The U men’s basketball team passed its first test of the season: its non-conference schedule. With wins against No. 1 Alabama, Massachusetts, Arizona State, Pepperdine and San Diego, the Utes have quality wins that will assure them a spot in the NCAA Tournament, granted they can put together a typical record throughout the MWC regular season.
That journey begins Saturday at 1 p.m. with a road game at San Diego State (10-4, 1-0 MWC). The game will be shown on ESPN+ and on the radio at KALL 910.
The Aztecs are already one game into their conference schedule–a 63-48 win at Air Force on Jan. 11, but the team had pulled off some ho-hum non-conference wins prior to that.
The Aztecs have won 10 straight games against non-ranked teams, including Hawaii, Loyola Marymount and Long Beach State. However, SDSU lost to Portland and Eastern Washington in the early going, and SDSU has also lost to No. 1 Arizona and No. 23 Texas Tech.
The Aztecs have historically been a good opponent for the Utes.
“In my three years here, we’re 0-6 against Utah. We played them pretty good part of the time and other times they pounded us pretty handily,” Fisher said.
Utah has won 14 straight over the team that won the MWC postseason tournament last year. The Aztecs haven’t beaten Utah since Jan. 22, 1994.
Given Utah’s current success in non-conference, the Aztecs will be ready and waiting.
“Utah is, arguably by some, not by me, the best team in the conference right now, based on what they did in non-conference play,” SDSU coach Steve Fisher said.