Complete notes and stats in pdf

A struggling Portland State team will face Northern Colorado in Greeley on Saturday as the Vikings try to get out of a mid-season funk. The Vikings and Bears play in a 6:05 p.m. PT game at Butler-Hancock Pavilion. It airs on Freedom 970 AM and www.970.am with the pregame show at 5:30 p.m.
   
After a 63-55 loss at Sacramento State on Thursday, PSU (11-11, 4-6) has now dropped five of seven games. The Vikings are just 1-8 on the road this season.
   
Northern Colorado is 12-9 this season and tied with Montana for first place in the Big Sky Conference with an 8-2 league record. In addition, the Bears are a perfect 8-0 at home this year after beating Eastern Washington, 63-53, on Thursday.
   
Following Saturday's game, the Vikings come home to play four of five games to finish out the month of February.

ROAD WEARY IN THE BIG SKY CONFERENCE, ONE AND ALL
With as challenging a travel schedule as any league in the country, the Big Sky Conference proves how hard it is to win on the road - just by looking at records. Three Big Sky teams have yet to win a road game this year. The Vikings, currently tied for sixth in the conference, are only 1-8 on the road. In fact, the bottom five teams in the league are an unbelievable 2-53 in road games (at least the Vikings have won one of those two). The top four teams (all with records over .500) are a mediocre 16-27.
   
In league play, the bottom three teams are 0-15 on the road. Overall, road teams are 10-34.

PORTLAND STATE VIKINGS (11-11, 4-6) vs. NORTHERN COLORADO BEARS (12-9, 8-2)
Saturday, February 5, 2011, 6:05 p.m. PT @ Butler-Hancock Pavilion (2,734), Greeley, CO
Television: None
Radio: Freedom 970 AM, www.970.am • Play-by-play: Tom Hewitt • Pregame Show: 5:30 p.m.
Live Video Stream: www.b2tv.com • Live Stats: www.GoViks.com
All-Time Series: PSU leads 11-2 • PSU in Greeley: 5-1
Big Sky Series: PSU leads 7-2 • PSU in Greeley: 3-1

STORYLINES
• The series: Portland State leads the all-time series, 11-2, and the Big Sky series, 7-2. However, the Bears have won the last two meetings... PSU is 3-1 in Big Sky games at Greeley, but lost 64-61 last season.
• Dec. 29: Northern Colorado never trailed in putting up a convincing 79-66 win over the Vikings at the Stott Center. The Bears led by as many as 21 points in the second half. It was UNC's first-ever win at the Stott Center... Devon Beitzel scored 26 points (9-15 FG, 3-5 3-pt, 5-6 FT) as the Bears shot .508 from the field... PSU got 16 points from Charles Odum, 15 each from Chehales Tapscott and Chris Harriel. The Vikings made just 5-18 from three-point range and 9-17 at the line.
• The Bears: Northern Colorado comes off its best-ever Division I season, going 25-8 last season. UNC was 12-4 in league play and finished second in the Big Sky... three starters and nine letterwinners return from that team... BJ Hill, a former Bears assistant, is the first-year head coach. He is 11-8.
• This year: Northern Colorado started slow, going 4-7 in the preseason, but recently won seven straight Big Sky Conference games and ar now 12-9 overall, 8-2 in the Big Sky. UNC is 8-0 at home this year.... the Bears are a strong shooting team, and are ranked 14th in the nation in three-point shooting and seventh in the nation in free throw shooting at the start of the week... the Bears also have a league-leading rebound margin of +4.9 per game... Devon Beitzel ranks second in the Big Sky Conference in scoring (19.4 ppg) and leads the league in free throw percentage (.905). He is 11th in the nation in free throw shooting.... Neal Kingman averages 10.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game... Taylor Montgomery leads the league with 6.1 rebounds per game.

INJURY BATTLE CONTINUES FOR VIKING TEAM
Nobody is going to feel sorry for the Vikings but they continue to fight an unending battle with injuries. The latest Vikings to go down are JR C Nate Lozeau and JR F Chehales Tapscott. The loss of a pair of inside players has left the Vikings particularly thin in the post. So far this year, PSU has suited up just nine players in 12 of 22 games. The Vikings have lost 31 player games to injury this season.
   
Lozeau returned to action at Sacramento State after missing four games. He played just four minutes, had one rebound and one blocked shot. The 6-10 post suffered a severe left ankle sprain at Montana on Jan. 15.
   
Tapscott injured his right knee at the end of the Jan. 20 win over Weber State. He had cartilage damage and underwent surgery on Jan. 26. Tapscott, who has averaged 11.7 points and 8.2 rebounds, may be able to return in mid-February.

MELVIN JONES FEATURED ON TODAY SHOW'S “AMERICAN STORY”
Portland State senior guard Melvin Jones was featured on NBC's The Today Show on Friday morning. He was the subject of a regular feature called “American Story with Bob Dotson.” Dotson was in town earlier in January to interview Melvin, his family and their unique story.
       
Jones had already been featured on the front page of the Seattle Times and in the Portland Tribune for his inspiring story. Jones has risen up from a high school student on a path to failure to an Academic All-Conference level student at Portland State while excelling in the sport of basketball. He has done so with the assistance of his adoptive mother, Jennifer Annable, former high school coach, Kasey Poirrer, and their family.
   
To see the Today Show feature on line, go to: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41277521/ns/today-today_people/#
   
The story originally appeared on GoViks.com on February 2, 2010. That link is here: http://www.goviks.com/news/2010/2/2/32207.aspx?path=mbball
   
A Seattle Times story was developed over the past year and ran on Thanksgiving: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jerrybrewer/2013517803_brewer25.html

VIKINGS GET LOYOLA MARYMOUNT IN ESPN BRACKETBUSTER
ESPN announced its annual BracketBuster games on Jan. 31, and Portland State has been selected to host Loyola Marymount of the West Coast Conference on Feb. 19. Eleven games will be televised by ESPN, but the PSU/LMU game will NOT be televised. The Vikings will play a return game with the Lions within the next two seasons.   
   
PSU's game with LMU will take place at 4 p.m. on Feb. 19 as the second game of a doubleheader with the Portland State women (vs. Northern Arizona).
   
PSU is 1-1 against WCC teams this year, beating Pepperdine and losing to Portland. The Vikings are 3-2 against WCC teams in Head Coach Tyler Geving's two seasons. PSU is 6-2 against the WCC dating back to the start of the 2007-08 season, including 3-1 vs. Portland, 2-0 vs. Pepperdine, 1-0 vs. Gonzaga and 0-1 vs. Saint Mary's. Wins over #7 Gonzaga (2008-09) and #25 Portland (2009-10) came against nationally-ranked teams.
   
Portland State leads the all-time series with Loyola Marymount, 2-1 (1-0 in Portland), but the teams have not met since the 2001-02 season.
   
Portland State will be playing its fifth ESPN BracketBuster game in the last seven seasons. The Vikings are 1-3 in the previous four with the home team winning every game. PSU is 2-2 in the return games.
    Feb. 19, 2005: at Middle Tennessee State 83, Portland State 62
    Feb. 17, 2007: at Cal Poly 92, Portland State 87
    Feb. 23, 2008: at Cal State Fullerton 85, Portland State 69
    Feb. 21, 2009: at Portland State 93, Boise State 81

FAST BREAKS
OFFENSIVELY INCONSISTENT: Portland State has lost three of four games, and in all three losses did not score as many as 60 points while shooting below .390 from the field in each game. The Vikings shot just .353 against the Hornets on Thursday. In the win over the Hornets last week, PSU shot a respectable .459 from the field... in the three losses, PSU was 56-151 from the field (.371) and 37-59 at the line (.627).

MISSING THE GLASS MAN: With leading rebounder JR F Chehales Tapscott (8.2 pg) out, the Vikings have been outrebounded by their last three opponents by an average of 8.7 boards per game.

A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE: Despite losing five of seven games recently, the 11-11 Vikings are still a game ahead of last year's pace (10-12). PSU was 13-19 overall last season. 

NO GIVEAWAYS HERE: Moving JR G Charles Odum into the starting lineup has meant moving SR G Melvin Jones over to the point from his more comfortable shooting-guard role. Jones has responded by committing just seven turnovers in 11 games... the Viking team has committed just 118 turnovers in those games (10.7). PSU had been averaging 15.3 turnovers per game prior to that.

A NEED FOR GUEDE: With JR F Chehales Tapscott out indefinitely, SR F Paul Guede becomes a key player for the Vikings. In four games in the starting lineup, Guede has totaled 16 points, 22 rebounds and six steals. That is 4.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. In his 18 previous games off the bench, Guede was averaging 3.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.9 steals.

GIVING HIS BIG SKY BEST: JR G Charles Odum has been tearing up the Big Sky. In 10 Big Sky games, Odum averages a team-best 16.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists. He is shooting .596 from the field, .583 from three-point range and .667 at the line in Big Sky games. Odum has led the team in scoring five times and twice set a new career-high. Most recently, Odum scored a career-high 24 at Montana (1/15), and grabbed a career-high nine rebounds against Northern Arizona (1/22)... Odum was averaging 12.7 points in non-conference games... Odum now averages a team-leading 14.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists, shoots .536 from the field, .453 from three-point range and .719 at the line for the season.

MELVIN'S LINE - FIVE THREES AND A DUNK: SR G Melvin Jones put up one of his best shooting lines in two seasons as a Viking in the win over Sacramento State on Jan. 29. He made 6-9 field goals, including 5-7 from three-point range. The shot that will be most remembered though was the 5-10 guard's driving dunk after the Hornets had closed the Viking lead to five inside the final minute... Jones is averaging 11.3 points, 2.4 assists and has team-bests of 52 three-point field goals and an .825 free throw percentage... in 11 games at point guard, Jones has just seven turnovers.

TOWERING TREE: SR F Tree Thomas went for a career-high 29 points in the Vikings' win over Sacramento State on Jan. 29. He made 9-16 from the field and 11-13 at the line. The last time a Viking scored more points was 49 games ago (32 by Dominic Waters on Nov. 21, 2009 against Cal Poly)... Thomas has scored 89 points (31-58 FG) in his last six games and raised his scoring average to 9.4 per game this year. Thomas is now shooting .493 from the field and .795 at the line. He averages 11.6 points and shoots .532 in Big Sky Conference games.

STARTING TO PHIL IT UP: SR F Phil Nelson has scored 20 points with 13 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots in his last two games as he is getting more comfortable on the floor following a long injury layoff. Nelson had 12 points on Thursday night at Sacramento State. He grabbed a career-high nine rebounds last week against the Hornets. Prior to that, Nelson had averaged 3.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in six games... Nelson's long-awaited return came on Jan. 8 against Eastern Washington. Nelson had missed 26 straight games after breaking his left foot twice. Nelson broke his foot late last January, missing the final 12 games of the season. He had been averaging 12.9 points and had 48 three-point field goals through 20 games. Nelson reinjured the foot on Nov. 8 and missed the first 14 games of this year. PSU went 13-13 in the 26 games Nelson had missed since Jan. 30... prior to coming off the bench so far this season, Nelson had started the previous 53 games off his Viking career. PSU is 31-22 in those games and 34-27 overall in games he plays.