| San José State (10-4, 1-0 MW) at Colorado State (8-6, 0-1 MW) | |
| When | Saturday, December 31 | 2 p.m. MT/1 p.m. PT |
| Location | Moby Arena, Fort Collins, Colo. |
| Broadcast & Statistics | Mountain West Network KTRB 860 AM Live Stats |
| Game Notes | San José State | Colorado State |
| Rosters | San José State | Colorado State |
After opening Mountain West play with a home overtime win Wednesday night over UNLV, the Spartans take an undefeated conference record to Colorado State to close out 2022 with a Saturday afternoon game. Spartan head coach Tim Miles is making his return to Moby Arena, this time on the visiting team beach, after leading the Colorado State program for five seasons.
San José State enters Saturday night's game with a 10-4 overall record and a 1-0 MW mark, the first time in school history that the Spartans are undefeated to start MW play. The team needed overtime to defeat UNLV, 75-72, Wednesday night. Omari Moore led the team with 15 points, while Robert Vaihola came off the bench to grab 13 rebounds.
ABOUT COLORADO STATE: The Rams enter Saturday's game with an 8-6 overall record and 0-1 start to the MW season after falling at No. 22 New Mexico, 88-69, Wednesday evening. Colorado State did get non-conference wins over South Carolina, 85-53, in early November and at Saint Mary's, 62-60, on December 18. Head coach Niko Medved is in his fifth season at the helm of the program. He served as an assistant coach for Tim Miles at CSU for five seasons (2007-12).
Series Record - 0-23
The two schools first faced each other on December 22, 1969, in Fort Collins. That was the only game in the series until the two schools were members of the Western Athletic Conference and faced each other twice during the 1996-97 season.
Last SJSU Win - No wins in the series. The closest game of the series was an 85-84 overtime loss on Jan. 9, 2016, in San Jose.
Last Meeting - L, 78-42, Jan. 15, 2022, San Jose
Omari Moore led SJSU with 15 points and six rebounds in the team's only meeting of the season.
NET RANKINGS (as of 12/29): The Spartans are in the top-150 of the NET rankings, checking in at 119 after games played on December 29. After the win at Santa Clara, the Spartans jumped up for 191 to 132, with a Quadrant 2 win over the Broncos and added another in the win over UNLV. The team has two Quadrant 3 wins (Ball State & Northern Colorado) and five Quadrant 4 wins.
WELCOME BACK MILES: The game in Fort Collins marks the return of Tim Miles to Moby Arena since the 2011-12 season when Miles was on the home bench as the head coach at Colorado State. Miles left the school to become the head coach at Nebraska where he coached for seven seasons. Miles had a 61-78 in five seasons at the helm of the Ram program. Last season, the Spartans and Rams faced each other just once during the conference season, a 78-42 win by CSU at the Provident Credit Union Event Center on January 15, 2022.
SPARTANS TRY FOR 2-0 IN CONFERENCE PLAY: After winning the first MW game of the season on Wednesday, San José State will look to start the conference season 2-0 for the first time since the 2012-13 season. As a member of the Western Athletic Conference, the Spartans started the WAC season 2-0 with wins at Texas State, 72-55 (12/29/12) and at UTSA, 80-67 (12/31/12).
SPARTAN REBOUNDING EFFORTS SECOND-BEST IN THE NATION: SJSU has been out-rebounding their opponents by an average of 10.6 rebounds per game, ranking them second out of 352 teams ranked nationally. Purdue is the national leader at +12.7 rebounds. San José State outrebounded UNLV, 49-35, in the win Wednesday night to make the jump up the rankings. The Spartans average 39.14 rebounds per game, ranking 55th in the nation. Three Spartans average 5.0 or more rebounds per game, led by Sage Tolbert III at 8.0 pg. Robert Vaihola is next at 6.0, and then Ibrahima Diallo at 5.4.
MOST NON-CONFERENCE WINS SINCE 2010-11: With nine non-conference wins this season, the Spartans won the most since the 2010-10 season when SJSU won 10 non-conference contests. The last team to win nine non-conference games was the 1999-2000 team who finished the season 15-15.
UP NEXT: The Spartans continue on the road to start 2023 as the team plays at Boise State Tuesday night, January 2, at 7 p.m. MT/6 p.m. PT. The game can be heard on KTRB, 860 AM, and seen on the Mountain West Network.