OPENING TIP: Dixie State (4-3/1-0 PacWest) begins the road portion of its 2016-17 Pacific West Conference slate this weekend as the Trailblazers head to southern California for a pair of games against the two favorites in the preseason league poll. DSU opens the trip with a date at preseason conference favorite No. 3 (NABC and D2SIDA) California Baptist on Thursday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. (PT) in Riverside. The Trailblazers will then head over to Azusa for a match-up at defending PacWest regular season champion Azusa Pacific on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 10 at 3 p.m. (PT).
WEEK IN REVIEW: Dixie State pushed its winning streak to four-straight games and opened PacWest play of a positive note with an 82-76 overtime victory over Concordia-Irvine this past Saturday night inside the Burns Arena. The Trailblazers overcame a school single-game record 31 turnovers with clutch plays and shooting down the stretch to come away with the victory.
Junior guard
Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) led four Trailblazers in double figures with a season-high tying 22 points, including 12-of-16 from the line, while senior
Josh Fuller (Rexburg, Idaho/Madison HS) and junior
Brandon Simister (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) each tallied 14 points, and junior
Kyler Nielson (Cedar City, Utah/Cedar HS) collected career-highs of 13 points and eight rebounds.
DIXIE STATE ON THE AIR: All Dixie State home and away games will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio 97.7 FM, with DSU Assistant Media Relations Coordinator
Keric Seegmiller calling the play-by-play action, along with Devin Dixon providing color analysis for all home games. All DSU home games are also televised live on KCEC-TV (TDS Cable Channel 22) with a simulcast feed from ESPN Radio, with tape-delay rebroadcasts throughout the following week. In addition live-streaming audio and video (home games only) are available on the internet at
www.southernutahlive.com.
THE SERIES: Dixie State holds a 7-4 edge in its series vs. California Baptist, though the Lancers have won four of the last seven meetings overall, including a 2-1 mark last season, after DSU had won the first four games between the two programs. Three of Dixie State's four losses in the series have come on the Lancers' home court, including an 88-77 decision in Riverside last season (12/3/15), while CBU eliminated DSU in the 2016 PacWest Tournament semifinal with a 90-73 victory last March in Irvine, Calif. DSU's lone win last season came at home in a 94-88 overtime thriller in the Burns Arena (2/6/16).
Dixie State owns a 5-3 overall series edge against Azusa Pacific, having won the first five meetings vs. the Cougars, but APU has claimed the past three games in the series, including two-straight home wins (72-69; 1/24/15 and 69-63; 1/7/16), and a 72-65 triumph in St. George last Dec. 19, 2015.
REGIONAL RANKINGS: Dixie State's current four-game winning streak has moved the Trailblazers back into the D2SIDA West Region top-10 poll as DSU checks in at No. 8 this week. California Baptist continues its stay atop the region rankings, while fellow PacWest members Hawai'i Pacific (No. 6) and Chaminade (No. 9) are also listed in this week's poll.
COACHING STAFF: Five-time PacWest Conference Coach of the Year
Jon Judkins (Utah State, 1988; 490-232 career record) is in his 12th season on the Dixie State bench, where he has compiled a 206-104 overall record, including a 186-92 mark during DSU's NCAA Division II era, and a 123-36 record in PacWest play.
Last season, Judkins led Dixie State to an 18-9 overall record and a 15-5 PacWest mark, which was good for a t-first place finish in the league standings. In 2014-15, Judkins led DSU to a 20-8 record, including the program's fifth Pacific West title in six years with a 17-3 league mark, and DSU's sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Prior to his arrival at Dixie State, Judkins served as head coach at Snow College for 12 season and posted a 284-128 overall record. He led the Badgers to a pair of Scenic West Athletic Conference titles in 1999 and 2000, which earned him SWAC Coach of the Year honors. Judkins played for one season at Dixie State before transferring to Utah State, where he became the first (and only) Aggie to post a triple-double. During the 1987-88 season, he helped lead the Aggies to the PCAA title and an NCAA Tournament bid.
Judkins is joined on the bench by former DSU player
Kasey Winters (Dixie State, 2008), who begins his fourth season as assistant coach, and
Kevin Williamson (University of Great Falls, 2007) who starts his second season on the Trailblazer sideline.
TRAILBLAZERS PICKED THIRD IN THE PACWEST: Dixie State was picked to finish third in the 2016-17 Pacific West Conference preseason coaches' poll released on October 26. Defending PacWest tournament champion California Baptist received six first place votes and 179 total points in being tabbed as the PacWest preseason favorite, while defending regular-season champ Azusa Pacific collected five first-place nods to place second with 171 points.
DSU did not received a first-place vote in taking third with 161 points, followed by Concordia-Irvine (156, one first place vote) in fourth, Point Loma (140, one first place vote) in fifth, Chaminade (129) in sixth and Hawai'i Pacific (118) in seventh to round out the top-half of the poll.
Dixie State junior guard
Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) was named to the PacWest Preseason all-Conference team, while CBU senior guard Michael Smith was named the PacWest Preseason Player of the Year.
IT'S NOT HOW YOU START...PACWEST EDITION: For the first time in four seasons, Dixie State started PacWest play AT HOME when the Trailblazers claimed their overtime win vs. Concordia-Irvine last Saturday. The win moved Dixie State to 7-3 all-time in PacWest openers, having won four of its last five and seven of its last nine overall.
In PacWest home openers only, DSU is now 8-2 all-time, which includes a rare home league loss in last season's league opener vs. Azusa Pacific (65-72; 12/19/15), which snapped DSU's modest three-game league home-opening winning streak. Prior to the APU loss, the last time the Trailblazers dropped a conference home opener was during the 2010-11 season, when former PacWest member Grand Canyon handed DSU a 71-68 setback (1/8/11).
In PacWest road openers the Trailblazers are 6-3 overall, though they are 2-2 in their last four league road debuts.
AGAINST NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS: Dixie State closed the non-conference portion of its 2016-17 slate at 3-3 and improved to 57-52 (.523) overall against non-PacWest opponents. Since joining the PacWest in the 2007-08 season, DSU is 46-38 (.547) against non-conference foes, while during DSU's first season of four-year competition in 2006-07, Dixie State recorded an 11-14 record as an independent.
DSU has posted five winning records in non-conference games over the past eight seasons, including a program-best 6-1 mark in 2013-14, and an 8-3 record in 2010-11.
HOME SWEET HOME: Dixie State improved to 8-3 all-time in NCAA D-II home openers with its win over Sonoma State (11/25), which was also the fifth-straight home-opening win overall.
Since becoming an NCAA Division II program in 2006-07, Dixie State has played to a 95-21 (.819) record inside the Burns Arena under Head Coach
Jon Judkins, and has posted six 10-plus win seasons over that span, including a perfect 12-0 record in 2009-10, and an 11-1 mark last season. In PacWest play, the Trailblazers are a dominant 70-10 (.875) at home through its now nine-plus seasons of conference play.
Last season Dixie State clinched its ninth-straight home winning record after DSU won its final six home games to finish with a 9-3 mark.
HOME SWEET HOME, PART 2: For the sixth-straight year, Dixie State finished a season ranked in the top-six nationally in home attendance. In 2015-16, DSU recorded the sixth-highest home attendance average in Division II at 2,190 fans per game for 12 home dates last season, which was also tops in the PacWest Conference. In all, a total of 26,284 fans attended a DSU game inside the Burns Arena.
Since the 2008-09 season, Dixie State has been annually ranked in the top-15 in Division II in attendance, including being ranked #2-overall in 2012-13 and 2013-14, and #3 in the country in 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns. DSU was also ranked fifth in 2014-15, ninth in 2009-10, and 14th in 2008-09.
Dixie State also finished sixth among Utah's other NCAA (Division I) members in average attendance in 2015-16, behind Brigham Young (14,699), Utah (12,997), Utah State (8,874), Weber State (6,785) and Utah Valley (2,383).
HOW ABOUT WHEN THE BAGS ARE PACKED?: Dixie State is 92-72 (.561) away from home in its Division II era under Head Coach
Jon Judkins, including a 1-3 record this season and a 9-6 mark in 2015-16. Overall, the Trailblazers have played to a 72-54 record (.571) in true road games, and a 20-18 mark (.526) in neutral site games over Judkins' tenure.
DSU has won eight or more games away from home in seven- straight seasons, and in eight of its 10 D-II campaigns overall, including a program-best 15-5 record (10-2 in road contests) in 2010-11.
Dixie State also owns a 53-26 (.671) road record in its nine seasons of PacWest league membership. The Trailblazers have posted a winning conference road mark in seven-straight seasons and have reached the seven-win plateau in five of their last six league campaigns overall.
FREE BASKETBALL: We are just seven games into the 2016-17 season and Dixie State has already had three of those contests go into overtime, including DSU's OT win over Concordia-Irvine last Saturday night.
DSU also split a pair of overtime games at the Seattle Pacific tournament (11/18-19), which marked just the second time in the program's NCAA Division II era that the Trailblazers needed overtime in consecutive games to decide the outcome, though it was the first time in 10-plus seasons that DSU played two overtime games on back-to-back nights.
In the 2010-11 season, DSU played consecutive overtime games, both of which were double-overtime affairs, at BYU-Hawaii (W, 99-96 - 2/26/11) and at Hawai'i Pacific (L, 88-93 - 2/28/11), however there was a day off between those contests.
In all, Dixie State has played in just 23 overtime games (14-9 overall) in 280 total contests in the program's NCAA Division II era, which includes four OT games last season (3-1), which matched a program-high set in the 2013-14 campaign.
Three of those 23 games have gone to double-overtime, including the two Hawaiian results in 2010-11, and an 81-80 2OT victory at Concordia-Irvine last season (1/9/16).
FROM WAY DOWN TOWN....BANG!: Dixie State has hit at least one 3-pointer in 60-straight games and in 183 of its last 184 games overall, including a season-high eight treys vs. Sonoma State (11/25). In fact in DSU's Division II era, the Trailblazers have made at least one 3-pointer in 277 of the program's 280 games since the beginning of the 2006-07 season.
In the 2014-15 season, the Trailblazers saw their program-best 127-game streak halted at home vs. Western Oregon (11/25/14) in the second game of the 2014-15 season. That streak encompassed four full seasons and the final 13 games of the 2009-10 campaign. The other two times DSU failed to connect from the perimeter happened on the road at Academy of Art (1/16/10), and at Notre Dame de Namur (2/2/08) during the program's first year of PacWest play.
Dixie State has also reached double-figures in made 3-pointers 12 times, including a 2015-16 season-high 10 treys at Chaminade (1/23/16), and a school-record 13 3-pointers at Carroll College on Nov. 11, 2008.
TEAM NOTES: All seven of Dixie State's games to this point of the season have been decided by eight points or less.
Dixie State finished the non-conference portion of its 2016-17 schedule at 3-3, including a 2-2 mark against teams either currently ranked or receiving votes in this week's NCAA West Region top-10 poll.
DSU's school record 31 turnovers vs. CUI eclipsed the previous mark of 30 set on the road at Metropolitan State University of Denver (12/6/08) during the 2008-09 season.
The Trailblazers pulled down a season-high 56 rebounds vs. CUI, which was the second-highest single game total in program history, and is the most since DSU had 55 boards at Point Loma nearly a year-to-the-day (12/5/15) ... The DSU team single-game school record for rebounds is 57, which happened twice in the 2013-14 season - both at home vs. Academy of Art (1/30/14) and again vs. Hawai'i Hilo (2/13/14).
Senior forward
Josh Fuller (Rexburg, Idaho/Madison HS) had a night in the DSU's win over Western Oregon (11/26) with a career-high 30 points on 12-of-17 shooting (career-highs in FGM/FGA) and 12 rebounds en route to his second double-double of the year ... he scored 10 of DSU's first 20 points and converted on four conventional three-point plays for the game ... Fuller also became the first Trailblazer in three-plus seasons to score at least 30 points in a game, the last being former DSU player Steven Larson, who tallied 33 pts in a 66-61 win at Notre Dame de Namur (2/16/13) ... Fuller has scored in double figures in four of his seven starts this season, including 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting vs. CUI, and leads the team in FG% (.585), is second in scoring (13.3 ppg) and is third in rebounding (6.7 rpg).
Junior guard
Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) continues to fill up the stat sheet as he finished with his second double-double of the year with a season-high tying 22 points and 12 rebounds in the win vs. CUI ... Hill went 12-of-16 from the line vs. the Eagles and had a game-high six assists, two steals and a block ... he also recorded a balanced stat sheet in the win over Sonoma State (11/25) as he went for 12 points, five rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block ... Hill then dished out a season-high eight assists and had 10 rebounds to go with five points and two blocks vs. WOU (11/26) ... Hill was named PacWest POW after he averaged 21.5 points, 12.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the Trailblazers' split at the SPU tourney Nov. 18-19, and he currently leads the team in scoring (15.3 ppg) and is second in rebounding (8.7 rpg).
Junior forward
Zac Hunter (American Fork, Utah/American Fork HS) is second among starters in field goal percentage (.477), which was bolstered by a 3-for-4 shooting night vs. CUI (6 pts), and a 6-of-8 effort en route to a season-high 14-point night in the win over Western Oregon (11/26) ... Hunter has scored in double figures in two of seven starts and is averaging 8.3 ppg.
Junior point guard
Brandon Simister (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) pulled down a career-best five rebounds, and recorded career-highs in free throws made (7) and attempted (11), on his way to 14 points in the CUI win ... Simister also salvaged DSU's team 3-point streak after he connected on the Trailblazers' lone trey of the game (1-of-12) with 5:13 to play in regulation ... DSU had missed its first seven 3-point attempts prior to the Simister make ... Simister collected a career-high eight dimes along with 13 points and a steal vs. WOU (11/26).
Sophomore forward
Quincy Mathews (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) may return to the DSU line-up this weekend after missing the last three games due to injury ... Mathews, who is averaging 10.0 ppg and a team-high 8.8 rpg in four games this season, earned CCAA/PacWest Challenge All-Tourney team honors after he posted his first two collegiate double-doubles on the trip ... Mathews tallied 10 points and a career-high 11 rebounds at UCSD (11/11), and followed that up with a career-high 15 points and 10 boards vs. CPP (11/12).
Junior guard
Kyler Nielson (Cedar City, Utah/Cedar HS) made his first collegiate start in the win over Concordia-Irvine and he responded with career-highs of 13 points and eight rebounds ... he scored six of his 13 points in the overtime period and connected on 7-of-9 from the foul line on the night ... Nielson averaged 7.0 points off the bench in DSU's sweep of its Thanksgiving Classic, including a then-career high eight points - all coming from the foul line - in DSU's win over Western Oregon (11/26).
Reserve forward
Austin Montgomery (Gainesville, Ga./Lakeview Academy) tied a career-high with six points on 3-of-3 shooting and pulled down a career-best five rebounds vs. CUI ... sophomore forward
Dub Price (Draper, Utah/Alta HS) has averaged 6.0 rebounds off the bench over his last three games, including a career-high seven boards in vs. WOU (11/26), and six rebounds and a career-high tying five points in 17 minutes vs. CUI last Saturday ... Dixie State's bench scored a season-high 40 points in the loss to CWU (11/18), including a career-high 14 points from senior forward
Marcus Bradley (Anaheim, Calif./Corona del Mar HS) in just 11 minutes of action ... the last time the DSU bench tallied at least 40 points in a game was back in the 2014-15 season, when the DSU reserves combined for 51 points in an 86-83 win at Dominican (1/29/15).
Sophomore guard
Brandon Miller (Sandy, Utah/Brighton HS) tied a DSU NCAA-era single-game record with six 3-pointers in the win over Sonoma State (11/25) ... Miller went 6-of-8 from beyond the arc en route to a career-high 19 points ... former DSU players Donovan Plunkett and Tom Whitehead established the mark back in the 2009-10 season as the duo hit six treys apiece at Hawai'i Pacific (W, 97-86; 2/20/10), and Whitehead tied it again in the 2010-11 season at home vs. Pacifica (W, 110-41; 12/4/10) ... Miller, who also had 16 points in his season debut vs. Central Washington (11/18), was limited to just three points the next night vs. Western Oregon (11/26) before going down with a season-ending injury in the second half.
ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA BAPTIST "LANCERS": No. 3 (NABC and D2SIDA) California Baptist has been the class of the PacWest through the first four weeks of the regular season as the Lancers have posted a perfect 8-0 mark, including a 2-0 record in PacWest play with wins at Point Loma (68-62; 12/1) and at home vs. APU (91-60; 12/3).
The Lancers also played a tightly contested exhibition game at PAC-12 member California to open the season (11/3), which the Bears ultimately won by an 81-73 count. Three Lancers enter Thursday's game averaging double figures in points, led by senior guard and PacWest Preseason Player of the Year Michael Smith at 25.1 ppg.
ABOUT THE AZUSA PACIFIC "COUGARS": Azusa Pacific enters Saturday's game looking for its first PacWest win after dropping two league contents at Concordia-Irvine (68-85; 12/1) and at CBU (60-91; 12/3) last week. Junior forward Petar Kutlesic leads the Cougars in scoring and rebounding at 13.8 ppg and 7.7 rpg.
UP NEXT: Dixie State will close the 2016 portion of the regular season next week with a pair of PacWest games in the Burns Arena. DSU will host Notre Dame de Namur on Saturday, Dec. 17, followed by a showdown with Point Loma on Monday, Dec. 19. Both games will tip at 7:30 p.m.
