By Benny Garcia — Editor
After finishing the 2020-2021 season with a first-round exit and a 111-80 loss to the University of Wyoming in the Mountain West Tournament, SJSU men’s basketball is back.
SJSU finished last season with a 5-16 overall record, going 3-13 in MWC games and went home carrying a five-game losing streak.
The Spartans will be going up against a Bay Area foe in an exhibition against CSU East Bay on Friday night.
After some new hires, transfers students, freshman ballers and a suspension, the Spartans on the court will be looking almost unrecognizable to the product put out last season.
With the hiring of head coach Tim Miles, there is a new face manning the helm of SJSU men’s basketball.
He has brought in assistant coaches Ben Johnson who was formally with the University of Portland, Damany Hendrix who spent two years on the coaching staff at Vanderbilt and David Miller who was the director of on-campus recruiting and basketball analytics with the University of Arizona.
On Sept. 21, senior guard Richard Washington was hit with a season-long suspension by the NCAA because he participated in an unallowed 3-on-3 event for profit in Indy.
Nonetheless, the Spartans will be looking for production from their returning guard’s sophomore Sebastian Mendoza and junior Omari Moore.
While Mendoza was mostly coming off the bench last season, he had six games in which he scored double-digits and four games with three 3-pointers or more.
The 6-foot-6 Moore was the only player on the 2020-2021 roster who started every game, averaging 29.7 minutes last season and recorded seven double-digit scoring games.
Watch the Spartans take on the Pioneers on Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Provident Credit Union Event Center.
Follow Benny on Twitter @TheJetTalk