Portland Pilots (11-9, 2-3 WCC) vs. No. 2/1 Gonzaga Bulldogs (5-12, 0-3 WCC)
Date: Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022
Time: 6 p.m.
Place: Spokane, Wash.
Arena: McArthey Athletic Center
TV: ROOT Sports NW
Video: WCC Network
Radio: 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT)
Live Coverage Links: Video I Audio I Stats

THIS WEEK
• Portland returned home for the first time in 41 days and defeated the Pacific Tigers by a 64-56 margin on Thursday at the Chiles Center. It marked the West Coast Conference home opener for the Pilots (11-9, 2-3 WCC).
• The team now heads to Spokane, Wash. for a Saturday meeting against No. 2/1 Gonzaga at 6 p.m. The game will be televised live on ROOT Sports Northwest and out-of-region fans can catch the action on the WCC Network.
• 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
• Portland opened WCC play with four consecutive road games as a result of numerous postponements and rescheduling efforts. It marks the first time since 1983 that the Pilots began league play with four road games.
• The team won its league home-opener over Pacific on Thursday (64-56) as Moses Wood led four Pilots in double figures with 19 points. That snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Tigers and Portland's 11 overall wins match the program's most since the 2015-16 season.
• The Pilots have led by at least seven points in the first half of each of their first five league games, but fell came up short in three of those contests. The team dropped an overtime heartbreaker to San Diego (68-63) after jumping out to a 25-8 lead early. Portland bounced back for an 82-63 win at Pepperdine, 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 Jan. 17 as Moses 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.
• The Pilots jumped out to an early eight point lead at BYU last Saturday and led until the final minute of the first half before the Cougars pulled away, 78-65.
• Freshman F Chika Nduka moved into the starting lineup for WCC play and is averaging 12.4 points and 6.0 rebounds while shooting 59 percent from the field in league action. Among all freshmen in during league games, he trails only Gonzaga's Chet Holmgren in scoring and ranks third behind Holmgren and BYU's Fousseyni Traore in rebounds.
• Tyler Robertson ranks among the WCC's top 12 in scoring (12th), rebounds (10th) and assists (5th). Eli Scott (LMU) is the only other player in the league to rank top 12 in all three categories.
• Portland and Gonzaga are the only WCC programs with four players averaging double figures.
• Portland ranks fifth in the nation in free throw percentage (.801) and are eighth in free throws made (323). The Pilots lead the WCC in each of those categories, as well as total free throw attempts (.403).
• Meadows leads the WCC in minutes per game (36.6) and Robertson is second (36.3). They both rank Top 25 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.
• 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 school's best overall (.605) and conference (.726) win percentages.
• 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 NLI and he will join the program for the 2021-22 season.
• 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 12 Pilot games will be aired on either Portland's CW, ROOT Sports Northwest or Stadium.
 
ABOUT GONZAGA
• The Bulldogs (16-2, 5-0 WCC) are ranked No. 2 nationally in the Associated Press Top 25 and ranked No. 1 in the Coaches Poll, KenPom.com and NCAA Net.
• Gonzaga has signature wins against Texas, CLA, Texas Tech, BYU and San Francisco. The Zags lone losses came to Duke and Alabama at neutral sites.
• Preseason All-American Drew Timme leads four Gonzaga players averaging double figures at 18.2 points per game, while freshman phenom Chet Holmgren adds 14.1 points and 8.6 rebounds.
• The Bulldogs lead the nation in scoring (90.1), scoring margin (24.6) and field goal percentage (53.9).
• Head coach Mark Few has guided Gonzaga to two NCAA Championship game appearances,two Elite Eights, six Sweet 16's and 22 straight NCAA Tournaments. Few is the winningest active coach in the country by percentage at .834.
 
SCHEDULE SHUFFLE
• The latest schedule adjustment for Portland was moving its home game against San Francisco from this Thursday, Jan. 21 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.
• The only outstanding game to reschedule is a home contest vs. BYU.
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.
•The 41 days between home games (Dec. 22 - Jan. 27) matches the third largest gap this season among all teams in the nation (Cal Poly 59 days, Manhattan 42, Deleware 41).
 
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. 1 Gonzaga, No. 23 Saint Mary's, No. 29 BYU and No. 38 San Francisco.
• KenPom.com has those four teams all in the top 35, while ESPN's Joe Lunardi projects the WCC to have four NCAA Tournament representatives, which would be a league record.
 
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.