SAN DIEGO - Making just its third appearance against the Aztecs in San Diego, and its first since the 1997-98 season, Stanford comes to "America's Finest City" on Thursday evening at Steve Fisher Court.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs and Cardinal are meeting for the sixth time, with Stanford leading 4-1 in the all-time series, but for just the second time since Dec. 16, 1997.
When San Diego State tips off against Stanford it will play one of the 25 Division I teams in California. SDSU has played 24 of those 25 teams and the Cardinal are just one of four of those 24 programs that it does not have a winning record against. (Three of those four teams are Pac-12 programs)
Once again San Diego State's metrics rank among the best in the nation. Through the games of December 19, the Aztecs were ranked No. 23 in the NET, No. 29 in T-Rank, No. 29 in Kenpom, No. 29 in KPI and No. 63 in BPI. San Diego State RPI strength of schedule is No. 5 and its strength of record is No. 24.
The Aztecs are among the elite programs in the country and that includes winning on its home floor. Since the beginning of the 2009-10 campaign, SDSU has the seventh best home record in the nation, 204-25 (89.1 percent). Since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, SDSU has lost just five times in 65 games (60-5, 92.3 percent), which is tied for the third best in the nation trailing only Gonzaga (1 loss) and Kansas (4 losses) in that time frame.
San Diego State, which won both the 2022-23 Mountain West regular season and tournament titles and reached the league tournament championship game for the sixth time in head coach Brian Dutcher's six seasons, looks for its unprecedented 17th Mountain West men's basketball title. Entering the 2023-24 season, San Diego State has won nine regular season and seven Mountain West tournament titles.
For the fifth time since the start of the 2010-11 season, San Diego State opened the season ranked No. 17 in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll and after dropping out for two weeks, returned at No. 25 this week. The Aztecs No. 17 ranking in the initial poll is the second highest in program history, trailing only the 2014-15 preseason poll in which it was No. 16. Since the start of the 2010-11 campaign, SDSU has appeared in the AP poll for 103 weeks, more than any program in the state of California, ahead of UCLA (86 weeks), Saint Mary's (53 weeks), Southern California (38 weeks) and California (11 weeks).
San Diego State owns a 117-25 record (82.4 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That is the third best record in the nation trailing only Gonzaga (129-16, 89.0 percent) and Houston (127-22, 85.2 percent).
After missing the UC Irvine game with an elbow issue, senior forward Jaedon LeDee returned against Saint Katherine with little to no rust. He finished the game with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field, including knocking down the one 3-pointer he attempted and was 2-of-2 from the line. It was his 10th double figure scoring game in 10 outings this year.
Junior wing Reese Waters finished the Saint Katherine game with 15 points and two assists in 15:09 minutes and became the first Aztec since at least the 1996-97 season to score 15 points in a game with multiple assists and no turnovers in 16 or less minutes.
Senior wing Jay Pal finished the Saint Katherine game with his second 10-plus point effort (10 points) in the last two games. In the last three games, he is 8-of-12 from the field (66.7 percent), 2-of-3 from the bonus distance (66.7 percent) and 9-of-11 from the charity stripe (81.8 percent). In addition, he totaled nine boards 9 (3.0/game), 3 assists and 3 blocks.
Darrion Trammell, a senior guard playing in his 102nd college game, scored in double figures, with 10 points, versus Saint Katherine. It was the third time this season and third game in a row he was in double digits, his 20th time as an Aztec and 70th in his career.
Brian Dutcher is in his seventh season as San Diego State's head coach and his 25th season on the Aztec sidelines. In his six-plus seasons as head coach, he has led the Aztecs to five conference titles, six Mountain West championship game appearances, a 160-49 (.766) overall record, the 2023 NCAA national championship game, has been named the national coach of the year, and twice the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year.