Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Oregon State
Wildcats hit the road at Oregon State Friday
11/7/2024 2:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Weber State begins a three-game road trip at Oregon State. Game will be on ESPN+.
• After a dominating win to begin the season, the Weber State men's basketball hits the road for the first of three straight road games starting Friday night at Oregon State.
• The Wildcats and Beavers will tipoff at 7 p.m. Pacific time (8 MT) from Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Oregon. The game will be televised on ESPN+ and on the ESPN app with JB Long and Ernie Kent calling the action. There will be no Weber State radio broadcast of the game but live stats are available at WeberStateSports.com and the Weber State Wildcats app.
• Weber State opened the 2024-25 season with a dominating 118-35 win over Northwest Indian College on Monday night in Ogden. The 83-point win is the largest margin of victory in school history. Weber State shot 59 percent from the field and made 19 3-pointers, tied for the second-most in school history.
• Four Wildcats scored in double figures, led by senior Dyson Koehler who had 22 points and was 6 of 7 from 3-point range. Viljami Vartiainen had a career-high 17 points with five 3-pointers.
• Weber State returns three starters and two other returning players off last year's team that won 20 games. Gone from last year's team is Big Sky MVP Dillon Jones who was drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Jones joins Damian Lillard as the only two Wildcats ever drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft. He finished his career as Weber State's all-time leader in steals, and ranks second in assists, third in rebounding and fifth in scoring.
• The Wildcats have three starters returning from last year's team in seniors Koehler, Alex Tew, and Blaise Threatt. Koehler and Tew have both played three seasons and over 90 games at Weber State. Threatt is WSU's leading returning scorer who averaged 10.8 points per game last season. Two other players return that played last season, including Vartiainen and Marko Sarenac.
• The Wildcats have added several new players to this year's team, including three Division I transfers in junior Nigel Burris and seniors Miguel Tomley and Vasilije Vucinic. Burris is a former Big Sky Freshman of the Year at Idaho and also played last season at Utah State. Tomley played one season at Santa Clara and the last two seasons at Idaho State, where he earned Big Sky All-Tournament honors. He enters the season having played in 92 career games and has scored more than 900 points with 157 career 3-pointers. Tomley is the only Wildcat that was named to the Big Sky All-Conference preseason team. Vucinic played in 88 games over three seasons at the University of Portland. WSU added four high school players, Declan Cutler, David Hansen, Trevor Hennig, and Saadiq Moore.
• The Wildcats are coached by Eric Duft who returns for his third season as head coach and his 19th season overall at Weber State. He spent 16 seasons as an assistant coach under Randy Rahe before becoming the 10th head coach in WSU history in May 2022. Duft is 39-27 overall at Weber State and 23-13 in Big Sky play.
• Weber State was picked third in the Big Sky preseason media poll and fourth in the coaches poll.
• WSU played two exhibition games this season prior to the start of the regular season. The Wildcats lost 85-66 at Utah State in a charity exhibition game in Logan, then beat Adams State 83-63 in a home exhibition game last Monday. Blaise Threatt nearly had a triple double with 15 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds against Adams State.
• Weber State has nine players coming from six different countries on this year's roster. The 'Cats have three players from Canada, two from Serbia, and one each from England, Finland, Montenegro, and Japan.
• Oregon State opened the season with a 83-63 win over Utah Tech on Monday night in Corvallis. The Beavers shot 50 percent from the field and held Utah Tech to 33 percent. OSU also had 16 assists and eight steals and had four players in double figures.
• OSU was 13-19 overall last season and finished 12th in the Pac-12 Conference at 5-15. This season Oregon State is playing as an affiliate member of the West Coast Conference and the Beavers were picked seventh in the West Coast preseason poll.
• Oregon State is coached by longtime coach Wayne Tinkle who is in his 11th season at Oregon State. He is very familiar with Weber State as Tinkle was the head coach at Montana for eight years from 2007-14 and faced Weber State 20 times, including four times in the Big Sky Tournament. He is a former player at Montana and was a two-time Big Sky Coach of the Year. He has won 141 career games at Oregon State and won 158 games at Montana. Tinkle needs one more victory to reach 300 career wins.
• This will be just the fifth all-time meeting between Weber State and Oregon State and the first since 1977. OSU is 3-1 against the Wildcats with the games being played from 1971-77.
• Weber State has a rich basketball tradition and boasts the 26th best winning percentage in college basketball history. WSU has won 22 Big Sky Championships and advanced to the NCAA Tournament 16 times. The 'Cats have six tournament wins, including a win over North Carolina in 1999. Weber State also boasts several players professionally, including NBA superstar Damian Lillard who played four years at Weber State from 2008-12, and Jones who was drafted this year.
• Friday's game will be the first of three-straight road games for Weber State. The Wildcats will next play on Wednesday, November 13 at Nevada and will play at Hawaii on November 17. The next home game will be on November 22 against UC Irvine.
