SAN DIEGO – San Diego State men's basketball, in conjunction with the University of California, have announced a neutral site matchup for the 2023-24 season as part of the SoCal Showcase. The teams will meet on November 25 at The Pavilion in San Juan Capistrano, California.
The matchup will be the 14th in the series with the Aztecs holding a slim 7-to-6 advantage overall. In neutral site games, SDSU is 2-0 against the Golden Bears having won 72-58 against then No. 14 Cal on November 26, 2015, at the Las Vegas Invitational in Las Vegas and 77-65 on November 21, 2016, at Sacramento's Golden 1 Center.
Since the start of the 2009-10, San Diego State has the seventh best record in the nation in road/neutral site games posting a 165-91 (.645) mark. In addition, since the start of the 2010-11 campaign, the Aztecs are 214-36 (.856) in games played in the state of California, and in the Division I history of SDSU men's basketball (since the start of the 1970-71 season), the program is 467-325 (.590) against the other Division I schools in the state.
After reaching the national championship game in the 2023 NCAA Tournament as a No. 5 seed, San Diego State returns three of its top four scorers from a team that finished ranked No. 2 in the nation in the Coaches Poll, the highest in program history, and No. 18 in the Associated Press. It had a 32-7 record, including a 15-3 mark in Mountain West action. SDSU won the Mountain West conference regular season and tournament titles, its league record 15th and 16th championships, as well as the South Regional in the NCAA Tournament.
After returning its leading scorer from last season (Devin Askew (15.5 ppg) and two of its top-four scorers, the Bears have remade their roster in 2023-24 with the 60th-ranked recruiting class according to 247Sports.com, which includes the 21st-ranked transfer class. Among the program's new faces, Jaylon Tyson and Fardaws Aimaq are both four-star rated players who transferred from Texas Tech.
Tickets are estimated to go on sale on October 1 and the broadcast partner for the game and the tip time will be announced at a later date.