NCAA Basketball: North Carolina, Gonzaga tumble on latest top 25 power ranking
By Joey Loose
22. San Diego State (6-2)
In this day and age mid-majors don’t get the respect they deserve sometimes, but San Diego State is the kind of team that helps to buck that trend. They lost a pair of hard games to elite teams at the Maui Invitational, but remaining in the Top 25 is no fluke. This might be one of the best defensive teams by the end of the season and they could make some noise if the offense can produce at a high level too.
San Diego State got back home and got back on track this week, starting with a 72-69 win over a very solid UC Irvine squad. The all-around numbers weren’t the prettiest but Nathan Mensah had 18 points and 6 rebounds while Matt Bradley added 14 points of his own. On Friday, the Aztecs had a laugher against Occidental, a non-D1 program, winning 95-57. San Diego State had one of their best shooting nights in years (19 of 37 from long range) and got 20 points from Adam Seiko off the bench in the blowout.
It’s certainly true that this wasn’t the most impressive week for the Aztecs; nobody’s going to gain much of anything from blowing out a non-D1 team. However, they got back in the winning column and got much better performance from their offense after flailing two weeks ago against Arizona and Arkansas. These Aztecs are trending upwards again and will hope to continue that when they face Saint Mary’s this upcoming Saturday in a matchup of two of California’s best programs.