San Diego State lost for the first time at home in 29 games—fifth longest active streak in the NCAA— when they played Boise St. last Saturday and were defeated 56-46.
A win would have given the Aztecs (22-7, 12-4) at least a share of the Mountain West Conference regular season title, but now the Aztecs will look to pick up the pieces as they head to Las Vegas to play UNLV this Wednesday.
Coach Steve Fisher does not plan on letting his team reflect on the loss for too long.
“We can’t have Boise State beat us twice. They can’t create an attitude, disposition or effort that will permeate and not have us ready to play UNLV,” Fisher said Monday. “We’ve been very good at moving forward and that’s what you have to do. None of us are pleased that we didn’t wrap up a share of the conference championship Saturday against a very good Boise State team. The reality is we lost.”
Like Fisher mentioned, the Aztecs have been good at ‘moving on’ and have won 15 straight games when coming off a loss.
When these teams last met, at Viejas Arena, UNLV took a 24-17 lead at halftime, but the Aztecs prevailed and won 53-47.
UNLV (16-13, 7-9) is not having the kind of success that they have been accustomed to in previous seasons, but Fisher is still expecting a close game.
” It doesn’t have to look pretty. You have to find a way to be successful,” Fisher said. “Successful in our world is winning.”
Something to watch on Thursday will be if senior forward Dwayne Polee II is able to play.
Polee did not play on Saturday due to irregular readings from a heart monitor that he was forced to wear after being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.
Tip-off on Thursday is scheduled for 8 p.m. and the game can be seen on CBS Sports Network.