SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State Aztecs travel to Fort Collins, Colo., for a Saturday afternoon tilt against the Colorado State Rams. The game is set to tip at 4 p.m. MT/3 p.m. PT and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs and Rams are meeting for the 100th time overall, SDSU leads the series 54-45, and 45th time in Fort Collins where the Rams hold a 29-15 advantage.
Colorado State becomes the second program that the Scarlet and Black has played at least 100 times, joining Fresno State, which SDSU has faced off with a program-high 131 times.
In terms of victories, San Diego State’s 54 versus Colorado State coming into the game are the fifth most against a single opponent and with a win can tie its record against Wyoming for the fourth most against any team. The only programs it has defeated more are Fresno State (75), Air Force (69), UC Santa Barbara (59) and Wyoming (55).
Miles Byrd is the only Aztec, since at least the 1996-97 season, to have scored at least 787 points, grabbed at least 325 boards, dished out at least 186 assists, and blocked at least 83 shots.
Magoon Gwath, who returned to play against Nevada (2/14) after missing five games, became the first Aztec since at least the 1996-97 season with at least three 3-pointers and 5 blocks in the same game.
The Aztecs are filling it up on the offensive end of the floor. Through 25 games, they’re averaging 79.1 points per game. 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; one of five years it has averaged 80-plus points. 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.
In going 12-3 in its last 15 games, San Diego State has held those opponents to an average of 66.6 points on 37.3 percent shooting (318-of-852) from the field, including 30.9 percent (129-of-417) from beyond the arc, with 130 steals (8.7/g), 69 blocks (4.6/g) and forced 231 turnovers (15.4/g).
San Diego State owns the best Mountain West-best conference road record, 87-57, since the start of the 2009-10 season, and among the “original six” still in the league since its inception, SDSU’s 111-107 conference road mark is the best, the only winning record, and the Aztecs will leave with the league with a winning road record in its 27 years in the conference.
According to Kenpom, San Diego State’s defense ranks No. 1 in defensive efficiency, two-point field goal percentage, turnover percentage, steal percentage, & block percentage and No. 2 in effective field goal percentage, among Mountain West schools.
Nationally, Kenpom has the Aztecs defense rated in the top 35 in block percentage (No. 6), non-steal turnover percentage (No. 8), turnover percentage (No. 12), adjusted defensive efficiency (No. 15), two-point percentage (No. 20), effective field goal percentage (No. 34), and steal percentage (No. 35).
SDSU made 17-of-18 free throw attempts against Nevada, for its highest free-throw percentage (.944) of the season and highest mark with at least 18 attempts since going 22-of-23 (.957) at Air Force on Jan. 21, 2023.
Its .944 free-throw percentage is the highest in a home game for San Diego State with at least 18 attempts since making 18-of-19 (.947) vs. Colorado State on March 15, 2011.
In 10 of the last 15 games, San Diego State shot at least 50 percent in the first half and overall in 13 of this season’s 25 first halves. In addition, in 25-of-50 halves this season SDSU has shot at least 50 percent.
At UNLV (1-24-26), SDSU shot .565 from the field, .615 from long distance & .846 from the line becoming the ONLY Aztec team to combine those three percentages in a single game since at least the start of the 1996-97 season (960 games).
San Diego State owns a 173-51 record (77.2 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, which is the FOURTH BEST RECORD in the nation. SDSU trails Gonzaga at 200-32 (86.2 percent), Houston at 206-35 (85.5 percent) and Duke at 183-48 (79.2 percent) and is ahead of the likes of Arizona 174-55 (76.0 percent) and Connecticut 173-55 (75.9 percent).
San Diego State has started its league season with at least 12 victories in its first 15 games for the third time in the Brian Dutcher era. Also: 2019-20 (15-0) and 2022-23 (13-2) and since the start of the Mountain West era its the sixth time. Also: 2010-11, 2013-14 & 2015-16 when it started the league slate 13-2 in its first 15 games.
With 13 points at UNLV, Reese Dixon-Waters passed 1,000-career points and Jeremiah Oden joined him against Wyoming. The pair enter the Colorado State game with 1,101 and 1,013 career points, respectively. Dixon-Waters is the 13th and Oden the 14th Aztecs to surpass the 1,000-career point milestone in a Scarlet and Black jersey in Brian Dutcher’s nine seasons guiding the program.
SDSU ranks No. 3 in the nation with 36.6 bench points per game and has totaled at least 40 bench points nine times in 25 games, which includes an astounding 69 bench points versus Whittier College (12-22-25)., and in 18 of its 25 games, SDSU has totaled 30+ bench points.
Under Brian Dutcher, the Aztecs have held opponents to 60 points or less 126 times and have won 119 of those games (119-7, 94.4 percent). Overall, Dutcher’s Aztecs have held opponents to 60 or fewer points in 443.4 percent (126-of-290) of the games he has coached.
Miles Byrd is the only player in the nation this season, the third since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, and the only Aztec since at least the start of the 1996-97 season, who has had at least 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks, 4 steals and has scored no more than 6 points in a single game. (at GCU, 1-21-26)
At UNLV, Miles Byrd became the only player in the nation, since at least the 1996-97 season, with a game in which he scored at least 23 points, was perfect from beyond the arc on a minimum of five attempts, perfect from the line on a minimum of four attempts and had at least five assists and four steals.
San Diego State is 15-4 in its last 19 games and has limited those opponents to 66.4 points per game, which includes a triple overtime contest against Boise State, versus going 3-3 and allowing 79.2 points in its first six games.
Miles Byrd is the only Aztec since at least the start of the 1999-00 season to be perfect from three-point range on a minimum of five attempts (5-of-5 at UNLV, 1-24-26).
Since the start of the 2005-06 campaign, San Diego State owns the FIFTH BEST RECORD in the nation, 521-187 (.736), the FIFTH BEST HOME MARK 290-40 (.879), plus is TENTH IN ROAD CONTESTS 143-98 (.593).
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 74.2 percent (118-41) which is just under nine percentage points better than the next best win percentage, which belongs to Lon Kruger (2002-11) who won 65.5 percent (72-38) of his league games.
SDSU has shot 50-plus percent in eight, all victories, of its last 145 games, and is 76-2 in its last 78 games when it shoots at least 50 percent from the field.
Magoon Gwath is the only player in the nation who in no more than 17 games is shooting 56.0 percent from downtown (min. 25 att.) and has blocked 29 shots.
The Aztecs bench is out scoring its opponent’s reserves by 18.2 points per game, nearly doubling its opponents output. SDSU’s bench has scored 914 points through 25 games, an average of 36.6 per game, compared to its opposition’s 461 points, an average of 18.4.
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.