SAN DIEGO — San Diego men's basketball is set to take on its second big cat opponent to start the season as it hosts the Idaho State Bengals on Friday afternoon at 6 p.m. in the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
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 BENGAL RUNDOWN
• Idaho State survived its season opener against NAIA Park University Gikbert, 81-71, after trailing at halftime
• Friday will be the fifth all-time meeting between the two teams ... USD is 3-1 against the Bengals, with two home wins (71-68, Dec. 29, 1982 & 81-69, Dec. 22, 1983) and another narrow victory, 64-61, in '99's neutral site battle in Logan, Utah, however dropping last season's contest in the JCP 78-66
THE RELAUNCH
• With a reloaded roster of 14 newcomers and the unprecedented investments 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
LAST TIME OUT
- The Toreros kicked off the 2025-26 season with a dominant 88-59 win over Occidental Tuesday night behind lights-out shooting in the first half.
- In the wire-to-wire victory the Toreros shot out of the gates – both figuratively and literally – shooting 62.5% (10-16) from beyond the arc in the first half and never looked back, leading by as much as 40.
- As a team, USD also posted 22 assists and 11 steals, outscoring the Tigers in bench points 57-12 and on points off turnovers 33-9 ... 11 different Toreros made multiple field goals and 15 different Toreros grabbed a rebound.
- Leading the scoring contingent individually were a pair of grad newcomers, guard Toneari Lane (game-high 15 points) and forward Tim Moore Jr. (13 points). Lane scored all of his points in the first half and from beyond the arc, going 5-7 from three.
- Junior guard Ty-Laur Johnson, an ACC transfer also playing his first game in a USD uniform, tallied eight assists and three steals with six points in just 11 minutes played ... New junior international experienced bigs Assane Diop and Piotr Winkowski led San Diego with eight rebounds each.
- The first starting five of the season, featured freshman forward D'Arrae Goodwin, senior guard Juanse Gorosito, grad guard Dominique Ford and junior forwards Assane Diop and Vuk Boskovic
- After three straight USD threes going into the first media timeout, the Toreros made a whole five-man line change but continued the hot 3-point shooting to open a 19-7 lead
A 14-0 run highlighted by three straight Toneari Lane threes expands the lead to 38-13 at the under-eight timeout
- San Diego didn't let up off the gas, leading 57-28 at the half
- After a somewhat back-and-forth start to the second period, the Toreros reignited on another 12-0 run to lead by a game-best 40 points
- With freshmen and walk-ons in the game for the hosts, the Tigers scored eight unanswered points inside seven minutes remaining
- At the final buzzer, the final score read 88-59 in favor of the host
NOTABLE VS. OCCIDENTAL
- Vuk Boskovic, Piotr Winkowksi, D'Arrae Goodwin, Caleb Versher and Brandon Benjamin each scored their first career collegiate points
- 12 different Toreros made field goals in the contest as 11 made multiple, the most for the team since at least 2017
- 15 different Toreros grabbed at least one rebound
- The Toreros move to 7-0 all-time against Occidental after what was the first meeting between the two teams since the 2010 opener
- Redshirt-junior forward Emmanuel Callas registered a career high three blocks
ROCKET-POWERED JUMP & SPEED
• USD is up 124 spots in the overall KenPom team rankings, going from No. 297 in last years 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
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
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
