Portland @ Gonzaga, Saturday 1/29 @ 6PM

Shantay Legans’ memories of a successful four-year run at Eastern Washington that included a Big Sky Coach of the Year award, two conference championships and a stirring upset bid against Kansas in the NCAA Tournament last season?

“Beautiful, man,” Legans said. “It was the start of my career there, something I’ll cherish forever.”

Legans’ memories from the Eagles’ 112-77 loss to Gonzaga in 2019 at the McCarthey Athletic Center?

“That’s like the movie “Men in Black” and I got zapped by one of those (neuralyzer) things,” cracked Legans, whose Eagles went on to win 23 games and a Big Sky regular-season title. “I don’t remember it very well.”

Legans left EWU shortly after the first-round loss to the Jayhawks – the Eagles led by 10 in the second half – for the head coaching job at Portland. It’ll be a homecoming of sorts Saturday for Legans when he guides the Pilots against the second-ranked Zags at the Kennel.

Legans earned a substantial pay raise taking over the struggling Pilots program last March. At the time, he was facing contract uncertainty at cash-strapped EWU, which was discussing cost-saving measures that included the possibility of dropping sports programs from the Division I level.

“I loved Eastern, I didn’t want to leave Eastern,” Legans said. “I didn’t have a contract moving forward. It is what it is. I just wanted to make sure I had security. They didn’t give me that at the time. I was going into the last year of the contract and I didn’t feel really secure.”

Legans is already making inroads at Portland, which hasn’t visited the Kennel since the 16-game conference scheduling format was adopted after the 2018 season. He overhauled the roster with 14 newcomers – seven freshmen and seven transfers, including former Eagles Mike Meadows, Tyler Robertson and Jack Perry, the latter out for the season after an ACL injury in November.

“We’ve lost some games I thought we should have won,” Legans said. “It’s one of those things teaching a whole team how to win close games and how to battle. We started playing pretty good right before Christmas break, then we had COVID. I want to have a better record, but that’s where we’re at right now.

“Mike and Tyler are doing great. They’re leaders on the team and understand what we want to do out there.”

The Pilots are 11-9, 2-3 in the WCC, significant improvements for a program that was 1-42 in conference games the past three seasons under previous coach Terry Porter and hasn’t had a winning season since finishing 17-16 in 2015.

The Pilots aren’t exactly the high-flying offensive unit that Legans typically had at EWU, but they’ve had success with a small-ball lineup that includes Meadows, Robertson, 6-8 UNLV transfer Moses Wood, 6-4 Fordham transfer Chris Austin and 6-5, 225-pound center Chika Nduka, a hard-nosed walk-on from Seattle.

Meadows (36.8 ) and Robertson (36.2) are 1-2 in the WCC in average minutes per game. Austin, who leads the team at 14.5 points per game, and Wood, second at 14.2, rank in the top 15 in minutes played.

Portland is middle of the WCC pack in scoring offense (72.8 ) and seventh in defense (70.9), but the defense fueled Thursday’s 64-56 home win over Pacific.

“We’re leaning on defense big time,” Legans said. “If you would have told me, ‘Your defense is way ahead of your offense,’ because of the way we like to play … but you have to adapt. We scored 64 points and I’m thinking to myself I remember scoring 80-90 points, but we don’t have the depth right now. We’ve got good shooters but we’re not shooting the ball great and we’re turning the ball over at too high of a rate.”

Gonzaga coach Mark Few is well aware of the challenges presented by a Legans-coached team.

“They’re playing that style where they’re going to shoot a lot of 3s and play a smaller version of small-ball and try to attack us that way,” Few said. “They’re more than comfortable shooting 3s in transition. It’s going to be a big challenge of our bigs to have to get out and guard on the perimeter and they’re going to have to assert themselves at the other end so it’s advantageous for us.”

Gonzaga routed Loyola Marymount 89-55 on Thursday, but the Lions stayed close for most of the first half with their physical style and work on the glass. The Lions had 12 offensive boards – they had a lot of opportunities with 25 missed shots – at half and finished with 16.

“We were hearing about it the whole game,” said Gonzaga forward Chet Holmgren, who grabbed a team-high nine boards.

Legans said he looks forward to competing against the Zags annually as he tries to rebuild the Pilots.

“Coach Few is one of top five in the country and they’re up there with the best in the country, a standard held only by blue bloods,” he said. “I never watched a lot of film on them, but I watch a lot now as we play other (WCC) teams and see how they do different things. They’re really good.”

The Bulldogs will be looking to stretch their national-best home-court winning streak to 64 on Saturday.

Gonzaga has beaten Portland 13 straight times and 47 of the past 49 meetings.

But first-year Pilots coach Shantay Legans promises his team will not be intimidated.

“We’re going to go to Spokane and play one of our best games, I believe,” Legans said. “I think we’ll do everything we can to win a game.

“They have to put on shorts, shoes, socks, everything, just like us. They have more size right now but as we keep moving forward, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Legans took Eastern Washington into “The Kennel” two seasons ago and it wasn’t an enjoyable time. The Bulldogs whipped his now-former club 112-77.

The Pilots are coming off Thursday’s 64-56 victory over Pacific, which was their first home game in 41 days. A COVID-19 outbreak affected the slate and Portland ended up playing six straight road games, including four to start WCC play.

Chris Austin leads Portland with a 14.5 scoring average. Moses Wood (14.2), Tyler Robertson (13.9) and Mike Meadows (10.7) also score in double figures. Wood scored a team-best 19 against Pacific.

Meet the opponent
Portland Pilots, 11-9, KenPom #238

Sigh. Where do we start. Probably first to know is that this is the first year of Shantay Legans, who is looking to build off of his success at Eastern Washington. He inherits a roster that is essentially as brand new as possible for college hoops. The Pilots have just 8.5% of the minutes played and 7.6% of the scoring returning from the 2020-21 team.

With that in mind, Legans scheduled exactly how someone in his position should—rather easily. The Pilots had a nice non-conference record, but most of their games came against sub-300 KenPom teams. That said, the Pilots are playing hard, a bit overmatched for sure, but seem to be buying more into the philosophy than they did during the Terry Porter era.

The young starting core shows promise, led by sophomore and Fordham transfer Chris Austin at 14.5 points per game. Eastern Washington transfer sophomore Tyler Robertson follows up with 14 points per game. UNLV transfer Moses Wood chips in 13.9 points and Eastern Washington transfer Michael Meadows adds 10.9 points.

The Pilots rely heavily on the starting five, the bench accounts for less than one quarter of the total minutes played. Overall, the team is a work in progress. They don’t shoot the ball particularly well. They don’t defend particularly well. But they are a lot of new faces that might be able to make some noise in a couple of years—essentially, your standard WCC team.

Portland gave Gonzaga plenty of space on the perimeter, so the Zags hit five 3-pointers in the first 4-plus minutes.

The Pilots never really strayed from that strategy and the Zags didn’t stop making 3s.

Throw in another solid defensive effort by the second-ranked Zags and they were well on their way to another blowout and their fourth time reaching the century mark in six WCC games.

The final tally was Gonzaga 104-72 on Saturday. The lasting image will be of the Zags burying 18 3-pointers, a McCarthey Athletic Center record and four shy of their program and WCC record 22, set against San Francisco in 1995.

Eight Zags connected on at least one 3-pointer. Chet Holmgren and Andrew Nembhard each made four and Rasir Bolton and Julian Strawther each hit 3.

“I think I’ve seen that (defensive tactic) a couple times, but it’s not too common,” said Nembhard, a senior point guard who finished with 22 points, four assists and no turnovers in 31 minutes.

“They were trying to pull some tricks out of their sleeve,” said junior forward Anton Watson, who drained his only 3-point attempt and finished with 16 points and three assists. “I don’t know why because we’ve got shooters on this team all around. It’s kind of weird playing against that.”

Portland first-year coach Shantay Legans, who was at Eastern Washington the previous four seasons, said his game plan was to entice Gonzaga into taking 40 3-pointers.

The Zags put up 41 3s and scored 54 points from behind the 3-point arc.

“That’s all my fault,” Legans said. “It’s why they’re one of the best teams in the country. You’ve got to pick your poison with them. They do a very good job of pushing the ball and get you going and really make you defend the whole possession.

“They’ve got inside guys, they’ve got outside guys and today you’ve got to tip your hat to one of the better teams and one of the best coaches in the country.”

8. Portland’s Mike Meadows followed Shantay Legans from Eastern Washington to Portland, and it was evident why he was such an important piece for Legans. Just a sophomore, Meadows is going to be the foundational piece for what Legans plans on building in Portland and a nice addition to the WCC’s cast of talents.

9. When your opponent is setting a record for made 3s in a game, you can’t expect to win by shooting 3-23 (13%) from the arc in comparison. The chances of upsetting a significantly more talented team if you’re unable to shoot the ball well from long distance is incredibly slim. Legans needs to go find himself some shooters, as Portland is shooting about 32% from three as a team this season. That won’t get it done.

10. Despite the major deficit on the scoreboard, the gulf in talent on the floor, and some of the questionable defensive calls and execution referenced above, the Pilots still looked way better in this game than they ever did during the Terry Porter era. Legans is the real deal as a coach and he’s going to keep pushing that team on an upward trajectory over the next few seasons. I’m excited to see what he can accomplish over there.

3. Zags’ WCC streak snapped at hands of Pilots – Feb. 20, 2003

Before shocking the Zags in Portland, the Pilots played spoiler a decade earlier in similar fashion when the two met for a late-season battle in Spokane. Led by Blake Stepp and a young Ronny Turiaf, GU was riding a 21-home game winning streak against conference foes and sat atop the WCC standings. A strong finish to the year looked inevitable when matched up against a 9-15 UP team that had lost nine of its 11 conference games.

None of that mattered on this night, however.

Just like in 2014, the Pilots seized control of the game early while holding off multiple GU scoring runs. The lead ballooned to 16 in the first half following a technical foul on a rambunctious Coach Few. The Zags cut the deficit in half heading into the locker room, but 3-pointers from Adam Quick and Dustin Geddis took the wind out of GU’s sail.

As each team traded runs down the stretch, it became a single-digit game with less than three minutes remaining following a Stepp 3-pointer. A dunk by Turiaf made it a one-possession game, but it was too little too late as a turnover by Stepp costed the Zags a chance to take the lead.

Despite 29 points and 17 rebounds from Turiaf, the Pilots held on to win their first game in Spokane since 1990.

2. Stepp and Turiaf withstand Portland rally – Jan. 24, 2003

Before the stunner in The Kennel, it was the Zags who nearly blew a late-game lead to the Pilots a month earlier that same season.

The first half was dominated by Stepp, who scored 22 of his game-high 31 points and helped GU sustain a comfortable lead throughout. With a double-digit advantage late, all that was left to do was tie a bow on what had been a dominant showing from Stepp and Turiaf, who had 27 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

But the Pilots weren’t done yet.

A 10-2 run capped off by Casey Frandsen’s 3-pointer made it a three-point game with 55 seconds left on the clock. Cory Violette quickly answered with a clutch jumper, and after a pair of free-throws from Winston Brooks, the Bulldogs led 70-64 with 10 seconds left. UP’s Quick cut the lead in half the next possession, but Josh Resiman needed to knock down two free-throws to end it for good.

He missed both.

Luckily Karl Aaker’s game-tying heave from half court was off, as the Zags narrowly escaped with the win while Stepp and Turiaf combined for 58 of GU’s 70 points.

Coach Legans seems convinced he has the shooters on the roster, they just need to perform better.  I guess we'll see.