Upstart San Diego Hosts San Francisco

USF Dons (3-7 Conf Play; 9-13 Overall) vs. USD Toreros (4-6 Conf Play; 11-11 Overall)

Date and Time: Saturday, January 31, 2015 at 5:00 PST

Location: Jenny Craig Pavillion, USD Campus, San Diego, CA

TV: CSNBA. Steve Quis, Play-by-Play; Corey Williams

Audio: http://new.livestream.com/thewtv/USFmbbaudioonly. Pat Olson and Jim Brovelli.

Meet the Teams

USF

Last time out, USF and USD were at 7-7 for their overall records. This time around, both USF and USD have a few “almosta” losses in their conference loss records, including USF’s loss against USD in their last game together. USF will not let the game slip from their hands like they did during their last outing.

Both teams continue to be better than their conference records suggest. Expect a hotly contested, physical game between the two teams.  Both teams have nothing to lose and everything to gain. At this point in the season, the remaining games will be for seeding at the conference tournament.  Nobody wants to be on the Gonzaga side of the bracket which almost assures getting sent home early from Vegas.

USF will likely start with Kruize Pinkins, Mark Tollefsen, Matt Christianson, Tim Derksen and Devin Watson at the point. Look for significant minutes from Chris Adams and Matt Glover and maybe a sighting of Uche Ofoegbu off the bench.

Coming up short is the theme for the season with the Dons. However, they matched up much better against BYU and were in the game all the way until the end. The team was on a mission to avenge their home loss against BYU and will be set to do the same against the Toreros today.

San Diego

Freshman guard Vasa Pusica hit a season high 16 points in the win over Santa Clara Thursday night allowing the team to survive a late rally by the Broncos. Johnny Dee (14.4 ppg) continues to pour in the points for the Toreros. The front court consisting of blocked shot kingpin Jito Kok, Duda Sanadze, the pride of Tblisi (12.9 ppg and 3 rebounds average) together with Christopher Anderson, USD’s point guard who averages 8 points and 4 assists (without John Stockton’s twin brother who now works at State Farm) continue to provide solid play and solid stats for the team.

USD’s bench is an entity unto itself, so it will be incumbent upon USF to make quick adjustments anytime there are substitutions if they expect to keep pace. There will be no margin for error.

USD is on a winning streak at the moment and have improved their shooting (to 51% from the field after the Santa Clara game) so the team will be motivated to keep it going especially in front of the home crowd.