Nov. 22, 2009
GAME #4: The University of San Diego men's basketball team (2-1), under the direction of 3rd-year head coach Bill Grier, will face the Oklahoma Sooners (2-1) this coming Wednesday, Nov. 25th, in the first of three games to be played at the 2009 Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout. Game time is slated for 10:45 p.m. (Pacific).
GREAT ALASKA SHOOTOUT FORMAT: The schedule is set up in a Pool Play format with Anchorage Alaska, Nicholls State and Washington State in Pool A. Houston, Oklahoma and USD are in Pool B. Day one (Nov. 25) begins with Washington State playing Anchorage Alaska, followed by USD taking on Oklahoma. USD will be off on Thanksgiving day, but Nicholls State will play Alaska Anchorage, and Houston will take on Oklahoma. USD is back in action on Friday as Nicholls State plays Washington State, followed by Houston and San Diego. Saturday's final day action pits the 5th place, 3rd place and championship games between the Pool A and Pool B teams.
SERIES RECORD: This is the first meeting between USD and Oklahoma, and it will be the first meeting for the Toreros between Houston on Friday, and against their Saturday opponent - either Nicholls State, Alaska Anchorage or Washington State.
RADIO/INTERNET/TV: All three games will be broadcast on XX Sports Radio 1090 AM with Andy Masur (play-by-play) bringing you the action; pregame begins 20 minutes prior to tipoff. The game can also be heard via the internet at www.usdtoreros.com. Fox College Sports will televise USD's first two games between Oklahoma and Houston.
WCC STANDINGS (thru Nov. 22nd): Portland (3-0), Gonzaga (2-1), Saint Mary's (2-1), San Diego (2-1), San Francisco (2-1), Santa Clara (2-1), LMU (2-3), Pepperdine (1-2).
WCC PRESEASON COACHES POLL: In the 2009-10 West Coast Conference Preseason Coaches Poll the Toreros are picked to finish 6th. The following lists the coaches predictions with first place votes in parenthesis - 1. Gonzaga (6), 48 points; 2. Portland (2), 44 points; 3. Saint Mary's, 34 points; 4. San Francisco & Santa Clara, 26 points; 6. San Diego, 21 points; 7. Pepperdine, 13 points; 8. Loyola Marymount, 12 points.
COACH GRIER (3RD YEAR): Coach Bill Grier (Oregon, 1990), 46, is in his third season at the helm of the USD program... He enters the Oklahoma game with a three-year record of 40-31 (.563)... Last year's 16-16 mark was highlighted by road wins over Oregon and Mississippi State... In his rookie year he guided the Toreros to an overall mark of 22-14 and 3rd place finish in the WCC race at 11-3... He guided the Toreros to three wins and the championship title at the WCC Tournament (hosted by USD) with wins over Pepperdine, Saint Mary's and No. 20 Gonzaga... The Toreros then upset No. 15 UCONN in the NCAA Tournament opener with a 70-69 overtime victory, before falling to Western Kentucky in the second round... His 11 WCC wins were the second most for league wins in a single season in program history... Hired on March 26, 2007, Grier is USD's 11th head coach overall and just the 4th head coach since the Torero program moved to the NCAA Division I ranks in 1979-80... His 22 wins were also the most by a Torero coach in his first season at USD. In addition to knocking off Kentucky on the road, 81-72, the Toreros earned three wins over Top-25 teams: #21 Saint Mary's, #20 Gonzaga and #15 Connecticut... Prior to USD Grier spent 16 years at Gonzaga, including the last 8 seasons as Mark Few's top assistant. Bill and his wife, Nicole, have two daughters, Giselle & Ashley.
TOREROS GET BACK TO WINNING WAYS WITH WIN OVER POINT LOMA (Nov. 18): De'Jon Jackson scored a season-high 19 points, and Matt Dorr (18 points) and Roberto Mafra (14 points) cashed in on new career highs as the Toreros dealt visiting NAIA Point Loma Nazarene a 84-65 loss on at the Jenny Craig Pavilion... The Toreros tied a school record with 10 blocked shots, and came up one made three-pointer shy of tying USD's mark of 14 made threes in a game... USD canned 13-of-25 as Jackson (5-8), Dorr (4-7) and Devin Ginty (3-6) led the way in that department... USD shot 51.7% from the field (31-60), 52% from three-point land (13-25) and 90% from the free throw line (9-10)... PLNU was paced by Greg Murray's game-high 23 points.
JACKSON NAMED co-WCC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: De'Jon Jackson was tabbed the co-WCC Player of the Week for his performance in the team's 77-64 win over Stanford last... The 6-2 senior guard out of Fresno, California scored 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field... Besides matching Brandon Johnson's 18 points, he chipped in with 3 steals, 3 assists and 2 rebounds... Ben Allen of Saint Mary's shared the honor with Jackson.
TORERO TIDBITS: This is USD's first ever venture to the state of Alaska... Former Torero guard Andre Laws (1998-2002), who hails from Anchorage, Alaska, is USD's 7th all-time leading scorer with 1,337 points... He led USD in scoring his final three seasons, including 18.2 ppg his senior year (2001-02)... ESPN.com just rated USD's 2010-11 recruiting class (see page 4 of this release) as the best in the West Coast Conference... De'Jon Jackson is the lone Torero to have scored in double digits in all three games this season (18-16-19)... His backcourt running mate, Brandon Johnson reached double "D's" in the first two games (18-10) before sitting out the PLNU contest with a strained right hamstring... Jackson (17.7 ppg) and Johnson (14.0 ppg) are the team scoring leaders while 5th-year forward Chris Lewis is the team's leading rebounder (5.7 rpg).
A QUICK LOOK AT HOUSTON: USD's second opponent this coming week, the Houston Cougars (1-1), are coached by Tom Penders... Houston opened the season with a 92-60 win over Great Alaska Shootout participant Nicholls State, then dropped a 112-99 high scoring affair with Nevada... Senior guard Aubrey Coleman is averaging 32.5 ppg thru two games, followed by junior guard Adam Brown (15.5 ppg).
CITY CHAMPIONSHIP SET FOR DECEMBER 2ND: The USD Toreros will host San Diego State on Wednesday, December 2nd, in a 7:05 p.m. contest at the Jenny Craig Pavilion... San Diego State leads the all-time series, 23-17, and have won the last three meetings.
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