Scouting report: Aztecs face major test from visiting Boise State

SDSU vs. Boise State

Site/time: Viejas Arena/7 p.m. Saturday

On the air: CBS Sports Network; 760-AM

Records: SDSU is 8-4, 2-0; Boise State is 9-4, 1-1

Series history: SDSU leads 20-14, but no Mountain West team has had more success against the Aztecs in recent years than Boise State, which is 7-3 in the last 10. SDSU won both regular-season meetings last season before losing 62-52 in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament in Las Vegas.

Broncos update: The season didn’t start so well, with a 79-78 home loss against Div. II Hawaii Pacific. The Mountain West schedule didn’t start so well, either, with an 81-66 loss at Nevada. Along the way, though, the Broncos have collected some decent wins: 101-77 against a Utah Valley team that SDSU beat by only 11; 77-68 at the Big East’s Butler; 68-67 against St. Mary’s; and 62-53 on Tuesday against New Mexico. Gone is forward Tyson Degenhart, the school’s all-time leading scorer. But this is a deeper, more balanced roster with good positional size. Drew Fielder, a 6-11 transfer from Georgetown, is among the conference’s best bigs, averaging a team-high 13.5 points. Three others average double figures: Andrew Meadow (11.8), Javan Buchanan (10.8) and UCLA transfer guard Dylan Andrews (10.0).  The Broncos are not a great shooting team but they don’t need to be, given their dominance on the boards. They rank second nationally in defensive rebounding rate, which limits second-chance opportunities. That’s paired with a defense that ranks 20th, best in the conference (SDSU is third at 40th). Boise State has a veteran staff led by Leon Rice, whose 303 overall wins are second in Mountain West history behind Steve Fisher’s 386.

Aztecs update: They get their first real Mountain West test after double-figure wins against Air Force and San Jose State, both of which were close far longer than the scores indicated. The Aztecs have struggled at times defending smaller, perimeter-based offenses, but in Boise State they get a big, strong team that pounds the boards. They had success for a half defending Arizona, which has a similar makeup, then got crushed on the glass in the second half and lost by 23. The game matches the Mountain West’s best home team since 2009-10 (SDSU is 124-18) against its best road team over the past five years (Boise State is 24-14). A growing storyline is the viability of Brian Dutcher’s 11-man rotation. The Aztecs rank ninth nationally in bench minutes (45%) and third in bench scoring (42.9 points per game), but the risk is frustration on a roster with no player averaging more than 27 minutes and only two (Reese Dixon-Waters and Miles Byrd) averaging more than 21. SDSU continues to shoot the ball well from deep, ranking 16th in Div. I at 39.7%, although only 29.6% of their points come from behind the arc (below the national average). SDSU and Boise State are 51 and 52 in the Kenpom metric, which projects a 73-69 Aztecs victory.

Next up: Tuesday at Nevada (8 p.m., Fox Sport 1)