SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State men's basketball team opens the 2020-21 season, its centennial campaign, against No. 22/21 UCLA on Wednesday evening in Viejas Arena.
- San Diego State enters its 100th season of men's basketball, its 51st season at the Division I level, and the fourth under the direction of Brian Dutcher with a matchup against UCLA on Nov. 25.
- The Aztecs have faced the Bruins 22 times, 15 times prior to its Division I era, seven times with the Aztecs as a Division I program including once in the NCAA Tournament (3-13-1976). The lone regular season meeting in San Diego in the Division I era was in the Sports Arena (12-14-91). Four times in 1925, 1939, 1940 and 1976, the game was the Aztecs season opener.
-The game features two of the top programs in the state of California. Since the start of the 2010-11 season, San Diego State is 261-86 (75.2 percent) and ranks 11th nationally in winning percentage. UCLA owns a 220-120 mark (64.7 percent) good for 44th in the country. Since the beginning of the 2009-10 season, the Aztecs have appeared in seven NCAA tournaments, with the Bruins making six appearances in that span.
-In the Brian Dutcher era, since the start of the 2018-19 season, San Diego State owns a 5-4 record against AP Top 25 teams. The Aztecs are one of only 15 teams nationally, the only team in the state of California, and the only team in the Mountain West, that owns a winning record against AP Top 25 teams during that span (minimum nine games played).
-The Aztecs have won three straight games home games against AP Top 25 teams and are 5-1 in its last six and eight of its last 10 contests against nationally-ranked teams at Viejas Arena. San Diego State has won nine consecutive home games against AP Top 25 teams not ranked in the top seven of the poll (last loss in this category was Nov. 18, 2008).
-San Diego State is coming off a magical season that saw the Aztecs win their first 26 games of the season en route to a 30-2 record, a Mountain West Conference regular season title (record 12th league crown) and climb to No. 4 in the Associated Press poll for five weeks before ending the campaign at No. 6. The Aztecs were the only team in the nation not to lose a road game in '19-20, finishing the year 11-0 on the road.
-The USA Today National Coach of the Year last season, Brian Dutcher begins his fourth season at the helm of the San Diego State men's basketball program. He has an overall record of 73-26 in three seasons and has led SDSU to the conference championship game in each of his three seasons. In 2018, he was the only first-year coach to lead his team to the NCAA tournament and in 96 previous seasons of Aztec Basketball, no head coach had won more games and/or won a conference title in his first year until Dutcher accomplished the feat. In addition, Dutcher is the first Aztecs' men's basketball coach to win 20+ games in each of his first three seasons.
-Dutcher welcomes back three returning starters in seniors forward Matt Mitchell (12.2 pts., 4.8 rebs., 1.7 asst. in 2019-20) and guard Jordan Schakel (10.0 pts., 3.4 rebs, 43.6 percent three-point shooting) and junior forward Nathan Mensah (6.9 pts., 6.8 rebs., 1.6 blks.). Mitchell and Schakel played in all 32 games (Mitchell started the final 19 and Schakel started 31) with Mensah appearing 13 times, all starts, before in injury prematurely ended his season.
-The Aztecs are picked to finish in first place in the preseason poll of the Mountain West media. SDSU has finished either first or second in the Mountain West preseason poll in each of the last seven years. It is also the 12th time in the last 16 seasons San Diego State has been picked first or second in the poll. All 12 times, additionally, have occurred in the last 16 year.