California State University, Northridge (CSUN) was established in 1952 as the Valley satellite campus of Los Angeles State College (aka Cal State LA). It became independent in 1958 as San Fernando Valley State College and in 1972 adopted its current name. CSUN has an endowment of $229.4 Million and enrolls 36,368 students (32,172 undergrads). CSUN occupies 356 acres of large city land which in the 1994 Northridge earthquake sustained over $400 million in damage to the campus, the heaviest damage ever sustained by an American college campus. The epicenter was less than 2 miles away on a previously undiscovered blind thrust fault WSJ ranks CSUN 53rd Best Public College, US News & World Report ranked CSUN No. 13 among public schools.
It’s proximity to Hollywood means CSUN’s campus has been used extensively in filming (The Glass Bottom Boat, American Idol, Arrested Development, Bring it On, Dexter, My Name is Earl, CSI, Criminal Minds, Commander in Chief, Van Wilder, Six Feet Under, The Karate Kid, Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica, The Office, McMillian & Wife, Legally Blonde 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell, Quincy, ME, Superbad, Lucifer, The Orville, The Good Place).
Famous Alumni include: Richard Dreyfuss, Alyson Hannigan, Eva Mendez, Eva Longoria, Debra Winger, Robert Englund, Terri Garr, Martin Milner, Larry Wilcox, Eve Plumb, Phil Hartman, Charles Martin Smith, Morris Chestnut, Jenna Elfman, Dancer Paula Abdul, Olympian FloJo, Comedian Cheech Marin, Personal trainer Jillian Michaels, Astronaut Scott Horowitz, Andy Grammer, Doors drummer John Densmore, Police guitarist Andy Summers, Diane Warren, Wrestler Luchasaurus, Boxer Mia St. John, Model Cindy Margolis, Original Mouseketeer Karen Pendleton, Disney films producer Don Hahn, Outfielder Lyman Bostock
CSUN Athletics: NCAA DI Big West Conference (formerly Big Sky, CCAA), No NCAA DI titles, 3 AIAW T&F titles, 30 DII National Championships, Olympic medals: 9 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze. Medalists: Florence Griffith Joyner, Alice Brown, Jeanette Bolden, Valerie Brisco Hooks, Bob Samuelson
Colors: Red, White & Black, Nickname is Matadors, mascot - Matty the Matador, Fight song- Hail to the Matadors
CSUN basketball began in 1958 (since 1990 – 432-592, .422), 2 D II Sweet Sixteens, 5 NCAA tourneys (2 at D I level, last 2009), 2001 Big Sky tourney champions, 2009 Big West tourney champs, 5 CCAA conf titles, 2001 Big Sky conf title, 2009 Big West conf champ, No NBA draft picks, 2 NBA players Paul McCracken 1973-77, Dmytro Skapintsev 2024
Winningest Coaches: Pete Cassidy 1971-96 (335-336, .499), Bobby Braswell 1996-2013 (251-258, .493), Jerry Ball 1963-71 (104-101, .507)
Current coach: Trent Johnson (3rd yr) – 14-48, .226. Career – 290-313, .481 (Nevada 2004 Sweet 16, Stanford 2007 Sweet 16, LSU 2009 Rd of 32, TCU)
CSUN is picked No. 6 in Big West preseason rankings (1 UCI, 2 UCSB, 3 UCSD, 4 UCR, 5 UC Davis, 6 CSUN, 7 UH, 8 LBSU, 9 CSUB, 10 CSF, 11 Cal Poly)
All-time: SC leads 5-1 since 2003. Last 2021 SC 89 - CSUN 49 (Boogie 20 pts, Isaiah Mobley 15, Drew Peterson 14). SC is favored by 12.5
CSUN is 7-3 (1-1) (W: Le Moyne, Nobel University, Sac St, Utah Tech, Denver, Montana St; L: St. Bonaventure, Montana, UCR)
CSUN NET 88, KenPom 156; SC NET 114, KenPom 86.
CSUN scores 82.1 ppg (+10.7), 47.5% FG, 35.4% 3FG, 6.9 3’s/g, 70.4% FT; 41.5 rebs (+8.3), 16.2 assists, 8.3 steals, 14.3 TOs (+0.9), 3.6 blks
SC scores 74.6 ppg (+4.7), 47.8% FG, 31.5% 3FG, 5.8 3’s/g. 74.7% FT; 31.8 rebs (-0.7), 15.5 assists, 6.6 steals, 11.2 TOs (+2.2), 3.3 blks
CSUN Leaders
Scoring: Marcus Adams 15.2 ppg, 53.9% FG, 38.6% 3FG, 73.3% FT, Keonte Jones 14.9 ppg, 50% FG, 53.3% 3FG, 71.4% FT, Scotty Washington 14.3 ppg, 45.6% FG, 40.9% 3FG, 79.5% FT, PJ Fuller 9.0 ppg, 38.4% FG, 30.6% 3FG, 79.3% FT
Rebounds: Jones 8.3 rebs pg, Adams 5.0, Lewis Grady 4.3; Assts Jones 3.9, Fuller 3.3, Tyler Beard 3.1; Stls Jones 2.0; Blks Jones 1.9
SC Leaders
Scoring: Claude 14.1 ppg (52.5% FG, 31.3% 3FG, 71.9% FT, Agbo 11.7 ppg (37.1% FG, 34.8% 3FG, 91.9% FT), T-Will 10.6 ppg (51.1% FG, 36% 3FG, 81% FT), Cohen 9.5 ppg (67.7% FG, 20% 3FG, 75% FT), Saint 9.3 ppg (42.2% FG, 27.3% 3FG, 58.3% FT), Yates 8.4 (43.9% FG, 31.3% 3FG, 83.3% FT)
Rebounds: Saint 5.6 rebs, T-Will 4.6. Agbo 4.3; Assts Saint 4.5, Claude 3.4; Stls Saint 1.5, Yates 1.2; Blks Knowling 0.7, Saint, Cohen, Agee 0.5
Pregame
Will Conroy was the speaker at Founder’s. The crowd was small, even with ~ 20 players and staff from University of Chicago basketball on hand. They were in town to play Pomona-Pitzer and Caltech and were invited guests of Steven Shapiro, Sr VP for Health Affairs who oversees Keck Medicine and played basketball at UChicago. He has maintained his relationship with U Chicago Coach Mike McGrath.
Conroy’s remarks were brief. He started by saying he would address the elephant in the room - Harry would not play tonight, not because of a coaches decision, but because of an injured hamstring. Previously, the Hornery fan club asked why Harry wasn’t playing the other times Conroy was the speaker.
Regarding CSUN he said it’s important to beat the local teams whose players probably wished they were recruited by SC and had chips on their shoulders. SC has stressed that CSUN “can’t want it more than we do”. We have to match their intensity. He said CSUN was ‘super aggressive’ driving to the rim and playing defense.
SC will start Agbo, Claude, Saint, Cohen and Yates for the third straight game.
Entering the arena is a typically late arriving crowd, announced 4039, the ~200 CSUN fans were much louder than the SC crowd. Malski was again not on the mike, as he was deejay-ing the LA Bowl at SoFi where UNLV defeated Cal. DJ Chaotik was the sub.
Galen is hosting the TNA Wrestling’s Rebellion in April, an event to be broadcast on Pay Per View worldwide. Wrestlers Nic Nemeth, Frankie Kazarian, Ryan Nemeth were in the house.
The Game
It took just 17 seconds for CSUN to draw a foul and shoot a pair of FTs, scoring the game’s first point. At 15:41 Marcus Adams jumper made the score SC 13, CSUN 10. Two SC 3’s, a FT and a Claude layup put SC up by 12 (22-10) at 13:54, their largest lead of the half. Things were going SC’s way until PJ Fuller knocked down 3 consecutive 3 ptrs and SC had a few careless TOs to narrow SC’s lead to 1 pt (35-34) at 6:03. CSUN took its first lead since 1-0 with 13 secs left in the first half 39-37 on a tip in by Mahmoud Fofana. SC looked to have squandered their good shooting performance including 5-8 from beyond the arc, but Kevin Patton calmly hit from distance to put SC up 40-39 going into the half. That was a big bucket to be sure as the SC fans felt relief. However, Muss was not happy at all that his team had let CSUN hang around and let them know it on the way to and in the Locker Room. CSUN had more pts off TOs, 2nd chance pts, bench pts and pts in the paint than SC. At the 7:16 mark Agbo missed a FT to end his streak at 29, the most since Bennie Boatwright had 34 in 2016. The SC record is 41 straight by David Bluthenthal.
For the Half
SC shot 48.2% FG (13-27), 62.5% 3FG (5-8), 69.2% FT (9-13)
CSUN shot 45.2% FG (14-31), 40% 3FG (4-10) and 77.8% FT (7-9)
After what I am sure was an ‘inspiring’ talk from Muss, SC came out determined and ran away with this game. They scored the first 8 pts to go up 48-39 at 18:34 on threes from Saint and Agbo and FTs from Cohen. They took their largest lead of the game of 25 pts 86-61 at 3:06 on a pair of FTs from Elohim and would cruise to a 90-69 victory with the exclamation point supplied on a fastbreak dunk from Jalen Shelley to end the scoring.
For the Game
SC shot 46.9% FG (23-49), 63.2% 3FG (12-19), 82.1% FT (32-39)
CSUN shot 40.7% FG (24-59), 25% 3FG (5-20) and 84.2% FT (16-19)
SC had 4 players score in double digits led by Agbo’s season high 23 pts, Claude had 21, Saint 16, Cohen 12. In the 2nd half, SC outscored CSUN 16-4 on pts off TOs and held them to 1-10 (10%) 3FGs. Claude showed that in addition to scoring from distance (2-3), he could drive and create and get to the FT line. He was 9-10 on FT. The most impressive stat for Claude is that he set a career high with 9 assists to only 1 TO! That is a remarkable assist/TO ratio even for pure PGs.
This team is learning their roles and how to play together. They are gelling just in time for the conference season.
SC moves to 8-4 (1-1) and CSUN to 7-4 (1-1) after this game.
Up Next: Southern, Sunday 12/22 at 1 pm at Galen Center
Fight on! Beat the Jaguars!
It’s proximity to Hollywood means CSUN’s campus has been used extensively in filming (The Glass Bottom Boat, American Idol, Arrested Development, Bring it On, Dexter, My Name is Earl, CSI, Criminal Minds, Commander in Chief, Van Wilder, Six Feet Under, The Karate Kid, Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica, The Office, McMillian & Wife, Legally Blonde 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell, Quincy, ME, Superbad, Lucifer, The Orville, The Good Place).
Famous Alumni include: Richard Dreyfuss, Alyson Hannigan, Eva Mendez, Eva Longoria, Debra Winger, Robert Englund, Terri Garr, Martin Milner, Larry Wilcox, Eve Plumb, Phil Hartman, Charles Martin Smith, Morris Chestnut, Jenna Elfman, Dancer Paula Abdul, Olympian FloJo, Comedian Cheech Marin, Personal trainer Jillian Michaels, Astronaut Scott Horowitz, Andy Grammer, Doors drummer John Densmore, Police guitarist Andy Summers, Diane Warren, Wrestler Luchasaurus, Boxer Mia St. John, Model Cindy Margolis, Original Mouseketeer Karen Pendleton, Disney films producer Don Hahn, Outfielder Lyman Bostock
CSUN Athletics: NCAA DI Big West Conference (formerly Big Sky, CCAA), No NCAA DI titles, 3 AIAW T&F titles, 30 DII National Championships, Olympic medals: 9 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze. Medalists: Florence Griffith Joyner, Alice Brown, Jeanette Bolden, Valerie Brisco Hooks, Bob Samuelson
Colors: Red, White & Black, Nickname is Matadors, mascot - Matty the Matador, Fight song- Hail to the Matadors
CSUN basketball began in 1958 (since 1990 – 432-592, .422), 2 D II Sweet Sixteens, 5 NCAA tourneys (2 at D I level, last 2009), 2001 Big Sky tourney champions, 2009 Big West tourney champs, 5 CCAA conf titles, 2001 Big Sky conf title, 2009 Big West conf champ, No NBA draft picks, 2 NBA players Paul McCracken 1973-77, Dmytro Skapintsev 2024
Winningest Coaches: Pete Cassidy 1971-96 (335-336, .499), Bobby Braswell 1996-2013 (251-258, .493), Jerry Ball 1963-71 (104-101, .507)
Current coach: Trent Johnson (3rd yr) – 14-48, .226. Career – 290-313, .481 (Nevada 2004 Sweet 16, Stanford 2007 Sweet 16, LSU 2009 Rd of 32, TCU)
CSUN is picked No. 6 in Big West preseason rankings (1 UCI, 2 UCSB, 3 UCSD, 4 UCR, 5 UC Davis, 6 CSUN, 7 UH, 8 LBSU, 9 CSUB, 10 CSF, 11 Cal Poly)
All-time: SC leads 5-1 since 2003. Last 2021 SC 89 - CSUN 49 (Boogie 20 pts, Isaiah Mobley 15, Drew Peterson 14). SC is favored by 12.5
CSUN is 7-3 (1-1) (W: Le Moyne, Nobel University, Sac St, Utah Tech, Denver, Montana St; L: St. Bonaventure, Montana, UCR)
CSUN NET 88, KenPom 156; SC NET 114, KenPom 86.
CSUN scores 82.1 ppg (+10.7), 47.5% FG, 35.4% 3FG, 6.9 3’s/g, 70.4% FT; 41.5 rebs (+8.3), 16.2 assists, 8.3 steals, 14.3 TOs (+0.9), 3.6 blks
SC scores 74.6 ppg (+4.7), 47.8% FG, 31.5% 3FG, 5.8 3’s/g. 74.7% FT; 31.8 rebs (-0.7), 15.5 assists, 6.6 steals, 11.2 TOs (+2.2), 3.3 blks
CSUN Leaders
Scoring: Marcus Adams 15.2 ppg, 53.9% FG, 38.6% 3FG, 73.3% FT, Keonte Jones 14.9 ppg, 50% FG, 53.3% 3FG, 71.4% FT, Scotty Washington 14.3 ppg, 45.6% FG, 40.9% 3FG, 79.5% FT, PJ Fuller 9.0 ppg, 38.4% FG, 30.6% 3FG, 79.3% FT
Rebounds: Jones 8.3 rebs pg, Adams 5.0, Lewis Grady 4.3; Assts Jones 3.9, Fuller 3.3, Tyler Beard 3.1; Stls Jones 2.0; Blks Jones 1.9
SC Leaders
Scoring: Claude 14.1 ppg (52.5% FG, 31.3% 3FG, 71.9% FT, Agbo 11.7 ppg (37.1% FG, 34.8% 3FG, 91.9% FT), T-Will 10.6 ppg (51.1% FG, 36% 3FG, 81% FT), Cohen 9.5 ppg (67.7% FG, 20% 3FG, 75% FT), Saint 9.3 ppg (42.2% FG, 27.3% 3FG, 58.3% FT), Yates 8.4 (43.9% FG, 31.3% 3FG, 83.3% FT)
Rebounds: Saint 5.6 rebs, T-Will 4.6. Agbo 4.3; Assts Saint 4.5, Claude 3.4; Stls Saint 1.5, Yates 1.2; Blks Knowling 0.7, Saint, Cohen, Agee 0.5
Pregame
Will Conroy was the speaker at Founder’s. The crowd was small, even with ~ 20 players and staff from University of Chicago basketball on hand. They were in town to play Pomona-Pitzer and Caltech and were invited guests of Steven Shapiro, Sr VP for Health Affairs who oversees Keck Medicine and played basketball at UChicago. He has maintained his relationship with U Chicago Coach Mike McGrath.
Conroy’s remarks were brief. He started by saying he would address the elephant in the room - Harry would not play tonight, not because of a coaches decision, but because of an injured hamstring. Previously, the Hornery fan club asked why Harry wasn’t playing the other times Conroy was the speaker.
Regarding CSUN he said it’s important to beat the local teams whose players probably wished they were recruited by SC and had chips on their shoulders. SC has stressed that CSUN “can’t want it more than we do”. We have to match their intensity. He said CSUN was ‘super aggressive’ driving to the rim and playing defense.
SC will start Agbo, Claude, Saint, Cohen and Yates for the third straight game.
Entering the arena is a typically late arriving crowd, announced 4039, the ~200 CSUN fans were much louder than the SC crowd. Malski was again not on the mike, as he was deejay-ing the LA Bowl at SoFi where UNLV defeated Cal. DJ Chaotik was the sub.
Galen is hosting the TNA Wrestling’s Rebellion in April, an event to be broadcast on Pay Per View worldwide. Wrestlers Nic Nemeth, Frankie Kazarian, Ryan Nemeth were in the house.
The Game
It took just 17 seconds for CSUN to draw a foul and shoot a pair of FTs, scoring the game’s first point. At 15:41 Marcus Adams jumper made the score SC 13, CSUN 10. Two SC 3’s, a FT and a Claude layup put SC up by 12 (22-10) at 13:54, their largest lead of the half. Things were going SC’s way until PJ Fuller knocked down 3 consecutive 3 ptrs and SC had a few careless TOs to narrow SC’s lead to 1 pt (35-34) at 6:03. CSUN took its first lead since 1-0 with 13 secs left in the first half 39-37 on a tip in by Mahmoud Fofana. SC looked to have squandered their good shooting performance including 5-8 from beyond the arc, but Kevin Patton calmly hit from distance to put SC up 40-39 going into the half. That was a big bucket to be sure as the SC fans felt relief. However, Muss was not happy at all that his team had let CSUN hang around and let them know it on the way to and in the Locker Room. CSUN had more pts off TOs, 2nd chance pts, bench pts and pts in the paint than SC. At the 7:16 mark Agbo missed a FT to end his streak at 29, the most since Bennie Boatwright had 34 in 2016. The SC record is 41 straight by David Bluthenthal.
For the Half
SC shot 48.2% FG (13-27), 62.5% 3FG (5-8), 69.2% FT (9-13)
CSUN shot 45.2% FG (14-31), 40% 3FG (4-10) and 77.8% FT (7-9)
After what I am sure was an ‘inspiring’ talk from Muss, SC came out determined and ran away with this game. They scored the first 8 pts to go up 48-39 at 18:34 on threes from Saint and Agbo and FTs from Cohen. They took their largest lead of the game of 25 pts 86-61 at 3:06 on a pair of FTs from Elohim and would cruise to a 90-69 victory with the exclamation point supplied on a fastbreak dunk from Jalen Shelley to end the scoring.
For the Game
SC shot 46.9% FG (23-49), 63.2% 3FG (12-19), 82.1% FT (32-39)
CSUN shot 40.7% FG (24-59), 25% 3FG (5-20) and 84.2% FT (16-19)
SC had 4 players score in double digits led by Agbo’s season high 23 pts, Claude had 21, Saint 16, Cohen 12. In the 2nd half, SC outscored CSUN 16-4 on pts off TOs and held them to 1-10 (10%) 3FGs. Claude showed that in addition to scoring from distance (2-3), he could drive and create and get to the FT line. He was 9-10 on FT. The most impressive stat for Claude is that he set a career high with 9 assists to only 1 TO! That is a remarkable assist/TO ratio even for pure PGs.
This team is learning their roles and how to play together. They are gelling just in time for the conference season.
SC moves to 8-4 (1-1) and CSUN to 7-4 (1-1) after this game.
Up Next: Southern, Sunday 12/22 at 1 pm at Galen Center
Fight on! Beat the Jaguars!
