The Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team is living up to their preseason hype.

Picked to finish second in the Big West, the Titans currently sit in a tie for second in the conference at 2-1 and 8-6 overall. They have won five out of their last six games, including an 86-79 victory over the Gauchos on Dec. 29.

In that game, senior forward Sammy Yeager scored a career-high 30 points, hit eight three-pointers and earned Big West Player of the Week honors for his efforts.

In addition to Yeager, Fullerton is led by two other seniors in guard, D.J. Seeley and guard Kwame Vaughn, both of whom were predicted to be All-Conference players in the Preseason Media Polls. Seeley leads the team in scoring with an average of 20 points per game while Vaughn is not far behind with 19.7 points per game.

After transferring from UC Berkeley, Seeley was named to the first All-Big West conference team for the 2011-12 season and is a front-runner for Big West player of the year in 2012-13.

After transferring from the University of San Francisco, Vaughn had to sit out the 2010-11 season, but came back to earn second team All-Big West honors in the 2011-12 season.

The Titans are led by interim Head Coach Andy Newman, who has been an assistant coach at Fullerton for the previous five years. Newman, who was suspended for the first two games of the season due to secondary NCAA violations, is back on the sideline and has his team playing well in his first season as a head coach.

The Titans play tomorrow at Cal State Bakersfield and then will begin a three-game home series against UC Riverside, UC Irvine and Cal State Long Beach.

A version of this article appeared on page 9 of January 9th, 2013’s print edition of the Nexus.