LAS VEGAS - The San Diego State men's basketball team, the 5-seed, which improved to 7-1 on that seed line at the Mountain West Tournament on Friday evening with its 86-70 victory against No. 18 Utah State plays the No. 6 seed New Mexico in the championship game on Saturday at 3 p.m. PT.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs and Lobos are meeting for the 96th time, with New Mexico holding a 50-45 advantage in the all-time series. In the Mountain West era, SDSU has a 28-24 lead in the series and is 1-2 at Thomas & Mack at Mountain West Tournament games.
San Diego State advances to the championship game of the Mountain West tournament for the seventh consecutive year and the record 16th time in league history (tournament host UNLV is second with eight appearances).
The Aztecs have been the No. 5 seed in the Mountain West Tournament on three previous occasions: 2002, 2003 & 2018. SDSU has an 8-1 record as the No. 5 seed and has won two tournament titles from that position (2002 & 2018). San Diego has faced New Mexico once as the No. 5 seed, an 82-75 Aztecs' victory in the 2018 championship game. In total the teams have met six times in the Mountain West era with UNM holding a 4-2 lead. This will be the fourth time they have met in the championship game. New Mexico has won two of the three; the 2012 and 2014 title games, but New Mexico wins, and the aforementioned 2018 win for San Diego State.
The Aztecs had five double-digit scorers against Utah State, which is tied for their most in a game this season (also vs. Long Beach State on Nov. 14).
After allowing Utah State's Darius Brown II to average 19.0 points per game in the regular season against the Aztecs, while shooting 44.4 percent (12-for-27) from the field and 43.8 percent (7-for-16) from the three-point arc, SDSU held him to eight points on Friday night on 3-of-11 shooting (27.3 percent) and 0-for-4 from three-point range.
With its 86-70 win in the semifinal game of the 2024 Mountain West Championship, the Aztecs overcame their largest deficit, 17 points, in a win or loss, since a 20-point deficit at Colorado State on Feb. 4, 2022 (SDSU lost that game, 58-57).
With its win over No. 18 Utah State, San Diego State improves to 14-9 (.609) under Brian Dutcher against AP Top-25 teams. The Aztecs were 29-98 (.228) against AP Top-25 teams prior to Dutcher taking over as head coach in 2017-18. SDSU's .609 winning percentage against AP Top-25 teams since the 2017-18 season is the highest in the country (min. 20 games). Rounding out the top 5 are Kansas (.602), Virginia (.591), Duke (.588) and Gonzaga (.587).
San Diego State is 17-3 in its last 20 games at the Mountain West Tournament at Thomas & Mack Center. The Aztecs lone meeting against New Mexico in those 20 games was the team's 2018 Championship game win.
San Diego State's 47 victories at Thomas & Mack Center since the start of the 2008-09 campaign (28 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.
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 68-32 (.680) in neutral site games in that timeframe, which includes a 31-10 mark at Thomas & Mack in the Mountain West Tournament.
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 in Viejas Arena.
San Diego State's 36 conference tournament wins since the 2008-09 season are the most in the country over that span (Gonzaga is second at 33).
San Diego State owns a 132-32 record (80.5 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 (146-25, 85.4 percent).
The Aztecs metrics rank among the best in the nation. Through the games of March 15, the Aztecs were ranked No. 18 in the NET, No. 15 in KPI, No. 18 in Kenpom, No. 29 in T-Rank and No. 35 in BPI. San Diego State's NET strength of schedule is No. 28.
Senior forward Jaedon LeDee enters the Mountain West Tournament's championship game with 980 points in his two seasons competing on The Mesa and is poised to become the 37th player, in the 102 years of Aztec basketball, to score 1,000 points in his career with the Scarlet and Black. What is truly amazing is that he scored just 292 points in his first three years of college hoops (as a freshman at Ohio State and sophomore and junior at TCU), a total of 79 games. He enters the New Mexico game just 20 points shy of 1,000, after 71 games at San Diego State. In addition, LeDee has scored 671 points this season, and enters the title game of the Mountain West Tournament just 15 behind Michael Cage's school record of 686 points which was set in the 1983-84 season.
Senior guard Lamont Butler has a bit further to go but could also join the 1,000-point club. After four straight games of double-digit scoring, at the tip of the championship game, the native of Moreno Valley, Calif., will have scored 970 points in his 127 game SDSU 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, seven Mountain West championship game appearances, a 175-56 (.758) 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.