SAN DIEGO — USD Men's Hoops will open it's 2024-25 West Coast Conference campaign hosting Pacific on Monday at 7 p.m. in the Jenny Craig Pavilion. 

The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Jack Cronin (PxP, X: @JackCroninPXP) and Braden Surprenant (Analyst, X: @b_surp) calling the action. Inside coverage can also be found on the @USDMBB social channels.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE TIGERS

• The Toreros are 10-16 all-time vs. Pacific, an even 7-7 in America's Finest City, having won both of last season's matchups

• The last time USD faced Pacific in a WCC home opener at the JCP, the Toreros came out on top, 73-64 on Jan. 5, 2019 ... San Diego's last win on their WCC opening night, home or away, was on Dec. 28, 2017 over San Francisco, winning the first three conference games of the season 

• Both teams are looking to end their six-game skids
 

San Diego Toreros (3-10, 0-0 WCC)  • Pacific Tigers (5-10, 0-1 WCC)

Monday, December 30, 2024  •  7 PM

Jenny Craig Pavilion (5,100) • San Diego, Calif.

Live Streaming • ESPN+ • Live Stats • USDToreros.com

 X.com/USDMBB  •  Instagram.com/USDMBB
 

LAST TIME OUT

•   San Diego trailed by five points with just over a minute to go but were closed out by Grand Canyon's overpowering free throw makes, falling 55-68 from inside the Intuit Dome in a West Coast Hoops Showdown contest that was closer than the final score indicated Saturday night
 

•   The six points at the charity stripe in the final minute were representative of the game's totality in which the Lopes scored 36 points off free throws on 42 attempts and were held by the Torero defense to just 15 made field goals, 27.8% FG and 16.7% from 3-point land ... San Diego made seven more shots from the field than their counterpart, two more threes as GCU didn't convert from beyond the arc for the first 31 minutes of the game

•   No Division I team had ever won a regulation-length game by making 35 or more free throws and shooting less than 30% from the field until the Lopes did so Saturday, according to the Stathead database

•   The Toreros also made it two straight games out rebounding their counterpart in what was the 2024 non-conference slate finale ... USD fell to 3-10, 0-1 in Quad 3 prior to the start of WCC Play 

NOTABLE

•  Coming off the bench for the first time this season, junior guard Kjay Bradley Jr. notched his fourth 20-plus point game of the season in his hometown of Inglewood, Calif.

•  Sophomore forward Santiago Trouet, coming off the back of a historic 20-rebound game, notched his fourth double-double of the season with 14 rebounds and 17 points

HOW IT HAPPENED

- Freshman guard Tony Duckett returned to the Torero lineup, making his fifth start of the season

- In what would be foreshadowing for the rest of the afternoon, the game started with GCU trips to the free throw line, but the Toreros made the first field goal of the night

- Grand Canyon had a three-minute stretch early without a field goal, but built a 10-4 lead on an 8-0 foul discrepancy

- Eight Toreros came off the bench in the opening 12 minutes

- Also indicative for the rest of the night, it was an ugly shooting night for both teams, with USD going 3-13 and GCU 1-14

- Bradley Jr. scored the game's two lone threes in the first half

- At the break, San Diego trailed 26-31 while Trouet and Bradley Jr. both had 10 points

- Turnover woes picked up to start the second period for USD

- The Toreros would go on a 7-0 scoring run over a two-minute span, cutting the lead back to five

- Grand Canyon made it's first two threes of the game with 9:24 remaining to extend their lead back to double digits

- Toreros made another run to chip away at the deficit, led by scores from Bradley Jr. and sophomore guard Joey Chammaa, who finished the game with nine points

- San Diego's inevitable foul trouble caught up to the Toreros with senior center Steven Jamerson II fouling out early in the second half, as did freshman guard Jackson Gaffney and two others reached the threshold of four personals

- Another Torero run got the game within five with 1:15 to go

- GCU held strong, however, making six of six attempts at the charity stripe in the closing minute to seal the game at a game-high 13 points

ANALYTICS AT A QUICK GLANCE

•  San Diego ranks 27th in Torvik's metric for adjusted tempo (adjusted possessions per 40 minutes)

•  As of Sunday, Dec. 29, San Diego is among the 25 unluckiest teams nationally (-.115), according to Kenpom ... Pacific is 292nd in Kenpom Luck with a value of -.057

•  In nine Q4 games, San Diego has finished within single digits all but once

ENOUGH BOARDS TO BUILD A HOUSE

•  In a narrow loss to UC San Diego on Dec. 21, sophomore forward Santiago Trouet grabbed 20 rebounds, the third most in a single game by a Torero, most in 42 years (Robby Roberts, 21 vs. NAU on Nov. 11, 1982 & Gus Magee, 24 vs. Trinity on Jan. 7, 1969) ... The Argentina international was a point shy of his fourth double-double of the season and added on a team-high two steals, a block and three assists in the contest 

SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY

• 10 different Toreros have featured in a starting lineup this season, the first career start for six

    - In their first career starts the six Toreros average 14.8 pts., 4.2 reb., 2 ast., 1.7 stl. and 1 blk..  

• The latest to capitalize on his first career start is freshman guard Tony Duckett, scoring 16 against Marian on Nov. 27 ... In his first two career starts so. forward Santiago Trouet has two double-doubles, averaging 14 pts. and 11.5 ast. ... Since his first DI start, junior guard Kjay Bradley Jr. is averaging 15.8 pts., 2.8 stl. and 3.7 ast. 

• Sophomore forward Santiago Trouet notched two straight double-doubles in his first two career starts and had three double-doubles in November, scoring double-digit points in his first three starts

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

THE REMAINING SCHEDULE

• 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

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

• No Toreros were featured on the WCC's preseason all-conference team

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 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

    - 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

• Guard Tony Duckett and 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 

    - 2016-17 Phoenix Suns Head Coach and four years as an assistant with the Spurs, Suns, Raptors

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

    - Joins Fred Hoiberg (Nebraska), Rick Pitino (St. John's) and Mike Woodson (Indiana) as the only former NBA head coaches now in college basketball, the lone assistant 

• Also new to the USD sideline in 2024-25 is volunteer Justin Hutson, previously the Fresno State head coach from 2018-24 and concurrently now an assistant for his wife with SDSU Women's Basketball

• 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

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.