The Cal State Stanislaus men's basketball team will face their first NCAA Division II opposition this week on the road, as the first weekend in December marks the opening weekend of California Collegiate Athletic Association play for the entire conference. The Warriors head to San Francisco Friday to take on the SFSU Gators, then go south Saturday to face the Cal State Monterey Bay Otters.

MEDIA COVERAGE
Live stats of the games are available by following the links on WarriorAthletics.com. Live streaming audio broadcast of Friday's contest at San Francisco State is available on WarriorAthletics.com and Network1Sports.com.

THESE GAMES COUNT
This weekend marks the beginning of CCAA competition for the Warriors and all teams in the conference. The games against other CCAA teams will determine the fate of the Warriors' season, as they try to earn one of the eight spots in the CCAA Championship Tournament at season's end. In 2007-08, the Warriors were 5-15 in CCAA play, finishing 10th out of 11 teams. The Warriors opened conference play last season at home with a close 86-82 win over Chico State, then lost a heartbreaker on the road at UC San Diego, 63-60, as a late rally came up short.

FIRST LOSS OF THE YEAR
Even with two separate second half leads of eight points and six points, the Warriors were not able to hold on Saturday against Dominican (Calif.) University and suffered their first loss of the 2008-09 campaign, 91-83. The 3-1 record is still the team's best start since 2005-06, when the Warriors lost their season opener to Division I Santa Clara, then swept the County Bank Classic and upset Division I UC Irvine, 91-90, on the road to start 3-1 as well.

SOLID GUARD
Junior transfer Chris Teevan has solidified his position at the point guard spot early in the season with great play calling and solid defense. Teevan is second in the CCAA with 21 assists this season, a 5.3 per game average. With 21 assists and just nine turnovers in four games, Teevan's assist/turnover ratio ranks eighth-best in the conference at 2.3. Teevan has come up with three steals and is averaging 2.5 points and 1.5 rebounds a game.

BACK TO THE OLD WAYS
It appeared as though 2008-09 would be a different look for the Cal State Stanislaus men's basketball team with numerous big men and tough defense-playing guards, but four games into the season the Warriors are statistically right back where they started. With 90 points per game as a team, the Warriors are the highest-scoring offense in the CCAA. On the defensive end, the team has allowed 77.2 points a game to their opponents, putting them as the third-worst defensive team in the conference. The Warriors are the best shooting team in the CCAA, making 48.5 percent of their shots, but opposing teams are making 46 percent of their shots, again putting the Warriors at eighth out of 11 teams in the CCAA.

GETTING A GOOD START
This weekend's CCAA games are the only conference action the Warriors will see until after the first of the year. This is the first time the Warriors have started the conference season with two road games since 2006-07. Then, the team headed to Southern California for a win against Cal State Dominguez Hills, then lost by four points, 76-72, at the hands of UC San Diego.

GETTING A SECOND CHANCE
Junior transfer Matt Ibewiro has been cleaning up the offensive glass through the Warriors' first four games this season. Ibewiro is tied for first in the offensive rebounds category with Cal State Monterey Bay's Joe Mitchell, averaging 3.5 a game. Both players have 14 offensive boards in four games and they will go head-to-head in the paint on Saturday in Seaside.

WHEN YOU'RE HOT, YOU'RE HOT
Freshman Brandon Curtis got on a roll Saturday during the second half against Dominican, and it did not stop until the final buzzer rang. Curtis scored a career-high 20 points with 8-for-11 shooting from the field, including a 4-for-6 mark from behind the 3-point line. Curtis scored eight points in a matter of 60 seconds to give the Warriors a six-point lead with 6 minutes, 33 seconds to play in the game.

STOPPING MOMENTUM
The Warriors have the daunting task of not only starting the conference season on the road, but heading to San Francisco State's Main Gymnasium and trying to hand the undefeated 5-0 Gators their first loss of the season. Cal State Stanislaus is 4-6 at the SFSU Main Gymnasium since joining the CCAA in 1998, with three of those games being decided in overtime. The average margin of victory for either team when they match up at SFSU Main Gymnasium is just 7.7 points.

MORE REBOUNDING WOES
The Warriors were edged in rebounding Saturday by Dominican, 34-32, in the 91-83 loss. The Warriors are now 1-1 when getting outrebounded by an opponent. More rebounding trouble could be on the way if numbers speak true. The Warriors' weekend opponents, San Francisco State and Cal State Monterey Bay, both hold opponents to less rebounds than the Warriors do (28.0 and 30.0, respectively, to the Warriors' opponents average, 34.0). The Otters have grabbed 37 rebounds a game while the Warriors have snagged 36.2, just above San Francisco State's 33.8 a game as a team.

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 51-90, 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.