Portland Stuns No. 6 Gonzaga in a Win for the Ages - and a Coach on One Foot
Let’s start here: Shantay Legans tore his Achilles last week playing scout team in practice.
Yes, you read that right. The head coach of the Portland Pilots - not a player, not a grad assistant - was running the scout team, trying to mimic Pacific’s TJ Wainwright, a lefty guard.
Legans, also a lefty, figured he was a natural stand-in. Then came the pop.
The kind of pop you don’t confuse with anything else. He turned around, expecting to see someone had chucked a ball at his leg.
No one was there.
“I said, s-,” Legans recalled.
Achilles. Gone.
Fast forward to Wednesday night, and there he was, hopping on one foot, scooter nearby, coaching what might go down as the biggest win in program history - an 87-80 shocker over No. 6 Gonzaga.
Let’s not gloss over that. Portland, a 21.5-point underdog, took down a Gonzaga team that had been steamrolling through the WCC, with only one loss all season - to No.
2 Michigan. The Zags were undefeated in conference play, leading the country in points in the paint.
Portland held them to 26.
And they did it with a roster that’s been through the wringer.
A Roster Held Together by Tape and Grit
Portland returned just two scholarship players from last season. Every starter from last year’s squad is gone - one graduated, four hit the portal.
The expected starting point guard, Riley Parker, had foot surgery that didn’t go as planned and was shut down after one game. Freshman forward Timo George, one of the top reserves, is out for the year.
Matus Hronsky missed three straight games with illness and played just six minutes against Gonzaga.
The Pilots have been so short-handed that they pulled graduate assistant Sam Noland - a former Division III player - off the staff and onto the active roster. He still had eligibility, and he got real minutes Wednesday. Noland subbed in when star freshman Joel Foxwell cramped up and even inbounded the ball in the final minute with Gonzaga pressing.
“If you had told me at the beginning of the year that he’d be taking the ball out with under a minute to go, and we’re up 11 on Gonzaga,” Legans said, “I’d be like, ‘What reality are we living in?’”
Foxwell’s Coming-Out Party
Freshman guard Joel Foxwell was electric. He tied his career high with 27 points and added eight assists.
He picked apart Gonzaga’s defense out of ball screens, constantly getting into the paint and forcing rotations. Portland’s bigs took advantage of mismatches all night, and Foxwell was the engine that made it all go.
This wasn’t a fluke shooting night either - Portland hit nearly 60% from the field (59.3%, to be exact) against one of the most disciplined defensive teams in the country. They didn’t just survive Gonzaga’s pressure. They dictated the game.
A Coach on a Scooter, a Program in Transition
Legans, who’s now coached three games on one foot, had planned to sit for this one. But when the game started well, he stayed up - leaning on the stanchion for support, giving the radio guy behind him a less-than-ideal view.
“I think I ruined it for our radio guy,” Legans joked. “I just leaned against the stanchion damn near the whole game.”
The win pushed Portland to 11-14 overall and 4-8 in the WCC. For a team ranked 346th in Division I experience, this was a signature moment - not just for the players, but for a coach trying to build something sustainable in the transfer portal era.
Legans knows the challenge. He’s lost good players to bigger programs.
Max Mackinnon is now the second-leading scorer at LSU. Tyler Harris is contributing for No.
15 Vanderbilt. Austin Rapp, now at Wisconsin, helped recruit Foxwell on his way out the door.
“We haven’t been able to retain our core guys, because they’re all pretty good,” Legans said. “You know it takes a year or two to build something really good, right?
And every time you get a good player, you lose them. … But if you can keep these guys, we’d be pretty good.”
That’s the modern college basketball grind. Build, lose, rebuild.
But Legans is hopeful. The administration is trying to help.
And a win like this - over a top-10 team with a national pedigree - could move the needle on things like fundraising, recruiting, and yes, retention.
Retirement from the Scout Team… For Real This Time
Legans, who once starred at Cal and Fresno State, has always been a hands-on coach. He’s known for jumping into drills, and he’d done it just the day before the Achilles tear.
But now? He’s calling it.
“Forty-four, out of shape, overweight,” he said. “Why would you stretch?”
This is actually the second Achilles he’s torn. The first came a few years ago playing one-on-one with his players.
He didn’t get that one surgically repaired. He won’t get this one fixed either.
Instead, he’s on blood thinners - “like an old, old man,” he jokes - and in three weeks, he’ll be walking in a boot, finally free of the scooter that’s left him with cuts and bruises from too many falls.
“That roller kills me,” he said. “It is not ideal.”
What’s Next
Portland hosts Seattle on Saturday and will try to ride the momentum into a second straight win. As for Legans’ plan to sit this one out?
No chance.
The Pilots just took down Gonzaga with a banged-up roster, a grad assistant on the floor, and a head coach coaching on one leg.
Whatever happens next, they’ve already written one of the most unforgettable chapters in Portland basketball history.