San Diego State men’s basketball seeks to flip the script after losing four of its last five games, sliding down the conference ranks while playing a brand of basketball uncharacteristic of Aztec basketball teams.
SDSU 19-10 (13-6 Mountain West) is set to take on UNLV 16-14 (11-8 MW), looking to end the 2025-26 regular season on a positive note ahead of the conference tournaments next week. A late-season collapse has seen the Aztecs drop from once-tied for first place in the conference down to on the bubble for the NCAA tournament.
This skid of Aztec basketball couldn’t come at a worse time for the team, with each loss putting the team further and further out of contention for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Losses to Grand Canyon, Colorado State, New Mexico and Boise State over the past five games have led the Aztecs to drop out of first place in the Mountain West. Despite losing four out of the last five games, the Aztecs find themselves still with a chance to tie for first place in the conference and win a regular-season title.
“We look back and say, geez, we’re a game out of first place. Had we won any of those four, we would have been in first place with a game to play,” Dutcher said.
But what went wrong for the Aztecs over the past five games?
“It’s rebounding, I don’t think it’s anything other than that,” senior guard Reese Dixon-Waters said in a press conference on Thursday.
SDSU was out-rebounded 37 to 15 in its last contest against Boise State. Head coach Brian Dutcher said that rebounding has been a struggle for the Aztecs over the last two years.
“We work on rebounding every day. But we got outrebounded 37-15. I don’t know if that’s ever happened at SDSU,” Dutcher said. “We’ve given up in the 80s our last two games, and we are a program that prides itself on defense.”
These two losses to both Boise State (86-77) and New Mexico (81-76) mark the first games the Aztecs gave up over 80-plus points since Jan. 3 against Boise State, when SDSU gave up 107 points in triple overtime. SDSU will have to tighten up on defense and get back to the high standard the team prides itself on.
The current state of SDSU basketball hasn’t changed the perception of stars Miles Byrd and Reese Dixon-Waters, who both said at Thursday’s press conference that this group knows the task at hand and has the juice left in the tank to get the job done.
“Everybody understands what’s at stake right now,” Dixon-Waters said. “I still think we’re the best team in the Mountain West, our record may not say so, but I believe that.”
For Miles Byrd, much has been said about his performance this season since he decided to come back to SDSU after testing the NBA Draft waters last spring. The fourth-year forward is averaging 10.8 points per game while shooting 40.7% from the field and 33.1% from beyond the arc. Byrd’s impact for the Aztecs this season has been beyond the counting stats; he has been a force defensively, putting up 1.9 steals per game with 33 blocks on the year.
“I think we just have to have better focus. I think with our personalities, I think it’s easy to see us play and be like ‘Oh, they don’t care,’” Byrd said. “I think we all have a belief and we all think we have a chance to go play in March [Madness].”
Looking ahead to Friday night’s game, SDSU will need to win to have a chance at tying for first place in the Mountain West and being regular-season co-champions with Utah State. A win for the Aztecs against UNLV could be the start of what is needed to push this group to the potential the team and fans had expected all season long.
“They want to win. They want to win desperately, and that’s a big part of it. You have to be driven to be successful. I think my team is,” Dutcher said. “I always say hard work is rewarded; it’s not always rewarded every day you work hard.”
