SAN DIEGO – Opening the 2025-26 season, its final year in the Mountain West, the San Diego State men’s basketball team, the unanimous choice to win the league, welcomes the Long Beach State Beach to Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena on Tuesday evening.
OFF THE BOUNCE
On Tuesday evening, when San Diego State hosts Long Beach State, SDSU opens its 105th season of men’s basketball, its 56th at the Division I level, and ninth under the direction of head coach Brian Dutcher.
The Aztecs and the Beach are meeting for the 63rd time in each program’s history and the second time in a season opener. The previous season opener was on November 21, 2003 in a 74-44 victory at Viejas Arena and was the second game in SDSU’s current eight-game win streak against LBSU.
The Aztecs eight-game win streak against Long Beach State, which began on December 10, 2002, is currently the seventh longest active streak for the organization and SDSU’s 10-game win streak against the Beach from January 9, 1970 to February 1, 1975 is tied for the eighth longest against a single opponent in program history.
San Diego State is looking for its 58th consecutive win against the current lineup of Big West programs. The last time an Aztec squad lost to a current member of the league was a 66-72 defeat on January 5, 2000 against Cal State Fullerton at Viejas Arena.
San Diego State has won 18 straight season openers against unranked teams, a streak dating back to the 2005-06 season. SDSU’s last loss to an unranked opponent on opening night came on November 19, 2004, in an 80-72 overtime defeat at the hands of UC Santa Barbara.
Overall, San Diego State has won 12 straight season openers and 19 of its 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.
San Diego State, which has reached the Mountain West Tournament championship game in seven of the eight seasons in head coach Brian Dutcher’s tenure, looks for its unprecedented 17th Mountain West men’s basketball title. Entering the 2025-26 season, its last as a member of the conference, 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.
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 and is averaging 24.8 wins per season.
Brian Dutcher is two wins from reaching the 200-win plateau, becoming just the third Aztec head coach with at least 200 wins. The other two are George Ziegenfuss (1949-69) with 316 wins and Steve Fisher (2000-17) with a program record 386. Both men have been honored with induction into the Aztec Hall of Fame.
San Diego State returns 61.9 percent of its minutes from a year ago, according to T-Rank, and those are the second most returning minutes in the nation among teams Torvik ranks in his top 50, behind Purdue (69.7 percent).
With the return of Reese Dixon-Waters in 2025-26, after missing the 2024-25 season, San Diego State returns 76.2 percent of its offensive output compared to a year ago (1,671-of-2,194 points).
At the Mountain West Media Day in Las Vegas, by a vote of media members who regularly cover the league, junior guard Miles Byrd and freshman guard Elzie Harrington were named Preseason Mountain West Player of the Year and Preseason Freshman of the Year, respectively. In addition, Reese Dixon-Waters, Magoon Gwath, and Byrd earned inclusion on the Preseason All-Mountain West Team. Byrd was a second-team NABC All-Pacific Division and second team All-Mountain West performer last season and returns as the team’s leading scorer. Dixon-Waters was the team’s second leading scorer in 2023-24 and a 2024 Preseason All-Mountain West selection who missed the entire 2024-25 season. Gwath was last year’s Mountain West Freshman and Defensive Player of the Year, was ranked No. 6 nationally in blocked shots per game (2.62). Harrington was the No. 80 rated player in the nation and is the second straight top-100 signee in as many years.
The Aztecs return three of their four leading scorers from last season: Miles Byrd (12.3 ppg), BJ Davis (9.0 ppg) and Magoon Gwath (8.5 ppg) and additionally will see the return of Reese Dixon-Waters (9.6 ppg in 2023-24) who missed the entire 2024-25 campaign with a foot injury.
San Diego State owns a 155-44 record (77.9 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That’s the THIRD BEST record in the nation, trailing Gonzaga’s 174-30 (85.3 percent), and Houston’s 183-32 (85.1 percent), and ahead of the likes of Duke’s 159-46 (77.6 percent) and Kansas’ 155-50 (75.6 percent) records.
San Diego State prepped for the regular season with a pair of exhibition games at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena: a 60-67 loss to No. 12 UCLA and an 87-54 drubbing of San Diego.
San Diego State owns the SIXTH BEST record in the nation since the start of the 2009-10 campaign, 411-137 (.750), and is 225-29 (.886) in home contests in that time frame which is the SEVENTH BEST in the nation.
Last season, San Diego State was the No. 1 ranked team in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.383) and one of two teams in the nation which limited opponents to no more than a combined 37.8 percent overall from the floor and 31.1 percent from long distance. (also: Tennessee)
With its win over No. 6 Houston in the inaugural Players Era Festival, San Diego State stands at 16-11 (.593) 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 .593 winning percentage against AP Top-25 teams since the 2017-18 season is the second highest in the country (min. 20 games). The top 5 consists of No. 1 Duke (.600), No. 3 Kansas (.587) & Houston (.587) and No. 5 Arizona (.565).
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 389 times in 861 games (45.2 percent), recording 340 wins in those 389 games (87.4 percent). Under Brian Dutcher, since the start of the 2017-18 campaign, the Scarlet and Black has played 266 games and has limited the opponent to 40.0 percent shooting or less 139 times (139-of-266; 52.3 percent) and won 125 of those games (125-14; 89.9 percent).
San Diego State was 10-0 last season when it held 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 44.0 percent (117-of-266) of the games he has coached.
San Diego State, one of the most dominant defensive teams in the nation, has ranked in the top 20 in Kenpom’s Adjusted Defensive Efficiency in 10 of the last 15 years, in the top 10 in seven of the last 15 campaigns, and finished last season at No. 16 in that ranking. Additionally, the Aztecs were No. 1 in block percentage, No. 10 in effective field goal percentage defense and No. 8 in 2-point percentage defense last year 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, 2025. 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.
Last year San Diego State had second half scoring runs of 20-0, 18-0 & 17-0 all which contributed to comeback wins. Overall, SDSU had 19 scoring runs of at least 10-0 last season and was 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.
In the Brian Dutcher era (since the start of the 2017-18 season), San Diego State has held more than 50.0 percent of its opponents (135-of-266) to less than 40.0 percent field goal shooting, 25.2 percent to less than 35.0 percent from the field, and on 13 occasions limited the opposition to less than 30 percent shooting from the floor. The top defensive effort, based on opponent field goal percentage, under Dutcher was a 14-of-62 (.226) effort by Texas Southern (11/5/19) and last season held California to 25.5 percent (14-of-55) the third lowest opponent shooting since Dutcher took the helm of the program.
Brian Dutcher is in his ninth season as San Diego State’s head coach and his 27th on the Aztec sidelines. In his eight seasons as head coach, he has led the Aztecs to five conference titles, seven Mountain West championship game appearances, a 198-68 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.