SPOKANE, Wash. – After an unsettled weekend, the Whitworth University men's basketball team hopes things get back to normal this week. The Pirates will host Puget Sound on Friday night (8:00 pm) and Pacific Lutheran on Saturday (6:00 pm). Friday's contest will be televised live regionally by SWX and both games can be heard live in Spokane on KSBN 1230 am and on the internet at KSBN.net.
Masks are required for all fans in the Whitworth Fieldhouse, regardless of vaccination status. Fans unable to attend can check out the Whitworth men's basketball schedule for live links for the games.
The Pirates: Whitworth (9-2), ranked 20th in the most recent D3hoops.com poll, came out of an unsettled week with its first conference loss of the season.
The Pirates had both of their originally scheduled games against Pacific (Ore.) and Linfield postponed due to COVID-19 protocols. Whitworth has arranged make-up dates with both opponents. Linfield will come to the Fieldhouse on Tuesday, January 18th at 8:00 pm as part of a women's-men's Northwest Conference doubleheader. The Bucs will host Pacific on Wednesday, January 19th at 6:00 pm in a stand-alone game.
Because both Whitworth and Whitman were without opponents last weekend, the coaches hastily arranged a replacement game with the Pirates visiting the Blues on Saturday night in the second "Battle of Whits" in 2021-22. Each team was rusty, but Whitman was slightly less rusty than Whitworth and came away with a 71-69 victory. The Pirates took a seven-point lead with five minutes to play, but were unable to hold on. Whitworth's normally fluid offense was off and the Bucs finished well below their season average in assists with nine. JT McDermott led the way with 14 points and four assists, while Jake Holtz came off the bench for 11. Rowan Anderson and Miguel Lopez scored ten apiece and Lopez led the Pirates with nine rebounds. This game replaces the one originally scheduled for Tuesday, January 25th and the two teams split the 2020-21 Battle of Whits series.
Share and Share Alike: Whitworth leads the Northwest Conference (and ranks 7th in all of DIII) in assists per game in 2021-22, averaging 19.5 per game. In the season opener the Pirates set a team record for assists in a single game (47) in a win over Greenville. Individually, Jordan Lester leads the NWC in assists per game (6.5) and three Whitworth players rank among the top 11 with JT McDermott seventh (3.4) and Rowan Anderson 11th (3.0).
Finding Balance: Whitworth had very balanced scoring in 2020-21. In 17 games, the Pirates had four players average between 11.2 and 12.6 points per game, and all are back this season. That trend has continued in 2021-22. Six Whitworth regulars are averaging between 9.7 and 12.0 points per game. Miguel Lopez leads (12.0 ppg), followed by JT McDermott (11.9), Liam Fitzgerald (11.7), Jordan Lester (10.1), Garrett Paxton (9.7), and Rowan Anderson (9.7). Five players have led the team in scoring in a game this season.
The Opponents: The University of Puget Sound is 7-6 overall and 2-2 in the NWC after splitting a pair of games at home last weekend. The Loggers fell 103-86 to Willamette on Friday, but bounced back to edge Lewis & Clark 72-71 on Saturday. Sophomore guard Paul Johnson is averaging 20.1 points per game and making nearly 45% of his three-point attempts. Veteran center Cal Hanson adds 13.6 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. Whitworth won all four games against Puget Sound last season. The Pirates won 86-63 and 83-63 in Tacoma, then followed with two victories in Spokane (86-75 and 79-70). Whitworth has won the last six meetings.
Pacific Lutheran (8-4 overall, 3-0 NWC) heads into Friday's game at Whitman alone in first place in the NWC standings. Last Friday's game with George Fox was postponed because of COVID-19 protocols. The Lutes then rolled past Willamette 81-62 on Saturday. Senior guard Seth Hall ranks second in the NWC in scoring average at 20.9 points per game. Junior forward Sean McCurdy averages 12.0 points and 7.4 rebounds per contest and makes 52.8% of his field goals. Whitworth won three of four against PLU last season. The Lutes won the first game 84-59 in Parkland, but the Pirates bounced back the next night to pull out a 68-64 victory. Whitworth then closed the season with a pair of wins in Spokane – 64-48 and 81-76.
D3hoops.com Poll: The Pirates are ranked 20th in the latest (Jan. 10) D3hoops.com top 25 regular season poll of 2021-22.
Whitworth has appeared in the D3hoops.com top-25 poll 177 times since it was created during the 1999-00 season. Very few teams have appeared in the rankings more than Whitworth has. Heading into 2021-22, the Pirates were eighth on the list among schools ranked in the top-25 the most times.
1. Wooster 249
2. UW-Stevens Point 240
3. Amherst 234
4. Washington U. 203
5. St. Thomas 199
6. UW-Whitewater 194
7. Augustana 185
8. Whitworth 172
9. Williams 171
10. Illinois Wesleyan 164
Over the poll's 20-year history, 32 programs have reached the top spot at least once. UW-Stevens Point has reached that spot in seven different seasons. Whitworth has been there in two seasons: 2010-11 and 2015-16.
20=15: With its win at Whitman on February 20, 2020, Whitworth extended its school record for consecutive seasons with at least 20 victories to 15 in a row. Prior to this current streak, the most 20-win seasons in a row the Pirates had ever had was two (on three different occasions). The NCAA statistics office is granting waivers for streak records that were interrupted by Covid-19 in 2020-21.
Only Wooster (Ohio), with 24, has a longer run of consecutive 20-win seasons in NCAA Division III men's basketball.
Best of the Decade: Whitworth University concluded the decade of 2010-11 through 2019-20 as the winningest program in NCAA Division III men's basketball, by winning percentage. The Pirates posted a record of 245-43 for a winning percentage of .851. In addition, Whitworth's winning percentage ranked fourth among the top schools in all of NCAA basketball, behind West Liberty (Div. II - .895), Lincoln Memorial (Div. II - .874) and Gonzaga (Div. I - .858). Two of the winningest men's basketball teams in the nation are located within six miles of each other.
The decade included three head coaches for the Pirates, beginning with Jim Hayford in 2010-11, continuing with Matt Logie for eight seasons and concluding with Damion Jablonski in 2019-20.
More Than A Decade of Dominance: Since the beginning of the 2005-06 season (over 15 seasons) the Pirates are 377-77 (.830), an amazing run of success matched by few other college teams at any level. Within the Northwest Conference, Whitworth has won 185 of its last 207 (.894).
Home-Sweet-Home: Whitworth has been stellar in the Whitworth Fieldhouse since the 1990's. During the decade of the 1990s and 2000's Whitworth won more than 84% of its home games. However, since the beginning of the 2005-06 season, the Bucs are 193-21 (.902) at home.
The Pirates have had two home-court winning streaks of more than 40 games since 1990. A 41-game home court winning streak from early 2009 until December of 2011 was the second-longest in Pirate history. The school record for consecutive home victories is 43, beginning during the 1994-95 season and ending during the 1997-98 season.
Road Warriors: As good as Whitworth is at home, the Pirates have been almost as good away from the Whitworth Fieldhouse over the last decade. Since the start of the 11-12 season, Whitworth is 106-26 (.803) away from home, 78-20 (.796) in true road games.
On the Air Again: Whitworth's men's basketball games are once again carried live this season on KSBN 1230am in Spokane. The relationship between Pirate athletics and KSBN goes back to 1994, a span of more than 25 years. Bud Nameck is in his seventh season as the voice of Whitworth basketball. Nameck has more than 30 years of experience calling college basketball at Gonzaga University and Washington State.
The Coach: Damion Jablonski is in his 11th season on the Pirate coaching staff in 2020-21, and his third as head coach of the Pirates. He is currently 37-11 as Whitworth's head coach. His first year was a rousing success. He went 23-6, led the Pirates to a share of the Northwest Conference championship and to a pair of victories in the NCAA Division III tournament. The Bucs were slated to face top-ranked Swarthmore before the tournament was cancelled. Jablonski was named D3hoops.com West Region Coach of the Year and he coached Ben College to NWC Player of the Year and NABC All-America recognition. Whitworth went 12-5 during the COVID-19 season in 2020-21, including games against NCAA DI Montana, NCAA DII Seattle Pacific and NAIA playoff regular College of Idaho.
Jablonski spent eight years as the top assistant at Whitworth, including six seasons with the title of Associate Head Coach. Over the course of his tenure as an assistant, the Bucs won 215 games, seven Northwest Conference titles and seven NWC tournament crowns. As the head recruiting coordinator, Jablonski was instrumental in continuing the Bucs' tradition of success by helping to recruit high quality student-athletes to Whitworth. His efforts over the past several years have included the addition of First Team All-American Kyle Roach, third team All-American and NWC Player of the Year Kenny Love and First Team All Northwest Conference selection Christian Jurlina.
Coming Up Next: Whitworth will have a very busy week. The Pirates will host Linfield on Tuesday and Pacific on Wednesday. The Bucs will hit the road for games at Lewis & Clark and George Fox on January 21 and 22.
