SDSU Men's Hoops Announce Non-Conference Schedule
The Aztecs will play four and possibly five opponents who competed in the postseason in 2023 among 13 non-conference games.
Coming off the most successful men's basketball season in program history, posting a 32-7 mark and having played for the 2023 national championship, San Diego State men's basketball program revealed its 2023-24 out-of-conference slate on Monday.
Sporting a 34-7 record in non-conference contests since the start of the 2019-20 season, SDSU currently has scheduled 13 non-conference games and one exhibition but may add another game at a later date. The slate features five possible opponents that played in the postseason last year, including three that competed in the NCAA tournament, one in the NIT, and could include one additional NCAA tournament team.
The 103rd season of Aztecs hoops opens in Viejas Arena on Monday, Oct. 30 with an exhibition against Cal State San Marcos. It will be the first appearance on Steve Fisher Court for the Cougars since an 80-42 loss in an exhibition game prior to the 2016-17 season and the sixth exhibition these programs have played since the start of the 2011-12 campaign.
The regular-season and home opener, at which the program's 2022-23 Mountain West and NCAA South Regional championship and Final Four banners will be raised, is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 6, against Cal State Fullerton (CSF). These programs have met 33 times since the series commenced in the 1963-64 season with SDSU holding a 23-10 lead in the all-time series. In games played on the Aztecs' home floor, SDSU is 14-4. San Diego State won the first 10 matchups, regardless of location, and since Viejas opened is 4-1 against the Titans, having taken the last four, including an 80-57-win last year. Cal State Fullerton posted a 20-13 record in 2022-23, including a 12-6 mark in Big West action. In the conference tournament, CSF reached the championship game but fell to UC Santa Barbara to end its season.
Four nights later, on Friday, Nov. 10, SDSU will be in Provo, Utah for the renewal of one of the program's most heated rivalries; a game against Brigham Young at the Marriott Center. It is the return of a two-game, home-and-home series the teams started last year and resulted in an 82-75 win for the Aztecs at Viejas Arena. In the previous 76 matchups, the Cougars have come out on the winning end 50 times, including defeating SDSU in 30 of the 34 games played at the Marriott Center. The last time San Diego State played at Brigham Young, on Nov. 12, 2021, it came out on the short end of a 66-60 decision. The Cougars posted a 19-15 record last season and reached the semifinals of the West Coast Conference (WCC) tournament where they fell to No. 16 Saint Mary's 76-69. In the last 10 years at the Marriott Center, Brigham Young has a 133-26 record, the 27th-best home record in the nation in that time frame.
In its final home matchup before a five-game run away from America's Finest City, the Aztecs host Long Beach State (LBSU) on Tuesday, Nov. 14. San Diego State holds a 39-22 advantage in the all-time series, which includes a 21-10 mark on its home floor. SDSU has won each of the last seven meetings and 15 of the last 16 times the programs have gotten together, regardless of location. In the most recent matchup, at Viejas Arena on Nov. 30, 2021, San Diego State handed the Beach a 72-47 drubbing. LBSU posted a 17-16 record in 2022-23 and saw its season come to an end in its opening round game of the Big West Tournament, 88-68 to Cal Poly.
The Aztecs begin their five-game road odyssey with two contests at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas at the Continental Tires Main Event. The first matchup is set for Friday, Nov. 17, and is against a familiar foe in Saint Mary's College (SMC). The game marks the fourth consecutive year the programs have met on a neutral court. In last year's Jerry Colangelo Classic at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Ariz., SDSU came out on the short end of a 68-61 final score, and that result moved the all-time series to a 7-7 tie, with the neutral site record in the Gaels favor, 3-2. SMC went 27-8 in 2022-23, fell to Gonzaga in the championship game of the WCC tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament before falling to eventual national champion Connecticut.
Depending on the outcome of the Saint Mary's game, the second game, on Sunday, November 19, will be against either Washington (UW) or Xavier. The Aztecs and Huskies have met five times previously, with UW holding a 3-2 advantage in the series, which began in the 2003-04 season. The pair have never met on a neutral court and the last matchup, on March 21, 2016, in the second round of the 2016 NIT at Viejas Arena, resulted in a 93-78 win for the SDSU. The lone meeting between San Diego State and Xavier was a neutral site affair, at the 2018 Maui Invitational, and the game saw the Aztecs earn a 79-74 win in a quarterfinal matchup. Washington went 16-16 in 2022-23 and saw its season end in its first game of its conference tournament. Xavier posted a 27-10 mark last year, and reached the championship game of the Big East Tournament and the Sweet 16 in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
The final game of November is against California and will be played at The Pavilion in San Juan Capistrano on Saturday, Nov. 25. The game is part of the SoCal Showcase and pits programs that have played on a neutral court twice in its previous 13 meetings. SDSU leads 2-0 in those neutral site matchups and 7-6 in the all-time series. The Golden Bears struggled to a 3-29 record last season, but under new head coach Mark Madsen, have secured one of the best transfer classes in the nation including a pair of former four-star recruits Fardaws Aimaq and Tyson Jaylon from Texas Tech.
In the fourth of five consecutive games away from Viejas Arena, San Diego State makes its debut appearance at UC San Diego's LionTree Arena at 7 p.m. PT on Friday, Dec. 1. The Aztecs are a perfect 13-0 against the Tritons in the all-time series, which has only been played on the Aztecs' home floor, including 2-0 against UCSD in its Division I history. UC San Diego went 10-20 last season in its third of a four-year reclassification from Division II to Division I and since the start of the 2020-21 campaign is 20-17 on its home floor.
The five-game road swing wraps up in Phoenix, Arizona, with a return game from a matchup against Grand Canyon in the 2019-20 season in Viejas Arena. Overall, the Antelopes hold a 3-1 lead in the series, but 2-1 in its Division I history, since the 2013-14 school year. Since it began its transition to Division I status, the Antelopes are 75-22 at GCU Arena, nationally the 73rd-best home record in that timeframe.
San Diego State returns to the friendly confines of Viejas Arena and America's Finest City on Saturday, Dec. 9 to play UC Irvine. The Aztecs hold an 8-3 advantage in games played on their home floor against the Anteaters and have won both meetings at Viejas Arena, including a 72-69 victory last season on Steve Fisher Court. The Anteaters went 23-12 overall, as the No. 1 seed lost in the semifinal round in the Big West Tournament and then fell to Oregon in its opening round game of the 2023 National Invitational Tournament (NIT).
Ten days after the UC Irvine game, on Tuesday, Dec. 19, the Aztecs host Saint Katherine. The teams have met twice, both in Viejas, and both games ended in an Aztecs blowout victory.
Stanford makes its second overall appearance at Viejas Arena on Thursday, Dec. 21, in the return game from last year at Stanford, a 72-64 win for SDSU. It was the first win in the series for the Aztecs, who fell in each of the previous four meetings. The Cardinal won both previous matchups in San Diego, but they occurred in 1978 and 1997. Stanford was 14-19 last year and won its opener in the Pac-12 Tournament before falling to eventual champion Arizona in the quarterfinal round.
The non-conference schedule concludes in Spokane, Wash., with a much-anticipated meeting with the two most powerful men's basketball programs on the West Coast in San Diego State and Gonzaga. The two-game, home-and-home series begins at the Zags' McCarthey Athletic Center on Friday, Dec. 29. In the all-time series the teams are tied 2-2, and at Gonzaga, the pair have split two games. The Bulldogs return the game at Viejas Arena in the 2024-25 campaign.
San Diego State returns Final Four hero Lamont Butler, fifth-year seniors Darion Trammell and Jaedon LeDee, and four of its top-six scorers from the 2023-24 team that went 32-7 and played for the national championship at the 2023 NCAA Tournament. In addition, last year the Aztecs earned their Mountain West Conference-record 15th and 16th league titles (regular season and tournament) as well as the 2023 South Regional title at the NCAA Tournament.
SDSU also returns seniors Micah Parrish and Cade Alger, as well as sophomores Miles Byrd, Elijah Saunders and Demarshay Johnson Jr., and welcomes transfers Reese Waters from Southern California and Jay Pal from Campbell and freshmen Miles Heide, BJ Davis and Magoon Gwath to the 2023-24 roster.
For more information on tickets for the 2023-24 San Diego State men's basketball season, contact the Aztec Athletics Ticket Office at 619-283-7378 or [email protected].
2023-24 San Diego State Men's Basketball
Non-Conference Schedule (as of Sept. 11)
Oct. 30 CAL STATE SAN MARCOS (Exhibition)
Nov. 6 CAL STATE FULLERTON
Nov. 10 at Brigham Young
Nov. 14 LONG BEACH STATE
Nov. 17 ^vs. Saint Mary's
Nov. 19 ^vs. Washington/Xavier
Nov. 25 #vs. California
Dec. 1 at UC San Diego
Dec. 5 at Grand Canyon
Dec. 9 UC IRVINE
Dec. 19 SAINT KATHERINE
Dec. 21 STANFORD
Dec. 29 at Gonzaga
^ - Continental Tires Main Event (Las Vegas, Nev.)
# - The Pavilion (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
Home games in all CAPS
