San Diego State vs. New Mexico open thread

Yes, there are other Mountain West games tonight with Boise State taking on Nevada and Colorado State hosting Fresno State, but those games should easily be won by Boise State and Colorado State.

That leaves us with the main event of San Diego State at New Mexico. Both teams are going to make it to the NCAA Tournament, so seeding is what is really at stake for the Mountain West tournament, plus the NCAA.

This game will be an interesting one, to say the least. New Mexico's Kendal Williams is coming off of a career-high 46 points on 12 of 16 shooting, so we will see if Williams can stay hot as he did in their win over Colorado State on Saturday.

Scoring could be an issue as the last time these two teams played it was an ugly, defensive battle, with the Aztecs winning 55-34. In that first game neither team shot well, New Mexico was held to 25 percent and San Diego State just 40 percent -- let's hope for a better outcome this time around.

This game should be a close one, but road woes have hampered the Aztecs from being an elite team. They have lost three straight road games, and are just 4-5 away from Viejas Arena. If San Diego State is going to get this win they will need Jamaal Franklin to have a big game. Franklin is the leagues second leading scorer by averaging 17.3 points per game.

If San Diego State can get this win it will give them their second win over New Mexico, and improve their record to 4-5 against teams in the RPI top-50. It is clearly not out of the question that San Diego State could win this game, they have beaten New Mexico once this year, however road wins are extremely tough to come by in the Mountain West.

Look for the home court edge to be the difference with New Mexico winning by about six points in a game that goes down to the wire.