SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team (0-5) will wrap up non-conference play by hosting Azusa Pacific (2-3) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. before beginning CCAA play on the road at Sonoma State (4-2) on Saturday at 3 p.m.
 
LAST WEEK

• In its lone game of the week, CSUSM fell 81-64 at No. 17 Point Loma last Tuesday.
• Dexter Stratton led the Cougars with a season-high 23 points to go along with eight boards

 
COUGARS BY THE NUMBERS

• Donovan Watkins has the second-best assist/turnover ratio in the CCAA at 2.25 while ranking fifth in assists per game at 3.6.
• Dexter Stratton's 7.0 rebounds per game rank fifth in the league. He ranks eighth with 4.8 defensive boards and 10th with 2.2 offensive rebounds.
• Uriah Foster's 81.3 free throw percentage ranks fourth in the conference while Stratton's 80.0 ranks seventh.
• As a team, CSUSM ranks third in the CCAA from the charity stripe at 73.5%.
• The Cougars are committing the fourth-fewest fouls per game in the conference at 17.4.
• CSUSM is coming down with the fifth-most offensive boards in the league at 11.4.
• Off the bench, the Cougars are scoring the sixth-most points in the CCAA at 24.2.

NON-CONFERENCE FINALE AGAINST APU

• Like CSUSM, APU only had one game last week as it fell 70-49 at home against Cal State LA on Thursday.
• Tuesday's game will be APU's first true road game of the season. It started the year by traveling to Seattle to face Cal Poly Pomona and Chico State.
• APU has a trio of double-digit scorers in Jordan Hansen (14.2), Maui Sze (12.6) and Ethan Speaker (12.0) with the latter leading the team in rebounds (6.2).
• Shooting 44% from the perimeter, APU ranks sixth in the nation while making the 18th-most 3-pointers per game at 11.0.
• Sze is dishing out 4.8 assists per game for APU, ranking third in the PacWest.
• APU is committing just 13.0 fouls per game, leading the PacWest and ranking 12th nationally.
• Scoring 70.0 points per game, APU ranks 10th in the PacWest while its scoring defense of 73.6 points per game ranks eighth.
• CSUSM is 3-6 in the all-time series against APU and has a 1-3 record at home.
• The last meeting between the two Cougar squads was at the NCAA West Regional during the 2022-23 season, as CSUSM earned its first NCAA Tournament win with a 72-62 victory.
• This will be APU's first visit to The Sports Center since Nov. 21, 2018.
• In the 2024-25 PacWest Preseason Coaches Poll, Azusa was picked to finish fourth.

 CCAA OPENER AT SONOMA STATE

• The Seawolves concluded non-conference play this past weekend in San Francisco as they defeated Menlo by a score of 80-61 on Friday before falling 74-65 to Fresno Pacific on Saturday.
• Prior to the loss, SSU was on a three-game winning streak.
• The Seawolves have yet to play a true road game this season and won't until the Cougars host them on Dec. 21.
• James Nobles leads SSU with 17.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. Nick Medeiros and Jakob Milling are also double-figure scorers at 15.0 and 10.3 points per game, respectively.
• The Seawolves lead the CCAA and rank 26th nationally with a 79.5 free throw percentage.
• SSU's scoring offense of 75.5 points per game ranks seventh in the CCAA while its scoring defense of 73.2 ranks sixth.
• CSUSM holds an 11-4 lead in the all-time series against SSU and is 5-2 when playing in Rohnert Park.
• The Cougars and Seawolves split last season's series with each winning on their home floor.
• SSU's home win over CSUSM on Feb. 29 snapped the Cougars' eight-game winning streak against them, and it was the Seawolves' first home win against the Cougars since Feb. 13, 2016.
• The Seawolves were picked to finish eighth in the CCAA Preseason Coaches Poll.

2024-25 OUTLOOK

• CSUSM will have a new look this season as 13 of its 16 student-athletes are newcomers to the program.
• Six of CSUSM's 13 newcomers are freshmen while the other seven are four-year/community college transfers.
• The Cougars return three student-athletes from last year's roster in senior Uriah Foster, sophomore Max Tengan and redshirt junior Donovan Watkins.
• Tengan is CSUSM's leading scorer among returners at 9.0 points per game while dishing out 2.2 assists per game and shooting 35.8% from beyond the arc.
• CSUSM was picked to finish 10th in the 2024-25 CCAA Preseason Coaches Poll.

THE BOOKER FILE

• Nick Booker enters his second season at the helm of CSUSM men's basketball after he became the Cougars' third head coach in program history on June 5, 2023.
• In his first season in 2023-24, Booker's Cougars tied for eighth in the CCAA standings and earned statement wins over No. 10 Chico State and No. 22 and eventual semifinalist Cal State San Bernardino.
• Booker came to CSUSM from UC San Diego where he was the Tritons' assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for three seasons beginning in June 2020.
• Prior to UCSD, Booker was the associate head coach at Eastern Washington from April 2017 through May 2020 and was named the top assistant coach in the Big Sky Conference by Stadium.
• While at Eastern Washington, Booker helped the Eagles win 59 games overall and a Big Sky Conference Championship in 2019-20 while helping develop two Big Sky Players of the Year.
• Before Eastern Washington, Booker was the director of basketball operations at Davidson College in 2016-17 after a five-year stint as an assistant coach at UC Irvine from April 2011 to March 2016, where he was also the director of basketball operations for one season prior.
• Booker's first coaching gig as an assistant came at Miramar Community College in 2006-07, and he later became the assistant coach and interim head coach at Saddleback Community College from July 2007 through August 2010.
• Booker earned his bachelor's in history at Davidson College in 2004 and earned his master's in physical education from Azusa Pacific in 2010.
• At Davidson, Booker was a starter for the 2002 Southern Conference Championship team that faced Ohio State in the NCAA Tournament and contributed to back-to-back regular-season conference championships in 2001 and 2002.
• Booker has a career record of 10-23 (.303).