How to watch San Diego State vs. Utah State in Mountain West Tournament championship

The San Diego State Aztecs have made it to Championship Saturday in their final Mountain West Tournament.

Whether the No. 2-seeded Aztecs (22-10) hear their names called on Selection Sunday depends on whether they can beat the No. 1 Utah State Aggies (27-6) Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Tipoff is at 3 p.m. and the game will air on CBS.

The big picture

The Aztecs have known for weeks now that their best shot at reaching the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight season is to win the MW tournament and claim the automatic berth in March Madness.

Their at-large resume was looking OK until they stumbled badly down the stretch by losing four of five games before winning their season finale at home against UNLV.

They did claim the No. 2 seed in the MW tourney and their trademark strong defense carried them to victories over Colorado State and longtime rival New Mexico to reach the championship game.

BJ Davis’ layup with 2.1 seconds left delivered the victory against the Lobos shortly before midnight on Friday. Magoon Gwath, whose season was interrupted by injuries, came up big with 17 points and six rebounds.

SDSU’s win Friday night popped the Lobos’ NCAA Tournament bubble and gave the Aztecs the chance to play for the MW’s automatic berth.

Beating Utah State is the sure way into March Madness. Experts aren’t convinced they can get in if they lose to the Aggies.

“The best thing about the Mountain West is the parity,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “We shouldn't be punished because we have a lot of good teams. You know, there's not three at the top and everybody else is bad. This conference is eight, nine teams deep and so it's hard to win in this conference. We finish a game out of first in the regular season, and we're playing for the postseason championship, so we've had a pretty good season.”

Dutcher said the Aztecs have put together a season “that’s worthy of a real hard look by the NCAA committee. I think we’ve got a chance to be a tournament team, so hopefully we can take all doubt out of the way and win (Saturday) and make sure that happens. I think we've got a good basketball team.”

What makes this game interesting is that the MW title will be won by a team moving into the Pac-12. The Aztecs and Aggies are leaving the MW for the new-look Pac-12 next season, along with Boise State, Fresno State and Colorado State.

How to watch San Diego State vs. Utah State

Date: Saturday, March 14

Game time: 3 p.m. PT

Where: Thomas & Mack Center | Las Vegas

How to watch: CBS

How to listen: San Diego Sports 760 (local)