SAN DIEGO (CNS) - San Diego State received the eighth seed in the Midwest Region of the NCAA men's basketball tournament and will face ninth-seeded Creighton in a first-round game Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas.
Oddsmakers have made the Aztecs a 2-point to 2-1/2-point favorite. The ABC News-owned data prediction website FiveThirtyEight.com gives San Diego State a 55% chance of winning.
San Diego State (23-8) is the overall 31st seed in the 68-team tournament. The Bluejays (22-11) are the 33rd overall seed.
Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the ninth seeds have a 73-71 record against the eighth seeds in the first round.
This will be the Aztecs' first NCAA tournament appearance since 2018, third in the five seasons Brian Dutcher has coached the team, ninth in the last 13 years, 13th since becoming a Division I program in the fall of 1969 and 16th all-time, including three appearances in the College Division (now Division II) tournament.
San Diego State is 3-4 against Creighton, including an 83-52 victory in their most recent meeting, Nov. 28, 2019, in a semifinal of the Las Vegas Invitational.
The game is set to begin at 4:27 p.m. and will be televised by cable's truTV.
The San Diego State-Creighton winner will face the winner of the game between top-seeded Kansas and the winner of Tuesday's First Four game between Texas Southern and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a second-round game Saturday.
