SAN DIEGO – Making its first appearance at Grand Canyon since the 2016-17 campaign and returning a game from the 2019-20 season, the No. 25-ranked San Diego State Aztecs face Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz., on Tuesday evening.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs and Antelopes are meeting for the fifth time, with San Diego State trailing 1-to-3 in the all-time series, but as Division I institutions the Aztecs won the only meeting between the programs 86-61 on Nov. 13, 2019 at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena.
When San Diego State tips off at GCU Arena it will play the only team it doesn't have a winning record against in the current makeup of the Western Athletic Conference. (also: 4-0 vs. Seattle U, 3-2 vs. Southern Utah, 1-0 vs. UT Arlington)
Once again San Diego State's metrics rank among the best in the nation. Through the games of December 2, the Aztecs were ranked No. 27 in Kenpom, No. 11 in T-Rank, No. 15 in Sagarin, No. 6 in KPI and No. 50 in BPI. The first NET rankings for the season will be published on Dec. 4.
The Aztecs are among the elite programs in the country and that includes winning on their opponent's floor. Since the beginning of the 2009-10 campaign, SDSU has the fifth best road record in the nation, 102-60 (63.0 percent). Since March 14, 2019, SDSU has a 32-10 road record (76.2 percent), which is the second best in the nation trailing only Gonzaga which has won 87.9 percent (29-4) of its road contests 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 115-24 record (82.7 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That is the third best record in the nation, trailing only Gonzaga (126-14, 90.0 percent) and Houston (124-22, 84.4 percent).
In its 63-62 win at UC San Diego on Friday night, San Diego State's senior wing Micah Parrish scored 15 points and moved to within four points of 1,000 for his college career. If he reaches the milestone, he will join Darrion Trammell as the only current Aztecs with at least 1,000- career points.
Micah Parrish (15 points, 10 rebounds) and Jaedon LeDee (13 points, 10 rebounds) finished the UC San Diego game with double doubles. It marked the 54 time since 1979 that two Aztecs had a double double in the same game and first since Winston Shepard (20 points, 10 rebounds) and Malik Pope (10 points, 12 rebounds) did it against Washington on March 21, 2016 in the second round of the 2016 NIT.
Sophomore forward Elijah Saunders finished the UCSD game with his third 10-plus point effort (13 points) this season. He was 5-of-6 from the floor (a team single-game season high 83.3 percent), including knocking down a career-high matching three 3-pointers.
Senior guard Lamont Butler returned to the double-digit scoring column with 10 points at UC San Diego, his best game since a 14-point effort against Long Beach State (11/14).
Senior forward Jaedon LeDee recorded his fifth double double of the season (No. 3 in the country) finishing with 13 points and 10 boards at UC San Diego. The Houston native has five double doubles in eight games this season and is already nearly halfway to the program's single-season top-10 in the category (T-No.9 - 12). In eight games, he has drawn 65 fouls, an average of 8.1 per game, and nationally ranks No. 3 in free throw attempts (68) and No. 7 in free throws made (52).
Darrion Trammell, a senior guard, scored eight points and added season-highs of five assists & three steals and matched season-best with three rebounds.
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 157-48 (.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.