SAN DIEGO - After posting its third straight conference road win, San Diego State host New Mexico in the Lobos final regular season Mountain West appearance at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena with the tip scheduled for 5 p.m. PT.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs and Lobos are meeting for the 99th time with SDSU winning the previous meeting in San Diego and trailing 52-46 in the series which includes a 17-8 mark at Steve Fisher Court and a 30-14 overall home record against New Mexico.
Since the start of the 2009-10 season, SDSU leads the series 11-3 in games in America’s Finest City. The Aztecs wins in that timeframe, have come by an average of 13.5 points, with seven of the 11 coming by double digits.
Under Brian Dutcher, the Aztecs have held opponents to 60 points or less 123 times and have won 116 of those games (116-7, 94.3 percent). Overall, Dutcher’s Aztecs have held their opponent to 60 or fewer points in 43.6 percent (123-of-282) of the games he has coached.
SDSU has won nine of its last 10 games, including nine consecutive against teams which are not the No. 1 ranked team in the nation.
San Diego State is 9-1 in its last 10 games and has limited those opponents to 67.4 points per game versus going 3-3 and allowing 79.2 points in its first six games.
The Aztecs are filling it up on the offensive end of the floor. Through 16 games, they are averaging 81.9 points per game. Among five seasons where it scored at an 80-plus point per game clip, SDSU’s best scoring team at the Division I level was its 1970-71 team, its first as a Division I program, which averaged 86.9 points per game. The program’s best scoring year in the Mountain West era, 77.1 points per game, was the 2017-18 squad, Brian Dutcher’s first year leading the program.
SDSU has shot 50-plus percent in five of its last six games, all victories, and is 73-2 in its last 75 games when it shoots at least 50 percent from the field.
After allowing 79.2 points per game through its first six games (SDSU was 3-3), the Aztec defense has clamped down on opponents and has given up 67.4 points per game in its last 10 (SDSU is 9-1), a difference of 11.8 points per game.
SDSU has started its conference season 6-0 for the second time in Brian Dutcher’s nine seasons (also: 2019-20, started 15-0) and as a team, it is the fifth time in the last 16 years the program has gotten off to a 6-0 start in Mountain West play (also: 2015-16, started 11-0, and 2013-14, started 10-0).
SDSU ranks No. 3 in the nation with 40.6 bench points per game and has totaled at least 40 bench points in eight of the last 12 and nine of the last 14 games, which included an astounding 69 bench points versus Whittier College (12-22-25).
Magoon Gwath is the only player in the nation who in 14 games is shooting 57.9 percent from downtown (min. 19 att) and has blocked 22 shots.
San Diego State ranks No. 2 in percentage of bench points vs. total points among the top 10 bench scoring teams in the nation. The Aztecs are getting 49.5 percent of its offensive production from its reserves (649-of-1,311).
The Aztecs bench is out scoring its opponent’s reserves by 21.5 points per game. SDSU’s bench has scored 649 points through 16 games, an average of 40.6 per game, compared to its opposition’s 305 points, an average of 19.1.
BJ Davis leads the Aztecs in scoring (11.8 ppg) without the benefit of a start. Among those who have played no more than 357 minutes without a start, Davis ranks No. 9 in the nation in points per game off the bench.
BJ Davis (22 pts, 11 rebs, 6 assts, 4 stls) became the second Aztec since at least the 1996-97 season to total at least 20 pts, 10 rebs, 5 assts & 4 stls in the same game (also Jamaal Franklin vs. Redlands on Dec. 30, 2011) and the first to do it against a Division I opponent.
In the last nine games, the Aztec bench has scored 50.5 percent of the team’s total points (378-of-748) and BJ Davis is responsible for 30.2 percent of those points (114-of-378).
The Aztecs bench totaled 59 points in its 77-66 win over Utah Valley. The 59 bench points are its highest against a Division I opponent since totaling 57 at Air Force (1-22-20) & the most for a Mountain West team, against a Division I opponent, since December 16, 2018.
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 coming into the 2025-26 campaign.
Brian Dutcher reached the 200-win plateau with a 73-57 victory against Idaho State (11-9-25), becoming the third Aztec head coach with at least 200 wins. The other two are Aztec Hall of Fame inductees George Ziegenfuss (1949-69) with 316 wins and Steve Fisher (2000-17) with a program record 386.
San Diego State owns a 167-48 record (77.7 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, which is the FOURTH BEST record in the nation. SDSU trails Gonzaga at 191-31 (86.0 percent), Houston at 199-33 (85.8 percent) and Duke at 175-47 (78.8 percent) and is ahead of the likes of Connecticut 166-53 (75.8 percent) and Kansas 167-55 (75.2 percent).
Since the start of the 2005-06 campaign, San Diego State owns the FIFTH BEST record in the nation, 515-184 (.737) , the SIXTH best home mark 286-39 (.880), plus is TENTH in road contests 141-96 (.595).
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).