USDvsGUfeb25

GAME #28: The Toreros close out their regular-season schedule this week with home games against Gonzaga and Portland. First up is Gonzaga on Thursday, Feb. 25th. Tip-off is slated for 7:05 p.m. at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.

SERIES RECORD: This is the 89th meeting between USD and Gonzaga with the Bulldogs owning a commanding 66-22 series advantage... Back on Jan. 16th the #21 Bulldogs dealt the Toreros an 88-52 loss... Duda Sanadze paced USD with 21 points... Last season the Zags won the first meeting in San Diego on Dec. 29th by the score of 60-48 (Johnny Dee, 20 points)... The Zags also won the second meeting in Spokane by the score of 59-39 on Feb. 26th... USD's last win over Gonzaga came on Feb. 23, 2014 - a 69-66 victory over No. 22 GU.

RADIO/TV/VIDEO STREAM: All USD home and away games will be broadcast live on ESPN 1700AM with Jack Cronin (2nd season); his pre-game show airs 10 minutes prior to tip-off. The contest will be broadcast by Time Warner Cable SportsNet (Steve Quis & Casey Jacobsen) and will also air on KHQ-TV, ROOT Northwest, ROOT Rocky Mountain, CSN+, and TheW.tv (out-of-market).

WCC STANDINGS (thru Feb. 21st): Saint Mary's (13-3 WCC, 22-4), Gonzaga (13-3, 21-7), BYU (12-4, 21-8), Pepperdine (10-7, 17-11), San Francisco (8-8, 15-12), Portland (6-10, 12-17), Santa Clara (6-10, 10-18), Pacific (5-11, 7-19), LMU (5-12, 12-16), San Diego (3-13, 8-19).

WCC COACHES PRESEASON POLL: The Toreros were picked 9th in the 2015-16 WCC Preseason Men's Basketball Coaches Poll... Team (First Place Vote) - 1. Gonzaga (9), 81 points; 2. BYU (2), 73 points; 3. Pepperdine, 62 points; 4. Saint Mary's, 58 points; 5. Portland, 43 points; 6. Santa Clara, 37points; 7. Pacific, 32 points; 7. San Francisco, 32 points; 9. San Diego, 17 points; 10. Loyola Marymount, 15 points.

COACH SMITH (1ST YEAR): Coach Lamont Smith (San Diego, 1998) is in his first head coaching position and comes from New Mexico where he was the Associate Head Coach... Prior to that he spent time at Washington, Arizona State, Santa Clara, Saint Mary's College and Saint Louis University... Smith, 40, returns to USD where he was a member of the men's basketball team from 1994-99... He started all 27 games his senior year in 1998-99 for the 18-9 Toreros... He was named the Toreros' Defensive Player of the Year in 1997 and 1999 and served as the team captain from 1997-99... Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of San Diego in 1998... Lamont and his wife Kimberly have two daughters -- Payton and Olivia.

TOREROS DROP TWO TO TRAVEL-PARTNER BYU: The Toreros ended up playing in two very different contests last week against travel-partner BYU, but in the end came away with losses in both... In last Thursday's home game, USD almost pulled off the upset in falling to the Cougars 69-67... The Toreros jumped out to a 15-4 lead and were up 32-27 at the intermission break... The contest was close throughout the second half and USD was within one at 68-67 with seven seconds left following a Vasa Pusica three-pointer... BYU's Nick Emery made 1-of-2 free throws, but Pusica's halfcourt heave before the buzzer was off the mark... Pusica led four Toreros in double digits with 17 points; BYU received 25 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists from senior guard Kyle Collinsworth... On Saturday in Provo, the Toreros were dealt a 91-33 setback... The 33 points is a new low since turning Division I back in 1979, as is the 58 point differential... The Toreros also misfired on 20 three-point attempts... BYU was paced by Emery's 17 points... The Cougars converted 12-27 three-pointers.

TORERO TIDBITS:
* This season USD is 5-6 in home games and will be looking to break a 2-game skid following losses to BYU (69-67) on Feb. 18th and Saint Mary's (60-43) on Feb. 6th... Sophomore guard Vasa Pusica leads the Toreros in scoring at the JCP with his 11.5 points per game average... He is followed by Duda Sanadze (9.8 ppg) and Jito Kok (9.5 ppg, 6.0 rpg).

* Senior center Jito Kok ranks 1st in the WCC (#19 in nation thru games of Feb. 21) in blocked shots at 2.52 per game (68 in 27 contests)... He owns all three USD records for blocked shots - single game: 9 vs. UC Davis, 12-15-15; single season: 75 in 2014-15; career: 261 and counting... He is now 2nd all-time among WCC players, trailing only #1 Hondre Brewer of USF, 279... With 3 blocks against BYU on Saturday he broke the tie he was in with former Saint Mary's center Omar Samhan (258)... With a minimum of 3 games left in the season, Kok would need 19 blocks to set a new all-time WCC record... He ranks 7th among active career Division I blocked shot leaders (261).

* Last Thursday senior Duda Sanadze scored 16 points against BYU... He leads the team with 16 games in double digits... He scored a career high 29 points at Portland on January 14th, and has reached 20 or more in five contests... Earlier this season he was named to the GCI Great Alaska Shootout All-Tournament team... In 88 career games he has now scored 922 points (10.5 ppg average).

* Against Pacific on Feb. 4th, sophomore guard Vasa Pusica matched his career-high of 19 points he set earlier this season against San Francisco... Against Pacific he converted all eight field goal attempts including a perfect 3-3 from beyond the arc... This season he has reached double-digit scoring eight times, including 17-point efforts against CSUN & LMU.

* Sophomore guard Marcus Harris made it back into the line-up at LMU on Jan. 23rd after missing four games due to an eye injury suffered late in the USF game on January 7th... He scored a career-high 23 points to lead the Toreros past the LMU Lions 77-69 at the JCP on January 30th... He made 7-11 shots from the field, 4-8 threes and 5-7 free throws.

* In the home win over LMU the Toreros buried 10-of-20 three-pointers... Besides Harris' 4-8 shooting, freshman guard Olin Carter III was 2-2; senior forward Duda Sanadze was 2-4, junior forward Brett Bailey was 1-2 and sophomore guard Vasa Pusica was 1-4... This marked the third time USD made 10 or more threes leading to a win - SDSU (10-27), CSUN (15-35)... The CSUN numbers are both single game records for makes and attempts.

* The WCC announced on January 22nd the adjusted WCC Men's Basketball Championship bracket. It has been revised to a nine-team format after the WCC membership reconfigured its men's basketball tournament due to the University of the Pacific's withdrawal. The #8 and #9 seeds will play on Friday, March 4th in a 6:00 p.m. contest (BYUtv, TheW.tv) with the winner advancing to play the #1 seed on Saturday, March 5th, in the 7:00 p.m. contest (ESPN2/WatchESPN).

* USD knocked off San Diego State in the annual City Championship game played outdoors at Petco Park on December 6th by the score of 53-48... Senior Duda Sanadze turned in an inspiring peformance with 15 points (5-10 in threes), 6 rebounds and a career-best 5 steals... Freshman guard Olin Carter III helped USD to a 31-13 halftime advantage by making 4-of-5 threes in the first 20 minutes.

* Four recent Toreros are currently playing professionally overseas - Gyno Pomare, '09 (Kanazawa Samuraiz; Kanazawa, Japan), Dennis Kramer, '14 (EWE Baskets; Oldenberg, Germany), Johnny Dee, '15 (Polpharma; Starogard Gdanski, Poland) and Christopher Anderson, '15 (Weissenhorn Youngstars; Weissenhorn, Germany).

SCOUTING THE GONZAGA BULLDOGS: The Gonzaga Bulldogs come to town with an overall record of 21-7 and 13-3 in the WCC standings... They are currently tied at the top of the standings with the Saint Mary's Gaels... The Bulldogs are coming off a tough 63-58 home loss to the Saint Mary's Gaels on Feb. 20th... Guard Josh Perkins paced the Zags with 21 points... Last Thursday the Zags defeated Pacific 90-68 with Kyle Wiltjer (26 points) and Domantas Sabonis (23 points, 10 rebounds) leading the way... Back on Feb. 13th the Zags were dealt a 69-60 loss at SMU... For the season Gonzaga has four players averaging in double digit scoring -Wiltjer (21.0 ppg, #1 in WCC), Sabonis (17.3 ppg 11.6 rpg - #1 WCC), Perkins (10.0 ppg) and Eric McClellan (10.0 ppg)... The Zags average 79.0 points per game (#2 in WCC) and hold their opponents to 65.4 ppg (#2 in WCC)... Head Coach Mark Few is in his 17th season (459-110, 80.7 winning percentage).

A LOOK AHEAD: The Toreros play their final regular-season game, and last home game, on Saturday, Feb. 27th, against Portland. Tip-off is slated for 6:00 pm. It is Senior Night and there will be a pre-game tribute for captains Duda Sanadze and Jito Kok.