SAN DIEGO - Making just its third appearance in Viejas Arena since the 1997-98 season, UC Irvine travels 83 miles south to take on No. 25 San Diego State on Saturday night at Steve Fisher Court.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs and Anteaters are meeting for the 20th time, with San Diego State leading 12-7 in the all-time series, and included in that record the Aztecs have won 8-of-11 at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena.
When San Diego State tips off against UC Irvine it will play one of the nine teams in the Big West that it has a winning record against, but its 63.2 percent winning percentage (12-7) against the Anteaters is the Aztecs lowest against those nine teams.
Once again San Diego State's metrics rank among the best in the nation. Through the games of December 6, the Aztecs were ranked No. 26 in the NET, No. 27 in T-Rank, No. 28 in Kenpom, No. 50 in KPI and No. 54 in BPI. San Diego State RPI strength of schedule is No. 5 and its strength of record is No. 36.
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, 202-25 (89.0 percent). Since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, SDSU has lost just five times in 64 games (59-5, 92.2 percent), which is tied for the third best in the nation trailing only Gonzaga (1 loss) and Kansas & Liberty (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 115-25 record (82.1 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That is the fourth best record in the nation trailing only Gonzaga (128-14, 90.1 percent), Houston (125-22, 85.0 percent), & Baylor (113-24, 82.5 percent).
In its 73-79 loss at Grand Canyon on Tuesday night, San Diego State's senior wing Micah Parrish scored 10 points and moved past the 1,000-career points for his college career (1,006). He joined Darrion Trammell as the only current Aztecs with at least 1,000- career points.
Micah Parrish, a senior wing, finished the Grand Canyon game with 10 points and surpassed the 1,000-career point plateau (389 of his 1,006 points have come as an Aztec). He is one of five Aztecs to reach 1,000-career points since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. Also at Grand Canyon, Parrish equaled his career-high with four steals, a feat he has accomplished twice this season and nine times in his career.
Junior wing Reese Waters finished the Grand Canyon game with his eighth 10-plus point effort (11 points) this season. Included in his scoreline, he was 6-of-6 from the charity stripe and is one of five players nationally who have not missed a free throw this season. He is 36-of-36 and is the only player to be perfect from the line with a minimum of 30 free throw attempts.
Senior guard Lamont Butler had six assists, one turnover and scored six points at Grand Canyon. It marked the first time an Aztecs had at least six assists with one or fewer turnovers this year and was the third time he has done it in his college career.
Senior forward Jaedon LeDee recorded his sixth double double of the season (No. 2 in the country) finishing with 24 points and 10 boards at Grand Canyon. The Houston native's six double doubles in nine games this season are already halfway to the program's single-season top-10 in the category (T-No.9 - 12). His six double doubles are the most in a season since Jalen McDaniels totaled 11 in the 2018-19 season and the single-season program record for double doubles is 23 which both Michael Cage and Kawhi Leonard achieved in 1983-84 and 2010-11, respectively. In nine games, he has drawn 73 fouls, an average of 8.1 per game, and nationally ranks No. 7 in free throw attempts (74) and No. 8 in free throws made (56).
Darrion Trammell, a senior guard playing in his 100th career-college game, scored in double figures at Grand Canyon. It was the first time this season he was in double digits, the 19th time as an Aztec and 68th 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 157-49 (.762) 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.