Series Record: USF 54-27

Last Meeting: USF 89-77 (Jan. 10, 2015)

Audio/Video Streaming: TheW.tv (Pat Olson, Play-by-Play; Jim Brovelli, Analyst)

Television: CSNBA (Barry Tompkins, Play-by-Play; Dan Belluomini, Analyst)

Complete USF Game Notes (PDF)

The Dandy Dons

Notables

Opening Tip
USF (9-14, 3-8 WCC) returns home to Memorial Gymnasium on Thursday to play host to the Portland Pilots (12-10, 3-7 WCC). Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m. The Dons are coming off a pair of losses last week at BYU (78-74) and San Diego (77-69) while the Pilots felll to Gonzaga, 64-46 last Thursday in Spokane.

Series History with Portland
In a series that dates back to the 1952-53 season, USF leads the all-time series with Portland, 54-26. The Dons are 24-6 vs. the Pilots dating back to the 2000-01 season and have won nine out of the last 10 in the series, including a 89-77 victory on Jan. 10 at the Chiles Center. The Dons swept the season series last year, claiming a 87-81 overtime victory in Portland on Dec. 28 and besting the Pilots 84-71 in San Francisco on Jan. 29.

First Meeting With Portland
Freshman Devin Watson scored a career-high 21 points to help USF snap a four-game losing streak with a 89-77 victory on Jan. 10 at the Chiles Center. Kruize Pinkins made four three-pointers and finished with 18 while Mark Tollefsen and Tim Derksen added 15 each. The Dons led virtually wire-to-wire, trailing just once at 5-2. USF, which came into the game as the third-worst free throw shooting team in the country, made 28-of-32 shots from the line, with Watson (12-of-14) and Derksen (8-for-10) doing most of the damage. The win was USF's fifth straight at the Chiles Center.
 
Last Time Out
USF dropped a 77-69 decision at San Diego on Saturday, as the Toreros completed a season sweep of the Dons. USF shot 50 percent from the field, but made just 3-of-13 three-point attempts and committed 17 turnovers which led to 23 Torero points. With the game hanging in the balance with less than six minutes remaining, the Dons made six turnovers in a span of four minutes helping the Toreros turn a 61-58 deficit into a 69-63 advantage. The two teams were whistled for a combined 51 fouls in the game. Kruiize Pinkins led all scorers with 23 points while Matt Glover (13) and Tim Derksen (10) also reached double figures for the Dons. Johnny Dee led four Toreros in double figures with 20 points. The loss snapped a five-game USF winning streak at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.

The Record
At 9-14 overall, USF is five games off its pace from last season when the Dons were 14-9 at the 23-game mark. The Dons won game 24 to improve to 15-9 overall and 8-4 in the WCC. The Dons ultimately finishing with a 21-12 overall mark and tied for second in the WCC with a 13-5 conference ledger. After a 3-0 start, USF is 6-14 over its last 20 games and has not won back-to-back games since its 3-0 start.

The Wins
Of USF's nine wins this season, eight have been by double digit margins and an average of 23.4 points (82.2 to 58.8). The Dons have posted four wins of 30 points or more against South Carolina State (91-52), Notre Dame de Namur (86-46), Houston Baptist (85-54) and Portland State (77-40) and also own double digit victories over Hawaii (88-73), Montana (76-57), Portland (89-77) and Pepperdine (71-59).

The Losses
Of USF's nine conference losses, four have been by eight points or fewer and a combined total of 20 points. USF  has lost a pair of one-point games to San Diego (57-56) and LMU (70-69) on its home floor, dropped a six point decision at Santa Clara (70-64), fell by four points at BYU (78-74) and fell by eight points at San Diego (77-69) after squandering a late lead.

The Home Record
USF will play five out of its last seven regular season games at home, where the Dons are 6-5 this season. However, USF is just 1-3 on the Memorial Gymnasium hardwood against WCC foes, with the lone win coming at the expense of Pepperdine, 71-59 on Jan. 22.

Fabulous in February
Over the last four seasons dating back to the 2009-10 campaign, USF has posted a 22-12 (.647) record in the month of February, including back-to-back 5-2 marks each of the last two seasons.

Dons Defensively
USF allowed a combined 155 points in two losses last week at BYU (78-74) and San Diego (77-69). The Toreros entered the game averaging 58.6 point per game in conference action. USF ranks seventh overall in the WCC in points allowed per game (68.6). After limiting 12 non-conference opponents to 38.9 percent shooting from the floor, the first 11 WCC foes have clipped the nets at 47.2 percent. USF ranks fourth overall in field goal defense at 42.8 percent.

Turnovers
USF has committed a total of 34 turnovers in its last two games vs. BYU (17) and San Diego (17), leading to 50 points in a pair of losses which came by a combined total of 12 points. USF has committed 12 turnovers or more in 11 games this season.

Defending the Three
USF is allowing opponents to shoot 36.1 percent from three-point range, which ranks eighth in the WCC.  The first 11 WCC opponents have clipped the nets at 36.6 percent from long distance. Eight opponents have made at least nine three-pointers against USF this season.

Board Work
After outrebounding 10 of its 12 opponents by 8.3 boards a game, USF has been outrebounded in eight of its first 11 conference games, 34.1 to 31.3. USF ranks fifth the WCC in rebound average at 35.9 per game and fifth in rebound margin (+3.0). However, USF is being outboarded by 2.8 per game in conference action.  In nine wins this season, USF has held a decisive advantage on the boards (38.4-30.4). Three players - Matt Glover (5.5), Kruize Pinkins (5.5), and Mark Tollefsen (5.3) - are averaging at least 5.0 rebounds per game while Tim Derksen is averaging 4.8. All four players have pulled down 10 or more rebounds in a game this season.

From the Field
USF has combined to shoot 49.7 (101-for-203) from the floor over the last four games and is shooting 46.5 percent from the field this season, which ranks third in the WCC behind Gonzaga (.528) and BYU (.467). The Dons have shot 50 percent or better from the floor six times this season, but just twice in its last 15 games. Mark Tollefsen, who made 10-of-14 shots from the field en route to scoring 22 point night at BYU, is 21-of-31 (67.7) from the floor over the last three games. He now ranks fifth in the WCC in field goal percentage at 54.5 percent.

From the Line
USF is shooting 60.6 percent from the foul line, which ranks last in the WCC and is the eighth-lowest percentate among 345 Division I teams. The Dons are slightly better in conference action at 66.1 percent. USF has made just 163-of-297 (54.8) of their free throws in 14 losses which have come by a total of 150 points. USF's 535 free throw attempts is tied with Kentucky for the 15th highest total in the country among Division I teams.

Beyond the Arc
USF has made just 19-of-80 (23.7) of its three-point attempts over the last five games and now ranks sixth in the WCC in three-point field goal percentage at .356 (147-for-413). The Dons are shooting 43.6 percent (71-for-163) from long distance in nine wins this season and are shooting just 30.4 percent (76-for-250) from beyond the arc in 14 losses.

Bench Scoring
USF's bench has been outscored in eight of the last 10 games by an average of 23.1 to 13.3 points per game (231-133). Don reserves managed to outscore BYU, 23-20 but were outscored 39-10 two nights later at San Diego.

D-Watz
Freshman Devin Watson has started each of the last nine games at the point guard postion and is averaging 10.8 points (98 total) during that stretch of games. He is the Dons third-leading scorer in conference play at 10.9 ppg, trailing only Kruize Pinkins (14.4) and Mark Tollefsen (13.9). Watson now ranks as the Dons fourth-leading scorer on the season at 7.9 points per game. He scored a career high 21 points in USF's 89-77 win at Portland on Jan. 10.

Did You Know...?
That former USF and University of San Diego head coach Jim Brovelli's first collegiate coaching position was as an assistant coach on Jack Avina's Portland staff for the 1970-71 and 71-72 seasons?