Spartans to Face UC Santa Barbara on the Road on ESPN+Spartans to Face UC Santa Barbara on the Road on ESPN+
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Spartans to Face UC Santa Barbara on the Road on ESPN+

SAN JOSE, Calif.- The San José State men’s basketball team (0-1, 0-0 MW) will face off against UC Santa Barbara (1-0, 0-0 Big West) at The Thunderdome in Santa Barbara, California on Saturday at 1 p.m. The game can be watched on ESPN+ and be heard on KDOW 1220 AM.

2025-26 Schedule

  • The Spartans are looking to return to postseason play for the third time in four years which would be the best stretch in program history. 
  • Last season, the Spartans competed in the NIT for the first time since 1981.
  • The Spartans are opening the season with three games on the road for the first time since 1994-95, not including neutral site games. 
  • The Spartans' 46 wins over their last three seasons is the most wins since the team won 46 games from 1985-88 while in the Big West conference.
  • UC Santa Barbara was picked to finish second in the Big West preseason poll and received three first place votes
  • The Spartans are 47-50 all-time against UC Santa Barbara. The Spartans have not defeated UCSB since 1999 and have not defeated UCSB on the road since 1996.
  • The Spartans played UCSB for the first time in 18 years last season at the Provident Credit Union Event Center with UCSB taking the game 64-59. Sadraque NgaNga (0 pts., 6 rebs.) and Jermaine Washington (5 pts., 1 ast.) are the only current Spartans who played in that game.
  • The Spartans fell to Utah on the road 84-75 in their season opener. 
  • The Spartans were one of two Mountain West teams (Air Force) to open the 2025-26 season on the road and the only team in the Mountain West to open against a power four school
  • Colby Garland (21 pts. vs. Utah) is the first Spartan since Richard Washington in 2020 to score 20 points in a Spartan season opener.
  • Yaphet Moundi (12 pts. & 13 rebs vs. Utah) is the first Spartan to record a double-double in a Spartan season opener also since Richard Washington in 2020.
  • The Spartans will have a completely new starting five for the second consecutive season
  • The Spartans return just three players who saw minutes last season, equating to 19.4 percent of their scoring (NgaNga - 6.8 ppg, Washington - 4.4 ppg & Pasha Goodarzi - 2.3 ppg).
  • SJSU added six new players this offseason from the transfer portal. They include Garland (Longwood), Adrian Myers (Mississippi State), JaVaughn Hannah (Western Michigan), Jaden Goodall (Cal), Moundi (Iona) & Marcus Overstreet (Mercer).
  • The Spartans added five freshmen to the squad, including Melvin Bell Jr., Damase Coly, Eren Karakaya, Japhet Moupadele & Douglas Langford.
  • Two of the Spartans' freshmen, Karakaya and Moupadele, are international. 
  • Karakaya, from Turkey, broke the record for most blocks in a season in the Turkish u19 league in 2024-25.
  • Moupadele, from France, played on the French u19 team at the FIBA u19 European Championships last summer.
  • The Spartans also add redshirt freshman Ben Roseborough, who missed all of last season with an injury. Roseborough was a three star rated recruit and ranked as the 13th best player in California in his recruiting class.
  • Garland averaged 12.1 points and 4.4 assists per game at Longwood last season. Garland, who played his freshman season at Drake, was named to the Missouri Valley All-Bench Team in 2023-24 and played 14 minutes in Drake's NCAA Tournament game vs. Washington State.
  • Coming into this season, Hannah has played in 89 career games with 49 starts, all at Western Michigan. Hannah has 812 career points, 309 career rebounds and was named 2024 MAC sixth man of the year.
  • Moundi averaged 9.8 points and 7.4 rebounds in just 20.6 minutes per game last season at Iona. According to KemPom, Moundi ranked 15th nationally in offensive rebound percentage and 18th in defensive rebound percentage last season.
  • Bell was rated four stars on ESPN and three stars with a player rating of 88 on 247Sports. Bell was also ranked as the third best player in Illinois in his recruiting class according to ESPN. Bell played at La Lumiere High School which was ranked No. 8 in MaxPreps National Top 10 Basketball Rankings.
  • Washington was the lone Spartan freshman to record minutes last season, playing in 34 out of 35 games and drawing seven starts. Washington earned more and more minutes as the season progressed and scored a career-high 19 in the Spartans' regular season finale against Fresno State.
  • The Spartans were picked to finish 10th in the Mountain West Preseason poll.

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