 |  |
USF Hosts Pepperdine Saturday, Loyola Marymount Monday Night
Feb. 8, 2007
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
The USF men's basketball team (9-15, 5-4 WCC), hosts Pepperine Saturday night on homecoming (7:00 p.m. KQKE, 960 AM) and Loyola Marymount (8:00 p.m., KQKE, ESPNU) Monday night as the WCC season heads for the homestretch.
USF enters the week tied for third in the WCC race with St. Mary's, two games behind co-leaders Gonzaga and Santa Clara.
LAST WEEKEND: The Dons split two road games, winning 98-88 at San Diego and dropping a closer than the final score 74-62 decision at Santa Clara.
DONS LOOK TO GET L.A. SWEEP: USF will be looking to earn a sweep of the Los Angeles schools after topping both of them in nailbiters in early January. The Dons triumphed at LMU 68-61 in overtime on January 13th and won by a single point at Pepperdine two nights later.
LONG ROAD OVER UNTIL TOURNAMENT: Last Saturday's win at San Diego was the final game until the WCC tournament for the Dons outside the Bay Area. USF has played six of nine WCC games and 17 of 24 overall away from home. Perhaps the non-conference schedule, that saw them play 11 road games prepared the Dons well for league road games where they are 4-2 and guaranteed a plus .500 record. USF will play five of their final six regular season games at home. The one remaining road game is at St. Mary's for Big Monday on February 19th.
WIGGINS SCORES 1,000TH CAREER POINT AT SANTA CLARA: Alan Wiggins scored on a dunk late in the Santa Clara game last Monday to tally his 1,00th career point.
He is currently 28th on the USF career list after passing Ken McAllister (988) Monday. Mike Quick (1019) and Erwin Mueller (1020) are next on the list.
DONS FALL AT SANTA CLARA: The Dons' two-game win streak was snapped Monday night at Santa Clara by a score of 74-62. USF, down 15 at the half rallied from a 17 point deficit to come within three points (and ball possession) at 62-59 with 2:56 left. But the Dons could come no closer and consecutive three-pointers by SCU's leading scorer Danny Pariseau (19 pts.) put the game out of reach. Pariseau came alive after USF guard Armondo Surratt was forced to leave the game with a knee injury at the 4:23 mark. USF was paced by Alan Wiggins, Jr. who scored 20 points and added 11 rebounds.
NUMBERS ARE CLOSE: Looking at the USF numbers for the Dons and their opponents are very similar. Noth the Dons and their opponents have shot 45.7% this year, USF has shot 36.6% from three points while opponents are 36.5. USF has shot 70.2% from the free-throw line, opponents 70.7%.
50% FG SHOOTING=WINS: USF has shot the ball very well this season hitting 46.2% of its field goals (third WCC) and 36.6% of its three-point attempts (second WCC). Looking at the stats USF is 8-2 when it shoots 50% floor and 1-13 when it does not. On the opposite side, USF is 1-6 when opponents make 50% of their shots.
WCC LEADERS: USF has opened 5-3 in WCC play. USF's leaders (and rank in WCC): Scoring- Wiggins, 14.1 (10); Surratt 12.4 (13) Quezada 10.4 (20) (note- Kellogg averaging 17.7 - would be #1 - but has not played enough games) FG%- Wiggins 51.8% (8). Reb.- Wiggins 7.3 (5).; Assists: Surratt 3.2 (8).
GETTING OFFENSIVE: USF is playing more of a high scoring game this season, averaging 73.3 points per contest compared to 69.1 ppg. last year.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE: The Waves, who USF topped by a single point (72-71) in Malibu on January 15th, are under the leadership of new head coach Vance Walberg. The Waves play an uptempo style are second in the league in scoring at 75.8 points per game and top the WCC with almost 10 three pointers made per contest.
Among their individual leaders are guards Marvin Lea (15.5 ppg) Chase Griffin (14.9) and Kingsley Costain (13.6).
In the first meeting in Malibu, USF made a 15-3 run midway through the second half to overcome an eight point Waves lead with Surratt making 11 of the points. With 1:51 remaining, a big jumper by Jessie Byrd put USF ahead to stay.
ABOUT THE LIONS: After sustaining an eight game losing streak that began with the loss of guard Brandon Worthy, the Lions have been hot lately winning three of their last four (capped by a home win over Gonzaga) entering Saturday's contest at San Diego.
Senior post Matthew Knight enters the weekend second in the WCC in scoring (16.9 ppg) and recorded 20 points and 10 rebounds in USF's 68-61 win at Gersten Pavilion. Since the loss of Worthy, guard Adoyah Miller has picked up the scoring pace and averages 15.1 point in WCC play. The Lions under former USF player Rodney Tention, have a deep cast that features John Ziri (5.8 ppg), Damian Martin (5.0), Derick Grubb (4.9), John Montgomery (4.4) and Marko Deric (4.2).
FEELING AT HOME?: It has been a very interesting league season thus far with close games and unpredictable results.
Here is perhaps the biggest surprise, WCC schools are not dominating on their homecourts. In fact, entering this weekend's games, only Gonzaga (4-0, who has the nation's longest homecourt win streak) and Santa Clara (4-2, with both of their league losses at home) are above .500 in league games on their homecourt.
With USF (1-2 at home WCC), having four league games remaining at home, obviously they hope the trend does not continue.
Among the biggest swings, St. Mary's entered league play 8-2 at home, but are now 3-3 in league play. San Diego was a perfect 7-0 at home before dropping all three league home games (and are 4-2 in WCC road games) and LMU was 5-1 in preseason at home and are now 2-3 in WCC action.
