Home sweet home for the Aztecs (12-5, 1-2) who have lost two straight conference road games after beating New Mexico at home in the opener. TCU (9-8, 2-1) come to San Diego having won 2 out of their first 3 conference games, however the two wins were at home and their loss was on the road at Utah. The Aztecs blew halftime lead of 14 at Wyoming and 6 at UNLV to once again show that their young team cannot win on the road.
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The Aztecs still haven't improved the same problems they've had since the beginning of the season; turnovers and free throws. They had 20 turnovers and only hit 57.1% of their free-throws against UNLV (not to mention 2-15 from three including 0-9 in the second half) and had 19 turnovers and hit only 60.9% of their free-throws. Both game were winnable for the Aztecs; the first halves in both games were more or less dominated by SDSU and both second halves were characterized by sloppy, ineffective play. It seems as if the youth of the team causes they to get nervous and start to press in the second half. They can't close or finish games, especially on the road.
Fortunately for the Aztecs, this game is at home where they have won 13 straight contests and TCU is not a very good team, even though they beat the Cowboys whom the Aztecs lost to. SDSU is a very tough team at home because they are able to mostly eliminate mental mistakes at Viejas Arena which turns them into a force to be reckoned with as New Mexico learned in the conference opener. The Aztecs are 7-1 against TCU since they joined the MWC.
The Horned Frogs are in a tie for third place in the MWC and have won three of their last four games. They have three players averaging over 10 points a game. Two guards, Ronnie Moss (14.1 PPG) and Lithuanian senior Edvinas Ruzgas (13.0) lead the charge and are rounded out by Croatian forward Zvonko Buljan (13.6 PPG). TCU really takes international recruiting to a whole other level.