SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State Aztecs completes its 2025-26 Mountain West Farewell Tour on Saturday morning against the New Mexico Lobos at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M. The game is set to tip at noon MT/11 a.m. PT and will be broadcast on CBS.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs and Lobos are meeting for the 100th time overall, SDSU trails in the series 47-52, and 46th time at The Pit where SDSU is just 13-32.
San Diego State goes to Albuquerque in a tie for first place in the Mountain West and is one of five teams that still have the chance to win the regular season title.
Miles Byrd is the only Aztec, since at least the 1996-97 season, to have scored at least 810 points, grabbed at least 342 boards, dished out at least 194 assists, and blocked at least 84 shots.
With its 89-72 win over Utah State, SDSU moved to 53-12 in games immediately following a loss. The win stopped a two-game slide, and a Brian Dutcher team has lost three straight games only once (in January 2018). The only team in the country with a longer streak without losing three straight games is Gonzaga (last happened in January 2011).
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 27 games, they’re averaging 79.3 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 13-4 in its last 17 games, San Diego State has held those opponents to an average of 67.9 points on 38.0 percent shooting (364-of-958) from the field, including 31.6 percent (150-of-475) from beyond the arc, with 139 steals (8.2/g), 73 blocks (4.3/g) and forced 256 turnovers (15.1/g).
San Diego State owns the best Mountain West-best conference road record, 87-58, since the start of the 2009-10 season. Among the “original six” still in the league since its inception, SDSU’s 111-108 conference road mark is the only winning record in the league. The Aztecs will leave the Mountain West as the only program 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, turnover percentage, steal percentage, & block percentage and No. 2 in effective field goal percentage and two-point field goal percentage, among Mountain West schools.
Nationally, Kenpom has the Aztecs defense rated in the top 25 in block percentage (No. 10), non-steal turnover percentage (No. 6), turnover percentage (No. 13), adjusted defensive efficiency (No. 17), two-point percentage (No. 24).
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.
In 11 of the last 17 games, San Diego State shot at least 50 percent in the first half and overall in 14 of this season’s 27 first halves. In addition, in 27-of-54 halves this season SDSU has shot at least 50 percent.
San Diego State owns a 174-52 record (77.0 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, which is the FOURTH BEST RECORD in the nation. SDSU trails Gonzaga at 202-32 (86.3 percent), Houston at 206-37 (84.8 percent) and Duke at 185-48 (79.4 percent) and is ahead of the likes of Arizona 176-55 (76.2 percent) and Connecticut 175-55 (76.1 percent).
San Diego State has started its league season with at least 13 victories in its first 17 games for the fifth time in the Brian Dutcher era. Also: 2019-20 (16-1), 2020-21 (14-3), 2021-22 (13-4) and 2022-23 (14-2) and since the Mountain West went to an 18-game schedule in 2013-14, it’s the eighth time ... also: 2013-14 (15-2), 2014-15 (13-4) & 2015-16 (15-2).
SDSU ranks No. 3 in the nation with 36.4 bench points per game and has totaled at least 40 bench points 10 times in 27 games, which includes an astounding 69 bench points versus Whittier College (12-22-25)., and in 19 of its 27 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 43.2 percent (126-of-292) 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 16-5 in its last 21 games and has limited those opponents to 67.5 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.
Since the start of the 2005-06 campaign, San Diego State owns the SIXTH BEST RECORD in the nation, 522-188 (.735), the FIFTH BEST HOME MARK 291-40 (.879), plus is TENTH IN ROAD CONTESTS 143-99 (.591).
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 73.9 percent (119-42) which is 8.4 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 nine all victories, of its last 16 games, and is 77-2 in its last 79games when it shoots at least 50 percent from the field.
The Aztecs bench is more than doubling its opponents bench scoring output, outscoring its opponent’s reserves by 18.2 points per game. SDSU’s bench has scored 983 points through 27 games, an average of 36.4 per game, compared to its opposition’s 491 points, an average of 18.2.
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.