Portland Pilots (2-0, 0-0 WCC) vs. Portland State Vikings (0-0, 0-0 Big Sky)
Date: Friday, Nov. 11, 2022
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: Portland, Ore.
Arena: Chiles Center
TV: Portland's CW (KRCW)
Radio: 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT)
Live Coverage Links: Video I Audio I Stats
Tickets: PortlandPilots.com/Tickets

THIS WEEK
• The Pilots have opened the 2022-23 regular season this week with home wins over Lewis & Clark (89-62) and Florida A&M (91-54). The three-game homestand concludes on Friday, Nov. 11 against crosstown rival Portland State at 7 p.m.
• Season tickets, mini packages and single-game tickets - as well as game promotions - can be found online at PortlandPilots.com.

GAME COVERAGE
• Friday's game will be televised on Portland's CW (KRCW) and streamed on the WCC Network with Ann Schatz and Jennifer Mountain broadcasting.
• Radio coverage for all Portland men's basketball games is on 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT) with Jason Swygard and Joel Sobotka on the call. The pre-game show begins 30 minutes prior to tip-off and coverage concludes with a post-game featuring stats, highlights and interviews.
• Live coverage links for Portland games can be found at PortlandPilots.com.
• Follow @PortlandMBB on Twitter and Instagram for the latest team content.

LAST GAME: @PILOTS 91, FLORIDA A&M 54
• Portland got a 30-point bench performance on the way to a 91-54 win against the Florida A&M Rattlers at home Wednesday. The 37-point margin is the largest for the Pilots against a Division I opponent since a 79-39 defeat of Loyola Marymount on Jan. 21, 2010.
• Four players score in double figures, led by Kristian Sjolund, who had 20 points, six rebounds and two blocks. Moses Wood tacked on 18 points in his season debut and Tyler Robertson helped with 14 points and four assists.
• Portland took advantage of great ball movement, piling up 17 assists on 29 made field goals. Robertson's four assists were the most for the Pilots and Juanse Gorosito also added three assists.
• The Portland defense held Florida A&M to just 30.9 percent from the field, including 25 percent from three-point range.

PRESEASON RECOGNITION
• Portland was picked fifth in the WCC Preseason Coaches Poll, trailing only Gonzaga, Saint Mary's, San Francisco and BYU.
• Tyler Robertson was also named to the 10-player WCC Preseason Team.
• Andy Katz recognized Shantay Legans as on the his Top 10 Rising Coaches nationally and the Pilots as one of the Top 11 most improved teams in college basketball.
• Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated also named Legans as one of his 10 Coaches on the Rise, nationally.
• ESPN.com identified Portland as the surprise 'sleeper team' of the West Coast Conference.

PILOTS SIGN TWO DURING EARLY NLI PERIOD
• Portland announced the signings of G Vince Delano and F Cyprian Hyde to National Letters of Intent this week.
• Delano (6-2, 170) currently attends Arizona Compass Prep, one of the top basketball prep schools in the country. Last season he competed for Phoenix Prep in the elite prep basketball circuit, The Grind Session. He broke the circuit record for most three-pointers in a game (10) and helped lead Phoenix Prep to the Grind Session Final Four.
• Hyde (6-10, 220) provides versatility from the post position with his size and athleticism. An elite shot blocker with three-point shooting range, Hyde was named the Vista High School Defensive Player of the Year last season. He finished the season averaging 16.5 points, 11.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game.

A SEASON TO BUILD ON
• The Pilots are coming off one of the most successful seasons in program history under first-year head coach Shantay Legans. The team was 19-15 overall and finished sixth in the WCC, recording their highest win total since 2010 and their fourth-highest total since joining Division I in 1958. Their 7-7 record in WCC play was also the best since 2015.
• Portland won the program's first postseason game in program history with a rout of New Orleans in The Basketball Classic.
• The Pilots return the top seven scorers and all major contributors to the roster for this season. Tyler Robertson (15.3 ppg) earned All-WCC Second Team honors last season, while Moses Wood (14.2 ppg) garnered honorable mention recognition. Chris Austin (14.3 ppg), Mike Meadows (10.2 ppg), Chika Nduka and Kristian Sjolund also were primary starters, while the team welcomes back graduate student Jack Perry from a medical redshirt and sophomore big man Vasilije Vucinic.

ROBERTSON IN RARE COMPANY
• Robertson posted a remarkable 31-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist triple-double in a Feb. 12 win over LMU to join teammate Mike Meadows as the only players in program history to record a triple-double – Meadows did so against Willamette University. Only 26 players in the nation last season had triple-doubles and Portland and Western Kentucky were the only programs with multiple players recording triple-doubles.
• Robertson became the only NCAA Division I player in the last 25 years to log a 30-point triple-double, make 5-plus threes without a miss (5-for-5) and drill 10-plus free throws without a miss (10-for-10) in his remarkable performance against LMU. No other player has achieved all three of those marks throughout an entire career, but Robertson accomplished it a single game.
• He was one of only five players in the nation last year to average at least 15.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. The others were Alondes Williams (Wake Forest), Tosan Evbuomwan (Princeton), Ahsan Asadullah (Lipscomb) and Baylor Scheierman (South Dakota State).
• The Melbourne, Australia native was also the only player to rank top 10 in the WCC in points (7th), rebounds (10th) and assists (4th) last season.

BALANCED ATTACK
• Four Pilots averaged double figures last season, while Kristian Sjolund and Chika Nduka came on late in the year to provide great production.
• Sjolund went for career highs of 23 points and 18 rebounds in a Feb. 8 win at San Francisco to become just the fourth Pilot since 2000 to score at least 20 points and grab 18 or more rebounds in a game.
• Nduka, a true freshman, started all 14 league games and averaged 9.8 points and 6.6 rebounds during WCC play but was not selected to the All-WCC Freshman Team.

SETTING RECORDS
• Portland ranked seventh in the nation in free throw percentage (.791) to establish a new UP single-season record. The Pilots also finished 12th in free throws made (544) nationally last year.
• The Pilots set a single game scoring record in a 122-78 victory over Willamette, eclipsing the 115 scored against St. Martin's in 1978.
• Portland also broke the program's single game three-pointers made record with 18 against VMI on Dec. 3. The team's 264 three-pointers made marked the second most in single-season history (289 in 2015-16).
• Robertson ranked second in the WCC and 22nd in the nation in free throw percentage (.883) and had a streak of 34 consecutive free throws made snapped at Pacific on Feb. 24. He currently tops the UP career record book for free throw percentage.

THE NEWCOMERS
• Coach Legans brought in a talented recruiting class including four transfers and five freshmen. The additions of 6-foot-10 grad transfer Joey St. Pierre (Milwaukee), 6-foot-9 former WAC Freshman of the Year Wyatt Lowell (Utah Valley/BYU/Snow JC) gives the Pilots more size this season.
• Mississippi State transfer Alden Applewhite is good sized wing with a versatile skill set, while Maine transfer Vukasin Masic provides scoring and distributing ability as a combo guard.
• Freshman guard Juanse Gorosito is an elite shooter, while freshman Bol Dengdit has good size and skill for a wing at 6-11.

ROSTER NOTES
• Chris Austin (leg) and Bol Dengdit are redshirting the 2022-23 season.
• Vukasin Masic is sitting out awaiting an NCAA immediate eligibility request.
• Sixth-year senior Jack Perry returns after suffering a season-ending knee injury last season against Portland State after the Pilots started 5-1.

THE SCHEDULE
• The team will play a challenging non-league schedule highlighted by co-hosting the Phil Knight Invitational and opening the tournament on Thanksgiving Day against North Carolina.
• Other notable non-league opponents include home games against Portland State, Seattle U and North Dakota State, as well as road contests at Oregon, Kent State, Air Force and UC Riverside.
• Portland will not host BYU or visit Santa Clara as part of the WCC's unbalanced league schedule.
• The Pilots are the only team nationally scheduled to play Gonzaga and North Carolina, the preseason No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country.

HEAD COACH SHANTAY LEGANS
• Legans was hired in March of 2021 after he led Eastern Washington to the 2021 NCAA Tournament. In his four years as head coach at EWU, Legans compiled the school's best overall (.605) and conference (.726) win percentages.
• Legans finished third or better in the Big Sky Conference all four seasons, led the Eagles to the 2020 regular season crown and 2021 tournament title.
• His teams improve each year as the season progresses best illustrated by his 47-18 (.723) record in games played after Feb. 1 in five years as a head coach.
• All three assistant coaches are back this year for the Pilots. Bobby Suarez and T.J. Lipold came with Legans from Eastern Washington, while Jeremy Pope came on board after coaching most recently at Arizona Compass Prep.
• His staff is among the nation's youngest as all three assistants are under 35.

ABOUT PORTLAND STATE
• The Vikings open the regular season against the Pilots on Friday.
• Portland State was picked seventh in both the media and coaches Big Sky Conference Preseason Poll.
• PSU made a late-season run in 2021-22, winning 10 of 13 games over one stretch, and reached the Big Sky Tournament semifinals before falling to runner up UNC. They finished 14-17 overall and 10-10 in league play.
• Head coach Jase Coburn is entering his second season at the helm. The Vikings have four returners and 10 newcomers this season.

PORTLAND-PORTLAND STATE SERIES DETAILS
Series Information: Portland leads 39-20
H / A / N: 26-13 / 11-6 / 2-1
Streak: Portland W3
Last 10 / 5: 7-3 / 3-2
Last Meeting: Pilots 69, Vikings 54 (Nov. 23, 2021 at PSU)

WE'RE RIVERBOAT PILOTS, NOT AIRPLANE PILOTS!

• Portland's nickname of the Pilots is often misinterpreted as an airline Pilot, when in actuality it is named in honor of local Riverboat Pilots.
• Though the original nickname chosen by students in 1935 was "Chinooks" (after the local Native American tribe, and the largest of the salmon species in the Willamette River), "Pilots" was chosen by presidential fiat. From that day forward, The Bluff had a new mascot, and he was Wally Pilot.
• When the University changed its name from Columbia University (its earliest sports teams were known as the Cliff dwellers or the Columbias), to the University of Portland in 1935, the name and University had already begun to adapt a more "nautical motif," suitable for a campus site overlooking the Willamette River. At the same time, the Pilot athletic teams became associated with Wally (a stylized riverboat pilot), and the pilot's wheel became the logical logo.