New Mexico vs. San Diego State

Steve Fisher Court – Viejas Arena

Saturday, January 17 – 5 pm

The Aztecs return home for a massive contest against the Lobos, aiming to stay undefeated in conference play

One of the biggest games of the season will take place at Steve Fisher Court on Saturday night. The Lobos are in town, and that means Viejas Arena will be packed with loud fans all night long. There will be a decent number of New Mexico fans to make the atmosphere even more exciting.

The magnitude of this contest cannot be ignored. SDSU has a real opportunity to establish itself as the best team in the Mountain West with a win on Saturday night and a win against Utah State in Logan at the end of the month. The Aztecs are in the midst of a difficult stretch in conference play, but Dutcher’s team is playing its best basketball of the season.

This matchup against New Mexico will be different than years past. There is even a San Diego connection.

“I’m excited to be back here in Viejas Arena against a very good New Mexico team with a lot of San Diego ties,” Dutcher said on Friday to the media. “There are three former San Diego high school players on their roster. Coach Olen from UC San Diego has done a magnificent job of replacing the entire roster, and I’m looking forward to a really competitive game in front of a packed house here at Viejas Arena.”

Learning About the Lobos

New Mexico will always be one of the better teams in the country. They lost star player Donovan Dent to UCLA and didn’t even blink an eye when the season began. The Lobos are 14-3 on the season and 5-1 in conference play, with their only conference loss of the season coming on the road at Boise State late in December. From the looks of it now, that is a very bad conference loss as the Broncos are 1-5 in MW play.

The Lobos have responded with four straight wins and recently demolished Grand Canyon at The Pit, 87-64. The last four wins have all been by double digits, including a 42-point win at Air Force. New Mexico’s other two losses came against an undefeated Nebraska team (currently No. 8) and a bad loss to New Mexico State on the road early in the year.

New Mexico averages 80.8 points per game and allows 66.2. They shoot below the Aztecs’ 48% FG percentage at 46%, but are about equal with SDSU in rebounds per game at 37.1. Both teams average 7.8 steals per contest.

NM’s NET rating is 42. They are 1-1 in Quad 1 games, with their only Quad 1 win coming against Santa Clara. SDSU is at 50, slowly improving due to their win streak. The Aztecs are 1-3 in Quad 1 games, with the only win coming against Nevada on the road.

Leading the Charge

The Lobos are led by guard Jake Hall, who followed head coach Eric Olen from UC San Diego. Hall is a pure scorer who shoots at a high percentage. On the season, Hall is averaging 14.6 points per game on 46.4% shooting. He adds 3.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and shoots 40% from beyond the arc. Hall leads the Lobos in minutes per game at 27.6, and he plays just under 30 minutes per game on the road. Against SDSU, Hall could play north of 30 minutes if the game is within reach.

Over the last three games, Hall has been lighting up the arena. He scored 18 in the win over Colorado State, followed up with 24 points against Air Force, and 22 against the Antelopes. 64 points in three games is something to be worried about if you are the Aztecs’ defense.

One of the next valuable players on Olen’s roster is former Utah State Aggie, Deyton Albury. Albury is a senior from The Bahamas who can do it all. He averages 11.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.3 steals, and shoots 49.2% from the field. His three-point shooting has dipped from his time in Logan; however, Albury is crucial to the Lobo’s success every night. He doesn’t light up the arena, but he scores hard-earned buckets from anywhere on the court. He is also the team’s leader in assists.

Tomislav Buljan is the big man. The freshman from Croatia is going to be a threat in college hoops real quickly. He averages 11.3 points on 55.8% shooting and 9.5 rebounds per game (tied for 27th). He’s not a massive threat at the rim defensively, but he will definitely grab a ton of boards. He finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds in the win against Wyoming.

Chris Howell and Milos Vicentic are the other two players who followed Olen from the Tritons to New Mexico. Senior Luke Haupt is also a San Diego native, averaging 6.0 points per game. Howell averages 24 minutes per game but is not a threat in scoring. He is second on the team in assists per game, but it is his defense that keeps him on the floor. He averages 1.7 steals per game.

Game Plan

The Aztecs are going to need to have sound defense on Saturday night. Dutcher is hoping that switching screens at a high level can be a big part of their game plan.

“You’re keeping a body in front of a body, and you’re trying to keep them out of the paint,” Dutcher told the media. “That limits paint touches, if you can keep them in front of you. Then there are counters. You’re slipping ball screens. You’re playing one-on-one with really good guards against your bigs, so there are different ways to go about it. Coach Olen switches a lot of screens, one through four, and he leaves the five back in the paint to plug everything up. He does a good job of that. There are different ways to play, and that will be on display tomorrow night.”

Sophomore guard Taj DeGourville explained what he believes is the reason why the team is having success right now.

“I feel like we’re just all connected, and it started defensively,” DeGourville told the media. “We started having each other’s back defensively, sort of like we had each other’s back last year. It’s starting to come back to us. When we play defense, the sky’s the limit for us.”

A win on Saturday night for the Aztecs will have this team feeling very good compared to after the loss to Arizona right before Christmas.

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.