SAN DIEGO - For the first time in 50 years, 10 months and two days or a total of 18,569 days San Diego State and Colorado will take the floor together when they meet at the inaugural National University Bill Walton Classic at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs and Buffaloes are meeting for the seventh time overall and the third time at Pechanga Arena. The last time the teams shared a floor was a 78-72 San Diego State victory on Jan. 5, 1976 at Pechanga Arena, which was then known as San Diego Sports Arena and served as the Aztecs home floor.
The Bill Walton Classic is a celebration of one of San Diego’s most beloved sons. The event is a celebration of Bill’s legacy as a basketball player, broadcaster, author, and philanthropist on a local, regional, national and international basis.
Six Aztecs scored in double figures in their season opening win over Cal State Fullerton, the most by SDSU against a Division I team since having six against Texas Southern on Nov. 14, 2018.
Junior guard Latrell Davis led the team with 25 points in the opening win. That point total was the highest for an Aztec debut since Matt Bradley finished with 23 vs. UC Riverside on Nov. 9, 2021. Davis’ point total is tied for the third highest for an SDSU player in a season opener since the start of the 1999-00 campaign; trailing only 27 points from Jaedon LeDee in the 2023-24 opener and Marcus Slaughter’s 28 in the initial game of the 2004-05 slate.
Sophomore Forward Tae Simmons logged his first career double-double with 14 points (one off a career high) and a career-high 11 rebounds in the team’s 102-78 victory on opening night against Cal State Fullerton. It’s the eighth double-double in a season opener since at least the 1999-00 season and first since Jaedon LeDee had 27 points and 10 rebounds in the 2023-24 season opener.
SDSU’s 102 points were its highest ever in a season opener, eclipsing a 101-point outing against Fort Hays State on Dec. 1, 1979, and the game marked the 46th 100-point game in program history and fifth under Brian Dutcher.
San Diego State’s roster totaled 6,725 minutes played last season. The Aztecs had three players exhausted their eligibility who totaled 1,884 minutes on the floor (Reese Dixon-Waters, Sean Newman Jr. & Jeremiah Oden). As a sign of the times, with NIL and the transfer portal, SDSU had six players leave the program through the transfer portal (Miles Byrd, Pharaoh Compton, BJ Davis, Taj DeGourville, Magoon Gwath & Miles Heide). As a result, the 2026-27 Aztecs return 984 minutes or 20.3 percent of their minutes from last season.
San Diego State returns just 14.5 percent of its offensive output from a year ago (374-of-2,580 points), with 370 of those 374 points coming from Elzie Harrington and Tae Simmons.
San Diego State has won 19 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.
When the Aztecs face Colorado, they will be looking to snap a two-game slide against the current teams of the Big 12. SDSU fell twice last season at neutral sites to Big 12 teams: 68-45 against No. 1/2 Arizona on Dec. 20, in Phoenix and 91-81 versus Baylor on Nov. 26, at Players Era in Las Vegas. The team’s last victory over a Big 12 school came against No. 6/7 Houston, in a 73-70 overtime win on Nov. 30, 2024, at Players Era in Las Vegas.
Brian Dutcher is the only San Diego State head men’s basketball coach to accumulate at least 21 wins in each of his initial nine seasons and has averaged 24.4 wins per season.
Brian Dutcher has compiled 221 victories in his now 10th season at the helm of the Aztecs’ program. He is 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.
The Pac-12 announced its Impact List and sophomores Elzie Harrington, a guard, and forward Tae Simmons, the only two regular rotations players back from the 2025-26 squad, earned inclusion among the 18-player list (two players from each team in the league).
With the 2026-27 season now underway, San Diego State is competing in the fourth conference in its Division I history. The program made the leap to DI in the 1970-71 season and played in the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA) through the 1977-78 campaign. SDSU then joined the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in 1978-79 and competed there until the end of the 1998-99 season. Its most recent stop was as a founding member of the Mountain West Conference from 1999-00 until it left after 2025-26 to join the Pac-12.
Since the start of the 2005-06 campaign, San Diego State owns an overall record of 526-191 (73.4 percent) and a 293-40 mark (88.0 percent) at Steve Fisher Court. Those are the SIXTH and FIFTH best records in the nation, respectively, in that timeframe.
San Diego State prepped for the regular season with three exhibition games in Tucson, Arizona against Arizona and two at Viejas Arena: vs. Southern California and Long Beach State.
San Diego State owns the SEVENTH BEST record in the nation since the start of the 2009-10 campaign, 434-148 (.746), and is 240-31 (.886) in home contests in that time frame which is the SIXTH BEST in the nation.
San Diego State is 16-13 (.552) 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 .552 winning percentage against AP Top-25 teams since the 2017-18 season is tied for the fifth highest in the country (min. 20 games). The top 5 consists of No. 1 Duke (.645), No. 2 Arizona (.635), No. 3 Gonzaga (.583), No. 4 Kansas (.571), and No. 5 San Diego State & Houston (.552).
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 405 times in 895 games (45.3 percent), recording 353 wins in those 405 games (87.2 percent). Under Brian Dutcher, since the start of the 2017-18 campaign, the Scarlet and Black has played 300 games and has limited the opponent to 40.0 percent shooting or less 155 times (155-of-300; 51.7 percent) and won 138 of those games (138-17; 89.0 percent).
San Diego State was 9-0 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 126 times and have won 119 of those games (119-7, 94.4 percent). Overall, Dutcher’s Aztecs have held their opponent to 60 or fewer points in 42.0 percent (126-of-300) of the games he has coached.
San Diego State, one of the most dominant defensive teams in the nation, has ranked in the top 25 in Kenpom’s Adjusted Defensive Efficiency in 12 of the last 16 years, in the top 10 in seven of the last 16 campaigns, the top five in five seasons since the start of the 2010-11 season, and finished last season at No. 16 in that ranking.
Head men’s basketball coach Brian Dutcher is one of four coaches to reach 100 wins in Mountain West Conference games with his team’s 63-61 win over Wyoming on February 1, 2025. Dutcher joined Leon Rice (No. 1 with 170 wins), Aztecs Hall of Fame inductee Steve Fisher (No. 2 with 168 wins), and Steve Alford (No. 3 with 141 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.
San Diego State had 24 scoring runs of at least 10-0 last season and was 15-4 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 91-13 in games in which they score at least 10 straight points, including the 2026-27 opener against Cal State Fullerton in which it had runs of 11-0 and 12-0.
In the Brian Dutcher era (since the start of the 2017-18 season), San Diego State has held over 50.0 percent of its opponents (155-of-300) to less than 40.0 percent field goal shooting, 24.7 percent to less than 35.0 percent from the field, and on 14 occasions limited the opposition to less than 30 percent shooting from the floor. The top defensive efforts, based on opponent field goal percentage, under Dutcher was a 14-of-62 (.226) defensive gem versus Texas Southern (Nov. 5, 2019) and a 14-of-57 (.246) effort at Fresno State (Feb. 24, 2024).
Brian Dutcher is in his 10th season as San Diego State’s head coach and his 28th on the Aztec sidelines. In his nine seasons as head coach, he has led the Aztecs to five conference titles, eight league championship game appearances, a 221-79 overall record and 120-44 mark in conference games, 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.
San Diego State reached the Mountain West Tournament championship game in eight of the nine seasons in head coach Brian Dutcher’s tenure and won an unprecedented 17 Mountain West men’s basketball titles in its 27 years in the league. (nine regular season and seven Mountain West tournament titles, the most of any program that has been a member of the league).