GAME PREVIEW
• In a battle of two teams that split their first two games of the season, Sacramento State (1-1) travels south to face UC San Diego (1-1) on Tuesday. Tip at LionTree Arena is 7 p.m.
• Sacramento State is coming off a 64-57 road loss at Fresno State on Friday night in which the Bulldogs closed the game on a 6-0 run. The Hornets, who led by as many as 11 points in the first half, did not score the final 3:13 of the contest.
• Sacramento State opened the season with a 106-44 home win over Cal Maritime in a game that saw the Hornets set a program record with 35 assists.
• The Hornets are in the midst of a stretch that will see the team play four of its first six games on the road. Perhaps the most challenging of that stretch is Tuesday's game at UC San Diego. The Tritons finished 21-12 last season (15-5 in league), and were selected third in the Big West Conference preseason poll.
• UC San Diego is coming off Saturday's 18-point home win (94-76) over Pepperdine. That was the first of a three-game homestand that includes the Hornets and Seattle U.
• Sacramento State finished 10-24 a year ago, and is under the guidance of first-year interim head coach
Michael Czepil. It was Czepil who picked up his first collegiate win as a head coach in the win over Maritime, which prompted a wild postgame scene in the locker room that involved Hornet players dousing Czepil with water.
• That win kicked off the
Michael Czepil era, who was named interim head coach on May 22. David Patrick had been the head coach each of the last two years, but resigned to become the associate head coach at LSU.
• Czepil (pronounced Zep-pull) had been on Patrick's staff at Sacramento State both seasons as the associate head coach, and is a native of Melbourne, Australia.
• In a series that dates back to 1974, the Hornets and UC San Diego have split their four meetings. Three of those games were played in Sacramento, including last year when the Tritons beat the Hornets, 83-52, at the Nest in arguably the worst game Sacramento State played all season.
• The Hornets beat the Tritons in San Diego, 65-55, on Nov. 12, 2022. This will mark the fourth straight year the two teams will play each other, and the first three have all been decided by double digits. That includes a 71-56 Triton win in Sacramento in 2021.
• In fact, all four meetings in the series have been decided by double figures, including the Hornets' 82-64 win at the Nest on Dec. 30, 1974.
• The Hornets did not play an exhibition game this season, opting instead to play a pair of closed-door scrimmages against UC Santa Barbara and San Jose State.
• Sacramento State returns nine players from last season's team. However, the team lost its top four, and five of the top six scorers from a year ago. The team's highest returning scorer is forward
Jacob Holt who averaged 6.7 points per contest.
• The Hornets currently have five players averaging double figures, comprised of
Julian Vaughns (17.0 ppg),
EJ Neal (12.5 ppg),
Michael Wilson (11.0 ppg),
Jacob Holt (10.5 ppg) and
Lachlan Brewer (10.5 ppg). Vaughns, Neal and Brewer are each playing their first active seasons at Sacramento State. Vaughns and Wilson have each played just one game.
MULTIMEDIA OPTIONS
• Tuesday evening's game will stream on ESPN+. It is part of a Hornet schedule that will see every game this season feature a video stream.
• For the fourth straight season, all Hornet home games, and games played at a Big Sky Conference venue, will stream on ESPN+. The subscription-based service streams on watchespn.com and the ESPN App. Of the team's 31 games this year, 27 will air on ESPN+.
• Links for all multimedia options, including live stats for every game, can be found next to each game on the men's basketball schedule at hornetsports.com.
Full set of game notes can be accessed in link above the story.
