SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team (0-9, 0-3 CCAA) will wrap up a three-game homestand and close out the calendar year by hosting Sonoma State (5-4, 1-2 CCAA) on Saturday at 3 p.m. in The Sports Center.
 
LAST TIME OUT

• The Cougars last competed on Dec. 5 and 7 as they hosted then-No. 25 Cal Poly Pomona and then-No. 10 Cal State San Bernardino.
• Against the Broncos, CSUSM fell 72-65 as Micah Boone led the Cougars with 19 points and six boards.
• A late comeback fell short for the Cougars against the Coyotes as they took a 78-73 loss while Kyelin King led the game with a season-high 24 points.

 
COUGARS BY THE NUMBERS

• Donovan Watkins has the third-best assist/turnover ratio in the CCAA at 2.00.
• Dexter Stratton has the third-best free throw percentage in the conference at 87.1% while tallying the eighth-most rebounds per game at 6.2.
• Stratton and Kyelin King lead CSUSM with 12.2 and 11.0 points per game, respectively.
• The Cougars rank second in the league with 24.33 bench points per game.
• CSUSM has the third-best free throw percentage in the CCAA at 74.5% while making the third-most free throws per game at 15.6.

SECOND MEETING OF THE SEASON AGAINST SSU

• Saturday's matchup will be the second and final meeting of the regular season between the Cougars and Seawolves.
• Sonoma won the CCAA opener against CSUSM in Rohnert Park with a 74-62 victory on Nov. 30 as Donovan Watkins led the Cougars with 14 points.
• Since the Seawolves win against the Cougars, SSU fell 68-54 to Cal State San Bernardino before an 88-80 double-overtime loss to Cal Poly Pomona on Dec. 5 and 7.
• Saturday will be SSU's first true road game of the season as it's only traveled for a pair of neutral site games.
• James Nobles leads the Seawolves with 17.5 points per game, ranking sixth in the CCAA. Nobles also has the seventh-best field-goal percentage in the league at 46.1%.
• Nick Medeiros leads the conference and ranks 13th nationally with a 92.9 free throw percentage.
• SSU has the sixth-best scoring offense and defense in the CCAA at 73.4 and 73.0 points, respectively.
• The Seawolves have been locking down the perimeter with the 11th-best 3-point percentage defense at 27.9%.
• CSUSM is 11-5 in the all-time series against Sonoma and is 6-2 when playing at home.
• The Cougars have won the past four meetings against the Seawolves at The Sports Center.

2024-25 OUTLOOK

• CSUSM will have a new look this season as 11 of its 14 student-athletes are newcomers to the program.
• Four of CSUSM's 11 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 10-27 (.270).