14 shooting in Stockton. In WCC games, His 1.8 threes made per game were eighth in the league. He ranked 14th in overall scoring (15.0). Shaver became the first Pilot since Taishi Ito (2007) to be named to the WCC All-Freshman Team last year and was the first UP freshman to earn All-WCC honorable mention since Donald Wilson (2003). His 394 points were the third most by a freshman in UP history. He has recorded double figures in 25 games this year and was named to the Rainbow Classic All-Tournament Team.
 
GRADUATION RECOGNITION
Portland honored four players scheduled to graduate this spring prior to the game vs. Santa Clara: Crisshawn Clark, Xavier Hallinan, Josh McSwiggan and Franklin Porter.

LINEUP SHUFFLES
Portland has used 11 different starting lineups this season, most recently going with JoJo Walker, Marcus Shaver Jr., Franklin Porter, Tahirou Diabate and Theo Akwuba in five of the last six games. Ten different Pilots have started this year with Walker and Shaver Jr. starting all games, except Senior Night.

McSWIGGAN BREAKS OUT
Josh McSwiggan broke out a shooting slump by drilling his first six three-point attempts and finishing with 20 points in the road loss to Pepperdine on Feb. 23. In just two seasons on The Bluff, McSwiggan ranks 16th in school history in threes made (116) and 16th in three-point percentage (.384).

DIVERSE ROSTER WITH INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
Portland has a diverse roster featuring players from 13 different states or countries. There are three native Oregonians and three Californians, but no other state or territory has more than one player on the roster. Internationally, Portland has players from Mali, New Zealand and England. States besides Oregon include Hawaii, Alabama, Arizona, California, Ohio, Idaho, Washington, Alaska and the US territory of Puerto Rico. Tahirou Diabate is from Mali, but has lived in France, the Canary Islands, and Japan and speaks five languages: Bambara (native), English, French, Spanish and Japanese.

WALKER STARTED WCC PLAY STRONG
Sophomore G JoJo Walker finished with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists, while going a perfect 13-of-13 from the free throw line in the WCC opener at LMU. He recorded back-to-back career highs in scoring early in the season with 22 points versus North Texas (11/10) and 23 points against CSUN (11/17). The Carolina, Puerto Rico native went 9-for-11 from the field against the Mean Green in Hawai'i. He then ignited Portland's comeback win against CSUN with 23 points, seven assists and zero turnovers in 40 minutes. Walker scored 15 second half points and made 6-of-8 from three-point range in the win. Walker ranks eighth in the WCC in assists (3.4).

CLARK MAKES HIS LONG-AWAITED DEBUT
Redshirt junior G Crisshawn Clark made his Portland debut off the bench and scored five points with three rebounds in 12 minutes at BYU on Jan. 10. Clark has had a circuitous route to Portland that has been plagued by injuries. He last competed in an official game during the 2014-15 season at Cañada College in San Mateo, Calif. He was at Pittsburgh for the 2015-16 season, but has had a total of three ACL surgeries in the last three years that kept him sidelined. He was ready to return to the court this year, but suffered a foot injury in preseason training that kept him out of action.

HOGLAND PRODUCING IN THE PAINT
Redshirt freshman C Hugh Hogland has been Portland's best back-to-the-basket scorer this season. Gonzaga was forced to double-team him as he made all three of his field goal attempts and finished with eight points and six rebounds. He was 4-of-6 from the field with 10 points at San Diego and had a career game against Sacramento State with 13 points to go with five rebounds. He is shooting 55 percent from the field. The Hawai'i native holds dual citizenship with Japan and has trained with the Japanese National Team.

AKWUBA WITH THE BLOCK PARTY
Freshman C Theo Akwuba ranks second in the WCC in blocked shots per game (1.6). He has 45 blocked shots in 29 games played which ranks seventh in Portland single-season history. Akwuba has blocked three or more shots in eight games, including a season-high five blocks on Dec. 8 against Sacramento State. He also leads the team in rebounding this season (4.1). The Montgomery, Ala. native averaged a triple double as a high school senior at 11.7 points, 14.1 rebounds and 10.4 blocked shots per game and ranked No. 2 nationally in blocks. Akwuba is pursuing a computer science degree from the Shiley School of Engineering at Portland.

WCC FINISHES NON-CONFERENCE STRONG
Nine of ten WCC programs had .500 or better non-conference records, while the league as a whole finished non-conference play with a 100-49 (.671) mark. For comparison, that was better than the Pac-12 (99-58, .631), Mountain West (76-64, .543) and Atlantic 10 (100-83, .546).

HALLINAN RETURNS
Redshirt junior G Xavier Hallinan became eligible following fall semester. The Portland native contributed three points and an assist off the bench in his season debut on Dec. 17 against Seattle U. Hallinan provided a spark as a walk-on during the 2016-17 season, when he averaged 10.7 points while starting the final six games and led the Pilots to a WCC Tournament win over San Diego by playing all 40 minutes. He returned to The Bluff last spring after a brief stint at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

BUILDING WITH REDSHIRTS
The Pilots have seven players on the active roster this season that have utilized redshirt seasons. Head coach Terry Porter wanted to emphasize player development in his vision of building the program and Portland is one of 10 schools in the nation that has seven or more active redshirt players this year.

PILOTS ADD MORE EXPERIENCE TO COACHING STAFF
Former Portland State head coach Tyler Geving joined the Pilots as an assistant coach in October. Geving brings 20-plus years of Pacific Northwest coaching experience, including eight seasons as head coach at Portland State from 2009-17 where he won 112 games and led the Vikings to the 2014 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. He also spent four years as the Associate Head Coach of the Vikings from 2005-09, which included a pair of Big Sky Conference titles and NCAA Tournament appearances in 2008 and 2009.

PILOTS IN THE PROS
A total of 16 former Pilots are currently playing professionally overseas, while Miami HEAT head coach Erik Spoelstra played four years with the Pilots (1989-92) and was the WCC Freshman of the Year in 1989. Ben Sullivan is also an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks. Notable former Pilots still with active playing careers include: Philipp Hartwich (Huesca, Spain), D'Marques Tyson (Vitoria SC, Portugal), Alec Wintering (Windmills, Holland), Ray Barreno (Soles, Mexico), Thomas van der Mars (Aalstar, Belgium), Volodymyr Gerun (Breogan, Spain), Bryce Pressley (Bondi Ferrara, Italy), Nik Raivio (Bayreuth, Germany), TJ Campbell (Turk Telekom, Turkey), Luke Sikma (ALBA Berlin, German), Taishi Ito (Shiga L-Stars, Japan) and Pooh Jeter (Fujian S., China).

PILOTS SIGN TWO EARLY
Portland signed G Donyae McCaskill (St. Louis, Mo./Vashon HS) and F/C Cody Collinsworth (Lindale, Texas, Lindale HS) to National Letters of Intent on the first day of the early signing period on Nov. 14. McCaskill (6-3, 185) averaged 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists as a junior for Vashon HS. He helped the Wolverines to a 21-6 overall record, District 4 title, and a trip to the Missouri 4A State Basketball Championships. He had offers from Creighton, UMKC, Southern Illinois, Missouri State and Southeast Missouri State before committing to Portland. Collinsworth (7-1, 225) averaged 18.3 points, 14 rebounds and eight blocked shots per game last season for Pilot Point HS. He earned District 9-3A Co-Offensive Player of the Year honors and was named to the All-Texomaland Second Team by the Herald Democrat. The Denton-Record Chronicle selected him as the Area's Defensive Player of the Year. Collinsworth had offers from TCU, Minnesota, Wright State, Northern Colorado and Northwestern State.