SAN DIEGO – Coming off an impressive opening night win over Cal State Fullerton, the No. 19/20 San Diego State men's basketball team (1-0) host an old foe in the Brigham Young Cougars (1-0), a team it has faced 75 times in its history. The tip is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be carried on YurView (channel 4).
OFF THE BOUNCE (through games of Wednesday, Nov. 9)
After opening the 2022-23 season with a convincing 80-57 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Monday evening, San Diego State concludes its brief two-game homestand against Brigham Young on Friday night at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena.
The Aztecs and Cougars are meeting for the 76th time in school history, with Brigham Young holding a 2-to-1 advantage (50-25) in the all-time series.
San Diego State's 75 meetings with the Cougars, entering tonight's game, are the second most for the program against a current non-conference Division I opponent, trailing only UC Santa Barbara, which the Aztecs have played on 93 occasions.
With its 80-57 win on Monday night against Cal State Fullerton, SDSU has won 10 straight season openers and 17 of the last 18 to begin a campaign. The lone blemish during the stretch came at the start of the 2012-13 season when SDSU fell to No. 9/9 Syracuse on the USS Midway. Taking into account that the Syracuse game was played outdoors, on the flight deck of the Midway, the Aztecs have come out victorious in its last 17 season openers played indoors.
SDSU is currently in an 8-game home win streak and is 24-1 in its last 25, 42-4 in its last 46 and 51-5 in its last 56 games in Viejas Arena.
San Diego State, which in 2021-22 reached the Mountain West championship game for the fifth time in head coach Brian Dutcher's five seasons, looks for its unprecedented 15th Mountain West men's basketball title. Entering the 2022-23 season, San Diego State has won eight regular season and six Mountain West tournament titles.
For the fourth time since the start of the 2010-11 season, San Diego State is ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll. The Aztecs No. 19 ranking in the initial poll is the second highest in program history, trailing only the 2014-15 preseason poll in which it was No. 16. Since the start of the 2010-11 SDSU has appeared in the AP poll for 89 weeks, more than any program in the state of California, ahead of UCLA (68 weeks), Saint Mary's (44 weeks), Southern California (35 weeks) and California (11 weeks).
San Diego State owns a 77-16 record (82.6 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That is the third best record in the nation, trailing only Gonzaga (90-7) and Baylor (81-13). The 10 winningest programs since 2019-20 are listed below.
San Diego State opened the regular season with a 80-57 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Monday night. The Aztec defense was in mid-season form, limiting the Titans to 39.2 percent shooting and not allowing a successful 3-point shot for the first 30 minutes (CSF started the game 0-12 from the bonus distance). SDSU is 59-5 in its last 64 games and 290-38 the last 328 times it has held an opponent to 40.0 percent or lower shooting from the floor.
Senior transfer Darrion Trammell announced his presence with a game-high 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field, including 4-of-5 from the bonus distance. In 24 minutes, he also added three steals, two rebounds and two assists.
Sophomore guard Lamont Butler pitched in 11 points, grabbed three boards, to go along with a game-high four steals and had a 6:1 assists-to-turnover ratio in 24 minutes. Since the start of the Dutcher/Fisher era (1999-00) his is just the second Aztec to have gotten four steals and a 6:1 assist-to-turnover ratio in a game (also Deandre Moore vs. Wyoming on March 1, 2001).
Senior transfer Jaedon LeDee also finished with 11 points and grabbed four boards in 18 minutes. He dished out a career-high three assists and added a steal in the win.
Senior forward Nathan Mensah chipped in 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting. He pulled down a team-high six rebounds and collected a steal and blocked a shot. The 2021-22 Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year has blocked 26 shots in his last 11 games (2.4 per game).
Brian Dutcher is now in his sixth season as San Diego State's head coach and his 24th season on the Aztec sidelines. In his five-plus seasons as head coach, he has led the Aztecs to four conference titles, five Mountain West championship game appearances, a 120-40 overall record, and has been named the national coach of the year and twice the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year.