Mountain West Connection<\/a> for some insight and a score prediction. Below are his succinct answers to our verbose questions:<\/p>\nAZ Desert Swarm: San Diego State was the unanimous pick to win the Mountain West in its final season, and according to KenPom brings back more than 54 percent of its minutes, but already has more nonconference losses than last year. Where have the Aztecs struggled most this season?<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Carter: \u201cThe Aztecs have been struggling with (having) key performers stepping up. Coach Dutcher has a talented and capable lineup of 11-12 players that need game time. The Aztecs have three losses, Michigan and Baylor and a crazy two-overtime loss Troy at home. The Aztecs are strong at home much like the Wildcats are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite scoring more than 80 points per game, nobody on the Aztecs appears to be a go-to scorer. Is this by design or has someone underachieved to this point?<\/p>\n
\u201cMiles Byrd is a key returner and the go-to guy. He has been struggling with confidence as the team is morphing their identity. Byrd stepped up last game with 19 points and 5 rebounds. BJ Davis and Magoon Gwath are the other players to watch. Gwath is a huge force to contend with on both ends of the court. Expect Byrd to have a strong game as the team is looking to gel pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian Dutcher is in his 9th season in charge of the program after being Steve Fisher\u2019s top man for nearly 30 years in both San Diego and at Michigan, and his tenure already includes a trip to the NCAA title game. Why has he been able to keep the Aztecs a top program, and do you anticipate this being any different with the move to the Pac-12?<\/p>\n
\u201cDutcher is a proven commodity and has had opportunities to leave but his tenure after Steve Fisher is rooted in loyalty. He also gets to live in San Diego. Not too bad of a job. The move into the new Pac-12 should put the Aztecs as a top 1-2 team, as their major competitor will be Gonzaga. The MWC has strong depth with New Mexico, Nevada and UNLV as well as Grand Canyon, a big conference pick up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prediction time. Does SDSU hand Arizona its first loss or do the Wildcats maintain perfection for another game? Give us a score pick.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Wildcats are playing good ball and will win 83-75.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though not an official rivalry, Arizona and San Diego State have had some nice battles over the years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[43772,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-100995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-arizona-basketball","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}