San Diego State heads to Oceanside on Sunday for the second straight weekend at a San Diego County site outside Viejas Arena, this time against New Mexico State in the Compete 4 Cause Classic at Frontwave Arena. The Aztecs are 3-0, New Mexico State is 1-2, and the matchup gives SDSU another early test before it returns home Wednesday.
The game has a clear pull because these teams have seen each other before, and not casually. SDSU leads the series 5-3, with the most recent meeting coming in the opening round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament in Spokane, Wash., when the Aztecs beat New Mexico State 73-69 in overtime. This time, Kenpom projects another SDSU win, 78-68, while also putting the Aggies second in Conference USA at 140 despite their record and turnover problems.
New Mexico State has already shown both ends of that profile. It opened with a win over Division II Western New Mexico, then lost to Gonzaga 109-68 and fell 60-58 to UTEP on Thursday after going scoreless for the final 2:58. Jermaine Washington missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have won it, and Jason Hooten’s team has been undone by the same issue all season, averaging turnovers on 28.5% of possessions, which ranks 359th out of 365 Division I programs.
SDSU has not been clean with the ball either, with a turnover rate of 22.5%, but it has kept winning while moving through a travel-heavy opening stretch. It beat Colorado 77-66 at Pechanga Arena last Saturday in the Bill Walton Classic, and Sunday’s trip is its third of at least a dozen road games this season. The Frontwave Arena stop also came with a small logistical wrinkle: SDSU could not practice there on Saturday because of an arena conflict, though it did go last week to get used to the sightlines.
There is at least one personnel note worth tracking before tipoff. Freshman Zach White had not played in the regular season, but he has returned to practice and is expected to be available. That matters for an SDSU team that will keep turning over bodies and venues this week, with Texas Southern next on Wednesday at Viejas Arena at 7 p.m. White may not change the shape of the schedule, but he gives SDSU another option as the season starts to ask more of its depth.
New Mexico State arrives with more pressure on the result, but not enough evidence yet to dismiss it. The Aggies were picked to finish sixth in the Conference USA coaches poll and finished 16-16 overall and 8-12 in league play last season, yet they still carry enough individual scoring to make Sunday uncomfortable if SDSU lets the game get loose. That is the balance of the night: one team trying to prove its record is misleading, the other trying to keep a clean start intact while moving from one San Diego County building to another.
