SAN DIEGO — USD Men's Basketball takes on the Pepperdine Waves Thursday night in it's return to the JCP for the first time in two weeks, the Toreros last opponent of the first go-around of the 2024-25 WCC season. 

Thursday will be the first of two games that San Diego participates in Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers week, a collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Coaches vs. Cancer takes a more physical, personal meaning for Toreros Head Coach Steve Lavin who missed the majority of the 2011-12 season at St. John's in a bout with prostate cancer, which he gallantly overcame. 

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.

THE WAVE RUNDOWN

• USD trails in the all-time series, 46-57, however having won seven of the last eight over the counterparts from Malibu, incliuding 57-52 in the first round of last season's WCC Tournament ... The one loss in the last eight meetings was 77-83 last season at the JCP ... USD is 20-25 at home against the Waves

• Pepperdine (NET 216) is a Q4 opponent Thursday ... Each of USD's wins have been Quadrant 4 at home

LAST TIME OUT

•  USD hung tough with the NET No. 71 San Francisco Dons who are now 13-0 at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center following the 69-81 decision Saturday night.

•  The Toreros led for over nine minutes in the first half and exchanged leads with the Dons and despite better shooting from the hosts, kept within reach.

•  San Francisco, who takes around 50% of their shots from beyond the arc, doubled the Toreros up on 3-pointers, made more total field goals, but finished even at 21 points at the charity stripe.

NOTABLE

- San Diego freshman guard Tony Duckett guided the team's scoring contingent with 17 on a game high seven made field goals

- Redshirt freshman guard Joey Chammaa was again a spark off the bench that kept USD in the game, scoring all 12 of his points in the second half 

- Graduate guard Deven Dahlke had 11 points off of three made threes, for the second straight game

- Freshman Kean Webb has scored a career-high in points in two straight, this time going for nine ... his career highs in points, rebounds, blocks, assists and steals have all come in the last two games

HOW IT HAPPENED

- For the third straight game, the same lineup started on the court

- Senior Center Steven Jamerson II broke a no-scoring deadlock through the first three minutes

- The Dons were also 1-6 from the field to start, which the Toreros took advantage of to build an 8-3 lead with a punctuation mark from a Duckett dunk before the first timeout

- San Francisco finally made it's first three of the game and tied the game up at the under-12 media timeout but were answered by USD's first three, from Dahlke

- Both teams exchanged leads up to five times, Dahlke leading the way for San Diego

- The Toreros were out front by way of a 7-0 run

- USF however, would take the advantage before the half behind multiple threes, leading 32-28 at the break

- The Toreros used a pair of and-one opportunities to tie the game for a third time early in the second period, but the Dons had answers

- Duckett came alive, but San Diego still trailed

- USD would get into frequent foul trouble early in the second half

- San Francisco began to pull away to double digits for the first time using free throws and starkly different shooting streaks

- San Diego trailed by as much as 17 but wouldn't let it get to 20 as the Dons came into some foul trouble themselves

- Chammaa ignited USD as he and grad guard Kody Clouet combined on the Toreros next 14 points, cutting the lead down to nine with two minutes to go

- USF would close out the game however, getting past the Toreros full court press

SCORING RECORD + SC TOP 10 = WCC HONOR

•  Tony Duckett garnered WCC Freshman of the Week honors after setting an all-time San Diego freshman single-game record with 31 points on 11 made field goals on Jan. 18 against LMU ... He posted a career-high 20 points in the first half alone and grabbed a career-high five rebounds

•  The Carlsbad, Calif. native was also the spark for the Toreros' 16-point comeback against Washington State on Jan. 16, scoring 14 points and connecting on two big dunks, including one that put USD ahead for the first time just before halftime ... The other dunk was No. 9 on SportsCenter's Top 10 plays on Jan. 17

YOUTH MOVEMENT

•  Duckett is fronting a youth movement on America's Most Beautiful campus, a roster of which 14 are underclassmen, 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's roster ranks 354th/364 in DI MBB experience according to KenPom with nine newcomers

MANY MEN DOWN

•  As of Jan. 18, USD leads DI MBB with 13 players having missed at least one game due to injury, the most by four ... As many as nine have been out at once on multiple occasions while only two players of 21 on the roster have played in each game this season

•  Across the 2023-24 season, 15 San Diego players combined to miss over 900 days of practice and/or competition due to health

TOUGH LUCK

•  As of Wednesday, Jan. 29, San Diego is among the top 10 unluckiest team nationally (-.117) out of 364 teams, according to KenPom

•  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

•  In a 13-point loss at No. 18 Gonzaga on Jan. 8, the Toreros became the the first team to make the same or more field goals as Gonzaga and not come out winners since Jan. 25, 2024

•  USD's defense entered a Jan. 11 matchup with Saint Mary's as a top-80 defense nationally in KenPom's metric for efficiency ... The Gaels scored scored 1.65 points per possession on terrific shooting, the most points per possession by any DI team in a road game in 18 years and most in any game since 2021 according to Torvik

A TOREROS DOZEN

•  As of Jan. 12, the Toreros rank tied for third in the nation for most players with double-digit games (12) ... In a narrow loss to UC San Diego on Dec. 21, Joey Chammaa's 14 points made him the 12th Torero to score in double figures in the 12th game of the season, tied for second nationally in the stat at the time ... Nine USD players have been in double-figures multiple times and eight have led the team in scoring in a game

•  Lavin has used 12 different starting lineup thus far this season, featuring 14 different Toreros

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. 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

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)

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) ...  At the time it was the season single-game high in NCAA DI, currently tied for fourth

SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY

• 14 different Toreros have featured in 12 different starting lineups this season, the first career start for eight ... The first six Toreros to make their first career starts this season averaged 14.8 pts., 4.2 reb., 2 ast., 1.7 stl. and 1 blk.. in those games

• The latest to capitalize on his first career start is freshman guard Tony Duckett, scoring 16 against Marian on Nov. 27

• 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 

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's roster ranks 354th/364 in DI MBB experience according to KenPom

• 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

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

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.