Utah St. @ San Diego St. preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 4, 2020 ) San Diego St. 77, Utah St. 68

No. 4 San Diego State will have a special guest Saturday night when it puts its 22-0 record on the line against preseason Mountain West favorite Utah State. Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers, who led the Aztecs to their first Sweet 16 appearance in 2011 and is the reigning NBA Finals MVP, will be on hand to become the first player in program history to have his jersey retired on "Kawhi Leonard Day" in San Diego.

Leonard led San Diego State to back-to-back Mountain West Conference tournament titles in 2010 and 2011, the latter season which ended with a 74-67 loss to eventual national champ UConn in the Sweet 16 in Anaheim. "We're hanging it (No. 15) because of what he's done at San Diego State," Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher told the Daily Aztec. "To come in and hang two (Mountain West tournament champion) banners here, to take us to our first Sweet 16 and to be the ultimate team player and selfless -- that's why the jersey is going up." The Aztecs bring in a school-record 22-game win streak after crushing New Mexico, 85-57, on Wednesday night, its largest victory in 42 games against the Lobos in the Pit. Next up is Utah State which bounced back from a 3-4 start to league play to win three in a row -- including a 68-45 victory at Wyoming on Tuesday, -- and is the last team to defeat the Aztecs, 64-57, in the championship game of the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas last March.

TIME: 10 p.m. ET. TV: CBS Sports Network

ABOUT UTAH STATE (17-6, 6-4 MW): The Aggies have won two of their last three meetings with San Diego State but lost to the visiting Aztecs, 77-68, on Jan. 4. Senior guard Sam Merrill, the preseason Mountain West player of the year, had 26 points in that loss but was 8-of-21 from the floor, including 3-of-12 from 3-point range, while 7-foot sophomore center Neemias Queta, the Mountain West's defensive player of the year who missed most of the non-conference schedule rehabbing from a summer knee injury, had 15 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks. Merrill leads the team in scoring (17.9 points per game) while shooting 39.8 percent (51-of-128) from 3-point range while sophomore forward Justin Bean (12.9) and Queta (11.1) also are averaging in double figures with Bean also leading the team in rebounding with an average of 10.3 per game.

ABOUT SAN DIEGO STATE (22-0, 11-0): The Aztecs made seven of their first nine shots while jumping out to a 17-0 lead and made a season-high 15 3-pointers while shooting 58.2 percent at the Pit. "We were outstanding," Dutcher said. "We just jumped on them from the start, and that took a big part of the crowd out of the game. From there we just maintained what we were doing. We played selfless basketball." Guard Malachi Flynn, who leads the team in scoring (16.5) and assists (5.0), had 12 points and six assists in the win while guard KJ Feagin finished with a game-high 18 points, including 6-of-9 3-pointers, to go along with four assists and three rebounds.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. San Diego State's 22-0 start is the best start to a season for any Division I team since Gonzaga opened the 2016-17 campaign 29-0 en route to a 37-2 record and a spot in the NCAA championship game.

2. Flynn has scored in double figures in 12 straight games and 21 times in the team's 22 games while also leading the team in assists 14 times.

3. The 6-7 Bean is tied for fifth in the nation in double-doubles with 12.

PREDICTION: San Diego State 73, Utah State 64