SAN DIEGO — Torero Men's Basketball welcomes 14-3 and conference-undefeated Saint Mary's to the Jenny Craig Pavilion Saturday, the Toreros lone regular season matchup with the Gaels this season. 

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

THE GAEL RUNDOWN

• San Diego is 33-60 all-time against the Gaels, 21-23 on home grounds in America's Finest City ... The last Torero win was by a score of 61-43 in the Jenny Craif Pavilion on Jan. 30, 2014, 21 matchups ago

• Saint Mary's will be the Toreros third Quadrant 2 opponent of the season, having kept the two others, both at home, within six points (71-77 vs. UC San Diego on Dec. 21, 80-81 vs. Santa Clara on Jan. 2)

• USD junior guard Emmanuel Callas grew up in the bay area playing with several Gaels

THE LAST TIME...

• The last time the Toreros topped the Gaels was on Jan. 30, 2014: The Bill Grier-coached Toreros shut down Saint Mary's, 61-43 ... SMC came into the contest in second in the WCC and averaging 76.3 points, but the Toreros held them to season-lows of 43 points and 25.0 percent shooting from the field ... The Toreros were led by Johnny Dee (17 points) and 14 points each from Dennis Kramer and Duda Sanadze.

LAST TIME OUT

•  The Toreros had an efficient offensive night but were bested by the nation's fifth most efficient offense in No. 18 Gonzaga on Wednesday night, falling by a final score of 80-93.

•  San Diego made the same amount of field goals as the hosts with 28 for a tied-season best 80 points and 11 made 3-pointers while five players scored in double figures ... USD ultimately suffered the consequences of fouling and being beaten on the boards. The Bulldogs out-rebounded USD 48-31, 23-13 in the first half, and scored 27 points at the free throw line.

•  The visiting Toreros played an even 46-46 second half, limiting overall turnovers to nine, forcing 11 out of the Zags on seven steals and are the first team to make the same or more field goals as Gonzaga this season and not come out winners. San Diego falls to 1-3 in league play, 4-13 overall.

NOTABLE

- Junior Kjay Bradley Jr. led San Diego with 21 points off the bench, his sixth game this season with 20-plus - Three other Toreros scored 13-plus points; graduate guard Kody Clouet, senior forward Bendji Pierre and sophomore forward Santiago Trouet, who also notched a game-high four blocks with seven rebounds

- Freshman guard Tony Duckett was the fifth in double-figures, his third straight game with double-digits 

- Gonzaga's Ben Gregg, who entered the game shooting 17% from beyond the arc on the season, went 3-3 on the night and finished with a game-best 23 points

- Zags forward Graham Ike snagged 19 rebounds but the All-American honorable mention was forced to score 13 of his 15 points at the free throw line ... Shooting 55% in his career and 58.3% from the field on the year, he was held to one or less field goals for just the fourth time in his career, first by a non-P5 team 

- The nation's assist leader Ryan Nembhard tallied 11 for the hosts

HOW IT HAPPENED

    - Head Coach Steve Lavin lined up four forwards to start against a big Gonzaga team, including the former Bulldog of four years Colby Brooks, who made his first career start, on his old home court

    - Freshman forward Kean Webb also made his first career start, filling in for Steven Jamerson II, who was out with an illness

    - Both teams had a slow 1-6 start from the field, the Toreros trailing 3-4 at the first media timeout

    - Pierre scored 10 of the Toreros next 12 points with two threes, seeing USD take it's first lead at 15-14 before the under-12 timeout

    - Gonzaga responded with a 7-0 run, fueled by free throws

    - Bradley Jr. hit two deep threes as Clouet added his first of three from beyond the arc, bringing the game back within three

    - The Zags were able to get their first double-digit lead of the afternoon right before the break with 3-pointers of their own and more free throw conversions

    - At the half the Toreros trailed 34-47 with seven made threes

    - San Diego gave the hosts a taste of their own medicine to start the second period, using points at the charity stripe and off Bulldog turnovers to claw back to within single digits

    - The USD defense held the nation's fifth most efficient offense to nearly four scoreless minutes, but couldn't capitalize on it on the other end as shots just wouldn't fall

    - Similar to the first half, the Zags scored eight of their first 17 points in the second half at the charity stripe

    - Gonzaga would pull away to a game-high 22-point lead as foul trouble caught up to Webb, Pierre, freshman guard Tony Duckett and others

    - The Toreros ended the game on a high note, however, going on a 9-0 run by the final buzzer with persistent efforts from Trouet, Clouet and Brooks

PUSHIN' THE PACE

•  Saturday's affair feature stark difference in offensive tempo as USD is among the top 45 teams in the nation in Torvik's Adjusted Tempo at 71.5 adjusted possessions per 40 minutes while the Gaels are the 13th-slowest in the metric at 63.7

TAKING CARE OF THE BALL

•  USD had a stretch of decreased turnovers in four straight games from Dec. 21-Jan. 2; a whopping 23 vs. UC San Diego, to 15 vs. GCU on Dec. 28, to 11 in a WCC-opening win over Pacific (and a season best 20 assists) on Dec. 30 and a season low five vs. Santa Clara

•  Junior point guard Kjay Bradley Jr. has guided the effort each time off the bench, including a six assist, no turnover line against Santa Clara and seven assists to two turnovers in the Pacific win

•  San Diego had 13 turnovers against Oregon State on Jan. 4 but were back down to nine against No. 18 Gonzaga on Jan. 8

AN OVERDUE WCC-OPENING WIN 

•  San Diego broke a six-game losing streak in the month of December with a strong 75-65 win over Pacific to kick off league play in the Toreros' final game of 2024

• The Toreros won their first WCC opener since a win over San Francisco on Dec. 28, 2017, when the team went on to win the first three games of conference play

•  The winning formula consisted of season-highs in assists (20, prev. 16) and steals (11, prev. 10) ... A season best nine different Toreros contributed assists ... Steven Jamerson II notched his first 20-point game and double-double of the season, also doubling the single-game best +/- for a Torero thus far (+28, prev. +14)

TOUGH LUCK

•  As of Friday, Jan. 10, San Diego is among the 28 unluckiest teams nationally (-.097), according to KenPom ... Saint Mary's has slightly below average luck, ranked 223rd with a value of -.015

•  In USD's loss to GCU in the Intuit Dome on Dec. 28 the Lopes made 36 free throws and 27.8% of field goal attempts ... 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, according to the Stathead database

•  Another recent case is the 13-point loss at No. 18 Gonzaga in which the Toreros became the the first team to make the same or more field goals as Gonzaga this season and not come out winners since Jan. 25, 2024

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.