Records in Sight for Perfect Aztecs
Malachi Flynn cuts down the net after San Diego State clinched the Mountain West regular season championship on Tuesday night. (Photo:©Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
The No. 4 San Diego State (25-0) Men’s Basketball team beat New Mexico 82-59 on Tuesday night to win the Mountain West Conference regular season title for a record seventh time. The Aztecs seventh regular season Mountain West title broke a tie with BYU. The Cougars won the Mountain West regular season title six times from 1999-2011.
The Aztecs will be the #1 seed in the Mountain West Men’s Basketball Championship tournament March 4-7 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Aztecs have won the MWC tournament a record five times.
San Diego State has visions of perfection.
At 14-0 in Mountain West play, San Diego State has a chance to re-write the conference record books. Since the conference began play in 1999, no team has ever finished conference play with a perfect record. Utah is the only team to lose only once in the conference’s 20-year history. The Utes went 13-1 in Mountain West play in the 2004-05 season, before the conference expanded its regular season schedule. Under the Mountain West’s current 18-game conference schedule, the best finish was San Diego State at 16-2 in both the 2013-14 and 2015-16 seasons.
The 2019-20 Aztecs have four Mountain West games remaining. They travel to Boise State (2/16), then host UNLV (2/22) and Colorado State (2/25), before wrapping up the regular season at Nevada (2/29). Even a 3-1 stretch in the next four games would cement these Aztecs as the greatest regular season team the Mountain West Conference has experienced, but San Diego State has visions of perfection.
The Aztecs will likely be a double-digit favorite in each of their remaining games, including the conference tournament. They are looking to become just the fourth team since 1980 to enter the NCAA Tournament undefeated. The most recent teams to enter the NCAA Tournament undefeated were Kentucky in 2014-15, Wichita State in 2013-14, and UNLV in 1990-91.
An undefeated season ending with an NCAA title would put the Aztecs’ at 38-0… 38 wins would tie the NCAA record.
The last team to win the NCAA Tournament with an unblemished record was the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers under Bob Knight. They finished the season with a perfect 32-0 record. San Diego State will be 32-0 if it enters the NCAA Tournament undefeated. The Aztecs would become just the 20th team to enter the NCAA Tournament with a perfect record in the tournament’s 82-year history.
Only 7 of the previous 19 teams entering the NCAA Tournament undefeated went on to win the title:
1955-56 - San Francisco (29-0)
1956-57 - North Carolina (32-0)
1963-64 - UCLA (30-0)
1966-67 - UCLA (30-0)
1971-72 - UCLA (30-0)
1972-73 - UCLA (30-0)
1975-76 - Indiana (32-0)
An undefeated season ending with an NCAA title would put the Aztecs’ at 38-0. Only one team has reached 38-0 at any point in a season. Kentucky was 38-0 in 2014-15 before losing to Wisconsin in the Final Four, dropping the Wildcats’ final record to 38-1. 38 wins would tie the NCAA record, achieved by Kentucky in both 2011-12 (38-2, NCAA Champions) and 2014-15 (38-1, Lost in Final Four).
The 2019-20 season has already been a special one for undefeated San Diego State, but it has a chance to reach unprecedented heights.