Portland Pilots (10-8, 1-2 WCC) at BYU Cougars (16-4, 4-1 WCC)
Date: Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022
Time: 6 p.m. (PT)
Place: Provo, Utah
Arena: Marriott Center
TV: Stadium/BYUtv
Video: byutv.org
Radio: 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT)
Live Coverage Links: Video I Audio I Stats

THIS WEEK
• The Portland men's basketball team continues West Coast Conference play with its fourth consecutive road game this Saturday at BYU. Tip-off is at 6 p.m. (PT) and the game will be aired on Stadium and BYUtv. The Pilots (10-8, 1-2 WCC) started league play with three games last week in Southern California and rescheduled Thursday's game against San Francisco for Feb. 5. This is the first time since 1983 that Portland has opened league play with four consecutive road games.
• Pilot men's basketball games are on the radio on 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT) with Jason Swygard calling the action. The program begins 30 minutes prior to tip-off and the concludes with a full post-game show.
• Live coverage links for Portland games can be found at PortlandPilots.com.
• Follow @PortlandMBB on Twitter for in-game updates.

ABOUT THE PILOTS
• After a 22-day layoff between games, the Pilots began WCC play at San Diego with a heartbreaking 68-63 overtime loss on Jan. 13. The Pilots opened a 17-point first half lead but ran out of gas late as the Toreros stole the win. Mike Meadows scored a team-high 16 points, Chika Nduka made his first start of the season and matched his season high with 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Moses Wood recorded a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
• Portland bounced back for an 82-63 win at Pepperdine two days later as Wood and Chris Austin scored 22 points apiece. Nduka recorded his second double-double of the year with 14 points and 10 rebounds as the Pilots earned the program's first WCC road win since Jan. 20, 2018. The 19-point margin was also the largest league road win since a 74-54 victory at Santa Clara on Feb. 7, 2015.
• The injury bug caught up with the Pilots at LMU on Monday as Wood was a late scratch and reserve center Matheus Silveira left the game after just nine seconds and could not return. Portland again had an early seven-point lead but struggled to score the rest of the way in a 70-58 defeat. Nduka continued to shine with a season-high 16 points and seven rebounds.
• Nduka is averaging 15.0 points and 8.0 rebounds while shooting 57 percent from the field in league play.
• Tyler Robertson ranks among the WCC's top 10 in scoring (9th), rebounds (10th) and assists (5th). Eli Scott (LMU) is the only other player in the league to rank top 10 in all three categories.
• Gonzaga, Saint Mary's and Portland are the only WCC programs with four or more players averaging double figures.
• Portland leads the nation in free throw percentage (.816) and are sixth in free throws made (293). The Pilots lead the WCC in each of those categories, as well as total free throw attempts (359).
• Meadows leads the WCC in minutes per game (36.5) and Robertson is second in the league (36.3). They both rank Top 20 nationally for minutes per game as well.
• Portland's nine non-league wins are the most since the 2010-11 team went 13-3 out of conference.
• Mike Meadows recorded the first triple-double in program history with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists against Willamette on Nov. 11. The Pilots also set a new single game scoring record in the 122-78 victory, eclipsing the 115 scored against St. Martin's in 1978.
• The Pilots broke the program's single game three-pointers made record with 18 against VMI on Dec. 3.
• Head coach Shantay Legans was hired last March after he led Eastern Washington to the NCAA Tournament. In his four years as head coach at EWU, Legans compiled the best overall (.605) and conference (.726) winning percentages in school history.
• Portland returns two players from last year's roster and adds seven transfers and seven true freshmen. The 14 newcomers are tied with UT-Martin for the most in Division I this season.
• The seven incoming transfers are fourth most in the nation, while Portland's returners accounted for less than one percent of the scoring production last season, which is second lowest nationally.
• Portland has a total of seven international players on the roster.
• The Pilots signed NBA Academy and Australian U-19 National Teamer Bol Dengdit to a National Letter of Intent and he will join the program for the 2021-22 season.
• A total of 14 Pilot graduates are currently playing professionally, while alum Erik Spoelstra ('92) has won two NBA Championships as head coach of the Miami HEAT. Ben Sullivan ('07) also won a title last spring as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks coaching staff and is now an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics.
• Portland has partnered with Portland's CW (KRCW-TV) to televise several home events this season while a minimum of 13 Pilot games will be aired on either Portland's CW, ROOT Sports Northwest or Stadium.
 
ABOUT BYU
• The Cougars (16-4, 4-1 WCC) defeated San Diego at home on Thursday by a 79-71 margin behind 22 points from senior guard Alex Barcello. BYU also has league wins over Saint Mary's, San Francisco and Pacific with its lone loss at Gonzaga
• BYU posted notable non-conference wins against San Diego State, Oregon, Utah and Utah State and currently sits at No. 27 in the latest NCAA Net Rankings.
• Barcello leads the team in scoring (17.1) along with transfer guard Te'Jon Lucas (10.1), while freshman big Foussenyi Traore adds 8.4 points and a team-high 8.0 rebounds.
• Head coach Mark Pope is in his third year at the helm and the win over USD made him the fastest coach in Cougars history to reach 60 wins.
 
SCHEDULE SHUFFLE
• The latest schedule move for Portland was moving its home game against San Francisco from this past Thursday to Saturday, Feb. 5. The Pilots were previously scheduled to play at USF on that night, but the Dons agreed to move that game to Tuesday, Feb. 8 in San Francisco.
• As currently scheduled, the Pilots will play six of its final nine regular season games at home in the Chiles Center.

GAMES IN BUNCHES
• Portland played nine games in the first 19 days of the season which began on Nov. 9 at Arizona State.
• The Pilots then took a 10-day break after hosting VMI on Dec. 3 for Finals Week on campus.
• After the team's run of five games in ten days ending at UC Davis on Dec. 22, the team was off for 22 more days due to the Holiday Break and the first three games of the league season being postponed due to COVID issues.
 
EXPERIENCED 'YOUTH'
• Portland's roster features just one upperclassman in terms of eligibility remaining: graduate transfer Jack Perry, who suffered a season ending injury vs. Portland State on Nov. 23.
• Portland's six other transfers all have three years of eligibility remaining including UNLV graduate transfer Moses Wood. The 6-8 forward began his career at Tulane and transferred to the Runnin' Rebels after a coaching change. He redshirted one of his two years at UNLV, which also had a coaching change this offseason, so Wood joins the Pilots with three years left to play.
• Chris Austin, Mike Meadows and Kristian Sjolund also spent three years at their previous schools, but each utilized redshirt seasons and got an extra year due to COVID.
 
COACHING CONTINUITY
• In addition to the three Eastern Washington players that transferred to Portland with Coach Legans, three staff members also made the move. Assistant coaches Bobby Suarez and T.J. Lipold, as well as video coordinator Thomas Moore remained with Legans during his transition to the Rose City.
• Legans' staff is one of the youngest in the nation as all three assistant coaches are 33 or younger.
 
WCC PROJECTED TO GET FOUR NCAA BIDS
• The West Coast Conference has gotten off to a strong start to the 2021-22 season and has four teams ranked in the Top 40 of the latest NCAA Net Rankings: No. 2 Gonzaga, No. 27 BYU, No. 35 Saint Mary's and No. 36 San Francisco.
• KenPom.com has those four teams all in the top 40, while ESPN's Joe Lunardi projects the WCC to have four NCAA Tournament representatives, which would be a league record.
• Here are some notable non-conference wins from the league:
Nov. 12: @BYU def. San Diego State, 66-60
Nov. 12: @Santa Clara def. Stanford, 88-72
Nov. 13: @#1 Gonzaga def. #5 Texas, 86-74
Nov. 16: BYU def. @#12 Oregon, 81-49
Nov. 22: Saint Mary's def. Notre Dame, 62-59
Nov. 22: Santa Clara def. TCU, 85-66
Nov. 23: #1 Gonzaga def. #2 UCLA, 83-63
Nov. 23: Saint Mary's def. Oregon, 62-50
Nov. 26: San Francisco def. UAB, 63-61
Nov. 27: #12 BYU def. @Utah, 75-64
Dec. 2: Saint Mary's def. @Utah State, 60-58
 
TICKET, VACCINATION & TESTING INFORMATION FOR HOME GAMES
We are thrilled to welcome fans back to the Chiles Center for Portland Pilots basketball games. Season tickets, flex packs and single-game offerings are available now by visiting PortlandPilots.com/Tickets or calling the Pilot Box Office at (503) 943-GOUP. All guests ages 12 and up must provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or provide proof of either a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of the event or a negative lab-based rapid test taken within 48 hours of the event. At-home tests will not be accepted. Kids under age 12 can come to events without proof of vaccination or proof of a negative test. Masks are required for all guests attending Portland Athletics events.