Game Notes

MALIBU, Calif. — Both the Pepperdine and Brigham Young men's basketball teams have won five of their last six games heading into Saturday's big West Coast Conference showdown in Firestone Fieldhouse, in which third place in the league standings is on the line.

The Waves have won three of the last four meetings against the high-scoring Cougars, including each of the last two years in Malibu. Also, Pepperdine brings an 8-0 home record into this battle. This is the eighth time in program history that the Waves have won their first eight home games (the last time was 1985-86, when the Waves went 15-0 in Firestone Fieldhouse).

A quirk in the WCC schedule has the Waves playing San Diego and BYU again next week to start the second half of league play.

GAME #20 — Saturday (January 23) at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, Calif.: Pepperdine (12-7, 5-3) vs. Brigham Young (14-6, 5-2) at 5 p.m.

WAVECASTS — Fans can listen to the BYU game 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 927 consecutive broadcasts).

TELEVISION — The BYU contest will be shown on BYUtv and TheW.tv. Dave McCann and Brad Holland have the call.

TICKETS — As a premium game, tickets to the BYU game cost $30 (reserved) or $25 (general admission). Tickets can be purchased through the Pepperdine ticket office (866-WAVE-TIX) or online via pepperdinesports.ticketforce.com.

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.

BRIGHAM YOUNG — BYU leads the all-time series, 9-7. The Waves have won three of the last four, including a sweep of last year's two games, as well as each of the last two meetings in Firestone Fieldhouse. The series is 5-3 in the Cougars' favor since they joined the WCC.

BYU is coming off a 91-80 victory at Loyola Marymount on Thursday night. Kyle Collinsworth, who averages 14.7 points, 8.2 rebounds and 7.6 assists, recorded his fourth triple-double of the season and added to his NCAA record with the 10th of his career. Chase Fischer leads the team with an 18.4 scoring average, and the Cougars have four players averaging at least 13 points per game. The Cougars rank 14th nationally with 84.2 points per game.

LAST GAME — A 17-point run early in the contest and big games from Lamond Murray Jr. (21 points, eight rebounds) and Stacy Davis (18 points, 10 rebounds) helped Pepperdine to a 76-58 home win over San Diego on Thursday. The Toreros scored the game's first two points, but were held scoreless for the next eight minutes and 20 seconds, during which the Waves scored 17 straight. USD got no closer than nine points the rest of the way and Pepperdine led 38-23 at the half and by as many as 22 late in the game. The Waves shot 52.3% and made 25 of 29 free throws (86.2%), while the Toreros shot 37.9% and didn't have anyone score in double-figures.

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 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). In December, the Malibu Times named him its 2015 Athlete of the Year.

This season, Davis is averaging 13.9 points and 8.4 rebounds — ranking 13th and fourth in the WCC, respectively.

Davis now has 1,572 career points and is in seventh place on Pepperdine's all-time scoring list. He needs 130 more to pass Dane Suttle for the top spot (a record that has lasted 32 seasons), which works out to an average of about 11.8 points per game for the Waves' 11 guaranteed remaining contests. He's also on a pace to finish as one of the top three or four rebounders (he's currently in eighth place).

He's one of only two Waves to make 400 free throws in a career, and Davis has a career free throw percentage of 77.1% (which ranks in the school's top 10). Since 1972-73, a Wave has gone 11-for-11 or better only eight times from the free throw line, and Davis is responsible for three of them (no one else has done it more than once), including a 12-for-12 effort against San Diego this season.

Davis is second in the WCC and 18th nationally with a career-best nine double-doubles this season. He's sixth all-time at Pepperdine with 29 in his career. The Waves are 8-1 this season when Davis gets a double-double, and 21-8 overall.

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 past summer and also attended an NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Conference in Orlando in April 2015.

MURRAY — Junior guard/forward Lamond Murray Jr. is having a breakout season as one of the WCC's most improved scorers. He's averaging team highs of 15.7 points overall (seventh in the league) and 17.5 points in conference games only (ranking seventh). Murray averaged 6.9 points last season. He surpassed his 2014-15 point total in game #14 of 2015-16.

Murray has posted the first six 20-point games of his career this season, including a career-high 31 points against Pacific, 29 at San Francisco and 22 at UCLA. Against Pacific, he became the first Wave to score at least 30 points since February 2011, and with a career-high 10 rebounds, he also had his first career double-double.

Murray also ranks first in the WCC with an 87.7% free throw percentage and is tied for sixth in steals (1.2).

RAINES — Senior forward Jett Raines was one of the WCC's most improved players as a junior and he's elevated his level of play again in his final season. 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.

This season, Raines is averaging 11.7 points per game overall, and 14.4 points in WCC play (ranking 14th in the conference). He had a career-high 24 points in the win over Saint Mary's and has scored 20 or more points three times. 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 to finish as high as #2 in steals. He's the first Wave with back-to-back 100+ assist seasons since 2005. He could become the first to do it three straight years since Doug Christie in 1992. With 323 career assists, he is close to breaking into the school's top 10 (330).

Major is averaging 13.5 points in league play (ranking 15th) and 9.8 overall. He had what was then a career-high-tying 21 points at Gonzaga, followed by a career-high 28 at Portland. 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.

Overall, Major ranks fourth in the WCC in three-point percentage (.473), tied for sixth in steals (1.2), fifth in assist/turnover ratio (2.5) and 10th in assists (3.7).

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, playing in every game and averaging 22.1 minutes and 4.0 assists (eighth in the WCC), while ranking tied for second in the league in assist/turnover ratio (3.2).

EDWARDS — It's apparent that the Waves again have one of the league's top first-year players in Kameron Edwards. The freshman forward is averaging 7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds, which included a 10-point, nine-rebound effort at UCLA, and a season-high 17 points against Duquesne.

INJURIES — The Waves have a shortage at shooting guard ... Shawn Olden, who made the WCC All-Freshman team last season, underwent season-ending surgery to repair his right ankle. After missing the first three games of the season, he attempted to come back and saw action in the next nine games (averaging 7.8 points), but couldn't continue after the Dec. 21 Gonzaga contest. He will seek a medical redshirt ... Senior Atif Russell played in the first six games but will miss the remainder of the season due to a shoulder injury ... Sophomore A.J. Lapray has missed a total of five games with a hip injury, including Thursday's contest against San Diego.

ODDS AND ENDS — The Waves have climbed back into the nation's top 25 in three-point field goal percentage defense (30.4%, 22nd) ... Pepperdine is 11-2 when scoring at least 68 points, 10-0 when shooting better than the opponent, 9-1 when making more three-pointers than the opponent, 8-0 when collecting at least 16 assists and 7-0 when making at least 40% of its three-pointers ... Through 14 games the Waves were shooting 62.9% from the free throw line but over the last five games the percentage has been 81.9% ...The Waves have four players averaging between 17.5 and 13.3 points in league play (and are the only school in the conference with four players in the top 16) ... Pepperdine has used the same starting lineup for 16 consecutive games ... Four different Waves have scored at least 20 points in a game (Davis, Major, Murray, Raines), which hasn't happened since 2009-10 ... With Lamond Murray Jr. scoring 31 and Jett Raines getting 20 against Pacific, it's the first time two Waves had 30 and 20-point performances in the same game since December 2010.

CLOSE CALLS — Three Pepperdine opponents (Long Beach State, LMU, Saint Mary's) missed potential game-tying or game-winning three-pointers at or near the buzzer. Unfortunately, Santa Clara ended that streak with Jared Brownridge's game-winning three with 1.3 seconds left.

WCC STATS (OVERALL) — Lamond Murray Jr. is seventh in scoring (15.4), first in free throw percentage (.877), tied for sixth in steals (1.2) ... Stacy Davis is 13th in scoring (13.9), fourth in rebounding (8.4), seventh in minutes played (33.5) ... Jett Raines is 19th in scoring (11.7) ... Amadi Udenyi is tied for second in assist/turnover ratio (3.2), tied for eighth in assists (4.0) ... Jeremy Major is fourth in three-point percentage (.473), fifth in assist/turnover ratio (2.5), tied for sixth in steals (1.2), 10th in assists (3.7).

WCC STATS (LEAGUE GAMES ONLY) — Lamond Murray Jr. is seventh in scoring (17.5), tied for third in steals (1.4), fifth in free throw percentage (.865) ... Jett Raines is 14th in scoring (14.4), ninth in field goal percentage (.542), ninth in free throw percentage (.837) ... Jeremy Major is 15th in scoring (13.5), fifth in three-point percentage (.516), seventh in assist/turnover ratio (2.1), tied for seventh in steals (1.1), eighth in field goal percentage (.549), 10th in assists (4.0) ... Stacy Davis is 16th in scoring (13.3), third in rebounding (8.3), 10th in minutes (33.1) ... Amadi Udenyi is second in assist/turnover ratio (4.3), tied for eighth in assists (4.3).

CONFERENCE NOTES — The Waves now have seven straight wins over rival LMU (and 31 of the last 38, plus 17 of the last 18 in Firestone Fieldhouse) ... Pepperdine has beaten Pacific four of the five times they've met since the Tigers rejoined the WCC ... The Waves defeated Saint Mary's at home for the first time since 2004 (and have posted back-to-back wins over the Gaels for the first time since 2002) ... Pepperdine ended a seven-game losing streak to USF and won in San Francisco for the first time since 2009 ... The 98-point effort against the Dons was the team's most in any game since January 2008, and the most in either a true road game or a WCC game since February 2003 ... The Waves have won five of the last six against San Diego.

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).

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.

GOING VIRAL — The Waves have received a great deal of attention online for some off-the-court actions ... The locker room celebration after the win at Ball State in which head coach Marty Wilson was caught "dabbing" ... The team's reaction to senior Jake Johnson being awarded a scholarship for his final semester ... Famous rapper Drake's appearance at the Pacific game, both in the stands and in the locker room celebration.

TELEVISION — Preseason expectations have led to more television appearances for the Waves in 2015-16. Fifteen of the 18 conference games will be on television, and the other three will be available online on TheW.tv. Eight contests will be shown locally on Time Warner Cable SportsNet. Pepperdine has five games on ESPN2 or ESPNU, the first time with multiple regular-season appearances on the network since 2008-09.

ROSTER NUMBERS — After a season in which the Waves had zero seniors, the Waves returned 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 (although these figures have since been diminished by injuries). Returning players accounted 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.

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.