SDSU basketball launches Mountain West schedule beginning Dec. 4 – San Diego Union-Tribune

The days of anxiously awaiting the release of the Mountain West men’s basketball schedule, scanning your slate of games with your finger and hoping you don’t see “at Wyoming” are over.

The 11-team conference finally switched to a 20-game schedule after more than a decade of resistance from San Diego State, meaning everyone plays everyone else, home and away — the trip at the Arena-Auditorium in Laramie, at 7,220 feet, inclusive.

So the Aztecs will play at all 10 Mountain West sites this season, starting Dec. 4 at Fresno State — tying the longest conference game in school history — and stretching over three months until the finale on Aug. March against Nevada at Viejas Arena.

“It’s a full round robin,” said coach Brian Dutcher, who actively lobbied against moving from an 18- to 20-game schedule to provide more nonconference flexibility for building an NCAA Tournament resume. “It used to be that you’d watch the two teams that everyone only plays once. Now it’s a round robin, so you’re playing everyone twice.”

Does he agree with that?

“I have to be,” Dutcher said. “That’s it.”

The conference sent schools a tentative schedule last month, with the option to roll it out on their own terms. SDSU did it Wednesday, joining Utah State and UNLV as the only teams to do so.

Many of the dates will likely change when a final schedule is announced next month, after TV partners CBS and Fox pick their games with the option to move them forward or back a day. This will also determine the difficult parts of the schedule, as it may mean shorter gaps between games and whether the Aztecs have time to return home on back-to-back trips.

The order of opponents, however, is not expected to change.

After the Dec. 4 opener, the Aztecs go 24 days before playing another conference game — against Utah State at home — then get the first of two byes on New Year’s Day. After that, they play 18 games over nine weeks, with the bye coming in early February.

It starts out harmless enough. The Aztecs have won six straight at Fresno State’s Save Mart Center, including 73-41 last year; and are 10-0 at Viejas Arena against Utah State since the Aggies joined the Mountain West in 2013-14.

But the next two Saturdays feature road games against teams expected to be picked first and second in the conference: Boise State and New Mexico. The Aztecs have lost six of their last seven at ExtraMile Arena in Boise and four of six at The Pit in Albuquerque.

There are three sets of back-to-back road games: at Air Force (Jan. 21) and Nevada (Jan. 25), at Colorado State (Feb. 8) and San Jose State (Feb. 11), at Wyoming (March 1) and UNLV (March 4) . Only Air Force-Nevada has two altitude games, where the effects are usually most pronounced on days three and four at altitude.

There are a few anomalies. The Aztecs have just two weeks between both games against Air Force and San Jose State, but more than five weeks pass before they see Boise State and New Mexico for the second time.

Notable others:

• The Mountain West will have a Tuesday-Saturday format as base days instead of the past Wednesday-Saturday. Conference games can technically be played on any day of the week, but there must be two days off in between.

• The Aztecs host teams they have historically beaten at Viejas Arena in the early part of the schedule: Utah State, Air Force, Colorado State, UNLV, San Jose State and Wyoming.

• Both come before tough road games, meaning Dutcher and his staff will have a full week to prepare for Jan. 4 at Boise State and Feb. 8 at Colorado State.

• This is the fifth time in the last eight seasons that the Aztecs have shut out Nevada.

• Road games at Boise State (Jan. 4) and New Mexico (Jan. 11) plus UNLV at home (Jan. 18) are likely candidates for national broadcasts on CBS or Fox, meaning late morning or early afternoon Saturday Tips .

• Expanded conference slate shortens nonconference schedule by two games. SDSU completes one more home run before announcing this, but we already know six: home games against Gonzaga and Cal Baptist, plus four on neutral sites (Creighton, Oregon and Texas A&M in Las Vegas the week of Thanksgiving and Cal in San Jose in December 21). The remaining five are all expected to be at the Viejas Arena.

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2024-25 Mountain West Schedule

Dec 4: at Fresno State

Dec 28: State of Utah

January 4th: at Boise State

January 7: Air Force

January 11: in New Mexico

January 14: State of Colorado

January 18: UNLV

January 21: at the Air Force

January 25th: in Nevada

January 28: San Jose State

February 1st: Wyoming

February 8: in the state of Colorado

February 11: in the state of San Jose

February 15: Boise State

February 18: Fresno State

February 22: in the state of Utah

February 25: New Mexico

March 1st: in Wyoming

March 4th: at UNLV

March 8: Nevada

March 12-15: Mountain West Tournament, Las Vegas

Originally published: September 4, 2024 at 11:10 am