Game Notes

MALIBU, Calif. -- After taking nine days off between games, the Pepperdine men's basketball team will get back into action against a pair of Big West Conference foes. The Waves host Cal State Northridge on Thursday before visiting Cal State Fullerton on Saturday. If the Waves can pull off two wins this week, they would go to 5-1 on the season, which would be their best start since 2004-05.

GAME #5 -- Thursday (December 4) at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, Calif.: Pepperdine (3-1) vs. Cal State Northridge (2-5, hosts South Dakota on Tuesday) at 7 p.m.

GAME #6 -- Saturday (December 6) at Firestone Fieldhouse in Fullerton, Calif.: Pepperdine at Cal State Fullerton (3-4, plays at UCLA on Wednesday) at 6 p.m.

TICKETS -- For the majority of home games, men's basketball single-game tickets cost $20 (reserved), $15 (adult general admission) or $5 (child general admission). Premium games (Gonzaga and BYU) have different pricing plans. Tickets can be purchased through the Pepperdine ticket office (866-WAVE-TIX) or online via pepperdinesports.ticketforce.com.

PROMOTIONS -- Pepperdine is conducting a toy drive with the Malibu Community Labor Exchange and fans that bring an unwrapped toy will receive free admission to Thursday's game.

WAVECASTS -- A live video broadcast of the Pepperdine-CSUN game will be free to all users at www.pepperdinesports.com. There will be an audio-only broadcast at Cal State Fullerton. Veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein is behind the microphone (now in his 30th season, he has a streak going of 880 consecutive broadcasts).

SOCIAL MEDIA -- On Twitter, get the latest news on the men's basketball program at @PeppBasketball and follow our coaches at @MartyWilson4, @CoachMarkAmaral, @Coach_BMoore and @jimpelman. You can also like the Pepperdine Men's Basketball and/or Pepperdine Athletics pages on Facebook, and both PepperdineHoops and PepperdineWaves on Instagram.

HOOPS EXTRA -- Pepperdine is providing more insider content to its fans via the Hoops Extra basketball blog, which can be accessed at www.pepperdinesports.com/hoopsextra.

MOBILE APP -- Pepperdine Athletics has launched a newly revised mobile app for iPad, iPhone and Android users. The app is free to download and features live and on-demand video, live stats, news stories and much more. Go to your app store and search for "Pepperdine Athletics."

CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE -- The all-time series between Pepperdine and CSUN is tied 8-8. The Matadors have won the last five meetings, however, including the most recent home-and-home series in 2011-12 and 2012-13. Pepperdine's last victory in the series came at home in December 2005.

CAL STATE FULLERTON -- The all-time series between Pepperdine and Cal State Fullerton is tied 11-11. The Titans have won the last four meetings, including a 78-64 win in Firestone Fieldhouse last season. The Waves won the four meetings before that, and their last victory came in December 2002 in Fullerton. Malcolm Brooks, who played at Pepperdine last season, has transferred to Cal State Fullerton and is sitting out this season due to NCAA transfer rules. The Titans suffered an 89-72 loss at Santa Clara in the season opener.

LAST GAME -- Shawn Olden had a breakout game with 17 points and Pepperdine put up a good fight against a Big Ten team on the road, but the Waves fell 72-61 at Iowa back on November 24. It was just a five-point game with under seven minutes to play before the Hawkeyes pulled away at the end. The Waves did well on the boards against Iowa's size advantage (both teams finished with 39 rebounds), but the Hawkeyes' length contributed to 19 Pepperdine turnovers and a 22-4 advantage in points off turnovers. Stacy Davis had 13 points and nine rebounds and Jett Raines added eight points and 10 rebounds.

DAVIS -- Junior forward Stacy Davis should soon be recognized as one of the best players on the West Coast. The 2014-15 preseason All-WCC first team selection averaged team highs of 15.1 points and 7.6 rebounds as a sophomore last season en route to All-WCC first team honors. He was also the WCC's Newcomer of the Year as a 2012-13 freshman. This year, he's averaging 16.5 points and 8.0 rebounds. He has a streak of 14 straight games scoring in double-figures dating back to last season.

Davis has a career total of 872 points and should become Pepperdine's 38th 1,000-point scorer partway through his junior year. With two more seasons comparable to his sophomore year, Davis would become the school's all-time leading scorer. He's also on a pace to finish among the top five rebounders in school history and as one of its most prolific free throw shooters.

MAJOR -- Sophomore guard Jeremy Major set a Pepperdine freshman record last year with 138 assists (which was also the most by any Wave since 1999-00) en route to WCC All-Freshman honors. He ranked fifth in the WCC in assists per game (4.4). Major had 12 assists in a game against Green Bay last year, also setting a record for a Pepperdine true freshman. He's averaging 11.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists this season. He's started all 35 games in his career.

RAINES -- Junior forward Jett Raines started as a freshman, then backed up Brendan Lane as a sophomore. He's back in the starting lineup and is averaging 13.3 points and a team-best 9.0 rebounds. So far he's posted his first career double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds against Cal Lutheran), set a career high for scoring (21 points at San Jose State) and grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds twice.

UDENYI -- Sophomore guard Amadi Udenyi leads the squad in assists (4.8) while averaging 7.5 points this season.

OLDEN -- The newcomer making the biggest impact thus far is freshman guard Shawn Olden. He was a late signee whose only Division I scholarship offer was from Pepperdine, despite the fact that he was Oklahoma's state player of the year and MVP of the state tournament as a senior. Olden has started each of the first four games and is averaging 9.8 points per game (including a season-high and team-best 17 points at Iowa) while leading the team in blocked shots (four).

THREE-POINT DEFENSE -- While Pepperdine's three-point offense hasn't been great (26.2%), the Waves' defense on long-range shots has been fabulous thus far. Opponents have been successful 22.1% (15-for-68) of the time from beyond the arc, which ranks Pepperdine fifth nationally in that statistic.

WCC STATS -- Pepperdine ranks first in three-point defense (22.1%), second in steals (8.3), third in free throw percentage (72.2%), third in field goal percentage defense (38.8%) ... Stacy Davis is seventh in scoring (16.5), third in rebounding (8.0), tied for fourth in minutes played (33.0) ... Jett Raines is second in rebounding (9.0), tied for fourth in minutes played (33.0), ninth in field goal percentage (56.4%) ... Amadi Udenyi is fifth in assists (4.8) ... Jeremy Major is second in steals (2.3), ninth in assists (3.8) ... Shawn Olden is tied for fourth in blocked shots (1.0).

ROSTER UPDATES -- Head coach Marty Wilson announced before the first game that freshman center Ryan Keenan will redshirt this season. Redshirt freshman guard A.J. Lapray (hip) has yet to play this season.

ROSTER NUMBERS -- The Waves have zero seniors on the roster in 2014-15. Eleven of the 15 players are freshmen or sophomores. Pepperdine has four juniors, four sophomores, two redshirt freshmen and five true freshmen. Seven returning letterwinners (including three starters) accounted for 54.1% of last year's points and 58.7% of the rebounds. Of the 13 players that have seen action this year, seven are returning letterwinners and six have seen the floor for the first time.

NON-CONFERENCE NOTES -- Six home games, trips to 2014 NCAA Tournament teams Iowa (11/24) and Arizona State (12/13) and the Gotham Classic in Madison Square Garden vs. Richmond (12/20) highlight the non-conference schedule ... Fresno State, who the Waves beat in the season opener, made it to the final of the 2014 CBI Tournament ... Pepperdine won its first three games of the season by 15, 15 and 19 points. The last time the Waves won three consecutive games by 15 or more points was February 1994. The last time they did it to start a season was 1991-92 ... Pepperdine's 19-point win at San Jose State was the team's biggest on the road since December 2003.

2013-14 SEASON -- The Waves are coming off their best season in years. Last year's team won 15 games, the most since 2004-05. And after being picked to finish 10th in the WCC preseason coaches' poll, the Waves ended up in fifth place, good for their first top-half finish in the standings since 2004. Stacy Davis gave the Waves their first All-WCC first team selection since 2005, and Brendan Lane was Pepperdine's first WCC Defensive Player of the Year since 2002.

WILSON -- This is Marty Wilson's fourth year as head coach at Pepperdine and his 18th season in Malibu. He has compiled an impressive record here beginning as a student-athlete (1985-89), continuing as an assistant coach (1991-96, which included a brief stint as the interim head coach) and then returning as the associate head coach for three seasons (2009-11) under Tom Asbury. He was then elevated to the position of head coach following Asbury's retirement after the 2010-11 season. Wilson was also an assistant at San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and Utah inbetween stints at Pepperdine and has been a Division I coach for 24 seasons. He ended his playing career #5 all-time in assists at Pepperdine with 342 (he's still #9). The team went to the NCAA Tournament twice and the NIT twice in Wilson's four seasons on the court. As a Pepperdine assistant, the team took part in the NCAA Tournament three times and the NIT once.

ASSISTANTS -- All of Pepperdine's full-time staff is back this season. Associate head coach Mark Amaral and assistant coach Bryant Moore are both in their fourth seasons. Amaral and Marty Wilson were assistants together at UC Santa Barbara for four years. Moore worked with the Cleveland Cavaliers for five seasons in a variety of roles, including player development coordinator, during the LeBron James era. John Impelman, who was the director of operations for two seasons, was promoted to assistant coach before last season. Impelman is the great-grandson of UCLA coaching legend John Wooden. Jon Pastorek, previously a graduate manager, is in his second season as the director of operations.

WCC POLL -- The Waves were picked to finish in a tie for seventh place in the WCC in the coaches' preseason poll. It went in the following order: Gonzaga, BYU, Saint Mary's, San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Pepperdine and Santa Clara (tied), Loyola Marymount and Pacific. In each of the last six years, Pepperdine has finished better than predicted in this poll (coinciding with when Marty Wilson came back to the program).

RECRUITING -- Pepperdine landed one recruit during the fall signing period. Kameron Edwards of Etiwanda (Calif.) High School will join the Waves in 2015-16. Edwards averaged 13.6 points and a team-best 7.2 rebounds on one of the state's top teams as a junior. He was named to the All-CIF Southern Section Open Division second team.

PEPPERDINE BASKETBALL -- This is the 77th season of Pepperdine men's basketball, and the 42nd season that the Waves have called Firestone Fieldhouse home. The Waves began the campaign with an all-time record of 1,167-1,008 (.537). 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). William "Bird" Averitt led the nation in scoring in 1972-73 with 33.9 points per game.

WAVES IN THE PROS -- Pepperdine once had a streak of 34 consecutive seasons with at least one Pepperdine alum on an NBA roster, which began in 1976-77 after the ABA/NBA merger and ended in 2010-11. Seventeen former Pepperdine players have seen action in the NBA, a list that includes notables such as Dennis Johnson (a 2010 Naismith Hall of Fame inductee, the 1979 NBA Finals MVP and a three-time NBA champion) and Doug Christie (a 15-year NBA veteran who was a mainstay on the All-Defensive Team). Two Waves -- Yakhouba Diawara (2012/France) and Marcos Leite (1972, 1980, 1984/Brazil) -- competed at the Olympics. Mychel Thompson is the most recent Wave to play in the NBA, appearing in five games for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2011-12 after making the squad as an undrafted free agent. He is currently in the NBA's D-League with Santa Cruz.

UNIVERSITY EVENTS CENTER -- A key piece in the Campus Life Project, which will benefit the entire university, is a new, state-of-the-art, 5,000-seat University Events Center. The proposed venue will someday replace Firestone Fieldhouse as the Waves' home. The project has been approved by the County of Los Angeles and the California Coastal Commission, so the biggest step remaining before the arena can be built is fundraising.

2013/2015/2018 NCAA WEST REGIONALS -- Pepperdine University was the host institution for the 2013 West Regional of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and will do so again in 2015 and 2018. The Waves partnered with AEG/Staples Center and the LA Sports & Entertainment Commission to bring NCAA postseason basketball to Los Angeles for the first time since 1994.

ABOUT PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY -- Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men's sports -- one of just 17 schools to have accomplished this feat -- and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment, is the only school without football and is the only university that has not been affiliated with a "major" conference. The Waves have won a total of 23 team or individual national championships in their history. Pepperdine has also earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that's given to the top non-football school, three times (most recently in 2011-12). Located in scenic Malibu, Calif., the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation's most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks #54 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.