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Road Swing Continues at 2020 Vegas Bubble

LAS VEGAS – Riding a 2-0 start to the 2020-21 season with wins over Portland and William Jessup as part of the U.S. Bank Portland Invitational, Seattle U men's basketball continues its season-opening road trip with a pair of games at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as part of the 2020 Vegas Bubble tournament. The Redhawks face Air Force on Sunday, Nov. 29, then come back 24 hours later to take on CSUN on Monday, Nov. 30. Sunday's  game tip-off at 12 p.m. local time while Monday's tip-off is set for 2 p.m.

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Road Swing Continues at 2020 Vegas BubbleRoad Swing Continues at 2020 Vegas Bubble
Sarah Finney

LAS VEGAS – Riding a 2-0 start to the 2020-21 season with wins over Portland and William Jessup as part of the U.S. Bank Portland Invitational, Seattle U men's basketball continues its season-opening road trip with a pair of games at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as part of the 2020 Vegas Bubble tournament. The Redhawks face Air Force on Sunday, Nov. 29, then come back 24 hours later to take on CSUN on Monday, Nov. 30. Sunday's  game tip-off at 12 p.m. local time while Monday's tip-off is set for 2 p.m.

FOLLOW THE REDHAWKS

QUICK HITS

  • Seattle U opened the 2020-21 season with back-to-back wins for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
  • The Redhawks also won their season opener for a second straight year, this time with an 84-72 victory over Portland on Nov. 25. 
  • The win over Portland was the fourth straight for Seattle U. The teams have met during each of the past four years and are set to meet again later this season.
  • Riley Grigsby poured in a career-high 28 points in the season debut versus Portland.
  • The junior forward is shooting better than 50% from the field and from three while also going 4-of-5 from the free-throw line.
  • Sophomore Darrion Trammell was a spark off the bench in the first two games. He was one assist shy of a double-double in the season opener at Portland (17p, 9a), then followed that performance with 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists against William Jessup.
  • Freshman Kobe Williamson had an impressive collegiate debut with 10 points and nine boards against Portland. He is the first freshman to start a season opener since Morgan Means did so in 2016-17. Means finished with five points, three rebounds and three assists in that outing.
  • Jared Pearre will be a familiar face to the CSUN Matadors as the redshirt junior spent three seasons on the Northridge squad. 

ABOUT THE SERIES VS AIR FORCE
This marks the first all-time meeting between the Redhawks and Falcons.

ABOUT THE SERIES VERSUS CSUN
Seattle U holds a 6-2 all-time series lead over CSUN. The squads met six times from 2010-2014, in which SU went 5-1. CSUN won the first of those meetings, 98-90, on Jan. 11, 2010 in Northridge. The Redhawks then rolled off five straight, most recently a 70-58 victory on Nov. 29, 2014. The teams have one previous meeting from their respective DII days, an 88-75 Matador win on Jan. 7, 1995 in Northridge.

NEW-LOOK REDHAWKS

  • Seattle U returns just four letterwinners to its squad in 2020-21, with just four known programs in the nation to have fewer returners (Kentucky, Arkansas, East Tennessee State, Georgia Southern). Eight additional programs are known to also have four returning letterwinners. Among the four Redhawks, junior forward Riley Grigsby stands as the lone returning starter, while senior guard Aaron Nettles was also a significant contributor in 2019-20.
  • All told, the Redhawks lost 78.8 percent of their scoring from one season ago, the 11th most in the nation.
  • The addition of 11 newcomers, including two graduate transfers, four junior college transfers and five freshmen, also ranks among the most in the nation as three other schools equal 11 newcomers (Alcorn State, Arizona, South Dakota) while Arkansas tops the list with 12.

WINNING WAYS
While the Redhawks' squad features 11 new faces, they are not all new to each other including a trio of junior college transfers from City College of San Francisco. Nate Robinson, Darrion Trammell and Emeka Udenyi spent the 2019-20 season as teammates for the Rams, who went a perfect 30-0 while averaging more than 100 ppg.

PRESEASON HONORS
Junior forward Riley Grigsby earned the first league recognition of his career, being named to the Coaches Preseason All-WAC Second Team. The San Jose, Calif., native is the Redhawks' lone returning starter and is coming off of a sophomore campaign that saw him average 9.7 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Grigsby led Seattle U in scoring twice and collected three double-doubles, including career highs of 23 points and 12 rebounds in a win over Grand Canyon on Feb. 20.

WAC PRESEASON POLLS
The Redhawks were selected to finished fifth in the Western Athletic Conference in both the WAC 2020-21 Preseason Coaches Poll and Media Poll. Reigning WAC champion NM State was selected to repeat the feat in 2020-21, earning eight of nine first-place votes in the Coaches' Poll. Coaches could not vote for their own team or players. The Aggies were also the first-place pick by the media. Grand Canyon was picked second in both polls, followed by UTRGV in third and California Baptist in fourth.