Men's Basketball Hosts Belmont on Saturday
12/1/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MALIBU, California — The Pepperdine men's basketball team plays its only home game during the month of December, and its final non-conference home contest, this Saturday against Belmont. The next six games are on the road before a West Coast Conference battle against rival Loyola Marymount in Firestone Fieldhouse on January 5.
GAME #8 — Saturday (December 3) at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, Calif.: Pepperdine (4-3) vs. Belmont (2-3) at 5 p.m.
WAVECASTS — Fans can watch the Belmont game online via WaveCasts on TheW.tv. Veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein, a 2015 Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, will be behind the microphone (now in his 32nd season, this will be his 948th consecutive broadcast for the Waves).
TICKETS — Tickets cost $20 (reserved), $15 (adult general admission) or $5 (child general admission) for most home games. Tickets can be purchased through the Pepperdine ticket office (866-WAVE-TIX) or online via pepperdinesports.ticketforce.com.
PROMOTIONS — Pepperdine Athletics is holding its annual toy drive with the Malibu Community Labor Exchange, so fans that bring an unwrapped toy can get a free general admission ticket on Saturday ... Pepperdine students can take part in the annual "Willie's Winter Wishlist" where big prizes will be up for grabs.
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 we dedicate ourselves to daily. Learn more about our exceptional student-athletes on the Competing With Purpose blog at www.PepperdineWaves.com/purpose.
BELMONT — This will be the first-ever meeting between Pepperdine and Belmont. An NIT participant last season, Belmont went 20-12 overall and won the Ohio Valley Conference's East Division in the regular season. The Bruins were picked as the OVC's preseason favorite again this year. Belmont Coach Rick Byrd is the sixth-winningest head coach active in Division I with 733 victories. The Bruins are led by senior forward Evan Bradds, currently the NCAA's all-time leader in field goal percentage (68.7%). He was the 2016 OVC Player of the Year and an Associated Press All-American honorable mention selection. Bradds is averaging 21.5 points per game.
LAST GAME — Four Waves scored at least 17 points but Pepperdine lost its first home game of the season to Portland State, 91-85, on Sunday. Chris Reyes (career-high 24 points), Lamond Murray Jr. (19), Knox Hellums (career-high 19) and Jeremy Major (season-high 17) all had big games, but those four scored all but six of the Waves' 85 points. Turnovers were again a problem, with a season-high-tying 20 leading to a 29-11 advantage for the Vikings on points off turnovers. The Waves shot 51.6% but the Vikings were a bit better at 53.0%.
INJURIES — Head coach Marty Wilson said before the season began that the key to success this year would be staying healthy, but unfortunately the Waves are once again facing adversity in this area. Senior point guard Amadi Udenyi, the team's assist leader and top perimeter defender, suffered a season-ending tear to his right Achilles tendon vs. Portland State on November 27. Sophomore forward Kameron Edwards, who earned WCC All-Freshman honors last season, suffered a fractured jaw during a preseason scrimmage on November 5 and is expected to miss approximately six weeks. That means the Waves are currently without two projected starters.
Additionally, freshman forward Nolan Taylor (knee) has yet to make his debut, while freshman guard Kaijae Yee-Stephens (ankle) has missed the last three games.
Last season, Pepperdine lost three shooting guards to season-ending injuries.
MURRAY — Senior guard/forward Lamond Murray Jr., an All-WCC second team selection last year, had a breakout junior season as one of the conference's most improved scorers. After averaging 4.0 and 6.9 points his first two seasons, he increased that number to a team-best 16.6 points per game (eighth in the WCC) last year.
Murray is taking another leap as a senior now that he is clearly Pepperdine's first scoring option. His average of 23.0 points per game is second in the WCC and 13th in the nation. As of Thursday morning, his national rankings also included being fourth in total field goals made (63) and 18th in total points (161).
He's scored at least 23 points in five of the seven games. He's made a team-high 16 three-pointers and is shooting 53.3% from distance.
Murray was rated as the nation's 20th-ranked small forward in the Lindy's preseason annual, and has generally been listed among the WCC's top 10 players in various preseason publications. He was named to the preseason All-WCC team by the league's coaches.
MAJOR — Senior guard Jeremy Major is on pace to become the program's all-time leader in assists this season. The record of 450 was set 33 seasons ago by Mark Wilson. Major currently ranks third with 404. He's had at least 100 assists in each of his three seasons, the first Wave to do that since Doug Christie in 1992. He could become the first Wave ever to do it four times.
Major had 11 assists in the season opener against Cal Poly, the second time in his career reaching double-digits. He's averaging 4.3 assists to go with 10.4 points per game.
Major has also moved into Pepperdine's career top 10 on the steals list this season, and he's on pace to reach the top four.
NEXT TO 1,000 — Seniors Lamond Murray Jr. and Jeremy Major will soon become the program's 40th and 41st players to score 1,000 career points. Murray is at 991 and Major is at 945.
REYES — Graduate transfer Chris Reyes has provided exactly the kind of production the coaches were hoping for. He's averaging 15.4 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.1 blocks (he leads the WCC in blocked shots). He's also made 69.2% of his field goal attempts, which ranks second in the WCC and ninth nationally. Reyes has already surpassed or matched just about every career high he set during two years at Utah, and he's posted the first three double-doubles of his career (all in the last five games). He's scored in double-figures in six of seven games.
ON POINT — Unfortunately, Jeremy Major and Amadi Udenyi have played their last game together for Pepperdine. They gave the Waves a tremendous 3+ years together at the point guard position. Last year they became the first Pepperdine duo to record 100+ assists in the same season since 2005. They directed the Waves to the three lowest turnover averages in program history: 11.2 in 2015-16, 12.2 in 2013-14 and 12.3 in 2014-15. If not for three separate injuries (two season-ending), Udenyi would almost certainly be in a race with Major to break the program's all-time assist record this season (Udenyi is 11th with 331).
NON-CONFERENCE NOTES — The Waves are playing a very challenging non-conference schedule. Of the 11 Division I teams that Waves will face, nine had winning records and played in postseason events last season. Seven of those 11 teams posted 20-win seasons last year. The 11 teams had a combined winning percentage of .603 (219-144) last season. The Waves will play three teams that made the NCAA Tournament, plus three from the NIT, two from the CIT and one from the CBI ... Pepperdine started a season with three consecutive home games for the first time since 2009-10 ... The Waves will close non-conference play with four straight road games, which isn't anything too out of the ordinary, but coupled with two more road games to start the WCC season, the six consecutive road games are the most in any one season since 1961-62 ... The Waves started the season 3-0 for the third time in four years.
WCC — The Waves have finished in the top half of the West Coast Conference each of the last three years, and if the league's coaches are correct, Pepperdine will make it four in a row this season. The order of the WCC preseason coaches poll went as follows: Gonzaga, Saint Mary's, BYU, Pepperdine, Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount, Pacific, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego.
ROSTER NUMBERS — The Waves have three starters back among their six returning letterwinners, plus one redshirt. There are 10 newcomers on the roster (two transfers, five scholarship freshmen and three walk-ons). The breakdown is six seniors, one junior, three sophomores and seven freshmen (the scholarship breakdown is four seniors, one junior, three sophomores and five freshmen). Returning players account for 53.1% of last season's points, 45.3% of the rebounds, 74.4% of the assists, 40.9% of the blocked shots, 69.0% of the steals and 56.0% of the minutes played.
WILSON — This is Marty Wilson's sixth year as head coach at Pepperdine and his 20th 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 elevated to the position of head coach following Asbury's retirement after the 2010-11 season. He 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 in between stints at Pepperdine and has been a Division I coach for 26 seasons. He ended his playing career #5 all-time in assists at Pepperdine with 342 (he's now #10). 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. The Waves have played in the CBI twice while he's been head coach. Wilson's son Jalon, a junior at Pepperdine, is one of the team's student managers.
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 fourth consecutive season. Associate head coaches Mark Amaral and Bryant Moore are both in their sixth seasons (Moore was promoted before the 2016-17 season). 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 is in his fourth season as the director of operations.
ACADEMICS — Marty Wilson takes his team's academics very seriously, and the results have been very good. All 14 seniors that have played under Wilson while he's been the head coach 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 27 WCC Commissioner's Honor Roll appearances.
2015-16 SEASON — The Waves literally duplicated their achievements from the 2014-15 season in 2015-16: an 18-14 overall record, a 10-8 West Coast Conference record for fourth place, a spot in the WCC Tournament semifinals and a berth in the College Basketball Invitational. The Waves recorded their first back-to-back winning seasons since 2002 and 2003 and made their first back-to-back postseason appearances since 2001 and 2002. Stacy Davis left as the program's all-time leading scorer (1,786 points) and a three-time All-WCC first team selection and Jett Raines departed after a pair of All-WCC honorable mention seasons.
RECRUITS — The Waves have three seniors in the backcourt, but reinforcements are on the way. During the November signing period, the Waves signed three outstanding guards to national letters of intent: 6-foot-5 Trae Berhow (Watertown, Minn./Watertown-Mayer HS/Powerhoops Hoops MN AAU), 6-foot-1 Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS/Colorado Chaos AAU) and 6-foot-4 Jade' Smith (Oakland, Calif./St. Joseph Notre Dame HS/Splash City AAU). Berhow is rated as one of Minnesota's top 10 players. Ross was the Colorado state Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior. Smith has two state high school championships and was rated as one of the nation's top 100 recruits at one point.
PEPPERDINE BASKETBALL — This is the 79th season of Pepperdine men's basketball, and the 44th season that the Waves have called Firestone Fieldhouse home. The Waves began the campaign with an all-time record of 1,203-1,036 (.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). Mychel Thompson is the most recent Wave to play in the NBA, appearing in five games for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2011-12, and he's now in the NBA D-League with Santa Cruz. Two Waves — Yakhouba Diawara (2012/France) and Marcos Leite (1972, 1980, 1984/Brazil) — have competed at the Olympics. About 10 alums are currently playing overseas, including 2016 graduate Stacy Davis (Cherkasy Monkeys in Ukraine).
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, California, 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 #50 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.
