SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team will unofficially begin its 2023-24 season this week as it plays in a couple of exhibition games at San Diego State on Monday at 7 p.m. and at UC Irvine on Friday at 7 p.m. While Monday's game at San Diego State will not be broadcasted, Friday's game at UC Irvine will be available to watch on ESPN+.
 
LAST SEASON

• CSUSM made its deepest run as a NCAA Division II program in 2022-23 by making it all the way to the semifinals of the NCAA West Regional.
• The Cougars finished second in the CCAA standings with a 17-5 record while advancing to the championship game of the CCAA Tournament.
• Overall, CSUSM saw its second consecutive 20-win season and third since becoming an NCAA member.
• The Cougars saw All-CCAA performances from Greg Milton III, Quinn Denker, Jayce McCain and Joel Mensah.
• CSUSM will take a 12-game home winning streak into 2023-24 as the Cougars finished 2022-23 with a record of 12-1 at The Sports Center. The streak is currently the seventh-longest active streak in all of Division II.

 
2023-24 OUTLOOK

• First-year head coach Nick Booker takes over the reins of the CSUSM men's basketball program after spending three seasons as an assistant at UC San Diego.
• The Cougars return six from last season's roster, including Edwyn Collins, Chris Howard, Bing Huang, Jermaine Rogers II, Jack Schultz and Donovan Watkins.
• CSUSM has nine newcomers for 2023-24, including transfers Uriah Foster, Charlie Henderson, Teagen Hoard, Luc Krystkowiak, Camren Pierce, Mike Pope, Jayden White and Justin White while welcoming true freshman Max Tengan.
• The Cougars' 30-game slate includes two road exhibitions to go along with 13 home games and 15 road games in the regular season.
• CSUSM was selected to finish seventh in the 2023-24 CCAA Preseason Coaches Poll.

 

EXHIBITION 1 | SAN DIEGO STATE
Date	Monday, Oct. 29, 2023
Time	7 p.m.
Location	San Diego, Calif.
Venue	Viejas Arena
Records	CSUSM (0-0) SDSU (0-0)
Live Stats	StatBroadcast
Live Video	Not Available

EXHIBITION AT SAN DIEGO STATE

• The Cougars will get their first dose of action on Monday night as they visit San Diego State for an exhibition.
• This will be the Cougars' first game against the Aztecs since an exhibition on Nov. 7, 2016, and will be the sixth exhibition between the two schools. They have never had a countable game against each other.
• SDSU was the NCAA Division I Runner-Up at the 2023 NCAA Tournament after falling 76-59 to UConn in the championship game.
• The Aztecs were picked to win the 2023-24 Mountain West Conference Championship in the league's annual preseason media poll.
• In the first Division I AP Top 25 Poll of 2023-24, SDSU was ranked No. 17.
• Senior guard Lamont Butler was named to the 2023-24 Preseason Mountain West All-Conference Team while USC transfer Reese Waters was picked as the Preseason Newcomer of the Year.

 

EXHIBITION 2 | UC IRVINE
Date	Friday, Nov. 3, 2023
Time	7 p.m.
Location	Irvine, Calif.
Venue	Bren Events Center
Records	CSUSM (0-0) UCI (0-0)
Live Stats	SideArm Stats
Live Video	ESPN+

FINAL TUNE-UP AT UC IRVINE

• CSUSM's second and last exhibition of the season will take them to UC Irvine on Friday night.
• This will be the first-ever meeting between the Cougars and Anteaters.
• UCI is coming off a 23-12 season that saw it make its seventh appearance in the NIT and fall in the first round to Oregon.
• The top returning player for UCI is Pierre Crockrell II as he was an All-Big West honorable mention with a team-leading 178 assists while averaging 5.0 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.
• The Anteaters participated in the 42nd Annual William Jones Cup in Taiwan in August where they went undefeated to earn gold with eight consecutive wins in nine days.
• UCI was picked to finish fourth in the 2023-24 Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll after earning a share of the 2022-23 Big West Conference Regular-Season Championship with UC Santa Barbara.

THE BOOKER FILE

• Nick Booker became the Cougars' third head coach in program history on June 5, 2023.
• Booker came to CSUSM from UC San Diego where 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 2004and 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.