GAME NOTES: Golden State programs San Diego and Stanford tip off their respective 2009-10 schedules tonight, as the teams clash at Jenny Craig Pavilion.

Now in his third season with the Toreros, head coach Bill Grier expects to be able to bounce back from a mediocre campaign last time around when the team went 16-16 overall. After putting together a six-game win streak in the middle of January last season, San Diego hit the skids and won just four more outings, bowing to Santa Clara in the West Coast Conference Tournament. The Toreros were beset by injury, which is one of the reasons why they were just 6-8 in league action.

As for Stanford, it ripped off 10 consecutive wins to begin 2008-09, but the end of that run was signaled by the start of the Pac-10 Conference slate and from there it was all downhill. The Cardinal responded with just six wins in 18 tries versus the rest of the Pac-10, losing to nationally-ranked Washington in the conference tournament before picking up a couple of insignificant postseason victories against Boise State and Wichita State, leading up to a 65-62 overtime loss against familiar foe Oregon State in the semifinals of the CBI under first-year head coach Johnny Dawkins.

The Cardinal owns a 3-1 edge in the all-time series with San Diego, capturing a 77-69 win in the most recent encounter, that coming in the first round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament.

Coach Dawkins has some large expectations to live up to as he guides the Cardinal into another season of high-level competition. Stanford figures to put a couple of seniors in the starting five, along with a junior and a pair of sophomores who will have to grow up fast. In guard/forward Landry Fields, the Cardinal has a strong inside presence from someone who led the program in rebounding a year ago with better than six and a half boards per contest. Fields, a 49.8 percent shooter from the field, was the third-leading scorer for the squad with his 12.6 ppg. Unfortunately for Fields and the rest of the team, the top two scorers from a year ago -- Anthony Goods (16.2 ppg) and Lawrence Hill (13.6 ppg) -- are no longer around, which means Fields will be the main go-to guy. The rest of the starting group for the Cardinal is a mixed bag of part-time guys from a year ago who are going to be asked to make a significant jump in contribution. While Josh Owens (6.9 ppg) is someone who will probably be coming off the bench initially, it doesn't mean that he won't have a large role in the team's plans.

The Toreros made big news off the court this summer when they found out that senior guard Brandon Johnson had been granted another year of eligibility. Johnson, who suffered a season-ending injury against San Diego State the first week of December last season, is one of the all-time leading scorers in the history of the program with his 1,385 points and expects to build on that total as he comes back from surgery from a ruptured Achilles' tendon. An All- WCC performer in the past, Johnson led the team in scoring (16.9 ppg) and assists (3.5 apg) during the 2007-08 campaign, so he definitely knows how to run an offense. De'Jon Jackson is another player who is coming back from injuries and the hope is that he can at least reach the same level that saw him score in double figures in nine of his last 13 outings. Matt Dorr (6.5 ppg) led the team in assists a year ago with 70 and will again be expected to lend a hand in perimeter shooting where he knocked down a team-best 42 three- pointers.

Getting both Johnson and Jackson back to where they were before injuries sidelined them will be important for the Toreros, but it will pale in comparison to the urgency set forth by Stanford as it tries to find support for Fields on the floor.

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