With multiyear series against USD or UCSD all expired, it looked like San Diego State’s basketball team might not face a Division I opponent from the city for the first time in 27 seasons.
The streak will continue, though.
SDSU has yet to unveil its nonconference schedule, but UCSD did and its Nov. 6 opener is … against the Aztecs at Viejas Arena. A tip time has not been announced.
The schools ended a two-for-one series last year, where the first two games were at Viejas Arena and the third at UCSD’s LionTree Arena. Before that, the Aztecs had continuous home-and-home series against USD dating to 1998.
The Nov. 6 game is not part of a new series but a one-off “buy” game where SDSU will pay the Tritons $80,000 to play at Viejas Arena without a return date at LionTree Arena in a subsequent season.
This is how most programs of SDSU’s stature handle nonconference games against teams with middling metrics, especially those in the same city. Rarely do Top 25 caliber programs venture into hostile territory in November and December, instead playing on their terms in front of their own fans with familiar officiating crews from their own conference.
“I think it’s a game that people in the city like,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “It’s a buy game for us that we don’t have to return, so we’re not playing a crosstown rival in their home gym. The game will be competitive, but I’d much rather play them in our home arena than I would at their place.
“That makes sense for us. It worked out this year that we needed a game, and the schedules fit each other.”
The Aztecs are 14-0 all-time against UCSD, but most of those were when the Tritons were Division II. Only three came since their transition to Division I, and the Tritons would have won last year at LionTree Arena had it not been for Jaedon LeDee’s put-back at the buzzer. Inside seven minutes to go, the Aztecs trailed by 14.
“It was a huge part of how we played,” UCSD coach Eric Olen said afterward of the frenzied, sold-out crowd. “This is my 20th season at UC San Diego, and that is far and away the best environment we’ve had, and there’s not really a close second. The students were amazing in terms of the amount of energy they had. … Without the juice in that building, I think it would have been very different.”
SDSU won 78-57 and 62-46 in UCSD’s two visits to Viejas Arenas as a Division I program.
It’s hard to determine how competitive this year’s game will be, considering both rosters were hit hard by graduation and the transfer portal.
SDSU is replacing all five starters from a Sweet 16 team, including departing transfers Lamont Butler (Kentucky), Micah Parrish (Ohio State) and Elijah Saunders (Virginia). For UCSD, all-conference guard Bryce Pope and his 18.3-point average transferred to USC for his final season while forward Francis Nwaokorie (11.3 points, 5.5 rebounds) is headed to Loyola Chicago. The Tritons have just one player taller than 6-foot-8, and that’s a little-used 6-10 post.
SDSU is awaiting a contract for one final game before announcing its nonconference schedule, which is expected to include only eight Division I games (and a ninth against a lower-division opponent) after the Mountain West expanded from an 18- to 20-game schedule this season.
Seven games are known: home against UCSD, Gonzaga and Cal Baptist, plus Creighton, Oregon, Texas A&M and Cal on neutral courts.
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