LAS VEGAS - The San Diego State men's basketball team, the 5-seed, which won its 17th straight opening game of the Mountain West Tournament on Thursday evening plays the No. 1 seed Utah State in the semifinal round on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. PT.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs and Aggies are meeting for the 30th time, with SDSU holding a 19-10 advantage in the all-time series. In the Mountain West era, SDSU has a 19-7 lead in the series and is 4-2 at Thomas & Mack in Mountain West Tournament games.
The Aztecs have been the No. 5 seed in the Mountain West Tournament on three previous occasions: 2002, 2003 & 2018. SDSU has a 7-1 record as the No. 5 seed and has won two tournament titles from that position (2002 & 2018). San Diego has never faced Utah State as the No. 5 seed. The teams have met five times with SDSU as the No. 1 seed and once as the No. 4 seed. As the top seed in the tournament, the Aztecs are 4-1 and 0-1 in the four spot. Utah State is a No. 1 seed in the event for the first time.
San Diego State is 16-3 in its last 19 games at the Mountain West Tournament at Thomas & Mack Center. Two of the Aztecs three losses have come in championship games against the Aggies 64-57 in 2019 and 56-59 in 2020.
San Diego State's 46 victories at Thomas & Mack Center since the start of the 2008-09 campaign (27 neutral and 19 road wins) are the most by any team in any building in which it has not played at least one home game. Villanova is second with 37 victories at Madison Square Garden.
San Diego State hauled in a season-best 25 offensive rebounds at UNLV in its quarterfinal matchup at the Mountain West Tournament. Those are the most offensive boards in a game in the history of the event. San Diego State now has the two highest offensive rebounding games in Mountain West Tournament history (also: 24 vs. Colorado State on March 9, 2006).
San Diego State's 25 offensive rebounds against UNLV is one shy of the most in a game for SDSU since at least 1996-97. The Aztecs pulled down 26 O-boards vs. Texas Southern on Nov. 11, 2019, and vs. San Jose State on Feb. 8, 2021.
Since the start of the 2009-10 season, San Diego State has the SIXTH best record in the nation in neutral site games. The Aztecs are 67-32 (.677) in neutral site games in that timeframe, which includes a 34-10 mark at Thomas & Mack in the Mountain West Tournament.
The Aztecs are among the elite programs in the country and that includes winning on their opponent's floor. Since the beginning of the 2009-10 campaign, SDSU has the SEVENTH best road record in the nation, 107-67 (61.5 percent). Since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, SDSU has lost 17 times in 53 road games (35-17, 67.3 percent), which are the FIFTH fewest road losses in the nation trailing only Gonzaga (6 losses), Saint Mary's (12 losses), Houston (15 losses) and Baylor (16) and its 67.9 winning percentage in road games in that timeframe is the FIFTH best in the nation.
Eight of San Diego State's nine losses have come on the road against Quad 1 opponents, and seven of those eight defeats have come by nine points or less. SDSU has lost Quad 1 road games by 1, 4, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 & 18 points. The other loss came in its last game, 77-79, vs. Boise State.
With its 73-41 win at Fresno State (Feb. 24), Brian Dutcher has at least 21 victories in all seven seasons as head coach. Dutcher extended his school record for most consecutive 21-win seasons to start his coaching career.
San Diego State owns a 131-32 record (80.4 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That is the THIRD best record in the nation trailing only Gonzaga (146-20, 88.0 percent) and Houston (144-25, 85.2 percent).
The Aztecs metrics rank among the best in the nation. Through the games of March 14, the Aztecs were ranked No. 20 in the NET, No. 20 in KPI, No. 21 in Kenpom, No. 29 in T-Rank and No. 34 in BPI. San Diego State's NET strength of schedule is No. 26.
Senior forward Jaedon LeDee established a new Aztec scoring record in a Mountain West Tournament game with 34 points at UNLV and became just the fourth Division I player in the last five seasons to record at least 30 points and 15 rebounds in a conference tournament game. He passed Brandon Heath (637 in 2006-07), Xavier Thames (633 in 2013-14) and Anthony Watson (630 in 1985-86) into second place on SDSU's single-season scoring list with 649 points, 37 points behind Michael Cage's school record of 686 in the 1983-84 season. He became SDSU's first player with multiple 15-rebound games in the same season since Josh Davis had four in the 2013-14 campaign. Now has two games this season with at least 30 points and 15 rebounds, one more than any Aztec has had since at least the 1996-97 season (Jamaal Franklin vs. Colorado State on Feb. 25, 2012) and joins Purdue's Zach Edey has the only players in the country this year with multiple 30-point, 15-rebound games.
Senior guard Darrion Trammell 11 points to go along with five assists and five steals at UNLV, becoming the first Aztec with at least 5 assists and 5 steals in a Mountain West tournament game and is the first Aztec with five assists and five steals in any game since Malichi Flynn vs. Cal Poly on Dec. 28, 2019. Led the team in assists for the fifth straight game, the 15th time this season and 82nd time in his college career.
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 174-56 (.757) 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.