SAN DIEGO — San Diego Men's Basketball will conclude Feast Week with a Thanksgiving-Eve matchup with DIII Marian on Wednesday night, also concluding a seven-game home stretch to start the Toreros' 2024-25 season. 

The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Jack Cronin (PxP) and Braden Surprenant (analyst) calling the action.

FIRST EVER MATCHUP

• Marian will be the 191st recorded opponent in USD Men's Basketball history

• The Marian University Sabres, not to be confused with the Marian University Indianapolis Knights, hail from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and are 6-0 on the season, the Toreros being their first and only DI opponent of the season

LAST TIME OUT

•  USD Men's Basketball secured a 68-61 victory over Idaho in the Jenny Craig Pavilion Sunday afternoon, thanks in part to career-high scoring performances from Santiago Trouet and Deven Dahlke.

• The Toreros improved to 2-4 on the season, finishing their two-game home multi-team event with a weekend split. 

NOTABLE

• Trouet, a sophomore forward making his first career start, had multiple and-one scores in the second half and a three with 21 seconds remaining to put the game away. He notched his second double-double of the season with a game-high 10 rebounds.

• Dahlke made his first start since Nov. 6, 2023, the first game of the 2023-24 season, and he made the most of it against the Vandals. The graduate guard scored a career-best 15 points on 5-6 shooting from the field, 2-3 from beyond the arc and a perfect 3-3 at the free throw line.

• Dahlke's work at the charity stripe embodied the whole team's improved effort, going from 2-7 in first half free throws to an unblemished 10-10 in the second period, helping the Toreros clinch the victory down the stretch.

• San Diego also out-stole the Vandals, 7-5, forcing 20 turnovers with seven blocks. Offensively, the hosts outscored their opponents in the paint 36-28, off the bench 26-15 and on fastbreaks 20-5. The Toreros secured a positive assist-to-turnover ratio (16-15) for the first time since game one, against Rider on Nov. 6.

HOW IT HAPPENED

- Head Coach Steve Lavin ran out his fourth different starting lineup in as many games, adding Trouet and Dahlke into the first five for the first time this year

- USD got a small head start behind its defense, forcing four turnovers in a span of 2:23 early and forcing difficult shots out of a typically high percentage 3-point shooting Idaho team

- The Toreros found leads behind a corner three from sophomore forward David Simon and a deep one from graduate guard Kody Clouet, but could never create much separation as the Vandals' slow shooting start dissipated

- At the half, the Toreros led 26-25, on 36.7% shooting from the field, but 2-11 from behind the arc and 2-7 behind the free throw line

- Senior Steven Jamerson II had six points (finished with 12) on 3-3 shooting, while Simon had four offensive rebounds

- San Diego had a strong start coming out of the locker room, seven of the first nine points coming out of Trouet's hands

- Trouet and Dahlke combined to amass a 9-0 run and build an eight-point lead at 15:35 remaining

- Freshman guard Tony Duckett, in his second career game, again came off the bench and made an impact, as did sophomore guard Dragos Lungu to put the Toreros lead back to seven after an Idaho comeback

- Dahlke scored eight straight late in the half, securing a career high in points and a game-high USD lead of nine points

- With a two-point lead and 21 seconds on the clock, Trouet, previously 0-5 from 3-point land, nailed one and then secured a steal at the other end, making both his free throws to set the final score at 68-61

HOT START

• In the win over Boston Univ. on Nov. 8, Junior guard Kjay Bradley Jr. became the first Torero to score 24-plus in the first two games of the season since fellow junior college transfer Isaiah Pineiro (28 and 25) at the start of the 2018 season, the first Torero to do so in his first two games of DI college basketball since at least 1999.

• On Nov. 10, his 26.0 ppg was good for T-17th best in the nation, third among players in their first DI games 

• The junior from Inglewood, Calif. recorded the highest scoring Torero performance (28) since Deuce Turner's 30 on March 2, 2024 against Pacific

BUILDING ON LAST SEASON'S SUCCESSES

• With year-to-year growth evident within the program, the Toreros look to continue to build on top of their successes in the 2023-24 season and return to prominent heights ... 2023-24's season highlights included:

    - The program's most wins (18) since 2018-19

    - The program's first winning record since 2018-19

    - The program's best regular-season WCC finish since 2014-15 (fifth)

    - The program's first win over a Power-5 opponent since 2018 (Dec. 9, 2023, over Arizona State)

    - Eight double-digit comeback wins, which led the nation

INTRODUCING, YOUR 2024-25 TOREROS

• Lavin and his staff have reloaded the roster of 21 players, 14 of which are underclassmen, both the most among WCC rosters and most for the program since at least 2005-06 ... The team's average age prior to opening day was 20.96 years

• USD also leads the WCC and is tied (Long Beach State) among all Californian DI programs with the most players from one state on the roster – 11 from California

KEY RETURNERS

• Senior center Steven Jamerson II is the top returner for San Diego, averaging 8.3 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game with six double-doubles in 2023-24

• Sophomore guard Dragos Lungu is coming off a stellar summer as he was 2024 FIBA U20 EuroBasket MVP and champion with Romania during the offseason, averaging 16.3 points per game, 7.9 rebounds per game and 18.4 EFF in the tournament

• Experienced guards, graduate guard Deven Dahlke and senior Dominic Muncey, also both return ready to make an impact in the USD lineup

KEY ADDITIONS

• The Toreros add nine newcomers to the roster: six freshmen and three transfers

• Graduate guard Kody Clouet returns to his native San Diego County and highlights the incoming class, set to be a focal point in the San Diego offense

    - Averaged 17.6 PPG, shooting 50.3% FG / 43% 3PT / 81% FT at SE Oklahoma State last season
 

• Redshirt senior Colby Brooks shifts WCC sides from Gonzaga in 2024-25

• Forwards Kean Webb and Gavin Ripp highlight the freshman class coming to San Diego

HEAD COACHES AS TORERO ASSISTANTS

• Also re-bolstered within the program for the 2024-25 season is the coaching staff; joining Lavin and his 14 years of DI head coaching experience on the bench is three other former head coaches

• The first key addition is former NBA veteran & head coach, Earl Watson, as an assistant 

    - Head Coach of Phoenix Suns, 2016-17, previously with the Raptors as an assistant from 2021-23

    - Watson played under Lavin for four seasons at UCLA, ranking top-5 in several all-time stats

• Also new to the USD sideline in 2024-25 is volunteer Justin Hutson, previously the Fresno State head coach from 2018-24 and 10-year assistant at four different DI programs

• John Moore, the all-time winningest head coach at NAIA Westmont College is geared up for his third season alongside Lavin as a USD assistant

THE SCHEDULE

• The Toreros kick off the regular season with seven November home games before their first road affair, at Arizona State on Dec. 3

    - The Toreros' marquee win last season was the 89-84 triumph over ASU on Dec. 9 in San Diego

• San Diego's MTE is in the home confines of the JCP against Southern Utah (11/22) and Idaho (11/24)

• USD will play at San Diego State on Dec. 7, the first matchup with the cross-town rival since 2019 and first in the Viejas Arena since the win over the Aztecs in 2018

• Toreros will wrap up the non-conference slate facing Grand Canyon in the Intuit Dome (Inglewood, Calif.) on Dec. 28 as a part of the West Coast Hoops Showdown, the first college basketball games ever in the newly constructed Intuit Dome, home of the LA Clippers

• USD plays each league opponent twice, except for preseason league favorites Gonzaga and Saint Mary's

• San Diego plays new WCC opponents Oregon State and Washington State in home-and-homes

YEAR THREE OF THE LAVIN ERA

• 2024-2025 marks head coach Steve Lavin's third season at the helm in San Diego after being hired in April of 2022.

• Prior to the start of the new season, Lavin had accumulated a record of 266-185 (.589) with 10 postseason appearances in 13 full seasons as a DI head coach.

• Prior to arriving at USD, he guided UCLA and St. John's to eight NCAA Tournament appearances in 11 years

• A staple in college basketball for over three decades, Lavin is the 14th head coach in program history and the Toreros' seventh head coach since USD moved to the NCAA Division I ranks in 1979-80.

• Most recently, Lavin served as a national college basketball broadcaster for Fox Sports and CBS Sports, previously working with ESPN, ABC, and the Pac-12 Network.