Southern Utah's men's basketball team officially opens the 2011-12 season this weekend at the Basketball Travelers Classic in San Diego, Calif.

The Thunderbirds are scheduled to meet three teams in the round-robin tournament, beginning with UC Davis on Friday afternoon. SUU will then face off against host San Diego State on Saturday evening before wrapping up the tournament against Bryant University Sunday at noon.

The Thunderbirds played a pair of exhibition games to warm up for the season, notching an 86-70 win over Saint Martin's University on Nov. 2, then taking a 68-60 win over Colorado Mesa on Tuesday night.

All four teams will be playing their official opener Friday. UC Davis posted a 108-63 win over Menlo College in its lone exhibition game last Friday night. San Diego State, which finished the 2010-11 season ranked sixth in the country, came out on top of both of its exhibition games, claiming a 78-63 win over Cal State San Marcos on Nov. 2 and a 78-53 victory against Point Loma Nazarene on Monday. Bryant will be playing its first games of the season this weekend.

The Games: Friday: Southern Utah vs. UC. Davis, 4:30 p.m. (PST) Viejas Arena (12,414). Saturday, SUU vs. San Diego State, 7:30 p.m. (PST), Viejas Arena. Sunday, SUU vs. Bryant U., noon (PST), Viejas Arena.

The Series: SUU and UC Davis met for the first time on the basketball court last year, when the Aggies took a 74-65 home win. The two teams are scheduled to meet again on Dec. 22, in Cedar City. SUU holds a 2-1 edge in the series with San Diego State, but the two teams haven't met since the 1993 season when the Aztecs took a 70-69 win in San Diego. SUU won the first two games during the 1991-92 season when the Thunderbirds claimed a 104-82 win in Cedar City and an 87-78 win in San Diego. Sunday's game will be the first meeting between SUU and Bryant.

Radio: All Southern Utah men's basketball games will be broadcast live by KSUU (91.1 FM) as well as on the internet at www.suu.edu/ksuu. Art Challis will be in his 39th season as the Thunderbirds' basketball play-by-play voice. Dr. Challis is joined on home and selected road broadcasts by former SUU standout Dean O'Driscoll.

Practice Schedule: The practice schedule calls for the team will work out at 3:00 p.m. daily. Contact SUU Director of Athletic Media Relations Neil Gardner for more information.

Media Availability: Players and coaches are available for interviews on Tuesdays prior to practice, between 2:00-3:00 p.m., with occasional adjustments due to scheduling conflicts. To contact a player or coach on another day or time contact Neil Gardner at gardner@suu.edu or 435-586-7753.

Video Highlights: Video highlights SUU's Summit League games will be available to accredited media outlets via SUU's FTP site. For information on the schedule and obtaining those highlights contact SUU Director of Athletic Media Relations Neil Gardner.

Affiliations: Southern Utah is in its 15th and final season in The Summit League. All but two of SUU's sports compete in The Summit, with football a member of the Great West Conference and gymnastics an affiliate member of the Western Athletic Conference. Most of SUU's programs will move into the Big Sky Conference in 2012. UC Davis is a member of the Big West Conference, San Diego State is affiliated with the Mountain West and Bryant is a member of the Northeast Conference.

Videostreaming/Live Stats at www.suutbirds.com: All of Southern Utah's 2011-12 men's basketball games will be video-streamed on the SUU athletic website at www.suutbirds.com. Live stats for all home games and most road games will also be available. Video streams are on a pay basis but there is no cost for live stats.

Thunderbird Club Luncheons: The Thunderbird Club's weekly no-host luncheon is held Mondays at noon in the Tradition Room in the home of President Michael Benson. The public is invited to attend the luncheons where Southern Utah's in-season coaches talk about their upcoming contests and review the past week's action.

Next Up: SUU opens the home season next week against Montana State-Billings on Nov. 17, then heads up I-15 for a match-up with Utah State, Nov. 19.

The SUU Coaches: 

Head Coach Roger Reid (Weber State '68) is entering his fifth season on the Southern Utah bench.

Reid brings a career Division I mark of 192-156, including a 40-80 record at SUU, into the season. His record includes six years as head coach at Brigham Young.

Coach Reid's career has spanned virtually every level of the coaching strata, including the high school, junior college, and NCAA Division I levels as well as in the NBA and international ranks. He is probably best known for his success at Brigham Young University, where he led the Cougars to five NCAA tournament berths and three Western Athletic Conference championships. He has also coached the Phoenix Suns of the NBA and the Hangzhou Horses of the Chinese Basketball Association. Reid coached Snow College to a conference title and a No. 18 national ranking in his final season on the bench there.

Reid is assisted by Ron Carling (BYU '70), a 40-year coaching veteran who is also entering his fifth season with the program; Johnny Brown (New Mexico '86), an 18-year veteran of the coaching ranks who is in his fifth year in Cedar City; and assistant Kenya Crandell (Nebraska-Kearney '96) who is entering his 15th season as a collegiate coach and his fourth year at SUU.

Captains: This year's captains are the three seniors: Ray Jones, Jr., Matt Massey, and Ramell Taylor.

Exhibition Game Notes:

• Five Thunderbirds had double-figure scoring averages through the two exhibitions. Ray Jones, Jr., led the way with a 16.0 point average, while Matt Massey checked in at 15.5, Ramell Taylor at 15.0, Jackson Stevenett at 14.5 and Wade Collie at 10.0.
• Stevenett averaged a team-leading 8.5 rebounds per game, while Massey and Taylor pulled down 4.5 and 4.0 caroms, respectively.
• Jones and Stevenett co-led the team with 4.5 assists apiece, while Jones and Collie averaged 2.5 steals.
• Stevenett led the team in minutes played during the exhibitions, averaging 38.5 per game. Jones was on the floor an average of 32.5 minutes and Massey 30.5, but no other player logged more than Taylor's 25.5 minutes per game.
• Stevenett blocked three shots against Saint Martin's. They were the team's only rejections in the two games.
• The Thunderbirds did a much better job taking care of the ball in this year's exhibitions than in last year's. After averaging 21.0 turnovers in the two exhibitions in 2010 team had just 25 combined this year, nine in the second half.
• SUU also shared the ball and stole the ball better in this year's exhibitions than in last year's. The team averaged 20 dimes per game in 2011 and 16 in 2010 and had 21 steals in the two games this year compared to 12 in two last season.

Thunderbird Notes:

• SUU has seven lettermen returning from last year's squad as well as a redshirt freshman and another player who was on the squad in 2008-09 before serving an LDS Church mission. The eight total returning lettermen are the team's most during the Roger Reid era.
• Three seniors, six juniors, two sophomores, one redshirt freshmen and four true freshmen, including walk-ons, make up the 2011-12 Thunderbird squad.
• The Basketball Travelers Classic makes it three straight years that the Thunderbirds have participated in an in-season tournament. Last year the team competed at the Great Alaska Shootout and two years ago it traveled to Waikiki for Hawai'i's Rainbow Classic.
• Including the two exhibition games, SUU will play 15 contests at home in the Centrum this season. The regular-season home schedule includes nine conference games as well as non-conference match-ups with Troy and UC Davis as well as games against Division II foes Montana State-Billings and Southern Virginia.
• The SUU road schedule has the Thunderbirds playing at Utah State and Weber State, with a return visit to Troy as well as the nine conference road games. SUU will also play a road game against an opponent to be determined, in the Sears Bracket Buster tournament, in mid-February. This is the first season SUU has participated in the Bracket Buster.
• The Summit League tournament returns to Sioux Falls, S.D., for the fourth straight season this March. Eight men's and eight women's teams qualify for the tournament.
• The University of South Dakota joins The Summit League this season. The Coyotes replace Centenary College, which has moved its athletics program to the NCAA Division III level.
• As a result of the league shake-up, SUU will have a new travel partner in 2011-12: Oral Roberts. SUU had been travel partners with UMKC for the past five seasons.
• Oral Roberts announced on Oct. 25, that this will be its final season in The Summit League as well. ORU is moving to the Southland Conference next season.
• SUU qualified for The Summit League tournament as the number eight seed last year. The Thunderbirds finished the season strong, winning five of their final eight regular-season games, with a 2-point and a 3-point loss as well as a loss to regular-season and conference tournament champion Oakland among the three setbacks.
• SUU is in its 49th season as a 4-year institution, its 24th as an NCAA Division I qualifier and its 15th and final season in the Summit League. The Thunderbirds will join the Big Sky Conference next year.

Scouting the Aggies: UC Davis returns nine lettermen, including two starters, from last year's team that finished 10-20, including a 4-12 mark in Big West play. The Aggies lost their top two scorers and rebounders from last year, but first-year Coach Jim Les had four players in double figures in the exhibition win over Menlo, including guard Ryan Sypkens, who hit 10-of-12 shots, including 6-of-8 threes, en route to a 30 point performance. Sypkens, a 6-4, 185-pound junior, came off the bench to score 16 against SUU in last year's meeting. Josh Ritchart (6-9, 215, So) had 13 points against Menlo,while Alex Tiffin (6-9, 220, So) and Tyler Les (6-2, 185, So) each had 12. The Aggies shot 60.7 percent from the field (37-61) in the game, while limiting Menlo to .309 shooting (17-55).

Scouting the Aztecs: San Diego State lost six players from last year's nationally ranked squad, including four starters, but if the team's two exhibition games are any indication guard Chase Tapley, the returning starter and leading returning scorer, will have plenty of help this season. Guard James Rahon led the team in scoring in both games, with 19 against CS San Marcos and 18 against Point Loma, and the team had three players in double figures against CSSM and four against PLN. Tapley had 15 against CSSM and 11 against Point Loma and DeShawn Stephens averaged 11.5 ppg after a 16-point outing against San Marcos. The Aztecs shot .456 (52-114) in the two games while holding their opponents to .427 (41-96) from the floor.

Scouting the Bulldogs: Bryant is in its fourth and final year of transition from Division II to Division I competition. The Bulldogs have eight players returning from last year's 1-29 squad, including three starters: guard Frankie Dobbs (6-3, 185, Jr), forward Alex Francis (6-6, 205, So) and center Vlad Kondratyev (6-8, 225, So). Francis was the team's leading scorer and rebounder last year, at 14.8 ppg and 8.0 rpg to earn NEC rookie of the year honors, while Dobbs averaged 12.4 points and a team-high 5.3 assists and Kondratyev averaged 5.4 points and 3.8 rebounds.