Portland ready to host No. 15 Gonzaga (Jan 25, 2018)
The Portland Pilots' Southern California road trip was a success. But what they return home to is daunting.
After winning its first two conference games last week (beating San Diego and Loyola Marymount), Portland (8-13, 2-6 WCC) is back in the Pacific Northwest to host the WCC's top dogs: No. 15 Gonzaga on Thursday and No. 16 Saint Mary's on Saturday.
Facing the Zags (17-4, 7-1) won't be just another game for what will likely be a sellout crowd, but Portland coach Terry Porter said he'll try to keep his team focused on the usual.
"You just try to stay as normal as you can, just make sure that the routine is the routine," Porter said Tuesday on his weekly radio show. "Get (the players) to their classes. Get them to shoot-arounds, and get them mentally prepared for the game.
"That's what we try to lock in on."
This will be the 19th game Gonzaga has played at the Chiles Center during the Mark Few era, and the Zags are 17-1 over that stretch.
"(Gonzaga) has championed this conference for a long time," Porter said. "Mark and his staff have done a great job, and he's where we aspire to get to."
The Pilots' lone home win over a Few-coached Zags team came four years ago, Portland's last win over a ranked team.
"We don't talk about us beating a ranked opponent," Porter said, "we talk about us continuing to make strides and improve for ourselves."
To beat Few for a second time, the Pilots will need quite a bit of improvement.
Two weeks ago, in Spokane, Wash., Gonzaga shot 52.6 percent -- while holding Portland to 30 -- and had 22 assists and nine steals in a 103-57 rout of the Pilots.
Portland, like the rest of the West Coast Conference teams, had no answer for Zags forward Rui Hachimura, who scored 20 points on 8-for-10 shooting.
The sophomore is making 64.3 percent of his field goals and averaging 15.3 points per game in conference play. In Saturday's 75-60 win at Santa Clara, he made 6 of 16 shots, just the third time all season he made fewer than 50 percent of his attempts.
And now, Hachimura is adding another dimension to his game: defense.
Coming into the season, it was expected that Hachimura, who can shoot and has a vast array of highlight-reel moves, would see a lot more time on the court despite being a liability on the defensive end.
But he has made a lot of progress -- even over the past month -- and has seen his playing time increase as a result: He had career highs in minutes (30) and points (23) in last week's loss to Saint Mary's.
With Silas Melson, perhaps the Zags' best perimeter defender on the bench Saturday with foul trouble, Hachimura drew the assignment on Santa Clara point guard KJ Feagin, the WCC's fourth-leading scorer.
"That was the coaches' idea because I can guard small guys and big guys," Hachimura told the (Spokane, Wash.) Spokesman-Review. "He's quick but we have good team defense, a lot of help-side."
Feagin is 6-foot-1, 190 pounds. Hachimura is 6-8, 225.
"That is what's great about Rui," guard Zach Norvell Jr. said. "He's so athletic and can move his feet so well for a big guy. We need that out of him when Silas is in foul trouble or Perk (Josh Perkins) is in foul trouble."
The Bulldogs return to Spokane for three straight home games beginning with San Francisco on Saturday.
