By Soren Stanton – Spear Reporter | Pasha Goodarzi answers a question during media availability in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Soren Stanton – Spear Photographer)
LAS VEGAS – At Mountain West Basketball Media Day, teams gathered to preview the upcoming season, with a new era underway after the latest round of conference realignment.
Realignment drastically affected the Mountain West this year, with the conference losing Colorado State University, Utah State University, Fresno State University, San Diego State University and Boise State University to the Pac-12.
The MW offset those departures by gaining the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, University of California, Davis and the University of Texas at El Paso.
Representing San Jose State at media day were head coach Tim Miles, redshirt junior guard Pasha Goodarzi and redshirt senior forward Robert Vaihola.
Miles is entering his sixth season as SJSU’s head coach. After going through last year with a heavily injured and depleted roster, he remains confident about the upcoming season.
“I’m excited for the challenge,” Miles said. “This is our most talented roster that we’ve had in my six years here.”
In the new era of name, image and likeness, commonly known as NIL, SJSU has seen players move on from the program for other teams through the transfer portal.
The Spartans have had a completely different roster year to year since Miles became head coach, which brings up the question of whether all these athletes have chemistry with each other.
Building team chemistry is important for Miles, who brought the new team together on a trip to Costa Rica over the summer.
“One of the things we were able to do was take a foreign trip to Costa Rica, which I think was really good for our guys to get to know each other, spend five days, morning, noon and night together,” Miles said.
With a roster of new faces, Miles will have to rely on veterans and returning players to step into leadership roles and guide younger teammates.
“The guys that have been in the league the longest and around the coaching staff the longest, they know what they’re about to endure,” Miles said. “All those new guys, whether they’ve played at a bigger level or a smaller level, don’t know what to expect.”
One of the veteran players is Goodarzi, who is in his fourth year with the team. Another returning player is redshirt senior guard JaVaughn Hannah, who missed most of last season after redshirting.
Coming into this season, Goodarzi wanted his game to evolve beyond being a 3-point shooting. He worked on multiple aspects of his game to become a well-rounded player.
“I worked on my body a lot and the biggest jump for me was with my ball handling,” Goodarzi said. “If someone needs a point guy to help out, I can do that too. I’ve really expanded my game in that way.”
Goodarzi reiterated that he wants to help the team win and is willing to do any job for that to happen.
Despite players leaving the program through the transfer portal, Miles was still able to fill a full roster of talented athletes, including redshirt junior Mookie Cook, who was a 2023 McDonald’s All-American in high school and spent time at the University of Oregon and the University of San Francisco.
Miles’ recruiting pitch is simple: play in a competitive league with an experienced coaching staff in the middle of Silicon Valley.
“We can show them that our league is an outstanding league, you’ve got a great academic institution in San Jose State that is one of the more powerful schools that feed the Silicon Valley,” Miles said. “Lastly, we talk about our style of play and coaching acumen, we coach at a high level and I’ve operated at a high level as a head coach.”
Confident that his team can adapt into whatever style it needs to win, Miles wants his team to have a “whatever it takes” mindset.
“We’re going to play great sound defense, and we’re going to figure out whatever we have to do to beat you,” Miles said.
With the new influx of talent, the Spartans hope this can help them win enough games to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament, commonly known as March Madness.
“I just want to play in the NCAA tournament,” Vaihola said. “If we can do that as a team, it’ll fulfill my personal goals.”
Vaihola is back at SJSU after spending a season in Minnesota, where he suffered a season-ending injury five games into the year.
After a season was cut short due to injury, Vaihola’s focus was on coming into the season ready to play.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of injuries,” Vaihola said. “My biggest thing this year was being healthy, and being in the best shape of my life.”
Vaihola previously played for SJSU from 2022-2025, appearing in 66 games for the Spartans across two full seasons.
SJSU’s men’s basketball team will open its season with an exhibition match against Division II powerhouse California State University, East Bay at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24 at the Provident Credit Union Center in San Jose, Calif.
