Men’s Hoops Eyeing Season Sweep At Fresno State

SAN DIEGO – Boasting a 17-0 record, including 6-0 in Mountain West action, the San Diego State men's basketball team is looking to lock down its first regular-season conference sweep of the year, when it takes on the Fresno State Bulldogs on Tuesday night in Fresno.
 
NEWS AND NOTES (through games of Jan. 11)
-Owners of the nation's longest win streak, San Diego State looks to complete its first regular-season sweep of Fresno State since 2014 when the Aztecs face the Bulldogs on Tuesday night.
-San Diego State is completing a challenging stretch of three games in three locations in seven days. Last Wednesday, the Aztecs won at Wyoming, 72-52, and returned home to defeat Boise State, 83-65, on Saturday. Fresno State has a bye over the weekend and has not played since last Tuesday (Jan. 7).
-The Aztecs, one of two undefeated Division I teams (Auburn), is off to its best start since the 2010-11 squad opened 20-0 en route to a 34-3 record and an appearance in the NCAA Sweet 16.
-Win streaks on the line Tuesday: 17-game win streak overall (longest in the nation), 8-game road/neutral win streak (longest in the nation), 7-game win streak against teams from the Pacific Time Zone, 6-game conference win streak (8th longest win streak in th nation), 6-game road win streak (3rd longest in the nation), 5-game win streak against teams from California.
-The current 17-game win streak for the Aztecs is the third-longest in school history, trailing a pair of 20-game win streaks; the aforementioned 2010-11 start, of which two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard was a part of, and the 2013-14 squad led by Xavier Thames. That team also advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tourney.
-San Diego State is looking for just its third 7-0 conference start of the Mountain West era on Tuesday night. The Aztecs last two outright regular-season titles have come following a 7-0 start to league play.
-The Aztecs enter Saturday with a 1 1/2-game lead in the conference standings (New Mexico and UNLV are 4-1 in conference play).
-San Diego State is the 16th team to open a season 17-0 since the start of the 2010-11 campaign (the Aztecs also did it in 2010-11). Of the previous 16 teams, 15 reached the NCAA tournament and all of those teams won a game and six of those squads made the Elite Eight.
-A case could be that San Diego State has been the best road/neutral team in the nation to this point in the season. The Aztecs are 8-0 in road/neutral games (that is the best record in the nation; Duke is 7-0 and Auburn is 6-0). The Aztecs also sport the best scoring margin in such games (+17.8, Duke is second at 16.1). The Aztecs are also first in field goal percentage differential (+11.4) and three-point field goal percentage differential (+15.2) despite playing four NET Quadrant 1 opponents.
-San Diego State remained at number seven in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll this week. Now nationally ranked for a sixth consecutive week, this is the Aztecs highest ranking in the poll since SDSU was ranked No. 6 on Feb. 17, 2014.
-San Diego State is enjoying its 72nd appearance in the AP Top-25 Poll this week (all have occurred since the start of the 2010-11 campaign). Since the start of the '10-11 season, SDSU's 72 weeks in the top 25 are the 23rd most nationally.
-San Diego State's metrics continue to pace at an elite level. The Aztecs are currently 4th in NET (San Diego State has been in the top four every day since the daily chart debuted Dec. 16), 1st in strength of record, 9th in Sagarin, 12th in BPI, 12th in KenPom and 13th in RPI.
-With the fast start, San Diego State finds itself ranked among the nation's elite in several statistical categories, including 3rd in scoring margin (+18.9), 4th in three-point field goal percentage differential (+11.9), 5th in scoring defense (57.0), 12th in field goal percentage defense (37.0), 8th in three-point field goal defense (26.6), 10th in field goal percentage differential (+9.9), 11th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.42) and 17th in three-point field goal percentage (38.5).
-San Diego State improved to 17-0 overall and 6-0 in conference play on Saturday with an 83-65 victory at Viejas Arena. The Aztecs posted their largest margin of victory at home in the nine all-time meetings at Viejas and never trailed in the game. San Diego State had three players score 19 or more points in the game, the first time in 14 seasons, as KJ Feagin had a season-high 23 points, Yanni Wetzell tied a career-high with 20 points and Malachi Flynn reached double figures for the 16th time in 17 games with 19 points.
-San Diego State recorded its third consecutive game of shooting 50 percent or better from the field on Saturday. It marked the first time the Aztecs have done that since a four-game stretch from Dec. 6-22, 2012. In the last three games, SDSU has shot 51.9 percent from the field, 41.9 percent from three-point range, 87.0 percent from the free throw line and has averaged 77.3 points.
-In the victory over Boise State, San Diego State did not trail in the second half marking the 14th time in 17 games this season that the Aztecs did not face a second-half deficit. The Aztecs claimed their 11th victory by 16 or more points this season.
-San Diego State has four players averaging in double figures (10.1 points or more) and six players averaging 6.9 points or more. Five Aztec players have scored 19 or more points in a game this season.
-Junior guard Malachi Flynn has been one of the best players in the nation through the opening two months of the season. A transfer from Washington State, Flynn leads the Aztecs in scoring (16.3), assists (5.1) and steals (1.7). He is the only player in the nation to average 16 points and five assists while owning an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.30 or better. He is currently fifth in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.31 (86 assists, 26 turnovers).
-Senior Yanni Wetzell has reached double figures in 11 of his last 14 games after doing so nine times all of last season at Vanderbilt. The transfer is averaging 11.6 points and 5.9 rebounds (second on the team), while shooting 61.5 percent from the field.  In his last 14 games he is averaging 12.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and has made 75-of-115 field goal attempts (65.2 percent).
-At Wyoming, Wetzell was a perfect 7-for-7 from the field and produced 17 points, four rebounds and two assists. He became the fourth Aztec player during the Brian Dutcher/Steve Fisher era to make at least seven field goals in a game without a miss - joining Nathan Mensah, Aerick Sanders and Billy White.
-Wetzell earned Mountain West Conference Player of the Week honors this past week. In the two games last week, Wetzell averaged 18.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and shot 84.2 percent from the field (16-of-19).
-Despite coming off the bench in 13-of-17 games this season, junior forward Matt Mitchell is third on the team in scoring (11.2) and is third on the team in rebounding (4.9), while shooting 38.8 percent from three-point range. He is averaging career bests in all three of those categories.
-Junior Jordan Schakel has eight or more points in nine of his last 11 games (double figure in seven of those contests). Not only is reaching double figures good for Schakel, it's good for the Aztecs. When Schakel scores 10 or more points in his career, SDSU is 18-2 with 11 straight victories. The Aztecs are 12-0 at Viejas when the he reaches double figures. The sharpshooter has made 36-of-80 attempts from bonus distance (45.0 percent).
 
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