Aztecs aim for a 2-0 start in the Players Era Festival Tournament against Oregon

The San Diego State Aztecs and No. 21 Creighton Blue Jays faced off on Tuesday for the first game of the Player’s Era Festival Tournament in Las Vegas.

SDSU went down early but stormed back and never looked back with a 71-53 win.

The SDSU-Creighton matchup saw two elite coaches go against each other. Creighton coach Greg McDermott and Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher have met four times as head coaches. Dutcher has now won three of the four meetings. The Aztecs are now 5-5 against the Blue Jays all-time and have won four of the last five matchups.

If you missed our win over Creighton, we have you covered! #GoAztecs pic.twitter.com/7qloOugBdn

— San Diego State Men’s Basketball (@Aztec_MBB) November 26, 2024

The win impressed. The Aztecs are now 3-1 and saw major improvement after a loss to No. 3 Gonzaga.

“It was a no-brainer for us,” Dutcher said postgame when asked about the decision to join the tournament. “It was like, yes, anytime, anyplace. And the question was, you know, is the money really going to be there? But for us, the money, yeah, the money is critically important. And this is a great event for that. But for us to play this talent level that we get to play and our flight from our campus — I don’t want to tell them this because they might not pay us, but I would have come for free to play this kind of competition.”

Dutcher continued on with his response.

“We’re not in a Power Four league. It’s hard for us to play these kind of teams. So we have to build a resumé in November. So it’s Gonzaga, it’s Creighton, it’s Oregon, and it’s someone from the other side. And those are games we have to take to give ourselves a chance if we don’t have the year we want to have in conference to get an at-large bid. These are the games that will do it, with these kinds of games.”

His team is aware how important this stretch is. The Red and Black now look to Dana Altman and Oregon.

Getting to Know the Ducks

Oregon always shows up in March, but this game is in November. Over the years, the Ducks are known to make a run in the NCAA Tournament. They won the inaugural NCAA Tournament in 1939 by defeating Ohio State in the National Championship game. They have since then appeared 17 times with eight Sweet Sixteens, seven Eight Eights, and two Final Fours.

The 2024 Ducks are 6-0 to begin the campaign. They are coming off a big win over No. 20 Texas A&M in their opener of the tournament. Oregon was down 58-48 and stormed back in the game off two different runs to win 80-70. Oregon used a 16-0 run to get back into the game and then scored the final 11 points of the contest to win by double digits. Both SDSU and Oregon defeated ranked opponents as unranked squads. Whoever wins this game on Wednesday could see themselves with a number next to their name by next week, especially if they proceed to win again on Saturday.

In the win over the Aggies, TJ Bamba led the way with 18 points. Brandon Angel and Jackson Shelstad both ended with 16. Angel, a San Diego native, is scoring at a very high rate this season. He entered the game against A&M shooting 70.8% from the field and then shot 5 for 6 in the win. He faced SDSU last season when he played for Stanford.

Nate Bittle averaged 16.2 points and 10.2 rebounds in the first five games of the season. He entered the tournament as the 18th-best rebounder in the nation. Against A&M, he was limited to just six points and six rebounds.

“We got one, now we have to get greedy, get two and try to get a third if we can,” Dutcher said postgame. “We’re playing a good Oregon team. It’s nice to know our opponent already because now we can go in and not have to wait until this game’s over to know who we’re playing. We know who we’re playing. We have had assistant coaches working on the game like everybody else knows their second opponent. Now we’ll go into the film room, do a walk-through, get ready for tomorrow.”

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.