SAN DIEGO – The men's basketball programs at San Diego State and Brigham Young will begin a new home-and-home series this season with the Cougars coming to San Diego in December and the Aztecs returning the game in Provo, Utah in 2021-22.
On Dec. 1, BYU will visit Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena for the third time since the 2010-11 season, the final year the school was part of the Mountain West Conference. The game time will be announced at a later date. As part of the agreement, San Diego State will return the game next season and appear at the Marriott Center, where it authored a 76-71 victory last season. The date for that game and its time have not been determined.
Overall, the Cougars hold an 48-25 advantage in the all-time series, which began with a pair of SDSU victories in Aztec Gym during the 1940-41 season. When the teams resume the series, SDSU will be in the midst of a four-game win streak, its longest in the 73-games the teams have played in the last 80 years.
Two of the San Diego State's biggest wins have come against BYU. In the 1987-88 season, when Brigham Young was the No. 7-ranked team in the nation, SDSU handed them an 82-80 overtime defeat in the Sports Arena. Then in the championship game of the 2011 Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas, the No. 7-ranked Aztecs cruised passed the No. 8 Cougars, 72-54. In the contest, which included the nation's leading scorer, BYU's Jimmer Fredette, Aztec Billy White recorded a double double, 21 points and 12 rebounds, and Kawhi Leonard scored 20 points and added eight rebounds. Those victories came against the second and fifth-highest ranked teams San Diego State has defeated in the 96-year history of Aztec men's basketball.
In games played on San Diego State's home court, the Aztecs trail 17-to-18 in the series. Seven of those 17 victories have come in the last 11 meetings and within that time frame, SDSU put together a five-game win streak, from Feb. 11, 2001-to-Feb. 23, 2008. The last meeting in Viejas, on Dec. 22, 2018, resulted in a 90-81 win for San Diego State. Devin Watson led the team with 23 points, including knocking down 12 free throws and Matt Mitchell totaled 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the floor.
Wins have been very tough to come by in Provo where San Diego State is 4-24 all-time. The team's victory in the Marriott Center last season was its first since a 59-57 win on Jan. 8, 2005 (5,418 days). In that 2005 game, Brandon Heath scored four straight buckets in the final 2:12 to tie it at 57-57 before Chris Walton, who finished with 12 points, drained the game winner as the clock expired. The team's other wins in Provo came on Jan. 31, 1985 and Dec. 31, 1996.
Last year's five-point win was notable because it was the team second-largest margin of victory, trailing only a six-point win (77-71) on Jan. 31, 1985. Jordan Schakel scored a career-high 19 points in last season's game. After intermission, he was a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor, including 5-for-5 from three-point range, and poured in 17 points. The win snapped a six-game losing streak in contests played at BYU.
San Diego State enters 2020-21 coming off its league leading 12th Mountain West Conference men's basketball championship, the 2019-20 regular-season crown. Head coach Brian Dutcher, 73-26 in three seasons at the helm of the program, saw his team finish last season's COVID-19 pandemic shortened schedule ranked No. 6 in the nation and with a 30-2 record. The Aztecs were the only team in the nation to finish the regular season with just one loss and was one of three teams with two losses when the season was halted.