Upcoming games:    Shamrock Office Solutions Classic, December 27 & 28, 2008, McKeon Pavilion, Moraga, Calif.

            Saint Mary’s, Saturday, December 27, 2008, 7:30 p.m. (PST)

            William Jessup or Morgan State, Sunday, December 28, 2008, 5:00 p.m. (PST)

San Jose State record: 5-3. The Spartans have their first three-game winning streak of the season after defeating USF (82-76) on December 22, Northern Colorado (89-78) on December 20 and the University of San Diego (56-52) on December 8.

Saint Mary’s record: 10-1. The Gaels have a seven-game winning streak after beating Pacific (74-65) on December 23 in Stockton.

Morgan State record: 4-6, 1-0 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. The Bears won their last two games including at DePaul (79-75) on December 10.

William Jessup record: 6-8, 2-1 Cal Pac. The Warriors’ five-game winning streak ended in a loss at Cal State Hayward (102-83) on December 20.

Radio Coverage: KSJS (90.5 FM, San Jose) and KLIV (1590 AM, San Jose) originate San Jose State University basketball broadcasts. Mike Chisholm calls the play-by-play. Shawn Murphy assists with the broadcast. Air time is  7:00 p.m. for the December 27 Saint Mary’s game on KLIV and KSJS FM. The December 28 broadcast will begin at 4:30 p.m. Games also are available on a subscription basis on www.sjsuspartans.com and Yahoo!Broadcast. 

San Jose State-Saint Mary’s series: The Gaels lead the series, 38-37. Saint Mary’s has won the last three meetings between these teams including a 78-60 decision at McKeon Pavilion on December 30, 2006. The Gaels have won the last two times these teams played in Moraga. San Jose State’s last victory in the series was on November 26, 2000 (82-68) on Saint Mary’s homecourt.

San Jose State-Morgan State series: This could be the first meeting between these teams.

San Jose State-William Jessup series: This could be the first meeting between these teams.
Seeking Four Wins in a Row: San Jose State is chasing its first four-game winning streak since the 2003-04 season when it faces Saint Mary’s. Since the 2004 season, the Spartans have had two chances (2005-06 and 2007-08) to extend a winning streak to four games in a row.

Possibly Three Games Above .500: If San Jose State defeats Saint Mary’s, the Spartans can be three wins above the .500 mark nine games into a season for the first time since the 2001 season when that team was 6-3.

Voting is in: Saint Mary’s is the only opponent on the San Jose State schedule with votes in either the Associated Press or ESPN coaches polls. Currently, the Gaels are 31st in the Associated Press and 32nd in the ESPN coaches polls. 

Back-to-back 80-point games: The wins over USF (82-76) and Northern Colorado (89-78) marked the first time since the 2002 season that San Jose State scored 80 or more points in back-to-back contests. The last time a Spartan team scored 80 or more points in three consecutive games was in the 1996 season when San Jose State went on a late-season surge en route to its most recent NCAA Tournament appearance.

Pair of 20’s: Covering 41 games from February 24, 2006 though December 8, 2008, the Spartans did not have two players score 20 or more points in the same game. In the Northern Colorado (12/20) and USF (12/22) victories, two San Jose State players scored 20 or more points. Adrian Oliver (27) and Tim Pierce (26) combined to do it in the Northern Colorado victory on December 20. Oliver (31) and C.J. Webster (20) were the high-scoring tandem against USF on December 22.

Shooting eyes currently in focus: During San Jose State’s three-game winning streak, the Spartans are shooting 53.9 percent from the field including 45.0 percent from three-point range. In the team’s first five games when San Jose State compiled a 2-3 record, the Spartans made just 40.7 percent of their field goal attempts and 26.9 percent of their three-point tries.

Click on the link above for game notes,, team rosters and current statistics.