Game Notes

MALIBU, California — The short-handed Pepperdine men's basketball team plays the finale in its stretch of six consecutive road games with a New Year's Eve contest at Portland.

The Waves, down two starters due to injuries/illness, last played a home game on December 3. Finally, the Waves will be back in Firestone Fieldhouse on Thursday (January 5) against rival Loyola Marymount. The last time Pepperdine played six consecutive true road games was 1961-62.

The Waves have been swept in both legs of the Pacific Northwest trip each of the last three years. This is the second straight year that Pepperdine has opened the West Coast Conference campaign at Gonzaga and Portland.

GAME #14 — Saturday (December 31) at the Chiles Center in Portland, Oregon: Pepperdine (4-9, 0-1) at Portland (8-5, 1-0) at 5 p.m.

WAVECASTS — Fans can listen to the Portland game online via WaveCasts at PepperdineWaves.com. 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 954th consecutive broadcast for the Waves).

WATCH — The Portland game will be shown live on CSN Northwest. Fans outside of that market can watch online at TheW.tv. The show will be produced by Portland. Travis Demers and Bill Krueger 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 we dedicate ourselves to daily. Learn more about our exceptional student-athletes on the Competing With Purpose blog at www.PepperdineWaves.com/purpose.

PORTLAND — Pepperdine is 58-36 all-time against Portland. The Pilots swept last year's season series. In the Chiles Center, Portland has won seven of the last eight against Pepperdine, including the last three in a row. The Waves have a 23-21 record in Portland overall.

The Pilots opened up WCC play with an 80-76 victory at Pacific. The teams have only one non-conference opponent in common (both lost at home to Portland State). Senior guard Alec Wintering is first in the WCC in scoring (21.8) and is second in assists (6.1). He's averaged 13.5 points and 5.7 assists in six games against the Waves, including a 34-point effort in last year's home victory.

LAST GAME — The Waves put together a spirited first-half effort to keep things close, but #7 Gonzaga showed its strength in the second half of a 92-62 loss on Thursday night in Spokane. The Waves led for much of the first eight minutes and it was tied at 23 with 9 1/2 minutes left in the first half. Gonzaga went into the break up just seven at 44-37 before pulling away in the second half. The Zags enjoyed a 33-8 edge in points off turnovers and 45-27 in rebounding. Lamond Murray Jr. led all scorers with 19 points.

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. Pepperdine is currently without two expected starters and has three players sidelined.

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. The Waves have yet to win since his injury. It's the second Achilles tear during his Pepperdine career (he injured the left one during his sophomore season). Udenyi has indicated that he will seek a medical redshirt and return for a fifth season in 2017-18.

Sophomore forward Kameron Edwards, who earned WCC All-Freshman honors last season, suffered a fractured jaw during a preseason scrimmage on November 5 and has yet to play.

Freshman guard Kaijae Yee-Stephens played the first four games of the season before suffering an ankle injury that required surgery. Freshman forward Nolan Taylor (knee) missed the first seven games of the season.

This season, Pepperdine has already lost a total of 37 player-games due to injury or illness. Last season, Pepperdine lost three shooting guards to season-ending injuries.

ROTATION — The injuries, as well as offseason changes to the roster, have conspired to give the Waves a very different look this season. Of the eight active players averaging double-figure minutes, only two saw action for the Waves last season. Of the other six, one was a redshirt, one is a graduate transfer and the other four are freshmen.

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 19.3 points per game is third in the WCC. He's scored at least 21 points six times, including a career-high 33 against Weber State. He's made a team-high 25 three-pointers and is shooting 49.0% from distance.

Murray was rated as the nation's 20th-ranked small forward in the Lindy's preseason annual, and was generally 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 428. 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's 428 career assists are the 16th-most of any active Division I player.

Major had 11 assists in the season opener against Cal Poly, the second time in his career reaching double-digits. He's averaging 4.2 assists (eighth in the WCC) to go with 11.8 points per game.

Major has also moved into Pepperdine's career top 10 on the steals, three-pointers made and games started lists this season.

REYES — Graduate transfer Chris Reyes has provided exactly the kind of production the coaches were hoping for. He's averaging 14.3 points (12th in the WCC), 7.9 rebounds (fourth in the WCC), 2.3 assists and 1.8 blocks (second in the WCC). He's also made 61.1% of his field goal attempts, which ranks fourth in the WCC and 21st 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 four double-doubles of his Division I career. He's scored in double-figures in a team-best 12 of 13 games (he only did that four times in two years at Utah).

Between Reyes and Brendan Lane (2013-14), the Waves have done well adding graduate transfer big men from the Pac-12.

1,000 POINTS — Both Lamond Murray Jr. and Jeremy Major joined the list of Pepperdine's 1,000-point scorers during the month of December. Murray became the program's 40th player to do so on December 3 against Belmont, while Major became the 41st on December 20 at Louisiana.

ON POINT — Unfortunately, Jeremy Major and Amadi Udenyi have played their final game together for Pepperdine. They gave the Waves a tremendous 3+ years together at the point guard position. 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).

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.

But without Udenyi and with all of the personnel changes, the Waves are unfortunately up to 15.3 turnovers per game this season.

THREE-POINTERS — The Waves have had almost a complete reversal of fortune with the three-point shot from what they've done over the last couple of years. On the positive side, although the Waves still don't shoot a lot of them (making 6.0 per game), they have been good on 40.2% of their attempts, which ranks second in the WCC and 25th nationally and would be the team's best mark since 1990. Just two seasons ago, the Waves ranked 290th nationally at 31.3%.

On the flip side, two years ago the Waves ranked second nationally in three-point field-goal percentage defense (27.0%), and they were 38th (31.7%) last year. This season, opponents are making 42.9% of their three-pointers, which ranks the Waves 345th in the country.

OTHER THINGS WE LIKE — Pepperdine's team field goal percentage of 46.7% ranks fourth in the WCC and would be the program's best since 1994 ... Chris Reyes has scored in double-figures in seven straight games ... Knox Hellums is making 47.2% of his three-pointers, which would be a Pepperdine freshman record, and he's perfect from the free throw line (15-for-15) ... Elijah Lee is tied for the team lead in steals (15) with Lamond Murray Jr.

NON-CONFERENCE NOTES — Even without being short-handed, the Waves played a very challenging non-conference schedule. Of the 11 Division I teams that the Waves faced, 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 played three teams that made the NCAA Tournament, plus three from the NIT, two from the CIT and one from the CBI ... The Waves closed out 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 ... Pepperdine beat two teams that played in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, Weber State and Little Rock, both by one point and both on missed three-pointers at the buzzer by the opponent.

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.