For the University of San Diego, the 2007-2008 basketball season was the most memorable in school history. Both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams advanced to post-season tournament last season and the men\u2019s team shocked the nation with an improbable first-round upset of Connecticut. There is no doubt that expectations are high for Torero basketball this season, especially for the men\u2019s team. The USD men\u2019s squad returns its starting five of Trumaine Johnson, Brandon Johnson, De\u2019Jon Jackson, Rob Jones and Gyno Pomare from last year\u2019s 22-win team. “We just got to keep it up and still stay humble at the same time. We have to come into every game thinking it\u2019s just as important as the UConn game,” Jones said. “We\u2019re just trying to make every game a big game.” Brandon Johnson (16.9 points per game) and Pomare (14.1) were USD\u2019s leading scorers last season and are expected to lead the team as seniors. Pomare said the team will not be affected by any lofty expectations. “We don\u2019t feel pressure from the outside \u2014 we have our own expectations,” Pomare said. “We are trying to live up to our own expectations and do as well as we can this year.” The Toreros added depth in the offseason with a pair of community college transfers, 6-foot-9-inch junior Roberto Mafra and 6-foot-4-inch sophomore Matt Dorr. Both transfers have averaged more than 25 minutes per game in USD\u2019s first two contests. “Berto gives us a big kid that can run, is athletic and is a presence for us in there,” Grier said. “Dorr is very cerebral. He knows the game, he knows when to make the extra pass, he\u2019s long, and he can guard a variety of guys.” After a season-opening 65-60 loss at UNLV on Nov. 15, the Toreros picked up their first win of the season three days later in their home opener against Nevada. USD opened the game with an 8-2 run and never led by less than six for the rest of the game, winning 65-51. Jones led all scorers with 23 points. “I felt that we really had to come out swinging, we had to be the aggressor, and I felt for most of the night we did that,” Grier said. The Toreros played their home opener with Pomare back in the lineup after serving a one-game suspension. Two other Toreros, sophomores Trumaine Johnson (five games) and Clinton Houston (six), were suspended to start the year. Grier suspended each of the players before the season started for breaking team rules. USD returned home from the Paradise Jam tournament in the Virgin Islands this week and hosts NAIA opponent San Diego Christian College Saturday at 2 p.m. USD\u2019s tough preseason schedule includes road games next month at San Diego State (Dec. 6), versus Oregon in Portland (Dec. 13) and at Mississippi State (Dec. 30). The USD women\u2019s team finished 19-13 and advanced to the big dance last season for the first time since 2000, falling to California in the first round. That loss has served as motivation in the offseason. “We weren\u2019t satisfied with the way we ended last year,” said senior center Amber Sprague. “We obviously won the conference tournament and advanced to the NCAA tournament but we want to get there and we want to win.” USD will have to adjust to the graduation of point guard and team leader Amanda Rego. How well the Toreros replace Rego\u2019s production and leadership will go a long way in determining their success this season. “We obviously miss her a lot right now, just the little things she brought to the team,” said Toreros head coach Cindy Fisher. “She built a solid foundation here and helped us with success and now it\u2019s our job to continue that.” On the court, a pair of freshman \u2014 5-foot-8-inch Dominique Connors and 6-foot Morgan Woodrow \u2014 are filling in at point guard. Connors averaged 19 minutes and five points per game in the first three games. “She is a freshman point guard so she is still trying to learn her way and learn how to take control of the team, but she\u2019s done a great job so far and every day she gets better and better,” Sprague said. Fisher expects the team\u2019s seniors to provide leadership. “I think the leadership in our senior class, with Amber Sprague, Kaila Mangrum and Kiva Herman, is going to be key,” Fisher said. The Toreros opened the season with a 66-51 win over UCSD at home on Nov. 14. Sprague led the team with 21 points and seven rebounds and sophomore forward Sam Child also scored in double figures with 10 points. Two of USD\u2019s biggest preseason games come in a three-day stretch \u2014 Dec. 11 at Arizona and Dec. 14 at UCLA. Last year the Toreros beat UCLA at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. “It\u2019s always fun to play on the road at a Pac-10 [school] to see where you stand,” Fisher said. That is exactly what both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams are doing this season \u2014 seeing where they stand. The 2008-2009 season will determine whether USD can establish itself as a men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball power or if last season was just an anomaly.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the University of San Diego, the 2007-2008 basketball season was the most memorable in school history. Both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams advanced to post-season tournament last season and the men\u2019s team shocked the nation with an improbable first-round upset of Connecticut. There is no doubt that expectations are high for Torero basketball this […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Season starts with high expectations for USD hoops","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11593,11553,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-300187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-no-images","category-sports","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}