Portland Pilots (2-2, 0-0 WCC) vs. South Florida Bulls (2-2, 0-0 AAC)
Date: Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Place: Conway, S.C.
Arena: HTC Center
TV: ESPN2
Radio: 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT)
Live Coverage Links: Video I Audio I Stats

THIS WEEK
• The Pilots head to east to take part in the 2024 Myrtle Beach Invitational hosted in Conway, S.C. Nov. 21-24 at the HTC Center.
• Portland opens the tournament against the South Florida Bulls on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. (PT). Ohio vs. Middle Tennessee State is the other game on the Pilot side of the bracket, while Bradley, Texas State, Princeton and Wright State are featured on the opposite side of the bracket.
• Friday will feature second round games with the final games scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 24.
 
GAME COVERAGE
• Thursday's game will be on ESPN2 with Robert Lee and Noah Savage on the call. All tournament games will be televised on the ESPN Family of Networks.
• Radio for all Portland men's basketball games is on 910 ESPN Portland (KMTT) with Jason Swygard calling the action. Pre-game coverage begins 30 minutes prior to tip-off and ends with a 30-minute post-game show.

LAST TIME OUT: Pilots 63, @Long Beach State 61 (Nov. 16, 2024)
• Freshman Austin Rapp scored a game-high 18 points and came up with a big defensive stop late to lead Portland to a 63-61 road victory over Long Beach State Saturday afternoon at the Walter Pyramid.
• Rapp drilled five three-pointers and grabbed four rebounds, but it was his defensive effort in the closing seconds that secured the win. The Beach had a chance to tie or win with the ball in Devin Askew's hands for the final possession. Rapp got switched onto the speedy guard, but forced a tough, fall-away three-pointer from the left wing that missed at the buzzer.
• Max Mackinnon finished with 12 points, included a clutch three-pointer late, while Vukasin Masic added nine points, seven rebounds and six assists.
• Rapp buried five first half three-pointers in leading the Pilots to a 35-30 lead at the break. The Pilots led by as much as nine points early and outrebounded LBSU 21-13 in the opening period.
• Masic made a runner in the lane and left wing three to give Portland its largest lead at 54-44 with 7:57 remaining. The Pilots were up 63-55 with less than three minutes to go but were unable to convert offensively and LBSU used a 6-0 run to make it a one-possession game after Lloyd Jr.'s driving layup with 17 seconds left.

AUSTIN REACHES 1,000 POINTS
• Graduate G Chris Austin eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career on Nov. 12 at Oregon. He entered the game needing 10 points and finished with 11.
• The Pasadena, Calif. native has navigated injuries throughout his seven total years of college athletics, three at Fordham and the last four at UP. A thumb injury ended his freshman season early and then a broken leg at the end of the 2021-22 campaign at Portland sidelined him for the entire 2022-23 season.
• With 118 total games played, including 87 games started, Austin is by far the most experienced player on the roster and has become a vocal leader this year.

MASIC MAKING WAVES
• Vukasin Masic is Portland's top returning scorer after averaging 12.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per game last season and is leading the way at 15.0 points per game this year. He missed the Lewis & Clark season opener (ankle) but returned to lead the team with an efficient 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting against UCSB.
• Masic showed flashes of brilliance last year in his return to action after sitting out the 2022-23 season following the denial of an immediate eligibility waiver by the NCAA. In his Pilot debut, Masic scored 22 of his 25 points in second half to lead the team to a 78-73 season-opening win ever eventual NCAA Tournament participant Long Beach State. His 25 points were the most ever scored by a Portland player in their debut. Masic also erupted for a career high 32 points in a road win at North Dakota and had six 20-point games.

FRESHMEN PHENOMS
• The Pilots regularly had four freshmen on the court in the second half of the last two road games. Austin Rapp (12.5 ppg, 7.3 rpg) and Todd Jones (7.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg) have started all four games and are putting up impressive numbers.
• Rapp has been a regular among Australian Youth National Teams and led his regional team (Victoria) to the Under-20 Australian National Championship with 32 points and 13 rebounds in the title game, including the buzzer-beating game-winning shot. Jones is a three-star prospect that helped Isidore Newman High School win three consecutive Louisiana State Championships. The high-flying Jones was the 2024 District MVP and four-time District Defensive Player of the Year.
• Redshirt freshman PG Vincent Delano spurred the Pilots off the bench at Oregon with 12 points and five rebounds in 35 minutes, while Mikah Ballew played quality crunch time minutes in both games.
• Jinup Dobuol and RS freshman Kelson Gebbers are also expected to compete for playing time this season.

AUSSIE CONNECTIONS
• Coach Legans and Portland basketball has had great success with players from Australia and that trend continues this season. Recent graduate Tyler Robertson, a three-time All-WCC selection, is close family friends with Austin Rapp. Rapp, Max Mackinnon, Bol Dengdit and Carlin Briggs make four Aussies on the 2024-25 roster.
 
INJURY UPDATES
• RS sophomore F Bol Dengdit (knee) returned to the lineup against Long Beach state after missing the previous two games. Dengdit is looking to build on his stellar 2024 WCC campaign where he averaged 9.3 points and 7.1 rebounds during league play.
• Redshirt freshman G Kelson Gebbers (back) has missed the first four games and is also day-to-day. A quality shooting wing, Gebbers is expected to compete for a spot in the rotation.
• Freshman G Carlin Briggs (knee) is going to miss the 2024-25 season.

IMPACT TRANSFERS
• Elon junior transfer Max Mackinnon had a stellar line of 20 points, six rebounds and five assists in his Pilot debut against Lewis & Clark. Mackinnon was named the 2022 Coastal Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year at Elon where he averaged 11.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists as a freshman and followed with 12.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists last season. Prior to college, Mackinnon helped Queensland win back-to-back Gold Medals at the U-20 Australian Championships.
• Redshirt junior C Mezziah Oakman (7-0) and junior C Jermaine Ballisager Webb (7-1) are expected to make an impact inside this year for the Pilots. Oakman started the first two games and finished with 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting in the season opener. He sat out last season at UC Santa Barbara and was previously the MVP of the Coast Conference North Division while at City College of San Francisco. He averaged 11.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and shot 63.6 percent from the field as a sophomore. Ballisager Webb played limited minutes off the bench in the first two games but made significant contributions in the last two road games and has made three straight three-pointers. He previously played two years at American University and averaged 7.4 points and 3.8 rebounds last season.

STAFF CONTINUITY
• Portland returns its entire primary coaching staff from last season. Coach Legans, Associate Head Coach Bobby Suarez and Assistant Coach T.J. Lipold have now been together for eight years dating back to their time at Eastern Washington. Arturo Ormond returns for his second year on The Bluff. Ormond previously coached Legans during his time as a player at Fresno State.

SETTING PROGRAM RECORDS
• In his three years leading UP, Shantay Legans is already rewriting the program record books. The Pilots have the two highest single-season scoring records in school history. Portland scored 2,524 points in his inaugural 2021-22 season and then broke that record with 2,566 total points the following season. The 2021-22 team also established a new free throw percentage record (.791), while the 317 three-pointers made in 2022-23 shattered the previous record of 289 (2016-17).
• The Pilots set the game scoring record in a 122-78 win over Willamette (11/11/21), eclipsing the 115 scored vs St. Martin's in 1978. Portland also broke the program's single game three-pointers made record with 18 against VMI (12/3/21).
• Tyler Robertson broke the school record for free throws made when he converted 22-of-24 against Portland State (11/11/22), eclipsing a record held by Jim Winters (20-of-23) which dated back to a matchup with Seattle U (2/12/56). He also set the program single-game assist record with 15 against New Orleans (12/10/22).
• Mike Meadows and Robertson became the first Pilots to record triple-doubles. Meadows had one against Willamette (11/11/21), while Robertson posted a 31-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist stat line in a win over LMU (2/12/22).
 
ABOUT SOUTH FLORIDA
• The Bulls (2-2) have losses to Florida (93-88) and Charleston (86-71) with wins over Arkansas - Pine Bluff (89-65) and West Georgia (74-55).
• South Florida is led in scoring by Kasen Jennings (12.3) and Kobe Knox (11.3).
• The Bulls won the American Athletic Conference title a season ago.
• Ben Fletcher is the interim head coach after the tragic passing of Amir Abdur-Rahim weeks before the start of the season.
• This is the first meeting between Portland and South Florida.

PILOTS VS. THE REST OF THE MBI FIELD
• Portland vs. Ohio: Bobcats lead 3-1
• Portland vs. Middle Tennessee State: First Meeting
• Portland vs. Princeton: First Meeting
• Portland vs. Bradley: Pilots lead 3-1
• Portland vs. Wright State: First Meeting
• Portland vs. Texas State: Bobcats lead 1-0

WE'RE RIVERBOAT PILOTS, NOT AIRPLANE PILOTS!
• Though a 1935 student contest resulted in the nickname "Chinooks" (after the Native American tribe that inhabited the area, and the largest of the salmon species in the Willamette River), the "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.
 
POOH JETER INDUCTED IN UP HALL OF FAME
• University of Portland inducted nine new members to its Athletics Hall of Fame on September 27 including basketball legend Eugene "Pooh" Jeter.
• Jeter is No. 2 on the Portland career scoring charts (1,708) and ranks in the top five all-time in field goals made (550), three-pointers (200), free throws (408), free throw percentage (.846) and is eighth in total assists (346).
• He garnered All-WCC First Team honors in 2004 and 2006 and was honorable mention all-league in 2005. He also led Portland to a 72-68 road upset against Gonzaga at the Kennel in 2003 with a team-high 18 points as a freshman.
• Following his time on The Bluff, Jeter enjoyed a remarkable professional career that spanned 18 seasons including six different countries and one year with the NBA's Sacramento Kings. Following his retirement from pro basketball in 2023, Jeter joined the Portland Trail Blazers where he still serves as a player development coach and Assistant General Manager for the Rip City Remix.

THE SCHEDULE
• Portland will again play in a high-profile ESPN Multi-Team Event (MTE) as part of the Myrtle Beach Invitational Nov. 21-24. The Pilots open against South Florida.
• Notable non-league games include hosting UC Santa Barbara, road games against NCAA participants Oregon and Long Beach State, and a tough trip to Kent State.
• The WCC schedule features the additions of Washington State and Oregon State. Portland's 18-game league schedule features home-and-homes against all WCC opponents with the exception of San Francisco at home and Santa Clara on the road.
 
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