When San Diego State basketball players were told about their next community service event, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament with members of the university\u2019s Greek system, someone raised his hand and excitedly asked if, wait, do they get to play against the frats?<\/p>\n
They don\u2019t. But they get maybe the next best thing: Reffing them.<\/p>\n
The MESA Foundation, the NIL collective for SDSU basketball, is partnering with the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, the San Diego City Attorney\u2019s Office and SDSU\u2019s fraternities to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl, specifically to college students and young adults. The addictive opioid drug is 50 times more potent than morphine and can trigger a fatal overdose with as little as 2 milligrams, the equivalent of a few grains of salt.<\/p>\n
Two years ago, players launched a social media campaign to heighten awareness. This time, it\u2019s a 3-on-3 tournament Sunday at the Aztec Recreation Center (ARC) next to Viejas Arena involving teams from 10 fraternities \u2026 with Miles Byrd and the rest of the roster given whistles and striped shirts.<\/p>\n
The \u201cBeyond the ARC\u201d event begins at 11 a.m. and features educational tables about the dangers of fentanyl. That includes information on how to obtain free naloxone, or Narcan, the non-prescription opioid overdose reversal medication.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big problem in America, obviously,\u201d Byrd said. \u201cAs a player, as athletes, health is very important to us, and everybody else\u2019s well-being is also important to us. This event is pretty big for the team, pretty big for the school. Universities all across the country should take part in something like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are situations where students could be put in harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n
In exchange for monthly NIL payments, the MESA Foundation requires players to participate in a half-dozen community service projects each season. They range from the annual ALS Walk around Mission Bay to youth basketball clinics to food drives and, now, to officiating fellow students.<\/p>\n
Who will be the best ref?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got the best whistle by far,\u201d cracked Byrd, the most tenured Aztec player in his fourth year in the program. \u201cI don\u2019t know if some of these guys have been around the game long enough to know a great whistle. I know a few guys are going to get the whistle in their hands and start over-calling. It\u2019s probably the ones who complain the most in practice when they don\u2019t get a call. I know my whistle is going to be sharp.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll definitely let \u2019em play, but if one of those frat homies says something, he\u2019s going to get himself a technical. I\u2019m not playing about that. You\u2019re not going to talk back to the ref. I want to make sure everybody has fun while playing, but I can get harder if I need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
UCLA tickets<\/p>\n
The Oct. 17 preseason exhibition against UCLA at Viejas Arena is not part of SDSU\u2019s season-ticket package. Instead, tickets will be sold separately with proceeds benefiting the Aztecs\u2019 Student-Athlete Recruitment and Retention Fund for men\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n
Tickets range from $30 to $50, with season seat holders receiving priority access starting Wednesday through the end of the month. After that, season-ticket holders in other SDSU sports can purchase them. The remaining seats will go on sale to the general public Oct. 9.<\/p>\n
\u201cNIL is part of what we\u2019re doing now, and it gives us an opportunity to raise some money for both programs,\u201d coach Brian Dutcher said. \u201cWe feel the fan base will embrace that game even if it\u2019s not on their season-ticket package \u2014 a chance to get UCLA in here. There were some neutral sites that wanted the UCLA game, but I felt it was important to play it here on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Injury updates<\/p>\n
The team is still in a limited-hours window for the next two weeks before transitioning to full preseason practice five days per week.<\/p>\n
Ten of the 13 scholarship players are healthy and practicing. Magoon Gwath, San Jose State transfer Latrell Davis and freshman Tae Simmons are sidelined with various injuries.<\/p>\n
Gwath underwent offseason knee surgery and is probably a month from being cleared for live action, which may take him out for the UCLA exhibition but should have him ready for the Nov. 4 regular-season opener against Long Beach State.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s ahead of schedule rehab-wise,\u201d Dutcher said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to rush him back. We know it\u2019s a long season, and we want him at his absolute best when he comes back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gambling scandal<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the NCAA permanently banned three Fresno State players for illicitly placing prop bets on themselves or teammates to over or underperform in certain statistical categories. Mykell Robinson and Jared Weaver were key pieces for the Bulldogs last season; Steven Vasquez transferred from Fresno State to San Jose State, where he appeared in just 11 games.<\/p>\n
The NCAA infractions report indicated the games were between Dec. 11 and Jan. 11. None involved SDSU, which played at Fresno State on Dec. 4. Robinson had a team-high 20 points and 10 rebounds in the 84-62 loss. Weaver did not play.<\/p>\n
The return game at Viejas Arena was Feb. 18, by which time the three players were under investigation after a sports integrity monitoring service flagged suspicious betting patterns. Robinson was no longer on the team by then. Weaver, who had 16 points, was suspended the following week.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: September 13, 2025 at 4:39 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When San Diego State basketball players were told about their next community service event, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":225073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1369,1370,1317,1337,1338,18257,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-225072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-sports","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaabasketball","14":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115200283461214348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}