No Rest Over the Holidays for SDSU : Aztecs Start a Busy Basketball Week Tonight at Home

The San Diego State basketball team opens a busy five days tonight at 7:30 with a nonconference game against St. Francis (N.Y.) at the San Diego Sports Arena.

It is the first of three home games this week for the Aztecs (4-3), who also play host to No. 7 North Carolina Thursday and Vermont Saturday.

The Aztecs are coming off a 77-75 loss to No. 19 Tennessee in the final of their McDonald’s tournament. St. Francis (5-3) defeated Medger Evans, 100-54, Saturday before leaving for San Diego, the first stop on a trip that will take the team from New York to California to Utah to Nova Scotia.

The Terriers are led by Darrwin Purdie, a 6-foot, 6-inch senior center who is averaging 19 points and 8 rebounds per game.

St. Francis is coached by Rich Zvosec, who at 27 is the youngest coach in NCAA Division I. Zvosec took over after Bob Valvano, younger brother of North Carolina State Coach Jim Valvano, quit over the summer to coach a professional team in Sweden.

St. Francis, a member of the Northeast Conference, was 38-74 (11-18 last season) in four seasons under Valvano and has not had a winning season since a 14-12 finish in 1978-79.

The Terriers are averaging 86.1 points per game, but the Aztecs have had good success slowing teams down. They are holding teams to 39% shooting and have yet to allow an opponent to shoot better than 50% for a game.

SDSU forward Eeric White, who was one of three freshman reserve players suspended for breaking team rules regarding drinking, fighting and curfew, will be in uniform tonight for the first time in three games, Coach Jim Brandenburg said.

Brandenburg also said that another of the suspended players, Alex Sund, will be redshirted for medical reasons. Sund, a 6-foot, 8-inch center, broke a tooth in the incident and will require dental work that could keep him out for several weeks, Brandenburg said.

Sund, who along with center/forward Dana Jackson was suspended for one game, has played in four games, averaging 0.8 points and 0.8 rebounds.

Sund has returned to his home in Golden, Colo., and could not be reached for comment.