The most exciting time of the year is here for collegiate-level basketball, as the NCAA Tournament is set to go underway this month.
San Diego State is schedule to face-off against Creighton next Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas, where the winner would be expected to play against the basketball powerhouse, Kansas, next Saturday.
After their one-point loss to Boise State in the Mountain West Conference final on Saturday, SDSU head coach Brian Dutcher said although they won't be hanging up a conference banner soon, the most joy comes in competing for a NCAA tournament banner.
“The most joy in the season is coming up in the NCAA Tournament,” coach Brian Dutcher said Saturday in Las Vegas after their loss to Boise State. “We want to win conference titles. Every time we take the floor, we’re trying to win the Mountain West title. But I also know we’ve won the regular-season title (in 2016) by three games, didn’t go to the NCAA Tournament and that felt hollow even though we hung a banner." he added.
Coach Dutcher adds that they have prepared all season for this, and says they will embrace every second of that clock once the tournament starts rolling.
“So the reason we try to win all these games is to go to the NCAA Tournament. And so now we have to embrace that. We have to, obviously, be disappointed tonight that we didn’t hang a banner. But we have to put it in the rear-view mirror (Sunday). We have to have excitement, energy, knowing that the best basketball is yet to come.”
This is the eight time that SDSU and Creighton face-off in the basketball court, with the Aztecs having won the last two meetings within the past decade.
Thursday's game also marks the 14th time that the Aztecs step into the NCAA March Madness Tournament as a D-I basketball program.
Despite their loss on Saturday against Boise State, the Aztecs are coming in with a good record into the big dance, as they enter March Madness having won 11 of the past 13 basketball games.
