Well-rested Aztecs return to the court on Saturday against Colorado State in Fort Collins.

The San Diego State Aztecs defeated the Wyoming Cowboys 63-61 last Saturday night at Viejas Arena. SDSU led by just three points at the half but saw Wyoming take a lead in the second half. Both teams used their strong defense to keep themselves in the game. Ultimately, SDSU’s tougher defense got the best of the Cowboys.

Relive last night’s win with the highlights! #GoAztecs pic.twitter.com/CDS2j466MD

— San Diego State Men’s Basketball (@Aztec_MBB) February 2, 2025

“We’re trying to take advantage of the bye week, get a little better as a team, and then see if we can continue playing good basketball on the road,” head coach Brian Dutcher said to the Media on Thursday. “We’re 4-1 on the road in the Mountain West this season, and we’ll have an opportunity against Colorado State and San Jose State to improve on that. We’ll be ready to go against the team we’re tied with in the standings, against Colorado State, on Saturday. It will be a real test for us.”

The Aztecs tend to play up and down to their opponent. We have seen it all season. SDSU rose to the occasion and defeated Houston and Creighton in Las Vegas during the Players Era Festival. They battled against Oregon and Gonzaga despite the losses. Further, the loss against Utah State was a stunner, but the Aztecs clearly showed they could compete with them. The only “bad” loss of the season was to UNLV, where they played very badly against that opponent. UNLV is 11-12 on the season and losers of five straight after their upset win over the Aztecs at Viejas Arena.

“When we beat Houston or Creighton, you say, ‘That’s playing up to competition,'”Dutcher said. “But then we’ve had close games and won close games. Our defense is obviously ahead of our offense and won close games. We are a top-10 defense, so when you win close games with your defense and you’re not scoring as many points, your offense has to get better. Every team has a different formula, but we win with our defense, so we tend to have close games with some of these teams that can get rolling offensively. We’ve also done that offensively. We went on a 20-0 run, and we went on an 18-0 run, so it’s hard to figure out where the metrics land and where our play lands. All I’m trying to do as a coach is get us to play better, and if our numbers go up because of that, then that’s a bonus as a coach.”

Worrying about the Metrics at this point in the season is meaningless. The Aztecs are falling in the rankings despite winning games, but all you can do is continue to win games, and the rankings will settle for themselves.

SDSU is 50th in NET. They continue to fall. The good news is their 39 WAB (Wins Above Bubble) keeps them in a good place. SDSU must continue to win the games they are supposed to win and do so by covering the spread. You may think betting spreads have nothing to do with NET rankings, but they certainly do. SDSU is 8-11 against the spread, which proves they don’t cover more often than not.

This is a big contest. SDSU will have a chance to cover the spread as underdogs on the road. If they do that, they will improve to 5-1 on the road, which will boost their NET.

Previous Matchup

San Diego State hosted CSU a few weeks back, and the Scarlet & Black got the best of the Rams 75-60. Miles Byrd had one of his top games of the campaign against the Rams. He defended their top player, Nique Clifford, as well as scoring 25 points, grabbing six rebounds, and finishing with an absurd about of steals (7). His 25 points were a season high and thew Aztecs are 3-1 this season when the redshirt sophomore scores 20+.

Byrd was recently named to the Julius Irving Award Watch List for the top small forward in the country. He is one of 10 wing players who all have NBA talent.

“It’s cool. I like being honored for playing hard and doing the right things on the court,” Byrd said. “It’s cool being a top 10 finalist, but at the end of the day, we still have nine games left. We have a lot of work to do as a team, so my focus is more towards what we have coming up in our games.”

Byrd and the Aztecs held Clifford, CSU’s best player, to just 11 points in the win last time out. He finished 5-16 from the floor, including just 1-8 from beyond the arc. SDSU must continue to pressure Clifford, as another bad game for him would see the Aztecs likely come out on top in a huge road game.

Update on CSU

The Rams are coming off a bad loss to New Mexico, 87-65. CSU dropped to 8-3 in the conference, which places it in a tie with San Diego State. At 14-8 overall, the Rams can still make a lot of noise but would likely have to win the Mountain West Tournament to have a shot at the NCAA Tournament. Colorado State is 9-2 at home. SDSU has the second-best road record in the conference at 4-1. Only Utah State’s 7-1 record is better.

Clifford continues to lead the Rams in scoring at 17.3 points per game. He adds 9.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists. 1.1 steals, 0.6 blocks, and shoots 48.4% from the field. Jalen Lake is right behind him at 12.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and shoots 42.5% from the field.

Key To Victory

The Aztecs need to respond by hitting their three-point shots. They finished just 5-22 against Wyoming at home. The Aztecs are going to have a hard time escaping Fort Collins with a win if the three-point shooting continues to not be a factor. The Aztecs have dropped to 8th in the conference in three-point percentage at a miserable 33.9%. The good news is that CSU is below them at 32.2%, second worst in the MW. However, CSU makes 8.0 per game compared to SDSU’s 7.8. Whoever wins this 3-point challenge will see themselves winning late in the game.

Chris Spiering

Chris is a graduate of the University of San Diego. He is the former Sports Editor for the USDVista newspaper. Chris has covered the San Diego Loyal, and now covers San Diego State Men’s Basketball. He also contributes regularly about the Padres. Chris is an athlete and is a huge fan of San Diego sports.