SAN DIEGO The NCAAM Basketball National Championship Tournament has concluded once more, and the madness of San Diego State’s subsequent dominant on-court performance has once again given rise to a recurrent theme of the Aztecs dancing in late March.

SDSU men’s basketball is transitioning toward nouveau riche eminence, particularly in the West Coast region, in place of NIT participation, win-in bids, and a reputation for dominating nouveau riche tournaments.

The Aztecs finished as runners-up in the national championship game last season, a distinction not held by a West Coast team in seventeen years.

Prior to that, SDSU basketball was arguably made into a national powerhouse, an odds-on favorite in the MWC Tournament, and a juggernaut in the Mountain West Conference (MWC) during the Steve Fisher era (1999–2017).

The Aztecs made six trips in the NCAAM Tournament, advanced to the Sweet 16, and won the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) Final-Four under Fisher’s leadership. Not to mention developing Kawhi Leonard, a future NBA MVP and two-time Finals champion.

In 2017, Brian Dutcher assumed leadership. Before their Cinderella run last season, the Aztecs had not reached those heights since making it to the Sweet-16 in 2014.

With respect to men’s hoops, SDSU entered this season having had its best year ever and sporting the largest jersey targets in program history.

For a significant chunk of the season, the Aztecs were among the Top 25 nationally ranked teams according to the Associated Press. But SDSU was not victorious in the MWC regular

State’s preseason and regular season resume was strong enough to merit an East region number five seeding and a round-one match-up versus number 12 University of Alabama Birmingham. The Aztecs edged the Blazers 69-65 and advanced to the following round of 32.

In the second round SDSU took on number 13 seeded Yale. The Bulldogs were no match for the ‘Tecs as State destroyed Yale 85-57.

For the second consecutive season, the Aztecs reached the Sweet 16. This year, SDSU was matched up against a familiar foe – the University of Connecticut.

UConn was the number one ranked team in the east region this season and once again bounced out the black and red. The Aztecs fell to UConn 82-52.

Going into the tournament there were only four West Coast schools that punched a ticket into the big dance – St. Mary’s, Long Beach State, Gonzaga, and SDSU. Of the four West Coast representatives, San Diego State, once again, made the deepest run of any squads from the Golden State. Gonzaga fell in the Sweet 16.