Game 1
San Francisco Dons (0-0, 0-0 WCC) vs. Illinois-Chicago Flames (0-0, 0-0 Horizon League)
Friday,  Nov. 13, 2015 • 7:00 p.m. CT
UIC Pavilion • Chicago, Ill.
Series Record: First Meeting
Last Meeting: First Meeting
Audio: TheW.tv (Pat Olson, Play-by-Play; Jim Brovelli, Analyst)
Video Streaming: ESPN3

Complete USF Game Notes (PDF)

USF at a Glance

• Open the regular season Friday night at Illinois-Chicago...first-ever meeting with the Flames...home opener is set for Nov. 16 against Rice, the first of eight non-conference home games on the schedule.
• USF is 5-2 in its last seven season openers under head coach Rex Walters, including a 91-52 over South Carolina State in last year's opener...marks the first time the Dons have opened the season with a road game since 2008-09, when USF posted a 75-70 victory at Hawaii in Walters' coaching debut.
• Posted a 87-76 victory over San Francisco State in an exhibition game on Nov. 5 on the Hilltop...Devin Watson had 25 points to lead four Dons in double figures.
• Were 14-18 last year and tied for sixth in the WCC with a 7-11 conference mark...finished 21-12 and tied for second in the WCC in 2013-14.
• Were picked seventh along with Pacific in the WCC's Preseason Coaches Poll...both teams received 32 points...Gonzaga was picked to finish first followed by BYU and Pepperdine.
• Now in his eighth season as head coach, Rex Walters has compiled a 112-112 record on the Hilltop, including a 55-56 record in WCC games...he has guided the Dons to three postseason appearances and a pair of wins over nationally-ranked teams.
• Return just five players including two starters from last year's squad...welcome 11 newcomers to this year's roster, including seven freshmen and three walk-ons.
• Departed players accounted for 67 percent of the rebounding, 78% of the scoring, 70.9% of minutes played and combine to make 112 starts a year ago.
• Senior guard Tim Derksen was named to the All-WCC Preseason Team...Derksen posted career-best averages in both scoring (12.6) and rebounding (4.5) last year while his three-point field goal percentage (.400) ranked 10th among all WCC players.
• Point guard Devin Watson averaged 8.4 points and 2.5 assists a game last season and left his mark all over USF's freshmen record book in various categories, including scoring (11th; 261), assists (5th; 78) and steals (t-6th; 31).
• Three of USF's returning players - Montray Clemons, Uche Ofoegbu and Chase Foster -- all played less than 90 minutes a year ago.
• Breakdown of newcomers include seven freshmen, two junior college transfers (Ronnie Boyce III and Dont'e Reynolds) and one graduate transfer (Sean Grennan).
• Welcome two new members to the coaching staff in associate head coach Frank Allocco and assistant coach Sundance Wicks...Wicks is the older brother of associate head coach Luke Wicks.

Notables

Opening Tip
USF (14-18, 7-11 WCC in 2014-15) tips off the 2015-16 season Friday night with a road game at Illinois-Chicago (10-24, 4-12 Horizon League). Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. CT at UIC Pavilion. It will be the first-ever meeting between the Dons and Flames. USF and UIC will also meet next season in San Francisco.

Series History with Illinois-Chicago
Friday's game will be the the first-ever meeting between USF and UIC. The Dons are 2-6 against current Horizon League teams having played Cleveland State (1-1), Detroit (0-2), Green Bay (1-1) and Valparaiso (0-2) over the years.

Dons in Chicago
Friday's game against UIC marks USF's first trip to Chicago since the 2009-10 season, when the Dons suffered a 66-63 setback at Loyola-Chicago. USF also played at DePaul in 1991-92 (W, 71-56) and 92-93 (L, 91-61). USF won its then NCAA-record 60th consecutive game against Loyola-Chicago on Dec. 14, 1956 as part of the Chicago Stadium Invitational before suffering a 83-52 defeat to the 1956 U.S. Olympic led by Dons' alums Bill Russell and K.C. Jones the following night. The streak officially ended with a 62-33 loss at Illinois on Dec. 17, 1956 - two years to the date after it began. USF also won the 1956 NCAA Championship in nearby Evanston with an 83-71 victory over Iowa. Former USF great Bill Cartwright was part of three NBA Championship teams with the Chicago Bulls and later added two more rings as a Bulls' assistant coach.

Exhibition Game Recap
Sophomore guard Devin Watson scored 25 points to lead four Dons in double-figures as USF posted an 87-76 victory over the Gators before a crowd of 1,242 inside Memorial Gymnasium. Tim Derksen added 15, freshman Nate Renfro finished with 13 and senior Montray Clemons came off the bench to add 11 to pace USF's scorers. The Dons shot 47.2 percent from the field and held the Gators to 43.1 percent. USF also had the better of it on the boards, 42-34. Each team made 11 three-pointers. This game was tighter than the final score would indicate. The Dons led by just four points at 71-67 with 5:30 remaining before going on a 10-0 run to open an 81-67 lead with 2:55 left.

USF in Season Openers
USF is 5-2 in its last seven season openers under Rex Walters, counting a 91-52 victory over South Carolina State in last year's opener. Friday's game at Illinois-Chicago marks the first time since the 2008-09 season the Dons have began a season with a road game (2012-13 season opener vs. Stanford was played in a neutral court at Oracle Arena).

Dons Picked Seventh in WCC Preseason Poll
USF was picked to finish seventh along with Pacific in the WCC Preseason Coaches Poll. The Dons and Tigers each garnered 32 points, five fewer than Santa Clara, which was picked sixth. Gonzaga and BYU were picked to finish 1-2 in the conference, followed by Pepperdine.

Derksen Selected to All-WCC Preseason Team
Senior guard Tim Derksen, who averaged 12.6 points and 4.5 rebounds a game last season, was named to the All-WCC Preseason Team in a vote of the conference's head coaches. Derksen also led the Dons and ranked 10th in the WCC in three-point field goal percentage at .400 (42-for-105). A very consistent junior season yielded 25 double-figure scoring games, including a pair of season-high 21-point efforts against Hawaii and Gonzaga.

Rewind
USF finished the 2014-15 season with an overall mark of 14-18 and tied for sixth in the West Coast Conference with a 7-11 mark. The Dons won four of their last five regular season games to earn a share of sixth place in the conference standings but were seeded eighth in the WCC Championships in Las Vegas where the they defeated Pacific in the first round before falling to top-seeded Gonzaga in the quarterfinals.

Walters on USF's All-Time Coaching Charts
With 112 wins in seven seasons on the Hilltop, Rex Walters is one of seven coaches in USF history to win a 100 games. He earned his 100th career victory on Nov. 19 of last season against Notre Dame de Namur. With one more victory, he will tie James Needles (1923-31; 42-44) for sixth place on the all-time list and needs three more to equal Pete Peletta's (1960-66) total of 115.

The Schedule
Eight of USF's 11 non-conference games will be played at home while two of the Dons non-conference opponents (Eastern Washington and Montana) participated in postseason play a year ago. Three Big West (UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and CS Northridge) and two Big Sky (Eastern Washington) and  Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (Delaware State and Coppin State) account for seven of the 11 non-conference games. Teams from the Horizon League (Illinois-Chicago), Conference USA (Rice) and the Mountain West (Fresno State) Conferences are also represented on the Dons 2015-16 schedule. First time opponents include Illinois-Chicago, UC Riverside, Coppin State and Cal-State Northridge.

Who's Back?
The Dons return just five players off of last year's roster. Of the five returnees, guards Tim Derksen and Devin Watson are the only two players who saw substantive court time last season, while USF's three other returnees -- senior forward Montray Clemons, junior guard Uche Ofoegbu and sophomore swingman Chase Foster – played less than 90 minutes a year ago. Derksen posted career-best averages in both scoring (12.6) and rebounding (4.5) last season and finished the season as the team's third leading scorer and fourth leading rebounder while his three-point field goal percentage (.400) ranked 10th among all WCC players. With 66 starts under his belt, he ranks as the Dons most experience player by a wide margin. Watson earned a spot on the WCC's All-Freshmen team after averaging 8.4 points and 2.5 assists a game as a freshman.

The Newcomers
The Dons count a pair of junior college transfers, one graduate transfer and seven freshmen among its list of 10 newcomers that dot this year's roster. Guard Ronnie Boyce III (Oklahoma City / Connors State) and 6-8 forward Dont'e Reynolds (Kinston, NC / Odessa College) give the Dons a dose of collegiate experience, as does graduate transfer guard Sean Grennan, who played previously at both Seton Hall and Fairfield. First-year players Mladen Djordjevic (G, 6-3; Belgrade, Serbia / Tamis), Matt McCarthy (F, 6-9; Melbourne, Australia / Xavier College), Nate Renfro (F, 6-7; Tucson, AZ / Sahuaro HS), Marquill Smith (G, 6-4; Miami, FA / Miami Christian HS) and Cedric Wright (F, 6-6; Fort Lauderdale, FL / Dillard HS) will compete for playing time while eying larger roles in the future. Guard Stefan Cox, who helped Sacred Heart School to a Missouri high school championship last season, and Stokley Chaffee, a product of Amador Valley High School, have also been added to the roster as walk-ons.

The Roster
USF's 16-man roster is made up of three seniors (Tim Derksen, Montray Clemons and Sean Grennan), three juniors (Ronnie Boyce, Uche Ofoegbu, Dont'e Reynolds), three sophomores (Randy Cruzet, Chase Foster and Devin Watson) and seven freshmen (Mladen Djordjevic, Matt McCarthy, Nate Renfro, Marquill Smith, Cedric Wright, Stefan Cox and Stokley Chaffee, Only six of the 16 players have previous Division I experience.

Allocco, Wicks Added to Coaching Staff
Rex Walters rounded out his coaching staff over the summer with the appointments of Associate Head Coach Frank Allocco and Assistant Coach Sundance Wicks. Allocco, a former two-sport athlete at Notre Dame, joins the USF coaching staff after spending the last 24 years in the high school ranks, where he amassed a record of 654-99 as head coach at Northgate (167-28) and De La Salle (487-71). He guided three teams to state championships and reached the 600-win plateau faster than any coach in state history. His career winning percentage of .868 ranks second all-time in the state and he is the only prep coach in California history to win a state title at two different schools. Wicks previously held assistant coaching positions at Northern State (2004-06), Colorado (2006-07) and Northern Illinois (2007-11). He is the older brother of USF associate head coach Luke Wicks, who has served on the staff for the last three seasons. It is believed USF is the only Division I school to have a set of brothers coaching within the same program.