No. 23 Aztecs vs. Cal Baptist

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Viejas Arena

On the air: YurView (streaming on Mountain West Network); 760 AM

Records: SDSU is 6-2; CBU is 5-4

Series history: First meeting.

Aztecs update: The third in a three-game stretch where they’re double-digit favorites after four straight as underdogs. The Kenpom metric projects a 76-60 victory. After this, they get a 10-day break from games mandated by the school for final exams and a short Christmas break. They play only once before Dec. 28, when they resume the remaining 19 games of the Mountain West schedule. Taj DeGourville got banged in the nose at practice Monday and is wearing a clear mask for what coach Brian Dutcher called “precautionary reasons.” Fellow freshman Magoon Gwath had momentarily slipped to second nationally in blocks per game behind Arizona State’s Jayden Quaintance, but a review of film from the Fresno State game gave him two more blocks — making it 29 in eight games and raising his average to 3.63 per game and putting him back in first. SDSU is still No. 1 nationally as a team in average blocks at 7.5. Pharaoh Compton went back-to-back as Mountain West Freshman of the Week after averaging 10.5 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 76.9% (10 of 13). SDSU climbed one spot in the AP poll to No. 23, appearing on about two-thirds of ballots. Two voters have them as high as 12 and eight have them in the top 15.

Lancers update: They finished over .500 in five of six years since leaving Division II (and the time they didn’t was 16-17 last season). The one thing they haven’t done is beat a ranked Division I ranked team. They do already have a win against a Mountain West school, beating Fresno State 86-81 in double OT on Nov. 27 in Palm Springs. The other wins are against Incarnate Word, Kennesaw State (which beat Rutgers), Long Island and Eastern Washington. The losses are against UC Riverside (70-69), Northern Colorado, SMU (79-77) and at Central Florida. Rick Croy is in his 12th season, guiding the Lancers from a successful Division II program to Division I. Three key rotation pieces are back from last season, most notably 5-foot-10 senior guard Dominique Daniels Jr., who ranks 12th nationally in scoring at 21.7 points per game. He had a season-high 33 in their last game, a Dec. 1 loss at UCF. They added transfers AJ Braun from Wright State (No. 1 in the national in field-goal percentage last season) and Javonte Johnson, who is familiar to SDSU having played at New Mexico and Colorado State. They take good care of the ball, ranking 24th nationally in turnover rate (14%) and averaging under 10 per game. CBU is in Riverside but has only two California players on the roster. It is 176 in Kenpom, better than Fresno State and USD.

Next up: Dec. 21 vs. Cal in San Jose (7:30 p.m., ACC Network)

— MARK ZEIGLER

Originally Published: December 10, 2024 at 5:17 PM PST