SAN DIEGO – Facing a foe it has met and defeated twice in the last three seasons at a neutral location, San Diego State's men's basketball team will compete in the 2023 Continental Tire Main Event this weekend at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, starting with an opening round game against Saint Mary's on Friday evening.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs and Gaels are meeting for the 15th time, with each program having one seven times in the all-time series. Among games played on a neutral floor, SDSU's 74-49 dismantling of Saint Mary's at Cal Poly on Dec. 22, 2020, is the Gaels worst beating on a neutral floor since at least the start of the 1996-97 season and its fifth worst beating overall in the same time frame.
San Diego State, in its turquoise Nike N7 uniforms which show support for and to honor Native American populations and Aboriginal youth, moved to 10-0, all in Viejas Arena, in its 88-73 victory over Long Beach State (11/14), however against Saint Mary's in the 2022 Jerry Colangelo Classic, the team wore them on the road to join in solidarity with the Phoenix Suns, who honored the Native American cause during the event.
SDSU is 113-108 against the current members of the West Coast Conference and has a losing record to just two of the nine teams in the conference (18-35 vs. Pepperdine & 3-5 vs. Portland). However, only one games against Pepperdine has come in the Dutcher/Fisher era, a 65-60 win at Viejas Arena on Dec. 6, 2020 and the Aztecs are 2-1 versus Portland since the start of the 1999-00 season, most recently a 78-64 win in a neutral site game on Nov. 10, 2007.
San Diego State is appearing in its fourth MTE in Las Vegas, all coming since the start of the 2010-11 season. In those MTEs, the Aztecs have an overall record of 5-1, and were the champions of 2010 Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic (2-0) and 2019 Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational (2-0), and finished runner-up (1-1) in the 2015 Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational.
San Diego State, which won both the 2022-23 Mountain West regular season and tournament titles and reached the league tournament championship game for the sixth time in head coach Brian Dutcher's six seasons, looks for its unprecedented 17th Mountain West men's basketball title. Entering the 2023-24 season, San Diego State has won nine regular season and seven Mountain West tournament titles.
For the fifth time since the start of the 2010-11 season, San Diego State opened the season ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll. The Aztecs No. 17 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 campaign, SDSU has appeared in the AP poll for 102 weeks, more than any program in the state of California, ahead of UCLA (86 weeks), Saint Mary's (53 weeks), Southern California (37 weeks) and California (11 weeks).
San Diego State owns a 110-24 record (82.1 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That is the third best record in the nation, trailing only Gonzaga (123-13, 90.4 percent) and Houston (119-22, 84.4 percent). The 10 winningest programs since 2019-20 are listed in the box below.
Despite being outshot against Long Beach State 48.3-to-50.0 percent from the floor, San Diego State defeated the Beach 88-76 on Tuesday evening. The Aztecs had 20 assists on 28 baskets and a 34-to-24 advantage on the glass, including 12-to-3 on the offensive glass which it used to outscore LBSU 13-5 in second chance points.
Senior Jaedon LeDee led the Aztecs' attack against Long Beach State with his third 20-point effort (27 points) in as many games this season. In addition, the Houston, Texas native led the Scarlet and Black with 11 rebounds for his second double double of the year. He is the first Aztec since at least the start of the Dutcher/Fisher era to open a season with three straight 20-plus point efforts and through three games this season has drawn an astounding 31 fouls.
Junior guard Reese Waters, a transfer from Southern California, reached double figure scoring with 15 points for the third game in a row. He shot .500 from the floor (5-of-10) and from the bonus distance (3-of-6).
Senior guard Lamont Butler added 14 points with four assists, Micah Parrish contributed 13 points, five boards and two blocks, and Elijah Saunders recorded his first career double digit scoring game with 11 points, six rebounds and was 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.
Brian Dutcher is in his seventh season as San Diego State's head coach and his 25th season on the Aztec sidelines. In his six-plus seasons as head coach, he has led the Aztecs to five conference titles, six Mountain West championship game appearances, a 153-48 overall record, the 2023 NCAA national championship game, has been named the national coach of the year, and twice the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year.
Aztecs Play Saint Mary’s in Las Vegas Friday
