GAME PREVIEW

• The Mike Bibby era begins as Sacramento State opens the 2025-26 season on Tuesday night vs. Dominican. Tip-off is 7 p.m., and the game will take place in Hornet Pavilion, a brand new facility that sits inside The WELL on campus.
• Both teams are playing their season openers.
• Dominican is an NCAA Div. II member that resides in San Rafael, Calif. The Penguins are part of the PacWest Conference.
• Not only will the game mark the first at Sacramento State for head coach Mike Bibby, but also the entire 14-man roster will make their debuts in a Hornet uniform.
• Bibby was introduced as the 17th head men's basketball coach in program history on March 25, 2025. A fan favorite during his NBA career with the Sacramento Kings, Bibby has returned home to coach the Hornets.
• The Hornets finished last season with a 7-25 overall record and 3-15 in the Big Sky Conference. The team finished in last place (10th) for the second straight year.
• Bibby will be the third Sacramento State head coach in three years, joining David Patrick (2023-24) and interim head coach Michael Czepil (2024-25).
• The Hornets are 5-0 all-time vs. Dominican, and the teams will play each other for the first time since a 77-68 victory on Nov. 27, 2012, at the Nest.
• Prior to that nine-point win in 2012, every other outcome had been a double-digit win by the Hornets. After playing in 1984 in Ashland, Ore., when the Hornets were a Div. II program, the teams have played in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2013. Each of those final four games of the series were played at the Nest.
• Tuesday will be the first of three straight home games the Hornets will play to open the season, including Nov. 7 vs. Jessup, and Nov. 11 vs. UC Santa Barbara.
• The Hornets did not play any exhibition games this season, opting instead to play scrimmages at New Orleans (Oct. 18), and home vs. Chico State (Oct. 26).

MULTIMEDIA OPTIONS

• For the fifth straight season, all Hornet home games, and games played at a Big Sky Conference venue, will stream on ESPN+. The subscription-based service will stream on watchespn.com and the ESPN App.
• That includes Tuesday's game which will air on ESPN+ with 29th-year play-by-play announcer Steve McElroy on the call.
• 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..

SEASON OPENERS

• Entering its 35th season as a Div. I member, the Hornets are 13-21 in season openers since making the jump from Div. II to Div. I prior to the 1991-92 season. However, the team has won nine of the last 14 season openers.
• Since its first season of men's hoops in 1948-49, Sacramento State is 27-50 all-time in season openers.

VS. NON-DIV. I COMPETITION

• Since making the jump to the Div. I ranks in 1991, the Hornets have played a number of games against non-Div. I competition.
• Excluding all games against UC Davis (a Div. II member until 2007), Sacramento State is 51-0 against non-Div. I opponents, winning those games by an average of 28.7 points per contest. That includes wins of 62, 51, and 40 points a year ago.
• Sacramento State did play its rival, UC Davis, nine times when it was a member of Div. I and the Aggies were still Div. II. In those nine meetings between 1992 and 2006, the Hornets were 5-4.

TWO SCRIMMAGES

• The Hornets had a pair of scrimmages, beginning with an 89-76 loss at New Orleans on Oct. 18. Billed the 'Southwest Shootout', the hosts of the event were Hornets' general manager Shaquille O'Neal and Privateers' president of operations Percy Miller (Master P).
• Sacramento State also played a home scrimmage vs. Chico State on Oct. 26, but the two teams played more of a situational scrimmage and did not keep track of the total score.

BIBBY ERA BEGINS

• Head coach Mike Bibby, who spent half of his 14-year NBA career with the Sacramento Kings, returns to the city where he became a fan favorite while helping the Kings to multiple playoff appearances in the early 2000s.
• A first team all-American, Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year and the No. 2 overall pick in the 1998 NBA draft, Bibby helped Arizona to a 1997 NCAA national championship.
• Recently, Bibby had assistant coaching stops with the Puerto Rican National Team, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Memphis Grizzlies summer league teams, and the NBA G-League Ignite.
• During his six seasons at Shadow Mountain High School (five as head coach), he coached the team to five state championships, a 157-21 overall record, a 72-game winning streak, and a six-year home winning streak.

SHAQ JOINS PROGRAM AS GENERAL MANAGER

• Shaquille O'Neal enters his first season as general manager of the Hornets. He joined the program shortly after the appointment of Mike Bibby to head coach.
• O'Neal played 19 years in the NBA and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016.
• He accepted the position in a volunteer capacity and will focus on recruitment, marketing, and holistic player development - both on and off the court.

ENTIRE COACHING STAFF IS NEW

• Not only is Mike Bibby brand new to the program, so is his entire coaching staff. That includes his son, Michael Bibby, who is one of two associate head coaches.
• Joining the Bibbys on the staff are associate head coach Raymond Walcott, assistant coaches Jason Fraser, Greg Moody II and Dr. August Mendes.
• The Hornets list two general managers, including Zach Chappell and Shaq. Chappell was an assistant coach on last year's coaching staff, and also played three highly successful seasons as player at Sacramento State (2020-23). An all-Big Sky Conference performer as a senior in 2022-23, he played one season of pro ball in Germany in 2024.
• The Hornets also have two new basketball operations guys in Michael Warren and Gerrard Carmichael, and new strength and conditioning coach Dr. Al Biancani. With four decades of conditioning world-class athletes, Biancani developed a relationship with Bibby when he was the strength and conditioning coach with the Sacramento Kings while Bibby was a player.
• The athletic trainer (Samm Brockel) and team manager (Drew Peters) remain the same from a year ago.

THE MOVE TO HORNET PAVILION

• Sacramento State's 66-year run in the Nest has come to an end.
• The team will move its home games to The WELL on campus. The name of the facility will be Hornet Pavilion. The project has converted a portion of the The WELL, an on-campus fitness facility, into a venue for both the men's and women's basketball teams.
• Seating capacity is 3,000, and the project was completed in late October.
• The Hornets had played in the Nest every year since 1955, except four seasons (1996-00) when they spent their first four Big Sky years at downtown Memorial Auditorium.

BRAND NEW ROSTER

• All 14 players on the Hornets' roster are brand new to the program. Sacramento State is one of eight programs in the country with zero returning players from a year ago. One of those teams is Baylor, who the Hornets play on Dec. 2 in Waco, Texas.
• Of the 14 players on the roster, there are 10 Div. I transfers, two high school players, one junior college transfer, and one transfer from a Div. II school. In all, 12 of the team's 14 players are transfers.
• Sacramento State has two local players on the roster in sophomore Jayden Teat, who transferred from Utah after starring at Capital Christian High School and Jesuit High School in Sacramento. The other is freshman Mark Lavrenov, who became Rocklin High School's all-time leading scorer with 2,177 career points.
• Other Div. I teams with completely new rosters are Arkansas State, Xavier, Miami, North Texas, Cleveland State and Memphis.

FINAL SEASON IN THE BIG SKY

• This season marks the Hornets' 30th in the Big Sky Conference (1996-pres.), but will also serve as the team's last.
• During the summer, Sacramento State announced that it will join the Big West Conference as a full member beginning in the 2026-27 academic year.
• In 2026, the Hornets will join a Big West lineup that includes California Baptist, Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, CSUN, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and Utah Valley.

NBA LINEAGE

• Sacramento State has two players on the roster that have fathers that played in the NBA.
• That includes Shaqir O'Neal's father, Shaq, who played 19 seasons in the NBA (1992-2011) and is a member of the Hall of Fame. Taj Glover's father, Dion, played in the NBA for six seasons (1999-05).
• In addition, Isaiah Bronson's father, Lorenzo, was an official in the NBA.
• Also, of course, assistant coach Michael Bibby's father, Mike, played 14 seasons in the NBA and is Sacramento State's head coach.

ROSTER NOT SO INTERNATIONAL THIS YEAR

• Last year's Hornet roster featured players from six different countries.
• This year, of the 14 players on the roster, 13 are from the United States. Only one player is from overseas - Jeremiah Nyarko (Ghana). The 13 Americans represent six different states within the U.S. - California (5), Arizona (3), Georgia (2), Florida (1), Indiana (1) and Ohio (1).
 
THE SCHEDULE

• The schedule includes 30 games, comprised of 14 at home and 16 on the road.
• The regular season begins with a home game vs. Dominican on Nov. 4, and concludes with a home matchup vs. Idaho State on March 2.
• The Big Sky Tournament is March 7-11 in Boise, Idaho, followed by the first day of the NCAA Tournament on March 17.
• The Hornets will play the usual 18-game Big Sky Conference portion of the schedule (nine at home, nine on the road) beginning on Jan. 1, as well as 12 non-league games.
• Sacramento State begins the season with three straight, and four of its first five, at home.
 
HEIGHT ISN'T EVERYTHING

• The entire Sacramento State roster stands between 6-2 and 6-11.
• The Hornets do not have a ton of size as nine players stand at 6-foot-6 or shorter.
• The other five break down to three players standing at 6-8, one at 6-9, and one at 6-11. All nine guards stand 6-foot-6 or shorter.
 
BRAND NEW UNIFORM SETS

• Sacramento State will have three brand new uniform sets - home white, road black, and neutral green. For the first time in recent memory, the last names of each player will be displayed on the back of every jersey set.
 
LAST SEASON'S TEAM

• Last year's team, which was led by interim head coach Michael Czepil, finished 7-25 overall and 3-15 in the Big Sky. 
• All 14 players on that roster either graduated or transferred to a different school.
• Prior to this season, Sacramento State had never began a season with less than four returners on its roster.
 
SCRIMMAGE NOTES

• In the scrimmage at New Orleans, the Hornets started Jeremiah Cherry and Brandon Gardner at forward, as well as Jayden Teat, Jahni Summers and Prophet Johnson at guard.
• Mikey Williams would have likely started, but did not play because of injury.
• Leading the way were Cherry (23 pts, 2 blk), Teat (19 pts, 10-10 FT) and Johnson (12 pts, 9 reb, 4 ast). That trio combined for 54 of the Hornets' 76 points.