We're more than halfway through February and No. 4 San Diego State (26-1) suffered its first loss of the season.
Three-hundred and fifty-three teams started with an undefeated record in November and none remain.
San Diego State has surpassed its 20-0 start from the 2010-11 season with a 71-67 win over UNLV, but it was the Rebels that gave the Aztecs their first loss.
Last year, undefeated Michigan and Virginia both lost on Jan. 19 in a pair of challenging road games at Wisconsin and Duke, respectively. Remarkably, in the 2017-18 season, the final three undefeated teams lost on the same day — Arizona State at rival Arizona, TCU at home to Oklahoma and eventual national champion Villanova at Butler.
(By the way, if you're looking for a random, but incredible, college basketball stat to file away for trivia someday, Villanova went 68-8 in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, including winning the 2018 national title. During that span, the Wildcats were 2-3 against Butler and 66-5 against the rest of the country.)
Here are San Diego State's remaining regular season games (NET rankings in parentheses):
- Feb. 25 vs Colorado State (95) at 8 p.m. Pacific
- Feb. 29 at Nevada (87) at 5 p.m. Pacific
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San Diego State
Toughest remaining game: Saturday, Feb. 29 at Nevada
Nevada still has talent left over from Eric Musselman's tenure, when the Wolf Pack quickly developed into an annual NCAA tournament team and a program that would challenge for 30 wins a season. After being a key reserve last season, senior Jazz Johnson (16.8 ppg) has stepped into a larger role as a starter and the team's second-leading scorer, while fellow guards Jalen Harris (18.9 ppg) and Lindsey Drew (11.7 ppg) also average double figures in points per game.
Nevada currently ranks seventh nationally in 3-point percentage (39.3 percent) and ninth in opponent 3-point percentage (28.4 percent), as of Sunday, January 26, which at face value, suggests the Wolf Pack have the statistical make-up to shoot lights-out from three and potentially fluster the opponent into a cold-shooting night. Maybe Nevada can do both on the same night.
