SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's basketball team will play Ohio State in its opening game of the 2022 Maui Jim Maui Invitational. SDSU will face the Buckeyes on Monday, Nov. 21, at the Lahaina Civic Center at 4 p.m. HT/6 p.m. PT with the game being broadcast on ESPNU.
The Aztecs, based on the outcome of its game, will face either Cincinnati or Arizona which are scheduled to play at 6:30 p.m. HT & 8:30 p.m. PT. On the other side of the bracket, Texas Tech will go toe-to-toe with Creighton at 9:30 a.m. HT/11:30 a.m. PT; with Louisville and Arkansas closing out first-session action at 12 p.m. HT/2 p.m. PT.
SDSU will be making its fifth trip to the annual tournament and first since 2018 when it played in the fifth-place game. That season, the Aztecs were defeated by No. 1 Duke, then beat Xavier before falling to Iowa State in the aforementioned fifth-place game. San Diego State owns an all-time record of 6-6 in Maui.
The Aztecs have a history of performing well at in-season tournaments. Since 2008-09, SDSU is 16-5 in eight-team non-conference events, advancing to the title game six of the last seven.
SDSU has recently seen one of the other teams in the field, having split its last two meetings against Creighton. San Diego State beat the Bluejays, 83-52, in the quarterfinal game of the 2019 Las Vegas Invitational. But in the 2022 NCAA tournament, Creighton pushed the Aztecs to overtime in a 72-69 decision which ended SDSU's season.
Among the teams in its side of the bracket, San Diego State is 24-7 against Arizona and 2-1 versus Ohio State, with Cincinnati taking the lone matchup between the Aztecs and Bearcats. Against the rest of the field, Texas Tech and Arkansas hold 6-2 and 2-0 records against SDSU, respectively. San Diego State leads the series against Creighton with a 5-3 mark, while Louisville and the Aztecs have never met.
Aztec head coach Brian Dutcher will be facing Ohio State as a head coach for the first time but has been on the sideline as an assistant coach in 20 clashes against the Buckeyes. The sixth-year head coach has been on the winning end of those games 15 times, including in his one time on the Aztec bench.
The San Diego State-Ohio State matchup will be the fourth in the all-time series with the Aztecs emerging victorious in each of the last two meetings. The schools split a home-and-home series in the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons, with each team holding serve on its floor. The last get-together came in the quarterfinal round of the 2003 Maui Invitational. Brandon Heath led all scorers with 28 points and sparked a 21-1 run early in the second half that turned a 37-35 deficit into 56-38 lead in less than six minutes. From there the Aztecs cruised to an 83-61 victory.
Last year, Ohio State finished with a 20-12 record and advanced to the second round of the 2022 NCAA tournament, losing to Villanova in the round of 32.
San Diego State returns fifth-year seniors Nathan Mensah, Adam Seiko, Aguek Arop, and Matt Bradley in 2022-23, and four-fifths of its starting line up from a team that went 23-9 last year. In 2021-22, San Diego State appeared in the championship game of the Mountain West tournament for the fifth consecutive year and competed in the NCAA tournament for the second straight season.
In addition to the aforementioned players, San Diego State returns starters Lamont Butler and Keshad Johnson as well as newcomers Jaedon LeDee, who sat out the 2021-22 season due to NCAA transfer rules, Darrion Trammell, a transfer from Seattle U., Micah Parrish, a transfer from Oakland, and freshmen Miles Byrd and Elijah Saunders.
For more information or to purchase tickets for this year's tournament, visit www.mauiinvitational.com.
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Aztec Face Ohio State In Maui Invitational Opener
