SAN DIEGO – With a 5-2 league record and coming off an 81-65 win against Wyoming, its 11th straight win against the Cowboys, San Diego State looks to continue to rack up wins in Mountain West play when it plays at Colorado State on Tuesday at 7 p.m. MT/6 p.m. PT at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colo.
OFF THE BOUNCE
The Aztecs and Rams are meeting for the 95th time, with SDSU owning a 51-43 advantage in the all-time series. In the Mountain West era, SDSU owns a 39-16 lead in the series, including a 13-10 mark at Moby Arena.
With its 81-65 win over Wyoming last Tuesday, the Aztecs are 25-3 in their last 28 games immediately following a loss. In situations where a loss is followed immediately by a home game, San Diego State has won 32 consecutive games.
Once again San Diego State is one of the elite teams when it comes to challenging itself. According to Kenpom, the Aztecs have the No. 17 strength of schedule rating, including the No. 11 ranked non-conference schedule. SDSU has faced the No. 16 rated schedule in opponents adjusted offensive efficiency and the No. 21 rated schedule in opponents adjusted defensive efficiency.
Senior Jaedon LeDee enters the Colorado State game with 998 career points and needs just two to reach the 1,000-career point milestone. LeDee has scored 706 points in 58 games with the Aztecs while in his first 79 games at both Ohio State and TCU he totaled 292 points.
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 seventh best road record in the nation, 104-63 (62.3 percent). Since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, SDSU has lost just 13 times in 46 road games (33-13, 71.7 percent), which is tied for the second fewest in the nation trailing only Gonzaga (6 losses) and tied with Baylor (13 losses) in that time frame and its 71.7 winning percentage in road games is the second best in the nation trailing only Gonzaga (32-6, 84.2 percent) with one of the Zags' six losses coming at the hands of the Aztecs, 84-74 on Dec. 29, 2023.
Since the start of the 2013-14 season, when the current slate of MW members was finalized, SDSU has an 84-11 (.884) record in Mountain West HOME games, the best mark in the conference. Boise State has the second-best record 75-20 (.789) and Colorado State is 60-33 (.645).
Since the start of the 2013-14 season, when the current slate of MW members was finalized, SDSU has an 57-33 (.633) record in Mountain West ROAD games, the best mark in the conference. Boise State has the second-best record 47-45 (.511).
The Aztecs metrics rank among the best in the nation. Through the games of January 28, the Aztecs were ranked No. 19 in the NET, No. 20 in Kenpom, No. 27 in T-Rank, No. 16 in KPI and No. 39 in BPI. San Diego State RPI strength of schedule is No. 5 and its strength of record is No. 15.
San Diego State enters the Wyoming game with a 5-4 record in Quad 1 & 2 games this season, including a 2-4 record in Quad 1 games. Its four losses have been on the road at some of the toughest venues to play in for an opposing team. The Aztecs lost at Brigham Young (65-74) in front of its second largest crowd of the season, at Grand Canyon (73-79) in front of its largest crowd, at New Mexico (70-88) in front of the largest crowd it has had since the 2009 season and at Boise State (66-67) in front to its second biggest home crowd this year.
SDSU is 138-10 the last 148 times it has shot better than its opponent and the Aztecs have won 31 straight games when scoring between 80-89 points.
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.
San Diego State owns a 124-27 record (82.1 percent) since the start of the 2019-20 campaign. That is the third best record in the nation trailing only Gonzaga (136-18, 88.3 percent) and Houston (134-24, 84.8 percent).
Against Wyoming, senior guard Lamont Butler led the Aztecs with a career-high matching 23 points and added 5 rebounds. It marked the fifth time in the last nine games he has reached double figure scoring, the eighth time this season and the 34th time in his career. His 10 field goals were a career-high and he added a game-high 4 assists and three steals.
Senior forward Jaedon LeDee reached double figure scoring against Wyoming, 17 points. It is the 19th time in 19 appearances this season and 38th time of his college career he has totaled at least 10 points in a game. Thirty of his 38 double figure scoring games have come in the 58 games he's played for SDSU. In addition, he led the Aztecs with 7 rebounds making the 15th time this season and 34th time in his college career he has paced his team in 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 167-51 (.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.
Men’s Hoops at Colorado State on Tuesday
