What San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher and players said ahead of hosting New Mexico

San Diego State and New Mexico have had a lively rivalry over the decades, and it’s about to come to an end.

The Aztecs, tied for first place in the Mountain West with Utah State, host New Mexico for the final time as conference rivals on Saturday at Viejas Arena, with tipoff set for 5 p.m. SDSU will head off to the Pac-12 after this season, while the Lobos, under first-year coach Eric Olen, will remain in the MW. The game will air on CBS Sports Network.

“I’m excited to be back here in Viejas Arena against a very good New Mexico team with a lot of San Diego ties,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “There are three former San Diego high school players on their roster. Coach Olen from UC San Diego has done a magnificent job of replacing the entire roster, and I'm looking forward to a really competitive game in front of a packed house here at Viejas Arena.”

Here are the highlights from Dutcher and the players’ news conference:

Dutcher on facing former UC San Diego coach Eric Olen

“When he was at UCSD, they had a tournament team last year. We beat him there the year before. Jaden LeDee had a tip-in at the buzzer in a game we had to fight back from down double digits to win. He does a good job. He's a good coach. Both teams have good players, so coaching is always important, but you have to have talent too, and both teams tomorrow are going to be very talented.”

Dutcher on the challenge of facing New Mexico

San Diego State Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

“We're the top two teams in terms of conference championships. We're number one, they're number two behind us. These are two teams that have won more titles than anybody. When we get together, it's always an important game. It's always a fun game, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow night.”

Dutcher on the Aztecs’ ability to switch on ball screens

“You're keeping a body in front of a body, and you're trying to keep them out of the paint. That limits paint touches, if you can keep them in front of you. Then there are counters. You're slipping ball screens. You're playing one-on-one with really good guards against your bigs, so there are different ways to go about it. Coach Olen switches a lot of screens, one through four, and he leaves the five back in the paint to plug everything up. He does a good job of that. There are different ways to play, and that will be on display tomorrow night.”

Sophomore forward Pharaoh Compton on New Mexico’s offense

“They like to shoot a lot. That's why they get a lot of attempts up from three. They play hard as well. They're not as athletic as everybody else, so they're really good with pump fakes and getting people off the ground.”

Senior guard Reese Dixon-Waters on what the team has been doing well lately

San Diego State Aztecs guard Reese Dixon-Waters (39). | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

“We’ve been learning to trust in the coaching and knowing that if you buy into what the coaches are saying, that we'll eventually win games and start to put everything together.”

Dixon-Waters on beating Wyoming at elevation

“We have grit to us. It's hard to win on the road, and just knowing that if we can get a nice win there at Wyoming, we can win pretty much anywhere.“

Sophomore guard Taj DeGourville on what’s working well for the team right now

“I feel like we're just all connected and it started defensively. We started having each other's back defensively, sort of like we had each other's back last year. It's starting to come back to us. When we play defense, the sky’s the limit for us.”

DeGourville on earning tough road wins at Nevada and Wyoming

“It just allows us to know that we can get some road wins in this conference. We need to just keep on stacking them. It's not going to stop, so we have to keep on going.”

DeGourville on what the team learned from facing Eric Olen last season

“When we played them last year, their two-three matchup zone was really good, so it was hard to play against that. I know their defense is going to be really tough this year. It's going to be interesting. We’re going to make sure we get in the paint. We need to play our game no matter who we play, and we have to stop them on the defensive end as well, show them what kind of defense we have too.”