2022 University Credit Union WCC Basketball Tournament
Dates: March 3-8, 2022
Place: Las Vegas, Nev.
Arena: Orleans Arena
Coverage Details: WCCSports.com

THIS WEEK
• Portland enters the University Credit Union WCC Basketball Tournament as the No. 6 seed and receives an opening round bye. The Pilots will face the winner of No. 7 San Diego and No. 10 Pepperdine on Friday at 8 p.m. A win would pit Portland in Saturday's quarterfinals against No. 3 Santa Clara at 9:30 p.m.
• Friday's game will be televised on ROOT Sports NW, BYUtv and several other Regional Sports Networks. Radio coverage will be on 1080 The Fan (KFXX).
• Saturday's game will be televised on ESPN2 and radio coverage would again be on 1080 The Fan.
• Live coverage links for Portland games can be found at PortlandPilots.com.
• Follow @PortlandMBB on Twitter for in-game updates.
• Single session tournament tickets are still available by visiting WCCsports.com.

PILOTS AT THE WCC TOURNAMENT
• Portland is 12-33 all-time at the WCC Championships and 5-13 in Las Vegas.
• Portland 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.
• UP has reached the semifinals five times, most recently in 2015.

ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Portland had its six-game win streak snapped with a 102-89 loss at Santa Clara to conclude the regular season last Saturday. Moses Wood led five Pilots in double figures with 23 points, but the Broncos caught fire and made 14-of-25 three-pointers and shot 60 percent overall from the field.
• The six-game win streak was the first since the 2008-09 season and the five consecutive WCC wins was also the first since that same season.
• UP is guaranteed at least a .500 overall record for the first time since the 2014-15 season (17-16), while the Pilots seven league wins matched the program's combined total from the previous five seasons. Portland finished with a .500 or better WCC record for the first time since the 2010-11 squad finished 7-7.
• Tyler Robertson was named to the All-WCC Second Team and Moses Wood garnered All-WCC honorable mention recognition.
• Portland pulled out a 75-69 road win at Pacific on Feb. 24 for its sixth straight win. UP went on a late 11-0 run while holding the Tigers scoreless for more than five minutes to secure the season sweep of Pacific for the first time since the Tigers rejoined the WCC for the 2013-14 season. Wood and Chris Austin led the way with 18 points each for Portland. Tyler Robertson added 15 points and eight rebounds, while Mike Meadows chipped in 12 points off the bench in his return after missing the previous three games due to injury.
• Prior to Pacific, Portland won a thrilling 77-74 home victory over Pepperdine. Robertson converted a go-ahead three-point play with less than 30 seconds remaining and the Pilots got a big defensive stop to secure the win. Two days earlier, Portland shot a season-high 63 percent from the field as all five starters reached double figures led by 26 points from Chris Austin in a 92-60 win against San Diego. The 32-point win margin is the largest over a WCC opponent since a 79-39 decision against LMU on Jan. 21, 2010.
• Robertson posted a remarkable 31-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist triple-double in a Feb. 12 win over LMU to join teammate Meadows as the only players in program history to record a triple-double – Meadows did so earlier this season against Willamette University. Only 24 players in the nation this season have triple-doubles and Portland and Western Kentucky are the only programs with multiple players recording triple-doubles.
• Robertson is 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). No other player has achieved all those marks in an entire career, let alone all in one game.
• Kristian 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. Sjolund is averaging 13.7 points and 7.3 rebounds over the last seven games.
• Freshman Chika Nduka moved into the starting lineup and averaged 9.8 points and 6.6 rebounds during WCC play.
• Robertson ranks top 10 in the WCC in scoring (6th), rebounds (10th) and assists (4th). Eli Scott (LMU) is the only other player to rank Top 10 in all three categories.
• Portland ranks second in the nation in both free throw percentage (.806) and free throws made (493). Robertson leads the league and ranks 11th in the nation in free throw percentage (.899) and had a streak of 34 consecutive free throws made snapped at Pacific on Feb. 24.
• 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 National Teamer Bol Dengdit to a NLI and he will join the program for the 2021-22 season. Dengdit was just called up to the Boomers to compete in the FIBA Asian Qualifiers in Japan.
• 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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
WCC IN STRONG POSITION FOR MULTIPLE NCAA BIDS
• Four WCC teams are ranked in the Top 52 of the latest NCAA Net Rankings: No. 1 Gonzaga, No. 19 Saint Mary's, No. 27 San Francisco and No. 52 BYU.
• KenPom.com has those four teams all in the Top 50, while ESPN's Joe Lunardi projects the WCC to have three NCAA Tournament representatives, with BYU one of the first teams out.
 
PILOTS TO CO-HOST & COMPETE IN PHIL KNIGHT INVITATIONAL NEXT YEAR
• Portland will co-host and participate in one of college basketball's biggest events when the Phil Knight Invitational (PKI) and Phil Knight Legacy come to the Rose City over the 2022 Thanksgiving weekend. Born out of the success of the PK80 events five years ago, the weekend will feature 24 total teams competing in four different brackets.
• Portland will be in the PKI bracket along with Alabama, Iowa State, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oregon, UConn and Villanova.
• The Chiles Center at University of Portland, Rose Quarter's Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum will host the games with the ESPN family of networks airing all games.
 
 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, Delaware 41).