PEPPERDINE AT SAN DIEGO
Date: Thursday, January 27, 2022
Site: Jenny Craig Pavilion (San Diego, California)
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Video: WCC Network
Audio: WaveCasts
Series: Pepperdine leads 68-45
Last Meeting: Toreros 72, Waves 62 (1/10/2022 in Malibu)

PEPPERDINE WAVES
2021-22 Record: 6-15
    WCC Record: 0-6
    Away Record: 0-7
Head Coach: Lorenzo Romar
Website: www.PepperdineWaves.com
Twitter: @PeppBasketball

SAN DIEGO TOREROS
2021-22 Record: 11-9
    WCC Record: 4-3
    Home Record: 6-2
Head Coach: Sam Scholl
Website: www.USDToreros.com
Twitter: @usdmbb

WAVEPOINTS
• The Pepperdine men's basketball team plays its next three games on the road, beginning with Thursday night's contest at San Diego.
• The Waves have won three straight road games against the Toreros, and seven of the last eight there.
• This is the annual NABC Suits & Sneakers week for the fight against cancer.
• Last week, the WCC announced that Pepperdine's road game at Pacific and the home game against Gonzaga would flip. The Waves will now visit the Tigers on February 3 and host the Bulldogs on February 16.
• Pepperdine's impressive freshman class has accounted for 41.8% of the points this season. The quartet features Mike Mitchell Jr., who ranks second in the WCC in assists (4.9), Houston Mallette, who is second on the team in scoring (11.3 ppg, 19th in the WCC) and ranks fifth in the conference in three-pointers (2.2), Maxwell Lewis, who had a 27-point effort against Westmont, and Carson Basham, who is coming off a season-best 11-point, eight-rebound effort vs. USF.
• Jan Zidek had a career-high 28 points against LMU last week. He ranks 14th in the WCC at 13.2 points per game.
• The Waves rank highly in the WCC in assists (15.5 per game, second), offensive rebounding (11.0 per game, third) and free throw percentage (74.1%, third).
• Victor Ohia Obioha ranks second in Pepperdine history in field goal percentage (59.3%), while Jadé Smith is tied for eighth in steals (140).
• Lorenzo Romar is in his 25th season as a college head coach. It's his fourth season this time around at Pepperdine, and his seventh overall with the Waves.
• Last season, the Waves won the 2021 College Basketball Invitational (CBI).

WAVECASTS — Thursday's game can be listened to online via WaveCasts at PepperdineWaves.com. Veteran play-by-play man Al Epstein, a 2015 Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame inductee who is now in his 37th season, will be behind the microphone. This will be his 1,117th consecutive men's basketball broadcast for the Waves.

WATCH — San Diego will produce a webstream for the WCC Network.

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 18 schools to have accomplished this feat — and 10 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 26 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 #49 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.