San Diego State Aztecs ranked 16th in Preseason AP Top 25 Poll
By Joel Burdeos
San Diego, CA- The San Diego State Aztecs received their highest pre-season ranking in school history, as the Aztecs were ranked 16th in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 Poll.
The Aztecs are also ranked No. 17 in the preseason USA Today Coaches Poll. The Aztecs previous high preseason ranking was No. 20 in the 2012 preseason Coaches Poll. The Aztecs are the only school from California and the Mountain West to be ranked in both Top 25 polls.
The San Diego State Aztecs have also been picked to win the Mountain West this season in the annual Mountain West Preseason Media Poll. According to GoAztecs.com, this is the third time in the last five seasons the San Diego State Aztecs have been picked 1st in the preseason media poll.
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The Aztecs open the season on November 7th against Point Loma at Viejas Arena for their only exhibition game of the season and expectations are very high for this seasons team.
The Aztecs went (31-5) last season and advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, before falling to No. 1 Seed Arizona 70-64 . The Aztecs also won the Mountain West regular-season championship with the most conference wins by an Aztecs team, as they went (16-2) in conference play. The San Diego State Aztecs finished last season ranked No. 12 in the AP Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Poll’s, despite being unranked to begin the season.
Despite the loss of leading scorer Xavier Thames and leading rebounder Josh Davis, the Aztecs return three starters in Winston Shepard, Skylar Spencer, JJ O’Brien and Dwayne Polee, Matt Shrigley, Aqeel Quinn and Dakari Allen off the bench. To go along with that the Aztecs are bringing in a a top-15 recruiting class, the highest ranked recruiting class in program history in freshmen Trey Kell, Kevin Zabo, Malik Pope and Zylan Cheatham.