SAN DIEGO - After defeating New Mexico to take sole possession of first place in the Mountain West, San Diego State travels to Phoenix for its first and last regular season Mountain West contest at Grand Canyon. The game is set to tip at 9 p.m. MT at Global Credit Union Arena.
OFF THE BOUNCE
After defeating New Mexico to take sole possession of first place in the Mountain West, San Diego State travels to Phoenix for its first and last regular season Mountain West contest at Grand Canyon. The game is set to tip at 9 p.m. MT at Global Credit Union Arena.
The Aztecs and Lopes are meeting for the sixth time overall and the third time in Phoenix with SDSU trailing 4-1 in the series, which includes a 0-2 mark at Global Credit Union Arena.
Miles Byrd, against New Mexico, recorded his second career game of at least 20 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks, 3 assists and 3 steals (also Nov. 6, 2024, vs. UC San Diego). No other Aztec since at least the 1996-97 season has even one game with those numbers.
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 43.5 percent (123-of-283) of the games he has coached.
SDSU has won 10 of its last 11 games, including 10 consecutive against teams which are not the No. 1 ranked team in the nation.
San Diego State is 10-1 in its last 11 games and has limited those opponents to 68.5 points per game, which includes a triple overtime game against Boise State, versus going 3-3 and allowing 79.2 points in its first six games.
San Diego State owns a 168-48 record (77.8 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, which is the FOURTH BEST record in the nation. SDSU trails Gonzaga at 193-31 (86.2 percent), Houston at 200-33 (85.8 percent) and Duke at 176-47 (78.9 percent) and is ahead of the likes of Connecticut 167-53 (75.9 percent) and Kansas 168-55 (75.3 percent).
Since the start of the 2005-06 campaign, San Diego State owns the FIFTH BEST record in the nation, 516-184 (.737), the SIXTH best home mark 287-39 (.880), plus is TENTH in road contests 141-96 (.595).
The Aztecs are filling it up on the offensive end of the floor. Through 17 games, they’re average 82.0 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 squad, 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.
Brian Dutcher is the most successful coach in the history of Mountain West games...and it’s not even close. Dutcher has a winning percentage of 74.8 percent (113-38) which is nearly 10 percent better than the next best win percentage, which belongs to Lon Kruger (2002-11) who won at a 65.5 percent (72-38) of his league game.
According to Kenpom.com, San Diego State’s defense, in league games, ranks No. 1 in effective field goal percentage, turnover percentage, offensive rebound percentage, two-point field goal percentage defense, block percentage and steal percentage and is No. 2 in overall defensive efficiency.
SDSU has shot 50-plus percent in five of its last seven games, all victories, and is 73-2 in its last 75 games when it shoots at least 50 percent from the field.
SDSU has started its conference season 7-0 for the second time in Brian Dutcher’s nine seasons (also: 2019-20, started 15-0) and as a team, it is the fourth time in the last 16 years the program has gotten off to a 7-0 start in Mountain West play (also: 2015-16, started 11-0, and 2013-14, started 10-0).
SDSU ranks No. 2 in the nation with 40.4 bench points per game and has totaled at least 40 bench points in eight of the last 13 and nine of the last 15 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 15 games is shooting 57.9 percent from downtown (min. 19 att.) and has blocked 22 shots.
San Diego State ranks No. 2 in bench points and percentage of bench points vs. total points among the top 10 bench scoring teams in the nation. The Aztecs are getting 49.2 percent of its offensive production from its reserves (686-of-1,394).
The Aztecs bench is out scoring its opponent’s reserves by 21.8 points per game. SDSU’s bench has scored 686 points through 17 games, an average of 40.4 per game, compared to its opposition’s 317 points, an average of 18.6.
BJ Davis leads the Aztecs in scoring (11.6 ppg) without the benefit of a start. Among those who have played no more than 377 minutes without a start, Davis ranks No. 8 in the nation in points per game and No. 1 in free throw percentage 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 10 games, the Aztec bench has scored 50.1 percent of the team’s total points (415-of-828) and BJ Davis is responsible for 29.6 percent of those points (123-of-415).
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 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).