Men's Basketball Opens 2025-26 Season At San Diego State Tuesday

Tuesday, November 4

San Diego, Calif.

7 p.m.

Long Beach State University

San Diego State

Photo by: John Fajardo

Men's Basketball Opens 2025-26 Season At San Diego State Tuesday

11/3/2025 9:27:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Game Notes - San Diego State

The new look Beach under Chris Acker will face a marquee opponent to start the year.

By: Roger Kirk, Associate Athletics Director, Communications & Broadcast

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- With a refreshed roster, Long Beach State will take on the former employer of head coach Chris Acker to start the season, traveling to face San Diego State to kick off the 2025-26 campaign.

Game:... Long Beach State at San Diego State
Date:.................. Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Time:.................................................... 7 p.m.
Location:............................. San Diego, Calif.
Arena:........................... Viejas Arena (12,414)
TV:............................ Mountain West Network
TV Talent:................................................. TBA
Webcast:................. Mountain West Network
Radio:...................................................... TBA
Live Stats:...................... beachlivestats.com

RIGHT AWAY
• Long Beach State for the second straight season faced a massive rebuild, bringing back just one player while adding 13. The team has a higher percentage of returning points, minutes and rebounds than last season despite having two fewer returners, as starting forward Derrick Michael Xzavierro renewed his commitment to the team as a starter.

• Xzavierro ranked in the Top 5 in rebounding last season for the Big West, leading Long Beach State at 6.8 per game. "DMX" started 21 games in total and averaged 5.2 points per game, finishing with four double-doubles in his first season with the Beach after transferring into the program from Grand Canyon.

• Chris Acker will not be the only retuning Aztec to open the season, as Director of Basketball Operations Ali Tavakol also worked with the team and 6-10 forward Shay Johnson Jr. is returning after spending his first three Division I seasons with SDSU.

• Acker returns for his second season at Long Beach State. The Beach, led by Honorable Mention All-Big West selection Devin Askew, had a strong December that saw the Beach grab road wins over San Diego and Pepperdine as well as Big West victories against Cal State Fullerton, but ultimately ended the season 7-25 overall.

• Acker and his staff turned heavily towards the transfer portal to fill the roster. Adding a ton of depth, the Beach welcomes Shaquil Bender from Manhattan, Rob Diaz III from Cal Poly Humboldt, JJ Chaikovski from CSUN, Cole Farrell from Portland State, Shay Johnson Jr. from San Diego State, brothers Immanuel and Isaiah Lewis from Nobel and Little Rock respectively, and a key member of the Syracuse rotation last season as a true freshman, Petar Majstorovic.

The first signing class for Acker and his staff includes some gems as well. The November period saw the addition of Top 100 ESPN recruit Dallas Washington as well as Gavin Sykes, a guard who averaged over 20 points per game at Modesto Christian HS. The Beach then added two more incoming freshman, welcoming Jayden Alexander from Sierra Canyon High School as well as an impact international recruit in forward Leopold Levillain from France. Turning to the juco ranks, the Beach also signed Christian Jones from Angelina College.

• Long Beach State's staff remains intact from Acker's first year, with John Montgomery, Anthony Santos and Philip Scott as the assistant coaches supported by director of basketball operations Ali Tavakol and Jacob Eyman, the director of player relations.

• In addition to the opener against San Diego State, Long Beach State will play another marquee opponent, traveling to Iowa State to face the Cyclones for the first time in program history. Outside of that game and league play to Hawai'i, Long Beach State will remain in California, playing 16 home games and hosting a neutral contest as part of the Battle at the Beach in November, hosting Nobel and Montana State.

PLAYER NOTES
• The first Division I scholarship player from Indonesia, Derrick Michael Xzavierro is Long Beach State's lone returner, a junior with two years of eligibility remaining. DMX suffered a significant injury with a collapsed lung just before his first season, costing him his 2022-23 campaign and affecting his first competitve season with GCU, but Xzavierro had a strong debut season for the Beach, leading LBSU in rebounding and blocked shots while starting 21 games with four double-doubles.

• Long Beach State brought in one high major transfer in Petar Majstorovic, a sophomore from Syracuse who played a big role for the Orangemen in his debut Division I season. Playing in 31 as a true freshman, Majstorovic was an impact player for Cuse, a major part of the rotation through the majority of ACC play.

• Born in Serbia, Majstorovic spent the majority of his life in France, and has played a mentorship role for another Frenchman in Leopold Levillain, a true freshman joining the Beach out of Montpellier. Levillain last played for the semipro club Cholet Basket, and averaged 9.8 points and 5.9 rebounds per game for the club's U21 team as a relatively new convert to basketball after originally playing rugby in France.

• The top incoming scorer for Long Beach State is graduate transfer Shaquil Bender. Bender played two seasons of junior college basketball before joining Manhattan, where he starred for two seasons with the Jaspers. Bender averaged 11.2 points per game and made 63 assists while helping Manhattan with a 10-game turnaround after leading the team in scoring as a junior in 2023-24.

• Long Beach State added a pair of brothers in Isaiah and Immanuel Lewis, who will be playing on the same team for the first time since their days at Taft HS in Southern California. Isaiah joins the Beach from Division I Little Rock, where he averaged 9.4 points per game and made 99 assists, while Immanuel averaged 6.2 points per game with Nobel, a 2025-26 opponent of Long Beach State.

• Another Division I transfer in Cole Farrell joined Long Beach State from Portland State. Farrell spent two seasons with the Vikings, and averaged 6.5 points per game while shooting 37.7% from three last year.

• Shay Johnson Jr. is very familiar with Acker, having spent three seasons with him as an assistant coach at San Diego State. The 6-10 senior will join the program after having primarily played as a backup with the Aztecs during a number of successful seasons.

• Rob Diaz II is another transfer, but one coming from Division II after two strong seasons at Cal Poly Humboldt. Diaz was the CCAA Freshman of the Year in 2023-24 after averaging 12.5 points per game, and then earned First Team All-CCAA honors after leading the Lumberjacks in scoring, averaging 16.0 points per game and shooting 36.5 percent from behind the arc.

• Pulling from within the conference, Long Beach State also added forward JJ Chaikovsky, who redshirted last season at CSUN after playing nine games as a true freshman with NJIT in 2023-24.

• Long Beach State also added one junior college transfer in 6-4 guard Christian Jones. Jones spent last season at Angelina College in Texas, where he averaged 10.4 points and 4.1 rebounds per game while shooting 45.6 percent from three, going 28-7 overall and reaching the NJCAA national quarterfinals while leading the team in scoring.

• Chris Acker and his staff added two impact recruits in their first high school recruiting class signed last November. Dallas Washington is a 6-10 forward from Redwood City, rated as the No. 8 prospect out of California by ESPN, while 6-4 guard Gavin Sykes was rated as the No. 23 prospect from California. Over the summer, the Beach also welcomed Jayden Alexander from Sierra Canyon High School.

THIS AND THAT
• Long Beach State is now two wins away from a program milestone, recording 1,100 wins following 75 years of Division I Men's Basketball in Long Beach.

• The Walter Pyramid will once again play host to the home games for Long Beach State, and the Beach will have an exciting slate of games. The Beach will host 17 home dates this season, with a full conference matchup in addition to the Battle of the Beach, which will feature three teams, Montana State and Nobel in addition to the Beach who will all play each other across three days November 19-21. Finally, non-conference home dates include Illinois State, San Diego, Pepperdine and Lincoln.

• Tracking the portal, Long Beach State added nine collegiate transfers in the offeseason but also saw nine others transfer out. Six remained in Division I: Devin Askew (Villanova), Kam Martin (Samford), TJ Wainwright (Pacific), Cory Curtis Jr. (Kansas City), Cam Denson (Ball State), and Christian Richardson (Omaha), while Andrew Nagy (Point Loma), Varick Lewis (Jessup) and Eli Djordjevic (Calgary) moved outside of Division I. Others still remaining in Division I from prior years include AJ George (CS Bakersfield), Jadon Jones (Oklahoma), Maddox Monson and Shaumba Ngoyi (Eastern Washington), Isa Silva (San Francisco) and Lassina Traore (Texas).