LAS VEGAS - Winners of seven of its last eight games, San Diego State, the Mountain West tournament's top-seed and regular season champion, opens play against 8-seed Colorado State at noon PT in Thursday's first quarterfinal round game.
OFF THE BOUNCE
This year marks the seventh time since joining the Mountain West Conference that the Aztecs have been the No. 1 seed (2006, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2021, 2023). The Aztecs are 14-4 in the event on the first line.
San Diego State has won this event a record six times (2002, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2018 and 2021).
San Diego State has won the event as the one seed (twice), two seed, four seed and five seed (twice).
Amazingly, San Diego State has played for the tournament title in eight of the last nine years and in 12 of the last 14 seasons (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022).
The Aztecs are 18-5 in the quarterfinal round of the event and have won their last 15 quarterfinal games.
San Diego State has opened conference tournament play with a victory in each of its last 15 league tourney appearances. That is tied for the fourth longest active win streak nationally.
Overall, San Diego State is 39-17 in the Mountain West tournament for a winning percentage of 69.6 percent. The Aztecs' 39 tournament wins are the most by any team - current or former - in league history. This is particularly impressive because 10 of SDSU's 56 tournament games have been played on the road (8-2 at UNLV), while UNLV has played 40 of its 47 tournament games at home.
San Diego State owns 42 victories in Thomas & Mack Center since the start of the 2008-09 campaign. That is the most victories by any school in any venue in which it has not played a home game in the past 15 seasons. What is particularly impressive is that 18 of those 42 victories came as the road team playing at UNLV. Villanova is second with 36 victories at Madison Square Garden.
San Diego State won its 21st game at Fresno State on February 15, marking the sixth straight season the Aztecs have reached that milestone (every year under Brian Dutcher). The game was one of a league-best seven road wins in conference play for SDSU.
San Diego State closed the regular season 7-1 in its last eight games.
San Diego State is playing its best basketball of the season. The Aztecs are 10-2 in their last 12 games with just a pair of Quad 1 road losses at NET No. 36 Nevada (66-75) and at NET No. 27 Boise State (60-66).
San Diego State continues to boast an impressive NCAA metric profile. The Aztecs are 16th in the NET, 15th in KenPom, 23rd in BPI, 33rd in Sagarin Rating, and eighth in both KPI and T-Rank: all tops in the Mountain West.
San Diego State owns a 100-22 record (82.0 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That's the fourth best record in the nation, trailing Gonzaga's 117-12 (90.7 percent), Houston's 112-20 (84.8 percent) and Baylor's 103-22 (82.4 percent), and ahead of Kansas' 108-24 (81.8 percent) record.
San Diego State owns the sixth-best record in the nation, since the start of the 2009-10 campaign, 356-115 (.756), and is 157-90 (.636) road and neutral site contests in that time frame which is the eighth best in the nation.
SDSU head coach Brian Dutcher is 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 five conference titles, a 143-46 overall record and has already been named the national coach of the year and twice named Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year. Among first time head coaches who started in the 2017-18 season, Dutcher's 143 wins are the most in the nation.