ARCATA — If you're going to visit Southern California, you might as well stay awhile and enjoy the surroundings. That's the attitude the Humboldt State men's basketball team takes on the road for its first-round California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament game against UC San Diego.

For the second straight season in the tournament's two-year history, the Jacks have qualified for the league's postseason event. Unlike last year, when the hosted a first-round game, they'll be on the road by virtue of losing  a  tie-breaker with their hosts, the UCSD Tritons. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in RIMAC Arena.

The winner of Tuesday's game advances into Friday's semifinals at San Bernardino. Saturday's championship game will determine the league's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division II West Region Championships.

Tournament Seedings
Determined by the regular-season standings, the tournament seedings and schedule are as follows:
No. 8 San Francisco State (14-13, 8-12) at No. 1 Cal Poly Pomona (19-6, 15-5)
No. 7 Cal State Monterey Bay (14-13, 8-12) at No. 2 Cal State Dominguez Hills (21-6, 15-5)
No. 6 Sonoma State (12-15, 8-12) at No. 3 Cal State San Bernardino (17-9, 15-5)
No. 5 Humboldt State (20-10, 13-7) at No. 4 UC San Diego (16-10, 13-7)

CCAA Tournament Web Site
To access up-to-date information on the tournament, including live stats and scores, a tournament web site has been set up at http://goccaa.org/Sports/championships/2009/09tourney.asp.

Jacks vs. Tritons
For the second straight season the teams split their two-game series, each winning on its own court. On Dec. 5 the Lumberjacks lost, 80-67 in La Jolla. They avenged that defeat with a 60-55 win over the Tritons on Jan. 31 in Arcata. …HSU leads the all-time series vs. UCSD, 6-2.

Live Stats
Live statistics during Tuesday's game will be available for viewing through a link on the left column of the UCSD web site http://www.ucsdtritons.com.

On-the-Air
Tuesday's game will be broadcast live on KGOE, 1480 AM. The change of radio station location allows simultaneous broadcasts of the HSU women's and men's games. Both stations are affiliated with Bicoastal Media. The webcast is also available for out-of-area listeners, accessed through http://www.ustream.tv/channel/humboldt-state-athletics … Assistant Athletic Director Dan Pambianco will provide play-by-play from San Diego. All broadcasts begin 15 minutes prior to game time with the pregame show.

Probable Starters
#12 Ernie Spada, 5-10, So., shooting guard
#22 Zac Tiedeman, 6-1, Jr., point guard
#21 Kyle Baxter, 6-8, Fr., wing
#13 Jameson Figgatt, 6-6, Sr., forward
#24 Kevin Atkins, 6-6, Jr., forward

The Wood Era
Heading toward the final weeks of his 28th season directing the Lumberjacks, Humboldt State head coach Tom Wood has compiled a 441-341 overall record. During his tenure, Wood's teams have achieved eight 20-win seasons, a feat not accomplished once by any of the other head coaches in the Lumberjacks'  86 seasons of intercollegiate men's basketball. Wood's program has flourished during the new millennium, achieving six 20-win seasons and posting an overall record of 195-68, including a mark of 113-16 on the Jacks' home court.

Lumberjack Notes
Tuesday's game is the 31st of the season, tying the 1989-90 campaign for the second most games played by a Lumberjack team in a single campaign. During its advance to the national semifinals in 2003-04, the Jacks played a program-record 34 games. …One of the drawbacks of having a balanced team that has 11 players averaging in double digits minutes played and two more that are just short is the limit placed upon individual numbers. But both Kevin Atkins and Jameson Figgatt have broken through that barrier, each posting a double-double one this year for the only two on the team. …HSU's free throw shooting hit a season-low last week in the win over CSU Dominguez Hills. Making only 12 of their 34 chances from the line, the Jacks managed a mark of 35 percent, 32 percentage points below their season average. Their best effort this year was a team mark of 88 percent, hitting 23 of 26 chances in a loss to San Francisco State. …Speaking of free throws, junior transfer Zac Tiedeman, who was 10-12 from the line vs. CSUDH, finished the CCAA regular season with a league-leading 89 percent accuracy. He also placed second in three-point shooting accuracy at 46 percent, and was first in assists/turnovers ratio at 2.4. …Ernie Spada finished the league's regular season at No. 1 in three-pointers made per game with an average of 2.3.

Tritons Notes
Last year's CCAA Tournament champions, the Tritons return 11 letterwinners and three starters from that unit that heated up in the playoffs and claimed the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Division II West Region Championships. This season, the Tritons have posted a 16-10 overall record, and tied the jacks for fourth place with a 13-7 conference record. …UCSD comes into the week with four wins in its last five games. …Junior Jordan Lawley is the Triton's top scorer with an average of 13.4 points per game. Also averaging in double figures are seniors Kelvin Kim, at 11.3 ppg, and Shane Poppen, at 11.1 points per contest. Poppen is also UCSD's leading rebounder with an average of 7.7 boards per game.

Wood's Comments
"I like playing UC San Diego. They represent a nice challenge for us. The first time we played them, we were young and had many players new to college ball. We're a better team now than we were then." … "We're at the point of the season where there is no tomorrow. We can look back now at some of the significant wins we've achieved, and know that we belong in this tournament. We can aspire to win this (tournament) if we put together a full 40 minutes of basketball every time out."

Online Resources
Access the complete Humboldt State men's basketball roster online at http://hsujacks.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball&.
Current statistics can be found at http://hsujacks.com/custompages/mbball/2008/teamstat.htm?path=mbball.