SAN DIEGO — San Diego men's hoops kicks off the 'relaunch' campaign of the 2025-26 season with the first of five home games to start the year, a tilt with Occidental College Tuesday afternoon.

The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Voice of the Toreros 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 TIGER RUNDOWN

• The Occidental College "Oxy" Tigers are an NCAA DIII program that play out of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) ... The college is located between Glendale and Pasadena in Los Angeles County

• The Toreros are 6-0 all-time against Oxy, each meeting being in America's Finest City ... the two sides last met in the 2010-11 season-opener on Nov. 12, 2010, an 83-66 win for USD ... the first ever meeting between the teams was on Dec. 30, 1998

THE RELAUNCH

• With a reloaded roster of 14 newcomers, unprecedented investments are being made in the program both financially and through support staff and new facilities, the 2025-26 campaign is being described as 'the relaunch' of USD Men's Basketball under fourth-year head coach Steve Lavin
 

TORERO BASKETBALL IS GLOBAL

• Of the 14 Torero newcomers, six different countries and four different continents are represented (Argentina, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Poland, Puerto Rico, Senegal & United States)

THE USD COACHING TREE'S LEGACY, NBA CONNECTION
• USD ranks third all-time in players turned NBA Head Coaches with five, behind only Indiana's seven and North Carolina's six 

• Three of the five USD alumni turned NBA head coaches: Mike Brown, David Fizdale and James Borrego, were in attendance for the first-of-its kind USD Basketball Coaches Clinic on campus on Aug. 9, 2025 ... The full-house event featured an all-star panel with a combined eight rings, 30 NCAA Tournament appearances and 11 coach of the year awards

• The USD to NBA connection doesn't stop at head coaches as the Toreros also have a strong connection to NBA front offices and deeper on the sidelines, with several alumni in executive and assistant coach roles 

A BRAND NEW, CENTRALIZED FACILITY
• As a part of the monumental first-time investments being made by the University of San Diego into the basketball programs, the $35 Million, 28,000 sq. foot Basketball Performance Center was opened on April 22, providing Torero hoops a centralized training, recovery and competitive preparation environment

• The Basketball Performance Center, located in the heart of America's Most Beautiful Campus, is an anchor where practice, film study, strength work and team life all come together under one roof
 

MAJOR ADDITION OF A VETERAN TO THE STAFF 

• Alan Major, a veteran coach with more than 25 years of experience at several levels of basketball, reunited with Coach Steve Lavin as an assistant coach at the University of San Diego, announced on Oct. 28, 2025

• Major and Lavin's relationship goes back 37 years, as Major got his start as a student manager under the legendary Gene Keady as an undergraduate student at Purdue until 1992. It was there that he and Lavin first worked together, while the latter was also getting his start as an assistant coach with the Boilermakers

• Major's resume is highlighted by four-plus years as head coach of the Charlotte 49ers and among his assistant coaching gigs, helping Ohio State to five total B1G titles and a national championship game

ROCKET-POWERED JUMP & SPEED

• USD is up 124 spots in the overall KenPom team rankings, going from No. 297 in last year's end-of-season rankings to No. 173 in this season's preseason rankings, the fourth-highest jump in college basketball

• The Toreros' on-court identity will live by their fast-paced transition offense as San Diego started the season ranked No. 21 in KenPom's metric for adjusted tempo, the quickest in the WCC

THE SCHEDULE

• San Diego starts the season with five consectuive home games in November before facing WAC favorites California Baptist on Nov. 21 in Palm Desert's Acrisure Arena as a part of the Acrisure Series MTE

• USD's marquee matchups of non-conference play sees them face two B1G programs, hosting USC on Dec. 9, a matchup from the Jenny Craig Pavilion that will be broadcast on ESPN2 ... The Toreros travel to Seattle for the first of two times in the season, rounding out the non-con slate facing the Washington Huskies

• In West Coast Conference action the Toreros face each conference opponent twice except for Gonzaga (home only, Dec. 30) and Washington State (home only, Jan. 21) in their final seasons as a part of the WCC, first-year conference members Seattle U (away only, Jan. 15), and three-time defending champs Saint Mary's (away only, Feb. 4)

2024-25 IN REVIEW

• San Diego returns it's leading scorer Kjay Bradley Jr., two total scholarship players from a season ago, when it finished 6-27 with a second-round exit in the West Coast Conference Tournament

• The Toreros roster – the youngest in program history – ranked 354th of 364 in DI college basketball in experience according to KenPom and finished the regular season leading the nation in number of players miss at least one game due to injury (13) and number of different starting lineup combinations and different starters (17 & 15) ... The Toreros also ranked second in the nation for most players with double-figure scoring games (13)

• USD won it's first and last games of conference play, topping No. 10 seed Pacific in the opening round of the WCC Tournament but falling to the No. 7 seed LMU Lions in the second round from Orleans Arena in Las Vegas

YEAR FOUR OF THE LAVIN ERA

• 2025-2026 marks head coach Steve Lavin's fourth 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 261-193 (.574) with 10 postseason appearances in 14 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

• 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

• 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