CSUN Men’s Basketball opens up its 61st season on the hardwood on Tuesday evening. For the first time in program history, the Matadors host New Mexico on The Blacktop at The Matadome at 7:00 p.m in both teams’ season opener. The game will stream live on the CSUN Sports Network presented by Dignity Health and courtesy of Big West.TV. Ghizal Hasan and Alan Zinsmeister are on the call for the home opener.

The Matadors are coming off a pair of exhibition victories over the past two weeks. CSUN kicked off the Mark Gottfried era with a near wire-to-wire win over Antelope Valley, 88-77. Freshman Lamine Diane posted a double-double in his first ever game with the Matadors, scoring 30 points and collecting 17 rebounds off the bench. Sophomore Terrell Gomez found his stroke from outside range as he knocked down four 3-pointers and finished with 19 points.

Last Thursday, the Matadors held on for a narrow win over Cal State LA by the score of 89-87. The Matadors again enjoyed a double-digit lead, this time by 18 points before Cal State LA trimmed the deficit to two points with a minute to play. However, the Matadors would prevail behind late free throws from Gomez. Diane again led all scorers, finishing with 23 points and 14 rebounds while sophomore Alex Sokol came off the bench to tally 21 points including five 3-pointers.

The Matadors’ sixth head coach in team history, Gottfried enters his first season at CSUN. Gottfried brings an amazing track record of success with him including 20 years of head coaching experience at the Division I level. With stops at Murray State, Alabama and NC State, Gottfried has led 11 teams to the NCAA Tournament in his career. Prior to his head coaching days, Gottfried served as an assistant to Jim Harrick at UCLA where he would go on to win the 1995 National Championship. Gottfried has assembled an experienced coaching staff this season, which includes Harrick, Jeff Dunlap and Mo Williams.

CSUN sports one of the youngest rosters in the country this season. The Matadors return four letterwinners from last season and bring aboard eight newcomers along with two redshirt freshmen from last’s season’s squad. CSUN has eight freshmen on its team, two sophomores, two juniors and just two seniors, one of which is a graduate transfer.

Last season’s Big West Freshman of the Year, Gomez returns to the Matadors this season along with senior Blair Orr, junior Mahamadou Kaba-Camara and sophomore Alex Sokol. Gomez led the Big West in 3-point percentage (46.1) and minutes per game (34.1) last season to go with 11.7 points. In all, the Matador returners only played in 21.3 percent of the team’s total minutes last season. After sitting out last season, Diane (Findlay Prep) and Jared Pearre (McKinney North High School) return to the squad as redshirt freshmen this season.

The team signed six true freshmen during the offseason, which include Elijah Harkless (Etiwanda High School), Darius Brown II (Pasadena High School), Brendan Harrick (Esperanza High School), Teddy Ochieng (Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary High School), Avery Martinez (Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary High School) and Michael Ou (Menaul School).

Rounding out the roster, the Matadors also added junior college transfer Rodney Henderson Jr. and graduate transfer Cameron Gottfried. Henderson Jr. played last season at Santiago Canyon College where he averaged 27 points per game. Gottfried, who is the son of head coach Mark Gottfried, spent two seasons at Siena College before transferring to NC State in 2016 where he stayed for the next two seasons.

The Matadors seek their first ever victory over New Mexico on Tuesday night. The Lobos have won five all-time meetings including four games in Albuquerque. The teams last met in Nov. 2016 with the Lobos pulling off a 105-89 win in a game played at Cal State Fullerton. Only two players, one of from each team, played in that game as Kaba-Camara saw five minutes for CSUN, picking up a block while UNM’s senior Dane Kuiper played two minutes.

A Closer Look at New Mexico
The Lobos finished last season 19-15 and 12-6 in the Mountain West for a third-place finish in the league. UNM would advance to the Mountain West Tournament Championship game before falling to San Diego State. In the conference’s preseason media poll, New Mexico was picked to finish third. The team though sports a new look this season with only four letterwinners returning from the 2017-18 squad.

Senior Anthony Mathis posted the fourth-best 3-point shooting percentage in the nation last season, hitting on 47.3 of his shots from long range. Mathis averaged 12.7 points and also shot 85.9 percent from the free throw line. Also returning this season, sophomore Makuach Maluach scored 9.6 points in over 19 minutes per game. Earning Preseason Mountain West Newcomer of the Year accolades, sophomore Vance Jackson played his freshman season at UConn where he averaged 8.1 points.