By Justin Donner

It may be time for the administration to put combining the two into full throttle and build an arena on campus for the team to play in for their home games.

The Cougars practice at a local Boys and Girls Club right up the street from campus. Their home games are not really at home, but they are around 12 miles away at MiraCosta College of Oceanside. This is a small facility with a large Spartan logo, the community college’s mascot, painted at center court. At first, it sounds like the recipe for a mediocre program but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

With only three years of existence, the Cougars are currently No. 1 in the NAIA national rankings, own a 28-1 overall record and have the longest current winning streak in NAIA Division I with 19.

When asked about a comparison with last year’s season, Coach Saia was nothing but ecstatic.

“Last year’s team has a lot to be proud of. This year’s team might be just a bit deeper, more mature in spots and bigger in size,” Coach Saia said.

The Cougar’s recently played Bethesda at home and finished with a 93-54 victory. Not only were the starters one point, but as always, the bench made some noise. Of the 14 total 3-pointers for CSUSM, 6 of them came from Zack Zaragoza off the bench. Zaragoza also had a game high of 18 points.

In regards to keeping his focus coming off the bench, “It’s visualization and mental preparation for the game. I see myself making my shots and giving it my all out there,” Zaragoza said.

The Cougars now have their eyes on a conference tournament in Georgia and a National Championship in Kansas City.

“Kansas city is the top 32 team of the NAIA. You have to win 5 games in 6 or 7 days to win a national title. That’s the golden prize and that’s what we are shooting for,” Coach Saia said.