CORVALLIS, Ore. — San Diego Men's Basketball will take on a new West Coast Conference foe in the Oregon State Beaver for the Toreros fourth game in seven days and their first league road test of the season Saturday. 

The Toreros are coming off one of their best games of the season on paper, however falling narrowly to Santa Clara 80-81 Thursday, while the Beavs are coming off one of their worst, a 20-point lost at the hands of LMU.

Tip is set for 3 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Rich Burk (PxP, X: @RichBurk1) and Matt Muehlebach (Analyst, X: @mattmuehlebach) calling the action. Voice of the Toreros Jack Cronin (X: @JackCroninPXP) will have the call from over the radio airwaves on USDToreros.com/watch. Inside coverage can also be found on the @USDMBB social channels.

THE BEAVER RUNDOWN

• Saturday will be just the fourth all-time meeting between the two sides, first since 2012, first in Corvallis since 2001 and first ever as conference opponents ... San Diego will look to tie the series at two a piece, the win being at home in the first ever meeting on Dec. 2, 2000

• University of San Diego Associate Vice President and Executive Director of Athletics Kimya Massey joined the institution in February 2024 after having served as Oregon State's Deputy Athletic Director and Chief Operating Officer, first joining OSU in 2021
 

• USD Head Coach Steve Lavin is 12-2 all-time against the Beavs, 6-1 on Ralph Miller Court

ANALYTICS AT A QUICK GLANCE

•  Saturday's affair will be the Toreros' third Quadrant 1 game of the season, having lost on the road to Arizona State and San Diego State ... San Diego has kept both of their last two Q2 or better games within six points (-6, H vs. UC San Diego; -1, H vs. Santa Clara)

•  USD is among the top 45 in the nation in Torvik's Adjusted Tempo at 71.9 adjusted possessions per 40 minutes while OSU is in the bottom 45 of the metric at 65.4

LAST TIME OUT

•  After trailing by as much as 13 points to Santa Clara in the second half, the Toreros tied the game with three minutes left to play but fell just short of an in-conference upset Thursday night at the JCP, 80-81.  

•  San Diego had one of its best games as a team on paper, dishing out 13 assists and turning over the ball just five times while hitting the 80-point mark for the first time. San Diego shot 60% from the field, 40% from beyond the arc and 77.8% from the charity stripe in a resilient second half.

•  Santa Clara, however, kept the Toreros at bay from wire-to-wire on high volume 3-point shooting – 12 made on 36 attempts – and clutch free throw makes down the stretch. It seemed as though whenever USD came within striking distance, the Broncos would make a timely big shot.

•  USD had four players score in double digits for the second straight game, led again by junior guard Kjay Bradley Jr. and sophomore forward Santiago Trouet.

NOTABLE

- Bradley Jr. scored 20 of his 23 points off the bench in the second half and contributed six assists with no turnovers to help USD claw back

- Trouet recorded his fifth double-double of the season, scoring a career-best 21 points with 11 rebounds, also notching two steals and a block

- Senior center Steven Jamerson II made it two straight in double figures, scoring 14 on six field goals and a game-high four offensive rebounds, six boards total and a block

- Freshman guard Tony Duckett was critical down the stretch for USD, making two big threes late to keep the Toreros in it and finishing with 10 points

- Bradley Jr. scored 20-plus points for the fifth time this season … combining with Trouet, the duo achieved the first occasion of multiple Toreros scoring 20-plus in a single game this season

- Sophomore guard Joey Chammaa was an X-factor in the first half for the hosts, scoring eight points and making multiple tough, hustle plays on both ends

- The Toreros five total turnovers far over-shined their previous season-best of 11, accomplished last time out in a win over Pacific

- USD outscored Santa Clara 46-28 in the paint, 11-3 off turnovers

HOW IT HAPPENED

- Indicative of it's game plan for the full 40 minutes, Santa Clara came out of the gates shooting lots of threes while the Toreros seemed to be hitting every part of the rim

- An 0-8 field goal drought over five-plus minutes saw the Toreros fall behind, but a two and half minute scoring dry spell for SCU led to USD only trailing 11-20 at the under-eight timeout

- A four-point play from Chammaa ended the 0-8 Torero start from three, bringing the Toreros back to within single digits

- At the half, San Diego trailed 27-35, while only turning over the ball twice (the best half this season in that regard), the Toreros shot 29.4% from the field in the period

- The Broncos started the second half the way they started the first, occasionally making the big three to build the lead back to a night-high 13 (14:38 remaining)

- After previously having an 0-8 spell, USD would go on an 8-8 run from the field, guided by Jamerson II going to work underneath, Bradley Jr. dancing around the court to make nice plays and Trouet being fouled on a made three, bringing the game back within four

- Yet again, Santa Clara 3-point shooting kept San Diego at bay

- Trouet and the Toreros continued their success in the paint too, also converting at opportunities at the foul line

- A made three by Duckett tied the game for the first time since the first minute, this time at 3:02 to go

- The Broncos immediately countered with a three of their own and never looked back

- San Diego would get within two inside 30 seconds twice, but, Santa Clara made big shot after big shot, including conversions on each free throw down the stretch

- Bradley Jr. hit a deep three as time expired but the Broncos didn't foul, settling the final score at 80-81

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. 3, San Diego is among the 25 unluckiest teams nationally (-.115), according to KenPom ... Oregon State is 244th in KenPom Luck with a value of -.026

•  One of the more recent cases was USD's loss to GCU in the Intuit Dome on Dec. 28 in which 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

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.