USF Faces Nevada Saturday in Reno

Saturday, December 15

Lawlor Events Center

3:00 pm

University of San Francisco

University of Nevada

De'End Parker leads USF in scoring with a 17.9 point per game average.

Photo by: Cole Stipovich

12/12/2012 2:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Dons Look to Get Back on Winning Track Against Wolfpack

Complete USF Game Notes

Game #8
USF Dons (5-2, 0-0 WCC) vs.
Nevada Wolfpack (6-4, 0-0 Mountain West Conference)
Lawlor Events Center • Reno, Nev.
Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012 • 3:00 p.m. PT
Series Record: USF leads, 46-30
Last Meeting: Nevada 64-61 (2002-03)
Radio: USFDons.com (Pat Olson, Play-by-Play; Jim Brovelli, Analyst)
TV/Web: None

Dons Briefs

Now 5-2 on the season after suffering a 67-59 loss at Pacific on Saturday...loss snapped a five-game winning streak.
Travel to Reno on Saturday for a date with the Nevada Wolfpack..Dons have dropped three straight in the series with Nevada and will be looking for their first win in Reno since 1999-00 season.
Team is coming off a season-low 59 point outing at Pacific...rank sixth in the WCC in scoring at 71.3 per game.
USF leads the WCC and ranks fourth nationally in three-point field goal percentage (43.7; 52-119).
Junior De'End Parker leads the nation in three-point field goal percentage (71.4; 15-21), while Cole Dickerson tops the nation in rebound average (13.1).
Three players are averaging double-figures, led by De'End Parker's 17.9 ppg average...Cole Dickerson is scoring at a 13.4 ppg clip while junior point guard Cody Doolin is averaging 11.1 ppg.
Dickerson has posted four double-doubles in seven games this season.
Point guard Cody Doolin -- who dished out a career-high 14 assists vs. St. John's -- ranks ninth nationally in assists per game at 7.0...he needs two more assists to reach the 300 mark for his career...currently ranks seventh all-time on USF's career chart.
Have been outrebounded in each of the last two games vs. St. John's and Pacific after outboarding their first five opponents to start the season.
Shot just 42.3 percent from the floor at Pacific, breaking a string of four straight games shooting 50 percent or better.
Shooting just 61.8 percent from the free throw line, which ranks last in the WCC.
Have held their last five opponents under 70 points, including three under the 60-point mark...rank fourth in the WCC in scoring defense at 63.4 ppg.
Are 4-0 at home this season and are 45-18 (.714) on the Memorial Gymnasium hardwood under head coach Rex Walters.
The Dons are 39-22 (.639) in their last 61 games following a 5-9 start to the 2010-11 season.
USF is 67-68 in five seasons under head coach Rex Walters...his career record, which includes two seasons at Florida Atlantic, now stands at 98-101.
Following the Nevada game, the Dons will return to Memorial Gymnasium next Tuesday to play host to Holy Cross...tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m.

USF Travels to Reno for Date With Nevada on Saturday
USF (5-2, 0-0 WCC) will look to rebound from last Saturday's 67-59 loss at Pacific when the Dons meet the Nevada Wolfpack Saturday afternoon at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno. Tip off is set for 3:00 p.m.
Nevada is now 6-4 on the season after Tuesday night's 69-56 win over Cal Poly and have won two straight, including a 76-73 road victory at Washington on Dec. 8.

USF-Nevada Series
In a series that dates back to 1914, USF leads the series with Nevada, 46-30.
Nevada has won the last three meetings between the two schools, including a 64-61 victory on The Hilltop in the 2002-03 season. The Wolfpack also defeated USF in 2000-01 in San Francisco (79-71) and 2001-02 (84-59) in Reno.
USF's last win in the series came back in the 1999-2000 campaign, when the Dons scored a 78-73 victory in Reno.

Last Time Out: Pacific 67, USF 59 • Dec. 8, 2012 • Stockton, Calif.
Pacific scored the last six points of the game to claim a 67-59 victory over the Dons at the Spanos Center.
USF jumped out a 10-0 lead in the game and enjoyed an eight-point, 37-29 lead with 15:32 left in the second half. Pacific then went on a 13-2 run to take a 42-39 lead with 11:55 remaining.
Mark Tollefsen and Cole Dickerson each scored 14 points to share team-high scoring honors for USF.
The Dons shot 42.3 percent from the field and were just 6-for-15 (40.0 percent) from the free throw line.

The Start
USF is off to a 5-2 start for the second consecutive season. The Dons dropped their eighth game last season to go to 5-3, then ran off a four-game winning streak to before improve to 9-3 at the 12-game mark of the season.
A win over Nevada on Saturday would give USF its first 6-2 start since 1999-2000 when the Dons won 12 of their first 13 games under head coach Phil Mathews.

Winning Ways
USF is 39-22 (.639) in their last 61 games following a 5-9 start to the 2010-11 season. USF has also made back-to-back postseason appearances under Rex Walters, competing in the CIT in 2010-11 and the CBI last season.
Last season, the Dons finished with an overall record of 20-14, marking the program's first 20-win season since 1981-82 (25-6).

Walters Closing in on 100th Career Win
USF's 5-2 start has improved head coach Rex Walters' seven-year career record to 98-101 while his five-year USF coaching record stands at 67-68.

Leaders in Their Field
Three USF players -- Cole Dickerson, De'End Parker and Cody Doolin -- rank in the Top 10 nationally in various statistical categories.
Dickerson leads the nation in rebounding, averaging 13.1 boards a game, which is just ahead of Siena's O.D. Anosike (13.0).
Parker leads the nation in three-point field goal percentage, as the junior two-guard is shooting 71.4 percent (15-for-21) from beyond the arc after seven games.
Doolin has dished out 21 assists in his last two games and is averaging 7.0 assists per game, tied for ninth among the national leaders.
As a team, USF ranks fourth the nation in three-point field goal percentage at 43.7 (52-for-119).

The Four D's
USF's Four D's -- De'End Parker, Cole Dickerson, Tim Derksen and Cody Doolin -- have accounted for 72.1 percent (360 of 499) of the team's scoring and 62.8 percent (166 of 264) of its rebounding total in the early going.
Either Parker or Dickerson have taken high-point honors in five of the first seven games, while Dickerson has led/shared the team in rebounding in all seven contests.
Doolin has scored in double-figures in four of seven games and leads the team in minutes played (255) and ranks first in the conference in assist average (7.0).
Derksen has started all seven games as a freshman and ranks sixth in the conference in field goal percentage at 54.5 (24-for-44).

Dickerson Doubling Down
Cole Dickerson is averaging a double-double seven games into the 2012-13 campaign, as the junior forward from Federal Way, Wash. is scoring 13.4 points and grabbing 13.1 rebounds per game.
He currently leads the nation in rebound average, ahead of Siena's O.D. Anosike (13.0).
Dickerson has posted four double-doubles in seven games this season against Stanford (11-19), Cal State-East Bay (14-15), Columbia (10-14) and Montana (19-20). His non-double-double games came against American (20-6), St. John's (6-8) and Pacific (14-9).
He also posted double-doubles in both exhibition games against San Francisco State (21-15) and UNC-Pemboke (24-10).
Dickerson averaged 7.1 ppg and 4.0 rpg in 34 games last season, including one start.

Parker Tops Dons Scoring Column
Junior guard De'End Parker leads USF in scoring afer seven games with a 17.9 per game average, which ranks sixth among all WCC players.
Parker has scored in double figures in six of seven games this season, topped by a career-high 31-point effort in USF's win over Columbia in which he converted on 12-of-18 shots from the floor, including 2-of-4 from three-point range.
Parker is shooting 46.8 percent (44-for-94) from the floor, which ranks 11th in the WCC. He ranks first in the nation in three-point field goal percentage at 71.4 (15-for-21).
Parker grew up two blocks from the USF campus and attended Lincoln High School and City College of San Francisco before spending one season at UCLA.

What's Doolin
Junior point guard Cody Doolin leads the WCC and is tied for ninth nationally in assists per game (7.0). He also leads the conference in minutes played per game (36.4).
With a career high 21 assists in his last two games vs. St. John's (14) and Pacific (7), Doolin's career assist total now stands at 298, which ranks seventh on USF's all-time career list. He needs 22 more dimes to tie Chubby Cox (1976-78) for sixth all-time at 320.
Doolin currently ranks fourth in the WCC in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.7; 49-18). For his career, Doolin has a 2.1 assist (298) to turnover (134) ratio.

Board Work
USF has outrebounded five of its first seven opponents and currently ranks fifth in the the WCC in rebound average (37.7) and third in rebound margin (+6.1; 37.7-31.6).
Cole Dickerson leads the nation in rebounding with a 13.1 per game average.
Last season, USF averaged 33.2 boards a game and finished fifth in the WCC in rebound margin at +0.9.

Shooting 50 Percent
USF has shot 50 percent of better from the floor in four of its last five games, with the exception coming Saturday at Pacific when the Dons shot just 42.3 percent (22-for-52) from the field.
The Dons are shooting 46.5 percent from the field after seven games, which ranks fourth in the West Coast Conference.

From Long Distance
USF leads the WCC and ranks fourth nationally in three-point field goal percentage at 43.7 (52-for-119). The Dons rank fourth in the conference in three-pointers made per game at 7.4.
De'End Parker leads the nation in three-point percentage (71.4; 15-for-21) while two other players are also shooting 40 percent or better from three-point range, including Tim Derksen (46.7; 7-of-15) and Avry Holmes (45.0; 9-for-20).

From the Line
USF is shooting just 61.8 percent (97-for-157) from the foul line, which is the lowest percentage among WCC teams and 316th nationally. Cody Doolin leads the team in free throw percentage at 79.4 (27-for-34) while the rest of the team is shooting 56.9 percent (70-for-123) from the line.

Defense
After giving up a season-high 74 points to Stanford in the season-opener, USF has held its last six opponents under 70 points, including three under 60.
The Dons rank fourth in the WCC in scoring defense, allowing just 63.4 points a game.