San Diego State Can Cut Magic Number to 2 Tonight

The magic number is back in town.

Remember the Padre countdown last September? Although a backhand stop by Padre shortstop Garry Templeton was nice to watch, San Diego fans had more reason to savor a loss by the Atlanta Braves or Houston Astros.

The combination of those losses and San Diego wins equaled the Padre magic number for a National League West championship.

Now San Diego State basketball fans are counting Texas El Paso losses as well as Aztec victories.

The magic number is three in order for SDSU to become the outright winner of the Western Athletic Conference. It would the first WAC basketball championship for the Aztecs (11-3 in conference, 21-5 overall) since they joined the conference in 1978.

SDSU plays host to Hawaii at 7:30 tonight at the Sports Arena (KSDO-1130) and ends its regular season at Colorado State on Saturday night. UTEP plays at New Mexico on Saturday afternoon and at Colorado State on March 2.

The Aztecs and UTEP split their season series, so if they tie for the title, the team with the best record against the third-place team will be the regular-season champion and will play host to the WAC postseason tournament March 8 and 9.

If the tie is still not broken, the deciding factor will be the season series against the fourth-place team, and so on until the tie is broken.

Brigham Young (9-5) and New Mexico (8-6) are battling for third place. SDSU defeated BYU twice. UTEP split its series with the Cougars. The Aztecs split with New Mexico, and UTEP defeated New Mexico in their first meeting at El Paso.

San Diego State can finish no lower than second and therefore has received an automatic berth into the final four of the WAC tournament. The Aztecs clinched the berth with victories over UTEP and New Mexico last week.

Entering tonight’s game against Hawaii (4-10, 8-16), the Aztecs have won 5 straight and 9 of their last 10. At home, the Aztecs are 7-0 in conference and 12-2 overall.

The Rainbows also are impressive at home. Since SDSU beat Hawaii, 70-66, Jan. 24 in Honolulu, the Rainbows have defeated Wyoming, Colorado State and New Mexico. Then they lost by two points to UTEP on Saturday night. All those games were played in Hawaii.

Playing away is a different story for the Rainbows. Hawaii is 0-for-the-mainland in six WAC road games this season. Since joining the conference, the Rainbows are 1-6 in San Diego and 9-36 in league games played on the road.

However, the Rainbows have been playing better since Coach Larry Little announced his resignation, which is effective at the end of the season.

Meanwhile, it’s the first time in years the Aztecs are playing a final home game that has a magic number attached to it.

The countdown is on.