SAN DIEGO – After opening the 2023-24 season, its 103rd overall and its 54th at the Division I level, with a convincing 82-57 victory over Cal State Fullerton on Monday evening, No. 17 San Diego State makes its first foray way from Viejas Arena to play at the Marriot Center in Provo, Utah, on Friday night against Brigham Young.
OFF THE BOUNCE
-The Aztecs and Cougars are meeting for the 78th time in school history, with Brigham Young holding a slightly less than 2-to-1 advantage (50-to-27) in the all-time series. However, in games played on the Cougars home floor, BYU is an astonishing 30-4 against SDSU.
-Entering tonight's game, San Diego State's 77 meetings with the Cougars 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 82-57 win on Monday night against Cal State Fullerton, SDSU has won 11 straight season openers and 18 of the last 19 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 18 season openers played indoors.
-San Diego State has won 17 straight season-openers against unranked teams, a run dating back to the start of the 2005-06 season and includes the 82-57 victory over the Titans in the 2023-24 season opener. SDSU's last loss to an unranked opponent on opening night came on Nov. 19, 2004, when it ended up on the wrong end of a double-overtime 80-72 defeat at the hands of UC Santa Barbara.
-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 is 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 (36 weeks) and California (11 weeks).
-San Diego State owns a 109-23 record (82.6 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That is the third best record in the nation, trailing only Gonzaga (121-13, 90.3 percent) and Houston (117-22, 84.2 percent). The 10 winningest programs since 2019-20 are listed in the box below.
-SDSU was in late season form defensively against Cal State Fullerton, limiting the Titans to 32.8 percent shooting from the floor. It was the 49th time in the 199 games in which Brian Dutcher has been head coach, that San Diego State limited an opponent to shooting 35.0 percent or less and in those 49 games, SDSU is 47-2.
-Senior Jaedon LeDee led the Aztecs attack against Cal State Fullerton with a career-high 27 points. Combined with 10 rebounds, he notched his first double double as an Aztec and third of his career. Possibly more impressive, he drew an astounding 13 fouls. He finished 10-of-15 from the line, had a steal, a block, and an assist and knocked down the first 3-pointer of his college career (previously 0-of-18).
-Senior guard Micah Parrish was on fire from the bonus distance. He missed the first shot of the game, a 3-pointer just 14 seconds into the game, but then proceeded to knock down a career-high equaling five triples in a row and finished with 17 points on a total of 6-of-8 shooting from the field. In addition, he pulled down six boards, had three assists, and led the squad with four steals.
-Transfer Reese Waters, in his debut as an Aztec, was the third member of the SDSU team to reach double figure scoring with 15 points. Waters is the fourth transfer in the Brian Dutcher era to begin his Aztec career with a start and reaching double digit points.
-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 152-47 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.
No. 17 Aztecs in Provo for Friday Tilt at Brigham Young
