Preview: SDSU opens season with showdown against former assistant coach

San Diego State vs. Long Beach State

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Viejas Arena

On the air: KUSI; 760-AM

Records: Season opener for both teams

Series history: SDSU leads the all-time series 40-22 and has won eight straight. The most recent meeting was an 88-76 Aztecs win at Viejas Arena on Nov. 14, 2023.

Beach update: Former Aztecs assistant Chris Acker begins his second year as head coach, but with an almost entirely new roster from his first, which didn’t go well. The Beach finished 7-25 and in 10th place in the 11-team Big West at 3-17 with a final NET ranking of 325 (out of 364 Div. I programs). This season promises to be better, with a preseason 210 spot in the Kenpom metric and an eighth-place predicted finish in the Big West coaches poll. The preseason was a mixed bag – a loss against Div. II Point Loma Nazarene and a double-digit win against the WCC’s Loyola Marymount. The lone returnee is Derrick Michael Xzavierro, a 6-10 forward from Indonesia who averaged 5.2 points and 6.8 rebounds. The familiar faces for Aztecs fans don’t stop with Acker. The director of operations is former SDSU grad assistant Ali Tavakol and 6-10 senior forward Demarshay Johnson Jr. (he goes by Shay now), a four-year Aztec player who transferred to the Beach last spring. The offseason acquisitions also include Serbia forward Petar Majstorovi, who played in 31 games off the bench for Syracuse as a freshman, and Shaquil Bender, a senior guard who averaged 11.2 points for Manhattan.

Next up: Sunday vs. Idaho State (2 p.m., KUSI)