Cal State Northridge Matadors (0-0) vs. Stanford Cardinal (0-0)
The opening night of the 2023-24 college basketball season will close down with the Cal State Northridge Matadors facing off against the Stanford Cardinal in the non-conference battle at Maples Pavilion in Stanford, California.
The tip-off is set for 11:00 PM ET, and the hosts are huge 22-point favorites with a total of 145.0 points. The Matadors meet the Cardinal for the first time since December 15, 2020, when Stanford beat CSUN 82-71 as a 16.5-point road fave.
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The Cal State Northridge Matadors have gone 14-48 over the last two years. They decided to move on from Trent Johnson and bring Andy Newman, who’ll try to improve the Matadors’ record in 2023-24. Last season, CSUN was 7-25 overall and 4-16 in the conference play, finishing its campaign with a 51-47 loss to Cal State Bakersfield in the first round of the Big West Championship Tournament.
CSUN ranked 338th in the country in offensive efficiency last season, tallying just 95.3 points per 100 possessions. The Matadors were yielding 109.7 points in return (274th in the nation) while posting 65.2 possessions per 40 minutes (284th).
Atin Wright transferred to Drake after leading the way for CSUN in 2022-23 with 16.7 points per game. De’Sean Allen-Eikens (11.1 PPG, 5.0 RPG) is back and probably the best player in this CSUN team, but don’t forget about a 6-foot-2 guard Dionte Bostick (12.4 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 2.7 APG).