Game Notes: DIXIE STATE - PDF | CPP | UCSD
Audio/Video: Cal Poly Pomona YouTube Channel
Live Stats: at CPP/vs. UCSD
Twitter: @DixieAthletics | @DIXIESTATEBBALL | #BlazeForward | #PacWestMBB

OPENING TIP: Dixie State officially opens the 2017-18 season this weekend as the Trailblazers travel to Pomona, Calif., to play in the 2017 CCAA/Pacific West Challenge, hosted by Cal Poly Pomona. DSU opens the two-game tournament vs. the host Broncos Friday night, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m. (PT), inside the Kellogg Arena (3,000) on the CPP campus. Dixie State will then turnaround to play UC San Diego on Saturday, Nov. 11, at 5 p.m. (PT).
    Live stats and video links for both games this weekend can be found HERE.

DIXIE STATE ON THE AIR: With the exception of DSU's first trip to southern California, all Dixie State home and all remaining 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. In addition, live streaming video of all DSU home games can be found on DSU Athletics' official YouTube channel at youtube.com/DixieStateAthletics.

THE SERIES: Dixie State enters Friday's game vs. CPP looking for its first-ever win in the series (0-4), though this will mark the second time that the Trailblazers and Broncos will have played during the regular season. DSU and CPP met in last year's CCAA/PacWest Challenge, with the Broncos claiming an 82-74 triumph (11/12) in San Diego. Prior to that meeting, all three of the previous games between the two sides have come during NCAA West Regional tournament play, and CPP has claimed victories in all three of those occasions, including the 2010 Regional (71-62; 3/12/10), 2014 Regional (73-65; 3/14/14) and 2015 Regional (62-60; 3/13/15).
    Dixie State is 1-4 all-time in five previous meetings vs. UC San Diego, which includes a pair of losses to the Tritons in San Diego that book-ended DSU's 2016-17 season. The Trailblazers opened the year with a 62-55 setback in the CCAA/PacWest Challenge (11/11), then was dealt a 94-68 elimination loss (3/10) by UCSD in the first round of the 2017 NCAA West Regionals. DSU's lone win in the series came in a 71-67 home victory inside the Burns Arena in the 2012-13 season (11/9/12).

REGIONAL/NATIONAL RANKINGS: Dixie State debuted at No. 5 in the first D2SIDA Preseason West Region poll released earlier this week. Cal Poly Pomona is ranked No. 10 in the poll, while UCSD is ranked one spot ahead of DSU at No. 4. Fellow PacWest members California Baptist (No. 1-overall), Point Loma (No. 6) and Hawai'i Pacific (No. 9) also made the preseason top-10 list.
    In addition, DSU received votes in the NABC Division II Preseason Coaches' Poll, which was released on Oct. 31.

COACHING STAFF: Five-time PacWest Conference Coach of the Year Jon Judkins (Utah State, 1988; 505-238 career record) begins his 13th season on the Dixie State bench, where he has compiled a 221-110 overall record, including a 201-98 mark during DSU's NCAA Division II era, and a 138-40 record in PacWest play.
    Last season, Judkins led Dixie State to a 19-9 overall record, which included a 16-4 (3rd place) mark in Pacific West Conference play, and an appearance in the 2017 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament. In 2015-16, 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.
    Overall, Judkins has led the Trailblazers to nine-straight winning seasons with six 20-win campaigns, which includes a school-record 22 victories in the 2010-11 and 2012-13 seasons. He has also guided them to five Pacific West Conference championships, including four-straight titles from 2009-13 and another crown in 2014-15, along with a PacWest Tournament title in 2013. In addition, Judkins has led Dixie State to seven trips to the NCAA Tournament in the last eight seasons overall from 2010-17, advancing all the way to the "Sweet 16" in the 2011 West Regional final.
    Prior to his arrival at Dixie State, Judkins served as head coach at Snow College for 12 full seasons 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 this season by former DSU player and fifth-year assistant coach Kasey Winters (Dixie State, 2008), along with former DSU standout guard Jeremiah Barnes (Dixie State, 2011), who is in his first season on the DSU sideline, and first-year volunteer assistant coach David Foster (Utah, 2013).

TRAILBLAZERS PICKED SECOND IN THE PACWEST: Dixie State was picked to finish second in the 2017-18 Pacific West Conference preseason coaches' poll released on Oct. 26. California Baptist received 10 of a possible 14 first place votes and 178 total points to be tabbed as the PacWest preseason favorite.
    DSU, which is in its last season of PacWest play before the program moves on the RMAC next season, collected two first place votes and 169 points to claim the second spot, while Point Loma picked up the final two first place votes and 161 points to take the third slot in the poll. Concordia-Irvine (154 points) was voted to finish fourth, followed by Azusa Pacific (142) in fifth, Chaminade (132) in sixth, and defending PacWest champion Hawai'i Pacific (121) rounded out the top-half of the poll in seventh.
    For the second-consecutive season, Dixie State senior guard Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) was named to the PacWest Preseason all-Conference team, while CBU senior center Kalidou Diouf was named the PacWest Preseason Player of the Year.

AGAINST NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS: Dixie State is 64-59 (.520) all-time against non-conference opponents in its 11 seasons of four-year competition, which includes an 11-14 record in the program's first year of NCAA play (2006-07), and a combined 4-11 postseason record (2-4 PacWest, 2-7 NCAA).
    DSU has posted six winning records in non-conference games over that span, including a program-best nine wins in 2010-11 (9-4), eight wins in 2008-09 (8-7), and seven victories in 2012-13 (7-4). 

AGAINST THE CCAA: Dixie State is 7-13 (.350) all-time vs. the CCAA, including a 1-3 mark last season, with DSU's lone win coming in a 64-62 home result vs. Sonoma State (11/25).

IT'S NOT HOW YOU START....: Dixie State is 6-5 all-time in season openers during the program's Division II era and has won four of its last five, and six of its previous nine overall. The Trailblazers had their four-game, season-opening winning streak halted by UCSD last season, while Friday's opener at CPP will mark just the second time in nine seasons that DSU did not open a season inside the Burns Arena.

HOME SWEET HOME: Dixie State posted its 10th-straight home winning season record after recording an 11-1 mark inside the Burns Arena last season.
    Since becoming an NCAA Division II program in 2006-07, Dixie State has played to a 103-22 (.824) overall record inside the Burns Arena under Head Coach Jon Judkins, and has posted seven 10-plus win seasons over that span, including a perfect 12-0 record in 2009-10, and an 11-1 mark in the 2015-16 campaign. The Trailblazers are dominant in PacWest action, playing to a 78-11 (.876) record at home through 10 full seasons of conference play.

HOME SWEET HOME, PART 2: For the seventh-straight year, Dixie State finished ranked in the top-six nationally at the NCAA Division II level in attendance for the 2016-17 season.
    The Trailblazers finished with the fourth-highest total attendance number in the country at 31,925 fans for their 12 home dates, which was also tops in the Pacific West Conference and the West Region. In addition, DSU finished third-nationally in season attendance average at 2,660 fans per game, which was up from 2,190 per game over 12 home dates a season ago (26,284 total attendance).
    Since the 2008-09 season, Dixie State has been annually ranked in the top-15 in Division II in attendance, including second-overall in 2012-13 and 2013-14, and third in the country in 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns. DSU was also ranked fifth-overall in 2014-15, sixth in 2015-16, ninth in 2009-10, and 14th in 2008-09.
    Dixie State also finished sixth among Utah's eight NCAA member institutions in average attendance in 2016-17, behind Brigham Young (260,569/14,476 per game), Utah (216,914/12,051), Utah State (103,082/6.872), Weber State (89,298/6,869) and Utah Valley (38,218/2,940). DSU did finish well ahead of Southern Utah (23,999/1,846) and Westminster College (4,654/423).

HOW ABOUT WHEN THE BAGS ARE PACKED?: Friday's game at CPP will mark just the fourth time in the last nine seasons that Dixie State has opened the away portion of its schedule as a true road team. In five of its last nine seasons overall, the Trailblazers have started their non-Burns Arena slate on a neutral court.
    DSU is 4-7 in its previous 11 true road openers and has won four out its last seven overall, however the last road win over that stretch was a 54-49 win at Point Loma in the 2014-15 season. Other than last season's setback at UCSD, the other two losses over that span was an 81-80 OT loss at perennial D-I power UNLV (11/7/12) to open the 2012 season, and a 72-64 result at Sonoma State (11/20/15) in the 2015-16 campaign.  
    Dixie State is 99-77 (.562) away from home in its Division II era under Head Coach Jon Judkins, including an 8-8 record last season (8-5 road/0-3 neutral), and a 9-6 mark in 2015-16. Overall, the Trailblazers have played to a 79-58 record (.577) in true road games, and a 20-19 mark (.513) in neutral site games during Judkins' tenure.
    DSU has won eight or more games away from home in eight- straight seasons, and in nine of its 11 D-II campaigns overall, including a program-best 15-5 record (10-2 in road contests) in 2010-11.
    Dixie State also owns a 60-29 (.674) road record in its nine-plus seasons of PacWest league membership (7-3 this season). Including this season, the Trailblazers have posted a winning conference road mark in eight-straight seasons and have reached the seven-win plateau in six of their last seven league campaigns overall.

FREE BASKETBALL: Dixie State played in a school-record five overtime games last season, though all of those instances happened in the 2016 portion of the schedule. DSU was 3-2 in overtime games last season, 2-1 in PacWest play, including a 104-103 loss at APU (12/10/16), and the Trailblazers' 82-76 overtime home win over Concordia-Irvine (12/3/16).
    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.
    Dixie State's five overtime games this year eclipsed the previous program-high of four set twice, the first time in the 2013-14 season, and tied in the 2015-16 campaign.
    In all, Dixie State has played in just 25 overtime games (15-10 overall) in 301 total contests in the program's NCAA Division II era. Three of those 25 games have gone to double-overtime, including the two Hawaiian results in 2010-11, and an 81-80 2OT victory at Concordia-Irvine in the 2015-16 season (1/9/16).

FROM WAY DOWNTOWN....BANG???: Dixie State saw its streak of hitting at least one 3-pointer halted at 76 games after the Trailblazers went 0-of-7 from beyond the arc in the win at BYU-Hawaii (2/18). DSU, which had hit a season-high nine 3-pointers at Hawai'i Hilo (2/16) two nights earlier, came back to hit four treys in the loss at HPU (2/20) and connected for seven more 3-pointers in the regular season finale vs. Holy Names (2/25).
    Prior to the BYU-H game, the last time Dixie State went without hitting a 3-pointer was at home vs. Western Oregon (11/25/14) in the second game of the 2014-15 season, which snapped a program-best 127-game streak that 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.
    In all, Dixie State has hit at least one three pointer in 203 of its last 205 games overall, and in 297 of the program's 301 games NCAA-era games since the beginning of the 2006-07 season.
    Dixie State has 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.

MEET THE 2017-18 TRAILBLAZERS: Dixie State returns four starters and 12 total letter winners, including six seniors, from last season's 19-9 squad that made the program's seventh NCAA Division II Men's Basketball tournament appearance in the last eight seasons overall.
    Highlighting this year's returning class is senior guard Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS), who earned first team All-PacWest and NABC West region second team honors last season after he led DSU in scoring (14.4 ppg; 16th PWC), rebounding (7.0 rpg; T7th PWC) and assists (135, 4.8 apg; 2nd PWC). Hill scored in double figures in a team high 21 of 28 games and led the Trailblazers in scoring 12 times. In addition, Hill led DSU in steals (41) and was second in blocks (26), and finished the regular season ranked 11th-nationally in free throw attempts (226).
    Along with Hill, DSU welcomes back a pair of honorable mention all-PacWest selections in senior guards Brandon Simister (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) and Kyler Nielson (Cedar City, Utah/Cedar HS). Simister started in all 28 games last year and finished second among every game players (fourth overall) in scoring (11.3 ppg) and second in assists (3.5 apg). He led DSU in scoring seven times and had scored in double figures in 17 of 28 games played, including a season-high 23 points at Azusa Pacific (12/10) and 21 points vs. Point Loma (12/19).
    Meanwhile Nielson started in 22 of 28 games and averaged 10.8 ppg as a starter over his final 19 games, while he led DSU in scoring three times with 10 double-figure point outings overall. Also returning are senior forwards Zac Hunter (American Fork, Utah/American Fork HS) (8.8 ppg/4.4 rpg) and Isaiah Clark (Riverside, Calif./John W. North HS) (1.4 ppg/1.4 rpg), along with senior guard Daylor Youngblood (South Jordan, Utah/Bingham HS) (2.0 ppg/1.7 rpg).
    DSU also returns four juniors in forwards Quincy Mathews (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) (6.9 ppg/5.4 rpg), Austin Montgomery (Lilburn, Ga./Lakeview Academy) (4.8 ppg/3.5 rpg) and Dub Price (Draper, Utah/Alta HS) (4.3 ppg/4.5 rpg), and guard Wade Miller (Tremonton, Utah/Bear River HS) (1.2 ppg/0.5 ppg). In addition, the Trailblazers welcome back sophomore guard Brandon Miller (Sandy, Utah/Brighton HS), who averaged 11.8 points and 2.8 rebounds in four November non-conference games last year before suffering a season-ending injury, and redshirt freshmen guards Tarik Cool (Phoenix, Ariz./Desert Vista HS) and Preston Sanchez (South Jordan, Utah/Copper Hills HS) (0.0 ppg/0.1 rpg).
    Five newcomers join the Trailblazer program this season, including a pair of four-year transfers in former Cal State Monterey Bay forward Julien Ducree (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Rancho Cucamonga HS) and former BYU guard Zach Frampton (Highland, Utah/Lone Peak HS). Additionally, Utah prep standouts Devin Adams (Grantsville, Utah/Grantsville HS) (Fr., G, 6-4, 205; Grantsville, Utah/Grantsville HS), John Gremillion (Sandy, Utah/Brighton HS) (Fr., F, 6-7, 207; Sandy, Utah/Brighton HS) and Josh Newbold (South Jordan, Utah/Bingham HS) (Fr., F, 6-7, 215/South Jordan, Utah/Bingham HS) begin their first seasons on the team. 

2017-18 EXHIBITION OPENER RECAP: Dixie State split a pair of exhibition tune-up games last week in preparation for this weekend's season opener. DSU dropped an 81-70 decision at in-state foe and NCAA D-I member Utah Valley on Nov. 1, then rebounded for a convincing 102-64 win over NCAA D-III member Whittier College last Friday night in the Burns Arena.
    At UVU, the Trailblazers used a late 18-4 first-half run to race to a 44-33 halftime lead. However UVU would turn the tables on Dixie State in the second half with a pair of lopsided runs of its own to rally to claim the 11-point win. Cool led DSU with 14 points off the bench, while Nielson added 11 points.
    Against Whittier, Simister led seven Trailblazers in double figures with 15 points as DSU outscored the Poets 27-10 to open the game and never saw its lead dip below 20 points after halftime en route to the win.

UP NEXT: The Trailblazers will conclude their SoCal road trip with a non-conference tilt at CCAA member Cal State LA on Monday, Nov. 13, at 5 p.m. (PT).