PORTLAND, Ore. – College basketball continues to evolve at a rapid pace, both on the court and off it. Few are more aware of how that evolution has impacted building a program than Shantay Legans of Portland Pilots Men's Basketball.
 
Legans came to Portland with a fast-paced style that focused heavily on 3-point shooting and getting quality shots, taking players who weren't highly touted out of high school and building a winning program out of that system. That style served him well at Eastern Washington, where he was the Big Sky Coach of the Year in 2020 and a two-time Big Sky champion, winning both a regular season and tournament title in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
 
Since joining Portland in 2021, the college basketball world has changed significantly, and he's tried to change with it. He's focused on the analytics, emphasized adding size and length to the roster, targeted young players to develop over multiple years, everything under the sun to zig as everyone zags, doing so to various levels of success. As the landscape has changed, so has Legans, to an extent.
 
But even as he evolves his philosophy, the core of who he is as a coach remains the same. As the offseason came along and Legans thought about what the Pilots really needed, Legans realized he needed a balance of the new and old world. His offseason recruiting strategy came down to two ideals: The Pilots needed winners, and they needed people who valued what makes college basketball special while fitting what the Pilots need.
 
"I've had to change a little bit of who I am," Legans admits. "I think we have to find the happy medium, and I think we found the happy medium of guys that are really talented, but they also fit how we play."
 
For Legans, he thinks he's found what he was looking for with this squad. With nine newcomers on the roster, some new additions to the staff and an evolved perspective, Portland wants to show the damage they can cause not just to silence any doubters, but to show themselves what they are capable of.

So, who fits that mold, those two ideals Legans holds high? National championships help give you that reputation of being a winner, and that's what Cameron Williams and Garrett Nuckols bring to the table. Williams and Nuckols were part of the Trinity Valley Community College team that went 34-3 last season, winning the NJCAA Division I National Championship last year.
 
Williams and Nuckolls, both juniors heading into the 2025-26 season, were the leading scorers on that squad, both averaging 10.2 points per game. Nuckolls averaged 1.8 steals per contest and Williams a block per contest as well as five boards. Both bring that winning pedigree as two of the best players on a championship squad.
 
Not all things have changed for Legans. The 3-pointers are still important to Portland's offensive identity. They shot 24.6 3-pointers a game last year, good for the third most in the conference, and made the fourth most of any WCC team at 8.6 makes per contest.
 
Riley Parker is a knockdown shooter who led the way for Saint Francis last year. He made 65 3-pointers at a 39.6% clip, leading a team that won the NEC Tournament championship to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. In that sense, Parker fits two roles for Legans: A shooter who will push the action offensively and a player with proven winning experience. Along with that, Parker's been an exceptional leader for the Pilots.
 
"Riley Parker might be the best leader I've been around since forever," Legans said. "He's a big-time leader, so I'm looking forward to seeing him be able to put that on the floor and see what that looks like."
 
Matus Hronsky, a transfer from Duquesne, should help with the shooting as well, bringing size and marksmanship to the frontcourt after making 35.3% of his shots from outside last season. For more frontcourt impact, Portland brings in James "Jimbo" O'Donnell, who played in 35 games last year for San Francisco and was second in blocks for the Dons at 15 on the season.
 
Right off the bat, all five of those players coming in have played for teams that have won at a high-level. Williams, Nuckols and Parker all played for tournament teams at their respective levels last year. Hronsky, from Slovakia, played for a Duquesne team that made the NCAA Tournament in 2024 and beat the BYU Cougars In the first round. The Dons, with O'Donnell, made the NIT and won 25 games last season and made the NCAA Tournament as recently as 2022.
 
The freshmen for Portland will get the chance to make an impact as well while learning from those older players. Joel Foxwell, a point guard out of Australia who spent the last season as a development player with the NBL's Melbourne United, will get a chance to play big minutes at point guard and show off his playmaking ability. Dante Censori-Hercules and Timo George add to the strong international core of the Pilots – Censori-Hercules (Canada) and George (The Netherlands) are two of nine international players on Portland's 2025-26 team – and also will get playing time. George starred for the U-20 squad for the Netherlands at Eurobasket in 2024 while Censori-Hercules was a top Canadian prospect.
 
"Those are freshmen that I think are very, very good players," Legans said. "I think at some point in time they're going to each win us a game. They play really hard, they understand their roles, they bought into what college basketball is right now."
 
Foxwell specifically adds to what is already a strong Australian connection. Four players on this year's squad hail from the land down under. Parker, O'Donnell and Foxwell all come from there as well as returner Carlin Briggs, who sat last season with a torn ACL. Last year, the Pilots had four Australians on the roster, including WCC Freshman of the Year Austin Rapp and All-WCC Second Team selection Max Mackinnon.
 
Legans built his staff this year around both that international flavor and that winning pedigree. Two coaches join Legans this season, with Mark Berokoff and Anthony Separovich signing on as assistant coaches. Both bring a wealth of experience both domestically and internationally.
 
Berokoff, coming off a four-year head-coaching stint at NAIA-level Oklahoma City University, has experienced success in both high school and college hoops, with over 400 career wins on his resume. He experienced incredible success at Randall University, leading them to three national championship appearances at the National Christian College Athletics Association Division II level and winning coach of the year honors in 2016 and 2019.
 
Separovich, also from Australia, further builds on those strong Australian roots for Portland. A former NCAA Division II player at Bloomfield College in New Jersey, Separovich was the AUSA Hoops Program and Recruiting director from 2022 onward, helping numerous boys and girls' players from Australia find their way to the U.S. as student-athletes. Along with his head coaching experience, he's engaged with many of the student-athletes on the basketball side that have made their way to the United State from Australia currently, with Legans praising his ability to build connections with players.
 
For Legans, both additions to the staff bring a wealth of basketball knowledge. But more importantly, they get at the core of those college basketball values that Legans holds high. Each coach understands it's about more than just bringing talent in – it's about cultivating that talent as well as the person, building a relationship that goes beyond what happens on the court.
 
"They've helped with the guys getting used to college and I think they've helped with the community part of college," Legas said. "They've also helped our guys understand this is a different environment… being able to have those guys that have those experiences and with the mental fortitude and understand what it takes to build out a season and go."
 
It's not all new for Portland. Six Pilots return to this squad, with three of them earning playing time last year. Portland's biggest player is returning center Jermaine Ballisager Webb, a 7-foot-1, 250-pound center who adds plenty of size to an already tall roster. 10 of Portland's 15 players sit at 6-foot-5 or taller.
 
Mikah Ballew and Kelson Gebbers are the two other returners who Pilot fans can expect to make an impact. Ballew in particular is the only returning Pilot to have played in over 30 games last year, posting 4.9 points per game.
 
"Mikah has taken a huge step forward in his play, so I'm expecting a good season out of him," Legans said. "And then Kelson and Jermaine, I expect them to come in and help us and contribute and be great leaders on the team."
 
All these things come together to make a team that at its core is not dissimilar to the teams Legans has found success with. Legans says to expect fast-paced basketball on The Bluff, plenty of threes, and a team that wants to compete every game. For Legans, the biggest area for growth is on the defensive end, an end that's already seen improvement.
 
"We got intelligent defenders," Legans said. "They're offensive players, but they have an edge to them. I think they understand and they want to defend…. We're doing a lot of things different than in the past."
 
The Pilots were picked 12^th in the annual WCC Coaches Preseason Poll. That's not new territory for them. In Legans's first year with the Pilots, they were picked last in the poll, and last season they were picked tied for eighth with San Diego.
 
It would be easy for the Pilots to take the 12^th-place selection as a slight, and Legans even admits it's a little added motivation. But it's not the primary motivation for the fiery fifth-year coach. This team believes in themselves, and that fuels him and the Pilots more than anything external. This year, for Legans and the team, it's about showing those that believe in them in the first place that their faith is well-placed.
 
"We have an opportunity to prove a lot of people wrong, but Jermaine (Ballisager Webb) brought this up, we always say, let's prove each other right," Legans said. "Let's prove the guys right that are in the room… because everybody in that room doesn't think we're a 12^th place team, their friends don't think we're a 12^th place team.
 
"So let's prove to the people that believe in us, let's prove them right."
 

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