20-7.
The CSUN men’s basketball team has reached 20 wins, a feat they haven’t reached since the 2007-08 season, and their work isn’t done yet.
The Matadors have four games left in the regular season and have already clinched a berth in the 2025 Big West postseason tournament. CSUN will have at least five chances to secure its best record since the 2000-01 season, when it finished 22-10, won the Big Sky Conference and appeared in the NCAA tournament.
Although the season isn’t nearly over, for the casual CSUN student, it’s been a fairytale year already. As a result, the support for the team has been steadily growing as home games at the Premier America Credit Union Arena are being filled. It’s not hard to visually see the program’s success.
Honestly, it’s hard to say just how good CSUN has been under Andy Newman. The program was in shambles just a few years ago, having won only 23 games from 2020 to 22.
When Trent Johnson resigned as head coach in the spring of 2023, CSUN athletic director Shawn Chin-Farrell made the right move, bringing Newman, who Chin-Farell hired at Cal State San Bernardino back in 2018.
Newman has won at every stop he’s been at. In his first head coaching gig at the University of Texas Permian Basin, he left as the winningest coach in program history with a 101-50 record in five seasons. He led CSUSB to the Division II Final Four in 2022 and was 91-30 across four seasons.
After jump-starting two programs at his previous two stops, the Matadors would naturally find success on the court quickly.
Since Newman was hired, CSUN has accumulated a 39-22 record in less than two full seasons. The Matadors have had only three winning seasons since 2000, but Newman has led CSUN to two winning seasons in two years.
Historically, winning at a high level like this doesn’t happen every year or even every other year at CSUN, especially in the uber-competitive Big West Conference.
This season has already been impressive, with 20 wins and a winning record in conference play. However, examining the Matadors’ schedule more closely reveals that this team differs from previous years.
CSUN only had three losses in non-conference play. All three teams that defeated the Matadors have records of over .500. It was easy to see that the team had plenty of potential to compete in the Big West, but the Matadors seriously turned it up a notch during conference play.
The Matadors’ road victories against teams like Hawai’i, UC Irvine and UC Davis have been a huge accomplishment this season. CSUN doesn’t win those games every season, so be appreciative of what Newman has done for the program.
In this day and age of college basketball, players and coaches leave at the first sight of success. Newman won 19 games in his first season at CSUN and was seen as a candidate to be one-and-done at CSUN and move on to a bigger job. Ultimately, he returned to Northridge for a second season, which paid off dividends for CSUN and Newman himself.
Regardless of what happens at the end of the season, I would appreciate all Newman and his staff have done for the once proud program that fell on hard times.
CSUN will play UC San Diego at home on Thursday. This is a huge matchup that could affect the conference tournament’s seeding. The game will be broadcast on ESPN +; tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
