Men's Basketball Opens 66th Season at Stanford and Idaho During Opening Week

Monday, November 6

Stanford, Calif.

8:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

Stanford

Photo by: Chuck Marvel

Men's Basketball Opens 66th Season at Stanford and Idaho During Opening Week

11/3/2023 2:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball

FULL GAME NOTES

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Men's Basketball officially opens its 66th season on the road on Monday, Nov. 6 against Stanford at 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Pac-12 Bay Area. CSUN wraps up opening week with another road test against Idaho on Thursday, Nov. 9 at 6 p.m. on ESPN+.

HOW TO FOLLOW
All 16 CSUN home games this season will be broadcast on ESPN+ while each home and away game will have free audio broadcasts available to stream at GoMatadors.com/Radio or on the Varsity Network App. For road games, related links to video stream and live stats will be posted on the men's basketball schedule page at GoMatadors.com. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Men's Basketball team's official Twitter feed @CSUNMBB for updates of games in progress and news and notes. For the 11th-straight season, CSUN's broadcasting duo of Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister will call each Matador game in 2023-24.

START OF A NEW ERA
CSUN kicks off a new era under the guidance of first-year head coach Andy Newman. The Matadors' eighth head coach in team history brings a winning background to CSUN after successful stops at the Division II ranks with Cal State San Bernardino and the University of Texas Permian Basin. Newman holds an impressive 206-98 overall NCAA record in his head coaching career with five trips to the Division II NCAA Tournament over the past six seasons. A year ago, Newman led Cal State San Bernardino to a school record 31 wins en route to a trip to the NCAA Final Four. Newman also has Big West experience in his career after a 10-year stint on the coaching staff at Cal State Fullerton from 2003-13. While on staff, Newman helped lead the Titans to the 2008 NCAA Tournament, and he also served as interim head coach in 2012-13.

NEW LOOK MATADORS TAKE THE COURT
Over the offseason, CSUN brought aboard 11 newcomers to the roster featuring eight transfers and three incoming freshmen. Of the eight transfers, four come from Division I schools, which include Gianni Hunt (Sacramento State), Jared Barnett (San Diego State), Jasman Sangha (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and Jordan Brinson (Fresno State). The trio of Mahmoud Fofana (Cal State San Bernardino), Kyle Frelow (University of Texas at Tyler) and Jack Cheng (Biola) have made the jump from the Division II ranks while Keonte Jones is a junior college transfer from Midland College (Texas). Three true freshmen round out the new CSUN faces, which include Bryan Ndjonga (Bella Vista Preparatory School), Simon Tilahun (L.A. Premier Prep) and Darius Carr (Fairfax High School).

FAMILIAR FACES RETURN
The Matadors will return just four letterwinners from last season's roster, however, three of those returners were starters in 2022-23. De'Sean Allen-Eikens and Dearon Tucker return for their final collegiate seasons while junior guard Dionte Bostick returns after a breakout year last season. Sophomore forward Lamine Niang rounds out the returning crop.

One of three to play every game last year, Allen-Eikens finished second on the team in rebounds per game (5.0) and third in points per game (11.1) while shooting 45.4 percent from the field and 31.5 percent from three. Tucker, who also played each game last season, led the team with 21 blocks while averaging 5.2 points and 3.6 rebounds. Bostick, the team's top returning scorer, averaged 12.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.2 steals in 21 games before suffering an injury late in the year. Niang would play 18 games as a true freshman and would total 18 points and 26 rebounds in limited minutes.

DE'SEAN HAS EYES ON 1,000
De'Sean Allen-Eikens enters his final college season on the doorstep of reaching 1,000 career points. Allen-Eikens, who began his career at the University of North Dakota and played a season at the University of New Orleans, stands at 915 career points. A season ago, Allen-Eikens scored the second-most total points on the team with 354. He has played in 84 career college games over the past four seasons, averaging 10.9 points per game.

LOOKING TO SCORE POINTS
Head coach Andy Newman is looking to bring a fast-paced, up-and-down style to CSUN this season. At his previous stops, Newman's teams were known for their high octane offenses and often were at the top of the conference for points. He led Cal State San Bernardino to a school-record 3,094 points last season while he previously coached the University of Texas-Permian Basin to a conference-leading 88.3 points per game in 2016. In his one season as interim head coach of Cal State Fullerton, Newman also coached a similar style, guiding the Titans to a Big West-best 76.9 points per game in 2012-13.

HOMEGROWN MATADORS
CSUN boasts several student-athletes that reside in the Los Angeles area. The Matadors' newcomers feature three Division I transfers along with a D2 transfer who have returned to the L.A. area after playing elsewhere earlier in their collegiate careers.

Gianni Hunt, who played prep ball at Bishop Montgomery High School, played three seasons at Oregon State to begin his college career, helping the Beavers to an NCAA Elite Eight appearance in 2021, while he also spent one season at Sacramento State. Jared Barnett and Jordan Brinson both played for Westchester High School before entering college. Barnett played four seasons at San Diego State, helping the Aztecs finish as national runners-up last year while Brinson spent 2022-23 at Fresno State and was previously a junior college All-American at Salt Lake Community College. Kyle Frelow, who prepped at Heritage Christian High School, played two seasons at the University of Texas-Tyler to start his career.

Other hometown Matadors include Darius Carr (Fairfax High School) and Simon Tilahun (L.A. Premier Prep) who previously prepped at local schools.

SCOUTING STANFORD
The Cardinal is coming off a 14-19 season last year and a 7-13 mark in the Pac-12. After finishing 10th in the Pac-12 a year ago, members of the media picked Stanford to finish eighth in the annual preseason poll. The Cardinal boast a veteran core this season with the second-most returned scoring in the Pac-12. Spencer Jones was named preseason first-team all-conference for Stanford after averaging a team-high 14.1 points per game in 2022-23. Brandon Angel is also a top returner who averaged 9.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. The team sports a top-20 recruiting class led by five-star recruit and McDonald's All-American Andrej Stojakovic. Head coach Jerod Haase enters his eighth season with the team.

Stanford is 6-0 over CSUN in the all-time series with five victories at home. The Matadors hosted the Cardinal in Dec. 2020 with Stanford pulling out an 82-71 victory. CSUN's last win over a Pac-12 team came on Dec. 21, 2012, against Utah.

SCOUTING IDAHO
The Vandals went 10-22 overall and 4-14 in the Big Sky for a 10th-place finish last season. This season, Idaho was picked to finish 10th in the Preseason Coaches Poll. Idaho has overhauled its roster from last season with 12 newcomers on the roster including nine transfers. Terren Frank is the team's top returning scorer after averaging 10.0 points and 6.0 rebounds in just six games. The Vandals are under the direction of first-year head coach Alex Pribble.

CSUN holds a slim 7-6 lead over Idaho in the all-time series. The Vandals though have won the last two meetings including last season's game in Northridge, 76-73. CSUN is making its first trip to Moscow, Idaho since Feb. 18, 2014.

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