Game Notes

MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine men's basketball team will try to attain a split of the Pacific Northwest road trip as the Waves visit Portland on Wednesday evening. Pepperdine will be looking to avoid its first 0-2 league start since 2007-08.

After a break for Christmas and New Year's, the Waves will continue West Coast Conference play with a three-game homestand beginning on January 2 against PCH Cup rival Loyola Marymount.

GAME #13 — Wednesday (December 23) at the Chiles Center in Portland, Ore.: Pepperdine (7-5, 0-1) at Portland (7-7, 1-0) at 6 p.m.

WAVECASTS — Fans can listen to the Portland game online via WaveCasts at PepperdineSports.com. Veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein, a 2015 Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, will be behind the microphone (now in his 31st season, he has a streak going of 920 consecutive broadcasts).

TELEVISION — The Portland game will be televised on ESPNU and online at ESPN3. Roy Philpott and Adrian Branch are the announcers.

SOCIAL MEDIA — On Twitter, get the latest news at @PeppBasketball and follow our coaches at @MartyWilson4, @CoachMarkAmaral, @Coach_BMoore and @jimpelman. You can also like Pepperdine Men's Basketball (/PeppBasketball) on Facebook, and both PepperdineHoops and PepperdineWaves on Instagram.

COMPETING WITH PURPOSE — The Pepperdine University Department of Athletics is committed to Christian values, to the academic well-being of all our student-athletes and to competing for championships. The Competing With Purpose campaign highlights the commitment to our core values that student-athletes, coaches and staff dedicate themselves daily. Learn more about our exceptional student-athletes on the Competing With Purpose blog at www.PepperdineSports.com/purpose.

PORTLAND — Pepperdine is 58-34 all-time against Portland. The Waves have won five of the last seven meetings. The teams have split each of the last two years (the home team has won the last four games). Pepperdine's last win at Portland was in 2013 and that's been the team's only victory there in the last seven trips.

The Pilots have won three of their last four games, including Monday's 87-60 victory over Loyola Marymount. Portland made 14 of 33 three-pointers, seven of them by Bryce Pressley (25 points). Alec Wintering is averaging 14.9 points and Pressley is at 13.3. The Pilots are 6-3 at home this season.

LAST GAME — Jeremy Major tied his career high with 21 points but a huge early deficit was too much to overcome as Pepperdine lost the WCC opener at Gonzaga, 99-73, on Monday night. The Bulldogs led 37-9 just after the midway point of the first half after making 15 of their first 18 shots, including seven of eight three-pointers. The halftime score was 48-32. Gonzaga finished 16-for-26 from deep and eight different Bulldogs made at least one. Stacy Davis scored 15 points and Jett Raines added 10.

DAVIS — Senior forward Stacy Davis received a lot of preseason attention, all of it deserved. The two-time All-WCC first team selection is on pace to become the school's all-time leading scorer and leave his mark as one of the top players in program history.

Davis — who is averaging 14.5 points and 8.2 rebounds, ranking tied for ninth and sixth in the WCC, respectively — was unanimously picked as one of the WCC's top five players in various preseason publications and was called a dark horse for WCC Player of the Year honors. Lindy's ranked him as the nation's seventh-best power forward in its preseason annual. He was named to the Lou Henson Award preseason watch list (which honors the nation's top Mid-Major player).

Davis now has 1,481 points and is in 13th place on Pepperdine's all-time scoring list. He needs 221 more to pass Dane Suttle for the top spot (a record that has lasted 32 seasons), which works out to an average of about 12.3 points per game for the Waves' 18 guaranteed remaining contests. He's also on a pace to finish as one of the top four rebounders. He's one of only two Waves to make 400 free throws in a career.

He's tied for the lead in the WCC with five double-doubles this season (he is tied for eighth all-time at Pepperdine with 25 in his career). With consecutive double-doubles against Long Beach State, Ball State and Louisiana, Davis was the first Wave to achieve that in three straight games since Glen McGowan in 2004-05.

Davis earned the third WCC Player of the Week honor of his career on December 14 after averaging 15.0 points and 11.0 rebounds in wins over Long Beach State and Ball State. He also won the award once as a sophomore and once as a junior. He's the first Wave to earn the weekly award three times in a career since Alex Acker in 2005.

Additional milestones that Davis is chasing: he could become the Waves' first three-time All-WCC first teamer since 1998 (and only the sixth in program history), he could become the first player ever to lead Pepperdine in rebounding all four seasons and he could become the first Wave to lead the team in scoring and rebounding for three straight years.

Davis played with Athletes in Action in a tour of East Asia this summer and also attended an NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Conference in Orlando this past April.

MURRAY — Junior guard/forward Lamond Murray Jr. has already posted the first three 20-point games of his career and has a 13.5 scoring average (13th in the WCC). He averaged 6.9 points last season. Murray scored a career-high 23 vs. San Diego Christian and followed that up with 22 at UCLA and 21 at CSUN.

RAINES — Senior forward Jett Raines was one of the WCC's most improved players as a junior. He scored a total of 288 points his first two seasons, then accumulated 340 points (a 10.6 average) en route to All-WCC honorable mention honors. He's averaging 9.8 points per game this season and had a season-high 21 points against Louisiana. He scored the game-winner vs. Long Beach State on a tip-in with 3.7 seconds left.

MAJOR — Junior guard Jeremy Major is on a pace to become the Waves' all-time leader in assists and finish #2 in steals, as long as he matches his production as a freshman and sophomore. He's the first Wave with back-to-back 100+ assist seasons since 2005. He had a point-assist double-double as a freshman and recorded his first point-rebound double-double (17-10) in the season opener at Fresno State. Major ranks fourth in the WCC in assist/turnover ratio (2.9) and tied for ninth in assists (3.4). He tied his career high with 21 points at Gonzaga and is averaging 16.0 points over the last three games.

UDENYI — Junior guard Amadi Udenyi was leading the team in assists (4.4) last season when he unfortunately ruptured an Achilles' tendon and missed the final seven games. His recovery went much quicker than expected and he hasn't missed a beat, averaging 20.9 minutes and a team-high 3.5 assists (eighth in the WCC), while ranking fifth in the league in assist/turnover ratio (2.5).

OLDEN — 2015 All-Freshman honoree Shawn Olden saw his sophomore season get off to a slow start as he missed the first three games with an ankle injury. He's made a nice comeback and is averaging 7.8 points in 20.4 minutes. He scored a career-high 18 points at Ball State and made all four of his three-pointers.

EDWARDS — Based on early returns, it's apparent that the Waves again have one of the league's top first-year players in Kameron Edwards. He's averaging 7.7 points and 4.3 rebounds, which included a 10-point, nine-rebound effort at UCLA, and a season-high 17 points against Duquesne.

ODDS AND ENDS — Four different Waves have scored at least 20 points in a game (Stacy Davis, Jeremy Major, Lamond Murray Jr., Jett Raines), which hasn't happened since 2009-10 ... The Waves have made more three-pointers than the opponent in all seven of their wins (7-1 in such games) ... The Waves have had fewer turnovers, or equaled the opponent's total, in all seven victories (7-3 in such games).

ROSTER NUMBERS — After a season in which the Waves had zero seniors, the Waves return 12 of last year's 14 letterwinners (one shy of matching the most in school history), including all five starters and the top seven scorers. Returning players account for 97.3% of last year's points, 95.1% of the rebounds, 96.2% of the assists, 94.4% of the blocked shots, 97.5% of the steals, 97.2% of the three-pointers and 94.2% of the minutes played. The 16-man roster breakdown is four seniors, four juniors, five sophomores, one redshirt freshman and two true freshmen.

NON-CONFERENCE NOTES — The Waves finished with a winning record in non-conference play for the fifth straight year (every season that Marty Wilson has been head coach) ... The Waves closed non-conference play with five straight wins, their longest win streak since December 2004 (when the Waves won seven straight) ... Pepperdine went 4-0 at home, beating two 20-win and postseason teams from a year ago in Montana and Louisiana-Lafayette ... The Waves' marquee road game was at UCLA. They came in fourth place at the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Fla., against a strong mid-major field. Pepperdine won road games at CSUN and Ball State.

WCC POLL — For the first time in recent memory, the Waves have been picked to finish in the top half of the league standings. The WCC coaches' preseason poll had the Waves third behind Gonzaga and BYU. They were followed by Saint Mary's, Portland, Santa Clara, Pacific and San Francisco (tied), San Diego and Loyola Marymount. In each of the last seven years, Pepperdine has finished better than predicted in the coaches' preseason poll (coinciding with when Marty Wilson came back to the program).

2014-15 SEASON — The Waves posted their best season in at least a decade last year. Milestones from the 2014-15 season: the most overall wins (18) and the first postseason appearance (CBI) since 2002; the first league winning season (10-8), the best WCC regular-season finish (fourth) and first WCC Tournament semifinal appearance since 2004; and the first winning record (18-14) since 2005. The Waves were outstanding defensively, allowing just 61.6 points per game, the program's best scoring defense since 1961-62. The team ended the season ranked #2 in the nation in three-point field-goal percentage defense (a school-record 27.0%).

WILSON — This is Marty Wilson's fifth year as head coach at Pepperdine and his 19th 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. He recently signed a five-year contract extension that will take him through the 2020-21 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.

WILSONISMS — Some of these may be borrowed from other programs, but Marty Wilson has several expressions and acronyms he often uses that help define his coaching philosophy. Both Feet In: Players are expected to fully buy in to the program. When Wilson is speaking to the team at center court, everyone must have both feet in the jump circle ... OKGs: Wilson looks to recruit "our kind of guys," student-athletes who will represent Pepperdine well and succeed academically and athletically ... Show Me, Don't Tell Me: Actions speak louder than words ... GID: There isn't always a perfect way to accomplish something, so players just have to "get it done" ... DAT: The Waves use the words "discipline, accountability and trust" as part of a triangle and expect their student-athletes to embrace these ideals.

ASSISTANTS — Success comes with stability, and Pepperdine's full-time staff has gone unchanged for the third consecutive season. Associate head coach Mark Amaral and assistant coach Bryant Moore are both in their fifth 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 first LeBron James era. John Impelman, who was the director of operations for two years, was promoted to assistant coach before the 2013-14 season. Impelman is the great-grandson of UCLA coaching legend John Wooden, and his father Craig is a former Pepperdine assistant coach. Jon Pastorek, previously a graduate manager, is in his third season as the director of operations.

ACADEMICS — Marty Wilson takes his team's academics very seriously, and the results have been very good. All 10 seniors that have played under Wilson have graduated. Malte Kramer was Pepperdine's co-Valedictorian and became the program's first-ever CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2013-14. Since Wilson's return to the program in 2008-09, players have earned 11 spots on the NABC Honors Court, 11 WCC All-Academic nods and 24 WCC Commissioner's Honor Roll appearances.

RECRUITS — The Waves signed four players for 2016-17 during the November NLI period. Next season, they'll add 5-foot-10 point guard Elijah Lee (Houston, Texas/HCYA Warriors/Basketball University), 6-foot-5 shooting guard Knox Hellums (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS/Basketball University), 6-foot-7 forward Nolan Taylor (Keller, Texas/Keller HS/Nike Team Texas Elite) and 6-foot-9 forward Craig LeCesne (Malmo, Sweden/St. James School [Md.]/DC Thunder). The three Texans are all rated among the state's top 50 seniors by TexasHoops.com, while LeCesne played for Sweden at the 2013 U-16 European Championships.

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.

PEPPERDINE BASKETBALL — This is the 78th season of Pepperdine men's basketball, and the 43rd season that the Waves have called Firestone Fieldhouse home. The Waves began the campaign with an all-time record of 1,185-1,022 (.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). Fun fact: 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. About 10 alums are currently playing overseas.

NCAA WEST REGIONALS — Pepperdine University was the host institution for the 2013 and 2015 West Regional Championships of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and will serve in that capacity again in 2018. The Waves partnered with AEG/Staples Center and the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission to bring NCAA postseason basketball to the City of Angels 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 25 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 #52 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.