SAN DIEGO - As the 4-seed, San Diego State opens the 2025 Mountain West Men’s Basketball Tournament against 5-seed Boise State on Thursday, March 13 at 2:30 p.m. PT at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev., in a quarterfinal matchup.
OFF THE BOUNCE (entering the Mountain West Tournament)
The Aztecs and Broncos are meeting for the 34th time with San Diego State holding a 20-13 advantage in the all-time series. In the Mountain West era, SDSU has a 19-13 lead in the series, and under Brian Dutcher is 1-1 against Boise State in the event.
San Diego State has won 17 consecutive quarterfinal round games in the Mountain West Tournament and has earned a bye into the round for the 19th time in the last 20 seasons.
The Aztecs have been the 4-seed in the Mountain West Tournament on five previous occasions; 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, and 2019. San Diego State has a 9-4 record as the 4-seed and has won the tournament title from the position in 2010. SDSU has faced Boise State as the 4-seed once; in the quarterfinal round in 2013, a 73-67 win.
San Diego State has played Boise State five times (4-1) in the Mountain West Tournament. Its wins have come in 2012, 2013, and 2017 in the quarterfinal round and in the semifinal round in 2020. The team’s lone loss was in the championship game in 2022.
Brian Dutcher is the only San Diego State head men’s basketball coach to accumulate at least 21 wins in each of his first eight seasons.
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. Gonzaga is second with 37 victories at Orleans Arena.
San Diego State, which reached the Sweet 16 in last year’s NCAA Tournament, has lost the point production of its top seven scorers from a year ago. Six are no longer with the organization and one, Reese Waters, has not played this season due to injury. San Diego State scored 2,742 points a year ago, but just 232 of those points (8.5 percent) have suited up for the Aztecs this year. SDSU is 21-8 overall, 14-6 in the Mountain West, in fourth place in the league standings, and has multiple wins over top 25 teams and those receiving votes, including No. 4 Houston, Creighton, New Mexico & UC San Diego.
San Diego State is the No. 2 ranked team in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.379) and one of two teams in the nation which is limiting opponents to no more than a combined 37.9 percent overall from the floor and 30.4 percent from long distance. (also: Tennessee)
With defense as its calling card, San Diego State has been a menace to opposing offenses. Since the start of the Fisher/Dutcher era, the 1999-00 season, SDSU has held its opponent to 40.0 percent or less from the field 388 times in 859 games (45.2 percent), recording 340 wins in those 388 games (87.6 percent). Under Brian Dutcher, since the start of the 2017-18 campaign, the Scarlet and Black has played 264 games and has limited the opponent to 40.0 percent shooting or less 138 times (138-of-264; 52.3 percent) and won 125 of those games (125-13; 90.6 percent).
San Diego State is 10-0 this season when it holds its opponent to 60 or fewer points. In the Brian Dutcher era, his Aztecs have held their opponent to 60 points or less 117 times and have won 110 of those games (110-7, 94.0 percent). Overall, Dutcher’s Aztecs have held their opponent to 60 or fewer points in 44.3 percent (117-of-264) of the games he has coached.
San Diego State, one of the most dominant defensive teams in the nation, ranked in the top 20 in Kenpom’s Adjusted Defensive Efficiency in nine of the last 14 years, in the top 10 in seven of the last 14 campaigns, and is currently No. 12 in that ranking. Additionally, the Aztecs are No. 1 in block percentage, No. 7 in 2-point percentage defense, No. 7 in effective field goal percentage defense, and No. 27 3-point percentage defense according to Kenpom.
Head men’s basketball coach Brian Dutcher reached a Mountain West coaching milestone with the team’s 63-61 win over Wyoming on February 1. Dutcher became just the fourth coach in league history to record 100 conference wins (currently 106 victories). He joined Aztecs Hall of Famer Steve Fisher (No. 1 with 168 wins), Leon Rice (No. 2 with 158 wins), and Steve Alford (No. 3 with 129 wins) as the only coaches in Mountain West history to record triple digit league victories. Dutcher reached the milestone in 135 games, faster than any of the previous three. Alford did it in 151 games, Rice in 173 and Fisher in 190.
This year San Diego State has had second half scoring runs of 20-0, 18-0 & 17-0 all which contributed to comeback wins. Overall, SDSU has had 19 runs of at least 10-0 this season and is 13-1 in contests in which it strung together at least a run of 10-0. Since the start of the 2020-21 season, the Aztecs are 76-9 in games in which they score at least 10 straight points.
Since the start of the 2013-14 season, when the current slate of teams in the Mountain West came together, San Diego State’s 161-55 (.745) record is the best in the Mountain West in conference games. Boise State ranks second with a 146-74 (.664) mark.
The Aztecs have held 13 of their 28 Division I opponents to less than 40 percent shooting, nine games of less than 35.0 percent and three under 30.0 percent. SDSU limited the California Bears to just 25.5 percent shooting on Dec. 21, the third lowest opponent field goal percentage shooting night in the Brian Dutcher era.
San Diego State, which in 2024 reached the Mountain West Tournament championship game for the seventh time in head coach Brian Dutcher’s first 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 198-66 overall record and 106-38 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.