SAN DIEGO — After the most historic run in San Diego State University history, the Aztec Men’s Basketball team is ready to run it back. 

“You know, I’m ready for this year,” said player Lamont Butler. “It’s going to be a really good one. I think, again, the fans are going to be really happy with this team.”

Following the shortest off-season in school history, the Aztec Men’s Basketball team is itching to finish what they started.

“We got some new guys in here, so they’ve only seen what we did coming in,” said player Jaedon Ledee. “We ain’t make it, you know, we fell one game short. So we’re just tying to push it, trying to get back to where we need to be.”

Ranked 17th overall in the first AP college basketball preseason poll and paired with what some online publications believe to be the hardest non-conference schedule in the country, SDSU is taking all that in stride.

“Rankings are rankings, we just try to go out there and try to win every game no matter the opponent,” said Butler. “We try to put our best foot forward and just try to win every game, but it’s always great to play high level teams to show where we’re at.”

“We have a very tough schedule, but we’re built for it,” said player Darrion Trammell. “Dutch knows exactly what he’s doing. We want to be battle tested. We understand what we have and understand where we need to get better, and what our strengths are and there’s no better way than to find that out then playing the best teams in the country. After last year we’re really on this national stage now, and we really have to go against this talent more often.” 

The Aztecs open their non-conference season at home on Monday, Nov. 6 against Cal State Fullerton. They will hang a new National Championship runner-up banner that night.