Whenever Portland avoids last place it is a victory of sorts for the Pilots, who historically have been the worst program in the conference.

This season they finished seventh, which is exactly where they were expected to finish. For the 10th straight season, Portland failed to have a winning overall record, and for the 13th consecutive year it did not have a winning conference mark.

In his second season as a head coach, Eric Reveno had an almost identical record from last season -- 9-22 overall compared with 9-23 last season and 3-11 in the WCC compared with 4-10 last season.

Reveno's job does not seem to be in jeopardy, and he will be given at least one more season to try to get it going in the right direction.

Progress had to be measured differently at Portland, but this season did not advance things much. Reveno hopes to win eventually by using a disciplined, structured style, trying to overcome talent deficiencies with execution. There was some evidence that is taking place.

Portland lost in the first round of the conference tournament to a Pepperdine team that was without its starting point guard (Rico Tucker), and the Pilots did not show appreciable improvement over the season.

This is a young team with only one senior on the roster, but that one senior, Sherrard Watson, was their leading scorer in the final two games. One would have hoped a younger player would start to become the dominant player at season's end.

Sophomore Nik Raivio and freshman Luke Sikma were probably the most pleasant surprises, but Sikma's numbers dropped significantly as the season wore on and Raivio was hindered in the final few games by a knee injury.

Robin Smeulders has promise and showed a bit of that potential late in the season, and there is still hope he could develop.

Nearly every player Reveno brought in this season contributed, and the coach will make sure this is a good rebounding team.

This squad could contend for a top-four finish next season, but that would be a best-case scenario.

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