SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men’s basketball team, coming off a home loss on Saturday, look to get back to its winning ways in its midweek tilt at Air Force. At Clune Arena, the Aztecs have won five straight by an average of 21.4 points and, regardless of location, SDSU has defeated the Falcons 10 straight times.
OFF THE BOUNCE
In the 91st meeting in the series, San Diego State men’s basketball continues in Mountain West play when plays at Air Force on Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. (MT) at Clune Arena.
After its 67-38 victory over the Falcons on January 8 at Steve Fisher Court, San Diego State has a 66-24 advantage in the all-time series and is riding a 10-game win streak regardless of location against Air Force. That record includes a 25-17 mark at Clune Arena, where it has won five straight, is 11-4 since the start of the 2008-09 campaign, but is just 13-11 in the Mountain West era. Those 13 victories have been by an average of 18.0 points per game and in its current five-game win streak at Air Force, the margin has been 21.4 points per game.
In San Diego State’s last 39 games immediately following a loss, it has a mark of 35-4, which includes a loss at the end of a season and a win in the opening game of the following campaign. In situations where a loss is followed immediately by a home game, San Diego State is 37-1 in its last 38 games.
For just the 24th time in the last 500 games (since the start of the 2010-11 campaign), the Aztecs will don their red uniforms. The team is 1-0 this season in Scarlet, having worn them in a 74-57 victory at Steve Fisher Court on December 7, 2024. Since Coach Dutcher took the reins of the program, SDSU is 3-0 in the kit and since the start of the 2010-11 season it is 18-5 in the color.
How rare was San Diego State’s 68-76 loss on January 18 to UNLV, a Quad 3 defeat? Until Wednesday night, it had been 65 games or 1,792 days since the Aztecs had lost to either a Quad 3 or Quad 4 opponent. The last Quad 3 or Quad 4 team to defeat SDSU was Quad 3 UNLV on February 22, 2020, which halted that year’s longest win-streak to open the year, 26 games, and was the only loss the Aztecs suffered in the regular season.
Halfway through the season, San Diego State is once again trending as one of the nation’s best in defense. After the games of January 15, according to KenPom, the Aztecs are 3rd in block percentage, No. 7 in 2-point percentage defense, No. 9 in adjusted defensive efficiency and effective field goal percentage defense, and No. 15 3-point percentage defense.
Since the start of the 2017-18 season, when Brian Dutcher took the helm of the San Diego State program, he has the sixth best record in the nation (188-63, 74.9 percent) and since the start of the 2019-20 campaign his Aztecs are 145-39 (78.8 percent), the third best record in the country.
In the Aztecs win over Colorado State (Jan. 14) sophomore scored a career-high 25 points, including five 3-pointers, grabbed six rebounds and had seven steals. He is the first player in Mountain West history to have a game with those numbers and just the third in the nation in the last 16 years.
In its 15 Division I games, San Diego State has held eight opponents to their worst shooting game of the season and for three of the remaining even, they had their 2nd worst field goal percentage games.
San Diego State is No. 1 in the Mountain West and No. 2 in the nation in field goal percentage defense at 36.4 percent, and is one of two programs in the nation, also Tennessee, that is limiting opponents to a combined maximum of 36.4 percent from the floor and 28.1 percent from beyond the arc. In field goal percentage defense, San Diego State is No. 2 and Tennessee is No. 4 and in three-point field goal percentage defense Tennessee is No. 1and the Aztecs are No. 11.
With the Aztecs 67-38 win over Air Force (Jan. 8), San Diego State is 97-7 in the Brian Dutcher era, when it limits its opponent to 60 or fewer points. Overall, the Aztecs have won 31 straight when holding the opposition to 60 points or less and are 104-8 in its last 112.
San Diego State’s defense was particularly stingy against the Colorado State bench. The Aztecs held the Rams bench scoreless until there was 5:56 to play in the game and held CSU’s extras to just 2 points, on a pair of free throws. It was the fewest bench points allowed since its game against New Mexico in the championship of the 2024 Mountain West Tournament, when it surrendered one point. The fewest bench points allowed before that was zero vs. Creighton in the Elite Eight on March 26, 2023.
San Diego State has eight victories in its last 11 games. In those eight wins, SDSU is shooting .434 from the field, including .347 from the bonus distance, and is averaging 75.1 points per game, with an average margin of victory of 15.1 points. Defensively, in those games, the team limited its opponents to a .347 shooting percentage, including .276 from beyond the arc and for the season has limited the opposition to 36.4 percent shooting overall, which ranks No. 2 nationally.
The Aztecs have held 10 of their 16 Division I opponents to less than 40 percent shooting, seven games of less than 35.0 percent, three under 30.0 percent. SDSU limited California to just 25.5 percent shooting on Dec. 21, the third lowest opponent field goal percentage shooting night in the Brian Dutcher era.
In the team’s 73-70 overtime win against No. 6 Houston, the Aztecs overcame both a 5-point halftime deficit and trailed by 11-point with 14:58 to play to send the game to overtime and ultimately its 3-point win. The victory was Brian Dutcher’s 15th win in 26 games against top 25 opponents. Dutcher is the only head coach in program history with a winning record against ranked teams and it was the program’s first win against a top-10 team since a 71-64 victory over No. 1 Alabama in the Sweet 16 of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
In the Aztecs 100-49 win over Occidental on November 12, 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.
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 17th 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 ever been a member of the league.
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 188-63 overall record and 96-35 mark in league games, both league leading in that time frame, 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 including a run to the 2023 NCAA national championship game.