After opening the 2008-09 season on the road in San Francisco, the Warriors return home Thursday for their home opener against William Jessup University as part of homecoming week celebrations.

THIS WEEK'S GAMES           
Tues.        @ Acadamy of Art, W, 101-80   
Thurs.         vs. William Jessup, 7 p.m., Warrior Arena

MEDIA COVERAGE
Live stats of the game are available by following the links on WarriorAthletics.com. Live streaming audio broadcast of the contest is available on WarriorAthletics.com and Network1Sports.com … In addition, the campus radio station, 91.9 FM KCSS, will be simulcasting Thursday's homecoming game with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.

FIRST SEASON-OPENING WIN SINCE 2003-04
Tuesday's 101-80 win at the Acadamy of Art was the Warriors' first season-opening win since the 2003-04 season. In Larsen's first year as head coach, the Warriors defeated Hawaii-Hilo, 80-71, in overtime. Afterwards, the Warrior lost four straight season openers. Before starting the losing streak in 2004-05, the team had won five consecutive season openers dating back to the 1999-2000 season.

WARRIORS ON DEFENSE
With one of the California Collegiate Athletic Association's top-rated offenses year in and year out, a key element missing from the Warriors' complete package has been a solid defense. In Tuesday's season opener against the Acadamy of Art the defense showed some life by coming up with nine steals and causing 29 turnovers. However, the Warriors turned the ball over 29 times themselves and had it stolen away on 12 occassions, sending a mixed signal as to how the team will perform on both ends of the court.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE DEBUT
After not starting in the first two preseason exhibition games of the season, junior transfer Matt Ibewiro (pictured right) worked to earn himself a starting spot in the final preseason game at Fresno State and in the regular season opener at Academy of Art on Tuesday. Ibewiro dazzled in his first regular season game Tuesday, scoring 22 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Ibewiro also had three steals. In his first start against Fresno State, Ibewiro scored 16 points with five rebounds.

BOARD DECISION
The Warriors struggled with keeping up in the rebounding category during the preseason, getting outredbounded 145-80 in three preseason exhibition games against Division I opponents. Tuesday, the Warriors won by 21 points, but were still outrebounded by the Urban Knights 38-35.
“I think at times we're a really good defensive team, but I'm very concerned about rebounding,” head coach Keith Larsen said this week.

CCAA COACHES' POLL
Cal State Stanislaus, coming off their worst season in 23 years, were picked to finish a distant last in this year's California Collegiate Athletic Association Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Warriors received 11 points, 17 points behind Cal State Monterey Bay, picked to finish 10th. Last season's co-CCAA regular season champion Cal State San Bernardino took the top nod with nine of 11 first-place votes and 99 total points. 2007-2008 CCAA Championship Tournament semifinalist Cal State Dominguez Hills finished second in the voting with 77 points. Last year's CCAA Championship Tournament runner-up Cal Poly Pomona, with one first-place vote, was chosen to finish third with 76 total points.

DIALING LONG-DISTANCE
Despite the new three-point line being one-foot further away from the basket, the Warriors are off to a hot start shooting from downtown. In Tuesday's regular season opener, the Warriors were 10-for-19 from behind the arch (52.6 percent) after going 9-for-13 (69.2 percent) in the first half … Benny Koochoie was 4-for-6 and Casey Cutts went 3-for-3 dialing long distnace … Chris Hayes, Brandon Curtis and Marvin Cotton each made a trey as well.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP
Chris Hayes (pictured right), one of the returning seniors on the team, show leadership with his play by turning in two career-bests against Academy of Art. Hayes knocked in 15 points and had three steals — both career-highs — to help the Warriors in the rout.

DOIN' THE DISHIN'
As a team, the Warriors had a great night playing team-offense as they tallied 20 assists against the AAU Urban Knights. Leading the way was new-point guard Chris Teevan with eight assists with Koochoie being credited with five.

POTENTIAL FOR GREAT START
Already with one win under their belts, the Warriors have a chance this season to get off to their best start since the 2000-01 season. There are four more National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics opponents coming up on the Warriors' schedule, divided by two CCAA games on the road on Dec. 5 and 6. If the Warriors can win the games they are supposed to win against the less-competitive NAIA teams, they could start the season with a record as good as 7-0, or at worst, 5-2, if they lose both CCAA games in December … A 5-2 start would be the team's best start since 2000-01 when the team started 4-0 then lost two games but won the next. The team has not started a season better than 4-0 since joining the CCAA in 1998.

HEAD COACH KEITH LARSEN
Keith Larsen is in his sixth season as the head coach of the Warriors. He is the ninth head coach in the history of CSUS men's basketball. Since 2003, Larsen has posted a record of 49-89, including a 14-13 season in 2005-06, the program's first winning season since 2002-03. The 2005-06 team finished as one of the hottest teams in the region, posting a 9-2 record (with nine wins out of 10 during the stretch) to finish the season … Prior to joining CSUS, Larsen was the head coach at Menlo College where he posted a 81-68 record in six seasons and led the Oaks to two conference championships … He has also worked under Mike Montgomery as an assistant at Stanford (1992-97) and Bob Williams at Menlo (1987-98) … Larsen is a 1985 graduate of San Francisco State.

WARRIOR SPORTS NETWORK
Paul Scheet returns for another season as the Warriors' play-by-play announcer and will cover all home games as well as selected road games this season. The broadcasts are available on the Internet on WarriorAthletics.com and Network1Sports.com. In addition, many games will be simulcast on Cal State Stanislaus' student radio station, KCSS 91.9 FM with student Mike Maddox assisting Scheet with play-by-play and analysis duties. Check WarriorAthletics.com for more information and for a broadcast schedule.

WARRIORS ON THE WEB
Check out the Warriors men's basketball team on the web at WarriorAthletics.com — the official website of Warrior Athletics. Visitors can browse player profiles, read game results and statistics, as well as subscribe to the Warriors SMS text messaging updates. The website was newly redesigned this summer through a partnership with Internet Consulting Services.

CCAA BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
The CCAA men's and women's basketball championships tournament will return to San Bernardino in March of 2009 with the top eight teams to qualify for the conference's postseason tournament. The first round games will be played on Tuesday, March 3 on campus sites of the top four seeds. The semifinals and finals will be played on March 6-7 at Cal State San Bernardino's Coussoulis Arena. The winner of the tournament would receive the automatic bid for the NCAA tournament.