SAN DIEGO - Opening the 2024-25 season with back-to-back victories, the San Diego State Aztecs host No. 4 Gonzaga at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena on Monday night.
OFF THE BOUNCE (through the games of Nov. 15)
The Aztecs and Bulldogs are meeting for just the sixth time, with four of the previous five matchups coming since the 2010-11 season. The most recent meeting, on Dec. 29, 2023, saw the Aztecs defeat the No. 13 Bulldogs 84-74 in “The Kennel.”
Under Brian Dutcher, San Diego State is 2-0 against the Zags, have defeated them both at Gonzaga and at Viejas Arena, and the winning margin in those games has been by an average of 6.0 points per game.
The Aztecs enter the game coming off a 100-49 victory over Occidental last Tuesday night. It marked the 44th time in the program’s Division I history that it reached triple digits. Under coach Dutcher, since 2017-18, it’s SDSU’s third 100-point game and the 51-point margin of victory is the second biggest behind a 53-point win (99-46) against Cal State Dominguez Hills on Dec. 12, 2018, exactly six years to the day. It was also the sixth time in the Dutcher/Fisher era that the team cracked 100 points and the second-highest margin of victory in a 100-point game in that time frame behind an 83-point dismantling of St. Katherine on Dec. 27, 2013.
In non-conference home games since the start of the 2009-10 season, the Aztecs have a 100-10 record and are 34-2 in its last 36 non-conference home contests.
Despite the roster turnover, San Diego State ranks No. 198 in DI experience at 1.69 years, the Aztecs are once again trending as an elite defensive team. Through the games of Nov. 13, according to KenPom, SDSU is rated 1st in 2-point percentage defense (26.8), 5th in block percentage (22.9), 16th in adjusted defensive efficiency (93.9), and 32nd in effective field goal percentage defense (41.0).
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.
Tonight’s game is between the two West Coast powerhouses, which since the start of the 2019-20 season have two of the three best win percentages in the nation. San Diego State owns a 136-34 record (80.0 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, the third best winning percentage in the nation. Gonzaga is 150-21 (87.7 percent), which is the top win percentage since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. The other team in the top three is Houston (150-28, 84.3 percent) which slots in at No. 2. The 10 winningest programs since 2019-20 and through the games of November 15 are listed in the center box at the bottom of page 1.
With the Occidental win last Tuesday, San Diego State is 102-7 in the Brian Dutcher era, when it limits its opponent to 60 or fewer points. Overall, the Aztecs have won 29 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 62-1.
After San Diego State’s 100-49 win against Occidental on November 12 at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena, the Aztec defense is regular-season form. In its first two games, SDSU limited the Occidental and UC San Diego Tritons to less than 35.0 percent shooting from the floor, UCSD shot 32.8 percent, while Occidental hit 29.3 percent from the field. The Aztecs, since the start of the Fisher/Dutcher era, has held a non-conference opponent to 35.0 percent shooting or less from the field 91 times and in those games the Aztecs are 87-4. Before the first two games this season, 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 35 straight wins, 29 of which have come since Dutcher ascended to the top chair prior to the 2017-18 campaign.
In the Aztecs 100-49 win over Occidental last Tuesday, numerous highlights were achieved both as a program. It was the first time since the 2018-19 season SDSU scored 100 points in a game, not including overtime games. The team’s 37-point halftime lead was its biggest since a 46-point lead in the 2013-14 campaign. The Aztecs’ 18 three-pointers were one off the Viejas Arena and program record, set on Dec. 2, 2022, against Occidental.
Players who distinguished themselves against Occidental, include Magoon Gwath who became just the second Aztec to record at least 15 points, 4 blocks and 2 three-pointers in the same game since the 1999-00 season. BJ Davis joined teammate Miles Byrd as the only Aztecs since the 2019-20 season to record at least 15 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 5 steals in the same game. Wayne McKinney III reached double figures in scoring just 5:36 into the game, accounting for 11 points on 4-for-4 shooting, including 3-for-3 from three-point range.
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 179-58 overall record and 92-32 mark in league games, has been named the national coach of the year, twice the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year and led this team to back-to-back Sweet 16s as well as a run to the 2023 NCAA national championship game.