UPCOMING — After taking about a week away from competition due to finals, the Pepperdine men’s basketball team gets back at it with a home contest against Pacific on Saturday. Two days later, the Waves get another big road test with a game at USC. Underclassmen are dominating the young Pepperdine lineup, as freshmen and sophomores are scoring more than 84% of the points. Saturday is a milestone event for Waves’ broadcaster Al Epstein, who will be calling his 700th consecutive Pepperdine basketball game.

GAME #9 — Saturday (Dec. 13) at Firestone Fieldhouse: Pepperdine (1-7) vs. Pacific (4-3) at 2 p.m.

GAME #10 — Monday (Dec. 15) at the Galen Center in Los Angeles: Pepperdine at USC (5-3) at 7:30 p.m.

ON THE WEB — Subscribers to "Wave Casts" can catch all Pepperdine men’s basketball games on the internet at www.pepperdinesports.com. Veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein, now in his 24th season with the Waves, is behind the microphone. Home games will have live audio and video, while road games will be audio only. Go to the Pepperdine Athletics website and look for the WaveCasts link. An annual pass costs $69.95 and monthly subscriptions are also available. Live statistics will be available for all home matches free of charge, and links are provided to the home team’s website when the Waves are on the road.

OPPONENTS — Pepperdine is 24-28 all-time against Pacific. The teams played twice last season, rare for non-conference play. The Tigers won 84-76 during an early-season tournament in Oregon, while the Waves won 83-65 in Stockton about a month later. The bulk of the matchups between the schools came when both were members of the West Coast Conference in the 1950s and 1960s. This will only be the seventh meeting since 1984. Pepperdine won the last meeting in Malibu, 91-49, in November 2000. Pepperdine is 14-9 in home games, but 1-2 in Firestone Fieldhouse ... Pepperdine is 2-3 all-time against USC. Despite being less than 30 miles apart, the schools have rarely met over the years. There were two games in 1942-43, then nothing for 50 years. Pepperdine won the last meeting, 78-77, in December 2001 in a game played at The Forum.

ROTATION — Pepperdine’s regular rotation currently consists of 10 players. Eight are freshmen or sophomores and seven weren’t on the roster last year.

LAST GAME — UC Irvine won the final four minutes and earned a 71-63 victory at Firestone Fieldhouse on Sunday (Dec. 7). The game was tied 61-61 at the final media timeout, but the Anteaters outscored the Waves 10-2 down the stretch for their first victory of the season. Lorne Jackson matched one season high with 17 points and set another one with five assists, while Jonathan Dupre' added a season-high 13 points in his first start of the season.

SOLES FOR SOLES — Pepperdine’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee, in conjunction with student-fan group Riptide, will be collecting shoes at Firestone Fieldhouse throughout the 2008-09 basketball season for Soles4Souls. Soles4Souls has already successfully donated more than one million pairs of shoes to those hurting both domestically and internationally. Fans can drop off shoes, both new and used, into the Soles4Souls collection box located near the concession stand at Firestone Fieldhouse, or among several additional boxes placed throughout Pepperdine’s Malibu campus.

STAT LEADERS — Scoring leaders are freshman Keion Bell (11.6), sophomore Mychel Thompson (9.4), senior Ryan Holmes (8.8) and freshman Dane Suttle Jr. (8.0) ... Rebounding leaders are freshman Taylor Darby (6.1), sophomore Denis Agre (5.3) and freshman Keion Bell (4.0).

INJURY UPDATE — Senior point guard Ryan Holmes suffered a knee injury two minutes into the New Mexico State game on Nov. 21 and did not return. He was attempting a lay-up but an Aggie player landed on him. It was diagnosed as a sprain and he is expected to be out for approximately six weeks.

FRESHMAN SCORING — Last year, freshmen scored 63.6% of Pepperdine’s points. It looks like the new group of freshmen may lead the way in 2008-09 as well. Right now they account for 50.7% of the scoring, compared to 33.5% by the sophomores and 15.9% by the seniors.

BY THE HALF — The Waves have done fairly well in the first half of most games. They’ve led at halftime three times, have only trailed once by double-digits at the break and the average score at halftime is 31.3-30.6 in the opponents’ favor. But the second half is a different story. The opponents have a 43.1-32.1 edge and the Waves have only had one second half where they’ve outscored the opponent.

ROSTER — The Waves have just five players remaining that saw action last season. Only four of them were on the roster at season’s end, and because of injuries, only two of them played in the 2007-08 season finale at the WCC Tournament. The five returners accounted for 40.2% of last year’s scoring (950/2,365), 32.0% of the rebounding (357/1,117), 59.6% of the assists (239/401), 16.4% of the blocked shots (21/128) and 57.9% of the steals (183/316). To replenish the roster, the Waves added 10 newcomers. Two are sophomores that are junior college transfers, six are scholarship freshmen and two others are walk-on freshmen. Of the 15 players, 12 are underclassmen. The breakdown is three seniors, zero juniors, four sophomores and eight freshmen.

RETURNERS — Three players — senior Rico Tucker (10.7 ppg last season), sophomore Mychel Thompson (8.1 ppg) and senior Ryan Holmes (6.0 ppg) — were starters in 2007-08. Senior Mike Hornbuckle (5.5 ppg) saw extending playing time last season and started half of the 32 games. Sophomore Gus Clardy (1.3 ppg), a walk-on, appeared in 16 games last season.

NEWCOMERS — When Tom Asbury was hired in February, he was given a very late start to the recruiting process. The three letter-of-intent signings of the previous coaching staff were given their release, and several players transferred following the season. With many holes to fill, Asbury and his staff utilized their contacts, identified the best of the remaining unsigned talent that fit their needs and put together a very impressive group under the circumstances. The Sporting News ranked Pepperdine’s recruiting class #2 in the West Coast Conference.

FOR OPENERS — The win over Cal State Monterey Bay gave the Waves their first victory in a season opener since 2001-02. Tom Asbury didn’t win in his coaching debut back in the 1988-89 season (a three-point loss to Texas), but he did in his second go-round.

NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE — The home schedule should be much more palatable to Waves fans in 2008-09. A year after playing just three non-conference home games, Pepperdine supporters will be treated to eight this time around, including ones against such big-time opponents as Brigham Young and Georgia Tech, and in-state foes such as Cal State Bakersfield, UC Irvine and Pacific. A few of the road games are notable too, including contests at Pac-10 foes Arizona State and USC. The Waves will also take part in the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii right after Christmas.

TELEVISION — The Waves will appear on television several times once again in 2008-09. Six games will be shown locally (Nov. 21 at Arizona State on FSN Prime Ticket, Jan. 10 vs. Loyola Marymount on ESPNU, Jan. 22 vs. Gonzaga on FSN West, Feb. 14 vs. San Diego on FSN West, Feb. 21 at Gonzaga on ESPNU and Feb. 26 vs. Saint Mary’s on FSN West). A few other games will be televised out of market (Nov. 21 at New Mexico State on FSN Arizona, Jan. 17 at Saint Mary’s on Comcast Sports Net California).

TOM ASBURY — It was announced on Feb. 19, 2008, that the architect of one of the best stretches in Pepperdine history, Tom Asbury, was returning to Malibu to become the Waves’ head coach again. Asbury was previously at Pepperdine for 15 seasons, the first nine as an assistant coach (1980-88) and then the next six as the head coach (1989-94). He then served as head coach at Kansas State from 1995-2000 and was most recently an assistant coach at Alabama from 2004-07. Asbury went 125-59 (.679) in his first six seasons with the Waves and 210-147 (.588) in his first 12 seasons overall as a head coach. The Waves went to the postseason five times in six years with three NCAA Tournament appearances (1991, ’92, ’94) and two in the NIT (1989, ’93). Pepperdine won three regular-season West Coast Conference titles, finished no worse than second in any of his six seasons and compiled a league record of 66-18 (.786). Pepperdine’s only three WCC Tournament championships came under Asbury.

ASSISTANTS — Tom Asbury wanted to find assistants with a passion for Pepperdine and an understanding of its mission, so he turned to three former student-athletes. It’s believed that Duke and Pepperdine have the only two college basketball staffs where the assistant coaches are all alums. Associate head coach Marty Wilson (1985-89) and assistant coaches Damin Lopez (1990-94) and Will Kimble (2001-03) played in three different eras, all successful. In the 13 seasons that made up their playing careers, Pepperdine went a combined 261-135 (.659), had 12 winning seasons, won six WCC regular-season titles and three WCC tournament titles, and made six NCAA Tournaments and four NITs.

WCC PRESEASON POLL — The good news is that the Waves have a good chance of surpassing (or at worst, meeting) the expectations of the WCC’s coaches. Unfortunately, Pepperdine was picked to finish eighth in the conference’s preseason poll. The predicted order of finish went Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Portland, Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine.

LAST SEASON — The midseason resignation of Vance Walberg and several player departures that followed contributed to Pepperdine’s third straight losing season, as the Waves finished 11-21 overall and sixth in the WCC at 4-10. They defeated Portland in the first round of the WCC Tournament before falling to eventual champion San Diego in the quarterfinals.

PEPPERDINE HISTORY — This is the 71st season of Pepperdine basketball, and the Waves opened 2008-09 with an all-time record of 1,102-887 (.554). Pepperdine has been to the NCAA Tournament 13 times (last in 2002), and has won 12 West Coast Conference regular-season titles (last in 2002) and three WCC Tournament crowns (last in 1994).

BEST IN THE WEST — Over the 30-season period from the 1978-79 season through the 2007-08 campaign, Pepperdine has proven itself as one of the top Division I programs on the West Coast. Of the 31 schools that currently play Division I basketball in California, Oregon or Washington, the Waves began the 2008-09 season ranking third overall in postseason appearances (16) and fifth in both wins (516) and winning percentage (.575) over the past 30 years.

WAVES IN THE PROS — Several former Pepperdine players have gone on to play in the NBA, most notably Dennis Johnson (the 1979 NBA Finals MVP) and Doug Christie (a 15-year NBA veteran who was a mainstay on the All-Defensive Team). Currently in the NBA is Yakhouba Diawara, now in his third season overall and his first with the Miami Heat. Alex Acker is on the Detroit Pistons’ roster for the second time, having also appeared briefly with the team in 2005-06. Some recent players have been playing in foreign countries, including Brandon Armstrong (Ukraine), Casey Crawford (Mexico), Tashaan Forehan-Kelly (New Zealand), Jelani Gardner (Greece), Kelvin Gibbs (Germany), Chase Griffin (Germany), Dana Jones (Switzerland) and Glen McGowan (Dominican Republic) and Levy Middlebrooks (Mexico). Robert "Hollywood" Turner, formerly a member of the Harlem Globetrotters, is now playing in Germany.

ABOUT PEPPERDINE — Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won a total of nine NCAA championships in five different men’s sports — one of just 14 schools to have accomplished this feat. Of the 14, Pepperdine is the only non-BCS school and has by far the smallest enrollment. The majority of Pepperdine’s teams are ranked nationally year after year and compete for conference and national titles.

TICKETS — Men’s basketball single-game tickets cost $15 (lower reserved), $12 (upper reserved), $10 (adult general admission) or $5 (children general admission). Call (866) WAVE-TIX to purchase tickets.