The San Diego State Aztecs (2-1) are headed to the Sin City for the Players Era Festival scheduled to take place from Nov. 26 to 30. They have played all three games at home in Viejas Arena thus far. The Scarlet and Black are coming off a tough loss against No. 3 Gonzaga on Nov. 18 and hoping to get back into the win column in Vegas. Sophomore guard Miles Byrd commented on the loss in a recent press conference.
“You never want to lose a game, especially this early in the season but it is more of a lesson instead of a loss,” Byrd said. “We were right there with one of the top teams in the country even with our young team. It was a good showing from us, but we have to keep improving.”
One silver lining in the Gonzaga game was the tremendous performance of freshman big Magoon Gwath. Gwath blocked a season-high 5 shots against Gonzaga. Head Coach Brian Dutcher praised the budding star’s recent performance in a presser.
“I liked Magoon’s performance. He had five blocked shots, but he was not going against average centers. He was going against Graham Ike and Braden Huff, both elite centers at Gonzaga,” Dutcher said. “Now, he gets to go against [Ryan] Kalkbrenner and maybe we will stretch him out to play some power forward.”
SDSU’s first game of the Players Era Tournament will be against another strong opponent, No. 14 Creighton (4-0). The contest is set to tip off at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 26 at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
This will be San Diego State and Creighton’s 10th time meeting, the Bluejays lead the series 5-4. The last four meetings were on a neutral site, and the Aztecs have gone 3-1 in those games. The most notable is the 2023 Elite Eight matchup in Louisville Ky. where the Aztecs secured a 57-56 win and a trip to the Final Four. Dutcher commented on the past meetings in Thursday’s press conference.
“We have a tall task ahead of us with Creighton, a team with which we are familiar. Greg McDermott is a good friend of mine,” Dutcher said. “We beat them in the Wooden Legacy, lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to him in overtime, and then beat them to go to the Final Four. It should be a competitive basketball game in Las Vegas on Tuesday.”
The following day the Aztecs will play against Oregon (5-0), their first back-to-back of the season. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 27.
The Aztecs’ third game will be on Saturday, Nov. 30, against a team to be named later. Depending on the tournament seeding, the Aztecs could face No. 7 Houston (2-1), No. 8 Alabama (3-1), No. 24 Rutgers (3-0), or Notre Dame (4-1).
