3 First Reactions from SDSU’s 67-60 Exhibition loss to UCLA

So the Aztecs fell to the Bruins Friday night in the 2025-2026 season opening exhibition. It was an exciting night to be back in the building that’s for sure. The music was blaring, smiles were all around, and the Aztecs basketball energy was filling Viejas Arena. It just wasn’t meant to be.

And that’s alright. It was an interesting night when all was said and done for Brian Dutcher’s team who took down UCLA in their closed door scrimmage just a year ago. With a long road ahead of ups and downs, here are a few takeaways from last night’s game and what stood out.

Hanging Tough

It was a long first half for SDSU. The opening claps for a first bucket lasted around the eight minute mark until Sean Newman Jr. nailed a 3-pointer after an offensive board. The Aztecs were out of sorts down 17-0 to open the game and it was not looking good.

“You know, you could tell we were a little nervous at the start, got going and you know, they got ahead, I think by 20 points.“ said Head Coach Brian Dutcher addressing the media after the exhibition loss.

But in the end it wasn’t completely terrible. The Aztecs showed that trademark toughness and resiliency that has become almost automatic inside Viejas Arena for many years. No lead is too great, no deficit too daunting to face and with this team full of options, one is bound to work and get the team back into games they may fall behind in.

“I just thought we were deep. I mean I thought they fatigued. You know their starters are very good and I’m not sure if we took advantage of the guys off the bench but we have a lot of players.“

And that will be a key that Dutcher will need to figure out. Which combination of players at the right time, will be the correct one to play to unlock whatever challenges their opponent will put before them.

UCLA is Good

As much as we would love just point out how Bruin fan is living in the past, we do need to give the Bruins and Mitch Cronin some credit. He’s got a good team. It was the narrative all week that this was a big game for the Aztecs and not so much for the Bruins. That was proven to be false.

Donovan Dent the New Mexico transfer played over 36 minutes of game time for this ‘not very important’ exhibition. He especially frustrated the Aztecs by getting to the line and knocking down a game high 10 for 10 free throws that was a big factor in the final score.

Despite a few controversial possessions and fouling out of Pharoah Compton and Sean Newman Jr. the Bruins showed some real cohesion as a team in their offensive flow and their defensive tenacity.

“We fought our way back into the game. Shot 54% or 58% the second half. But the two things I put on the board offensively were turnovers and play with pace. So, we had 21 turnovers. You know, a good team and we’ll get to be that team is going to play 12 turnovers a game somewhere in that range. And most of the time you should be hovering lower than that if you’re a really good team, but 21 turnovers against a good UCLA team is tough to come back from.”

Time to Settle Into Roles & Form

Lastly the slow start and final score isn’t much to worry about. Dutcher has a cupboard full of talent to grow this season into a team whose goal is to be rounding into true form and playing their best come February and into March. It’s the Brian Dutcher way.

“I mean it was great—for our purposes it was great. We found some deficiencies, we found some strengths and we found some things to work on. And that’s what you want out of these things.”

With a healthy Byrd & Magoon back into the lineup it changes the dynamic of the team on both ends of the court drastically. And that is the simple, general overview of it all. We’ll be taking a look at more of what Coach Dutcher and players had to say about the team so stay tuned. Until then take a look at our fan’s view of the first ever NIL exhibition game Friday night and let us know what you thought of how things went down.