SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team (0-4) will travel to (RV) Point Loma (4-1) in its lone game of the week on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Golden Gymnasium.
 
LAST WEEK

• CSUSM took part in the CCAA/PacWest/GNAC Challenge at Azusa Pacific on Friday and Saturday.
• In its first-ever meeting against Western Washington on Friday, CSUSM fell 76-61 as Dexter Stratton and Micah Boone each tallied 12 points.
• The Cougars nearly pulled off a comeback win on Saturday against Seattle Pacific as it trailed by as many as 19 points at the start of the second half and trimmed the lead to one with 1:44 left. CSUSM ended up falling 76-71 to conclude the weekend as Keavie Love led the Cougars with 16 points.

 
COUGARS BY THE NUMBERS

• CSUSM is making the third-most free throws per game in the conference at 15.0.
• The Cougars are forcing the third-most turnovers per game in the CCAA at 17.33.
• CSUSM is averaging 12.0 offensive rebounds per game, ranking fourth in the league.
• The Cougars' bench is scoring 23.0 points per game, ranking fifth in the CCAA.
• CSUSM ranks fifth in the conference with 5.0 steals per game.
• Holding its opponents to 72.3 points per game, the Cougars rank sixth in the league.
• Donovan Watkins ranks sixth in the CCAA with 3.7 assists per game while ranking eighth in assist/turnover ratio at 1.83.
• Dexter Stratton has the seventh-best field-goal percentage in the conference at 51.7.
• Uriah Foster's 83.3 free throw percentage ranks eighth in the league.

TUESDAY AGAINST THE SEA LIONS

• The Sea Lions come into Tuesday on a 4-1 start to the season.
• PLNU began the season with wins over No. 22 Fort Lewis and No. 19 Florida Southern in Florida on Nov. 2-3.
• The Sea Lions then earned their first in-region wins against Cal State East Bay (83-66) and Stanislaus State (68-61) on Nov. 8-9.
• PLNU took its first loss of the season at No. 11 Cal State San Bernardino on Saturday as it fell 76-65.
• The Sea Lions began the season by receiving votes in the NABC Preseason Coaches Poll.
• Tuesday's game will be PLNU's home opener.
• The Sea Lions rank fourth in the PacWest with a scoring offense of 77.2 points while its scoring defense of 71.4 points ranks seventh.
• PLNU is coming down with the third-most rebounds per game in the PacWest at 40.20 while ranking second in offensive boards per game at 29.0.
• The Sea Lions have a trio of double-digit scorers in Luke Haupt (12.6), Zackry Paulsen (12.4) and Coby Barnes (11.8) while Haupt leads the team in rebounds at 6.0.
• Tuesday will be just the sixth meeting between the cross-county foes as PLNU leads the all-time series at 4-1 while going 2-0 when playing CSUSM at home.

 
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 10-22 (.313).