NEWS AND NOTES
* San Diego State enters its 98th season of basketball, its 49th season at the Division I level and the second under the direction of Brian Dutcher on Thursday, Nov. 1, with a contest against Chaminade. This marks SDSU's lone exhibition game during the 2018-19 campaign.
* The Aztecs have faced the Silverswords twice before, both times were regular-season contests in the Maui Invitational. On Nov. 26, 1989, Jim Brandenburg's Aztecs recorded a 63-49 win to claim seventh place in the Maui Classic. Exactly 14 years later, Steve Fisher led San Diego State to a third-place finish at the Maui Invitational, defeating Chaminade, 75-67.
* SDSU has won its last 25 exhibition games. In 2017-18, the Aztecs defeated UC San Diego, 98-79, in the lone exhibition contest of the season.
* Last season, San Diego State won its Mountain West Conference-leading 11th men's basketball championship. The Aztecs defeated Fresno State (64-52), No. 22/23 Nevada (90-73) and New Mexico (82-75) to claim the school's fifth Mountain West tournament championship.
* Since Feb. 14, 2018, San Diego State's 9-1 record is tied for the third-highest winning percentage in the country, trailing only Michigan (13-1) and Loyola Chicago (11-1).
* Head coach Brian Dutcher is set for his second season at the helm after guiding San Diego State to a 22-11 record. He was the only first-year coach to lead his team to the NCAA tournament in 2018. In 96 previous seasons of Aztec basketball, no head coach had won more games and/or won a conference title in his first year until Dutcher accomplished the feat.
* Dutcher welcomes back three returning starters in redshirt sophomore forward Jalen McDaniels (2018 all-MW third team by media, honorable mention by coaches) sophomore forward Matt Mitchell and senior guard Devin Watson. The trio played in all 33 games a year ago with Watson starting every game, Mitchell receiving the opening nod 32 times (starting the final 31 outings) and McDaniels starting 21 of the final 22 contests (did not start on Senior Night).
* The aforementioned threesome ranked No. 2, 3 and 4 in scoring in 2017-18 with Watson leading the way at 12.2 points and falling seven points shy of tying outgoing senior Malik Pope for the team lead in the category. Mitchell and McDaniels, meanwhile, each finished with 10.5 scoring averages.
* SDSU returns from last year its leader in rebounding average (McDaniels - 7.5), assists (Watson - 124), steals (Mitchell - 36), field-goal percentage (McDaniels - .586), free-throw percentage (McDaniels - .788), three-point field-goal percentage (Watson - .389), three-pointers (Mitchell and Watson - 49) and minutes (Watson - 1,031).
* Senior guard Jeremy Hemsley and junior forward Nolan Narain are back for their respective seasons after receiving the starting nod at different times throughout the 2017-18 campaign. Hemsley (7.3 ppg, 1.22 a/to) played in 32 of 33 games last year, starting seven times, and
Men's Hoops to Host Chaminade in Exhibition on Thursday
