San Diego State brings new roster, familiar tenets into West Coast showdown with No. 4 Gonzaga

SAN DIEGO – Gonzaga’s Mark Few and San Diego State’s Brian Dutcher bumped into each other last month at joint West Coast Conference/Mountain West Conference media day in Las Vegas.

The coaches didn’t cover much ground during a brief conversation, chatting just long enough to trade a few surface-level thoughts on their new rosters before both were whisked away to their next media obligation.

“He was talking about all his new guys, I was like, I know you’re going to play great defense and I know you’re going to rebound,” Few said on Oct. 17. “Those are givens with San Diego State.”

The givens exist on both sides of Monday’s matchup between fourth-ranked Gonzaga (3-0) and San Diego State (2-0) at 7 p.m. (CBSSN) at Viejas Arena.

When San Diego State hung 100 points on Division III Occidental College last Tuesday, Dutcher was worried his team’s outside shooting exhibition – the Aztecs connected 18 times from behind the 3-point line in the 51-point win over Occidental – may have been premature.

“I wish we could’ve saved some of those 3s,” Dutcher told reporters. “You know, put them in the bank and brought them back out against Gonzaga.”

It’ll be a clash of styles and future Pac-12 Conference foes when the Aztecs and Zags take the floor in the second game of a home-and-home series that started last year in Spokane when Dutcher’s team broke away toward the end of the second half, winning 84-74 and handing GU its first double-digit home loss since 2015.

San Diego State looks significantly different than it did last season after losing six of its top seven scorers to graduation or the transfer portal, and after a few notable injuries, it’s also possible the Aztecs will hardly resemble the team that entered preseason training camp more than a month ago.

Reese Waters, a 6-foot-6 senior guard who was SDSU’s top scorer with 22 points last season in the win over Gonzaga, is expected to miss a few more weeks with a stress fracture. The Aztecs may resort to an even smaller look in the backcourt if 6-foot-7 sophomore guard Miles Byrd misses his second straight game with an ankle injury. Byrd scored nine points and had four rebounds off the bench in Spokane last season.

“We’ll try to get him healed up as quickly as we can and like I said, it probably will truly be a game-time decision depending on how quickly the rehab goes on it,” Dutcher said. “It’s hard to think he’s going to play, but that’s the beauty of not playing for six days. He’s limping around, he couldn’t play tomorrow, probably couldn’t play the next day.”

Few isn’t as concerned with SDSU’s personnel – who’s gone, who’s back, who’s injured, who’s healthy – and reiterated Friday the Aztecs still rely on familiar tenets, bringing a level of athleticism, defensive discipline and rebounding the Zags rarely see through the course of the season.

“They look the same to me,” Few said. “That’s the beauty of their program, just a bunch of tough, athletic dudes that kind of get you in a rock fight the way they play defense. They’re going to absolutely pound the glass, they’re going to be in those gaps breaking us and making it hard. They’re going to be really, really physical.

“They’re going to be big around the rim, so our bigs will really have to be tough enough to get their moves and get to their shots. Then they’re just very opportunistic on offense.”

Gonzaga has SDSU on high alert, too.

Even by their own inflated standards, the Bulldogs are operating at a high level on the offensive end, ranking No. 1 nationally in offensive efficiency according to KenPom. Gonzaga averaged 100.6 points per game against Baylor, Arizona State and UMass Lowell teams all ranked inside the top 125 of KenPom’s team ratings.

Another way to put GU’s offensive production into perspective?

Before Tuesday’s win over Occidental, SDSU hadn’t scored 100 points in regulation since 2018. Over the same period, Few’s teams at Gonzaga have scored 100 points in 35 games.

“We scored 100 points and everyone’s like, wow that’s fantastic,” Dutcher said. “I think Gonzaga in their first three games is averaging 95. How is that possible? They played Arizona State and Baylor. It’s common for them to score this many points. We sit in here like, wow that’s incredible. Now we’ve got to play a team that scores that many every night.

“So we have to find a way to not allow that to happen in this building. We have to be hard-minded and tough defensively and rebounding. Then we have to find a way to produce enough offense to get a win against a really good team next Monday.”

It’ll be a new look for SDSU’s frontcourt, which loses AP third-team All-American Jaedon LeDee, a 21.4 point-per-game scorer last season.

After dealing with LeDee’s physicality and strength last season, Gonzaga forward Graham Ike will encounter a different test in 7-foot freshman Magoon Gwath, known more for his high-level rim protection and floor-stretching ability. Gwath isn’t an offensive threat two games into his college career, but he’s averaging 3.5 blocks.

Ike brings an 0-5 career record against SDSU into Monday’s game and made it clear during WCC media day interviews he’s determined to beat the Aztecs in what’s likely to be his last attempt against Dutcher’s squad.

“Personally for me, I always enjoy playing San Diego State just because I’ve been playing them since I got into college,” Ike said. “I already know it’s going to be a dogfight every time we play them, but that’s definitely one that I’m looking forward to.”

Gonzaga point guard Ryan Nembhard, who has 30 assists and two turnovers in three games, has also lost to SDSU at two different schools. Nembhard’s 2022-23 Creighton team lost to SDSU in the Elite Eight.

There’s also an Aztec seeking his first win against Gonzaga. University of San Diego transfer Wayne McKinney III, who’s averaging 10.5 ppg, lost four times to Gonzaga in the WCC but should have his best chance to knock off the Bulldogs on Monday after transferring to the school across town.

“This game definitely matters for me, it matters for us,” McKinney said. “This is one of our important ones we marked on our schedule, so getting one especially here at home, it means everything to us so we’ve got to get it done.”