SAN DIEGO - After opening the 20234-25 season, its 104th overall and its 55th at the Division I level, with a 63-58 victory over UC San Diego last Wednesday evening, San Diego State welcome Occidental to Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena on Tuesday night.
OFF THE BOUNCE (through the games of Nov. 10)
The Aztecs and Tigers are meeting for the 35th time in school history, but for just the third time since the 1953-54 season. In the most recent matchup, on Dec. 3, 2022, in Viejas Arena, saw the No. 24 Aztecs defeat the Tigers 95-57.
San Diego State has an overall record of 26-8 against Occidental and has won 11 straight against the Tigers, the program’s fourth longest active and 6th longest overall win steak.
San Diego State has outscored Occidental by an average of 40 points per game in its last two meetings (188-to-107), the only matchups since the 1952-53 season. If we look at the entire 34-game series, in the Aztecs eight losses they averaged 27 points, against 54 points per game in its 26 wins, including an average of 80.1 ppg in the last eight matchups.
Since the start of the Brian Dutcher era, San Diego State is 7-0 against non-Division I opponents, 38-0 since the start of the Fisher/Dutcher era (1999-00) and 62-0 against non-Division I opponents since the start of the 1980 season.
With its 63-58 season opening win over UC San Diego, San Diego State has won 18 straight season openers against unranked teams, a run dating back to the start of the 2005-06 season. 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.
Overall, San Diego State has won 12 straight season openers and 19 of the last 20 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 USS Midway, the Aztecs have come out victorious in its last 19 season openers played indoors.
Following its UC San Diego win in the season opener, the Aztecs have won 15 consecutive regular-season openers that have taken place at home.
San Diego State, which in 2023-24 reached the Mountain West Tournament championship game for the seventh time in head coach Brian Dutcher’s seven seasons, looks for its unprecedented 16th Mountain West men’s basketball title. Entering the 2024-25 season, San Diego State has won nine regular season and seven Mountain West tournament titles, the most of any program that has been a member of the league.
At the Mountain West Media Day in Las Vegas, by a vote of media members who regularly cover the league, Aztec senior guard Reese Waters and freshman forward Pharaoh Compton were named Preseason All-Mountain West and Preseason Freshman of the Year, respectively. Waters returns as the team’s leading scorer, rebounder and assists man, but is expected to be out until early January. Compton was the No. 80 rated player in the nation and is the first top 100 signee since Jer’Vaughn Johnson, ranked No. 26 nationally, signed in 2005.
San Diego State owns a 135-34 record (79.8 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That is the third best record in the nation, trailing only Gonzaga (149-21, 87.6 percent) and Houston (149-28, 84.2 percent).
San Diego State opened the regular season with a 63-58 victory over UC San Diego on November 6 at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena. The Aztec defense was in regular-season form, limiting the opposition to 32.8 percent shooting for the game. It was the 89th time since the start of the Fisher/Dutcher era (since 1999-00) that SDSU has held a non-conference opponent to 35.0 percent shooting or less from the field and in those games the Aztecs are 85-4. The last time San Diego State held a non-conference opponent to shooting .350 or worse and lost was December 18, 2015, a span of 34 straight wins, 28 of which have come since Dutcher ascended to the top chair prior to the 2017-18 campaign.
With the UCSD win, San Diego State is 101-7 in the Brian Dutcher era, when SDSU limits its opponent to 60 or fewer points. Overall, the Aztecs have won 28 straight when holding the opposition to 60 points or less and when it’s done on Steve Fisher Court, in the same time frame,SDSU is 61-1.
Sophomore guard Miles Byrd, in his first career start, became just the second player in NCAA Division I basketball over the last 10 seasons (since 2014-15) to record at least 20 points, 8 rebounds, 5 steals and 4 blocks in the same game. He’s also the first Aztec since at least 1996-97 with that stat line.
Guards Nick Boyd, a senior, and BJ Davis, a sophomore, each pitched in 11 points. Davis grabbed four rebounds and had an assist, with no turnovers in 24:35 of floor time. Boyd led the team with four assists and also picked up three boards in a team-high 33:16. Davis, in his first start went 4-of-8 from the field, including 1-of-3 from the bonus distance and 2-of-2 from the line, setting career-highs for points and rebounds in a game. Boyd, who missed the vast majority of summer workouts and is expected to be the team’s primary ball handler, recorded his third best assists performance since March 19, 2023, vs. Fairleigh Dickinson in the NCAA Tournament.
Senior forward Jared Coleman-Jones finished with 9 points on 2-of-3 shooting from the floor, including 1-of-3 from distance and 4-of-6 from the line and totaled a game-high 9 rebounds. Freshman forward Pharaoh Compton was 3-of-4 from the field, and pulled down three rebounds.
Brian Dutcher is in his eighth season as San Diego State’s head coach and his 26th season on the Aztec sidelines. In his seven-plus seasons as head coach, he has led the Aztecs to five conference titles, seven Mountain West championship game appearances, a 178-58 overall record and 92-32 mark in league games, has been named the national coach of the year, and twice the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year and led the team to back-to-back Sweet 16s as well as a run to the 2023 NCAA national championship game.