Preview: San Diego State vs. Colorado State Mountain West Tournament basketball game

The San Diego State Aztecs won’t be hurting for motivation when they open their final Mountain West tournament against the red-hot Colorado State Rams in the quarterfinals on Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

First, of course, is that SDSU (20-10) needs to run the table the next three days and win the tournament to claim the automatic berth in March Madness. Otherwise, the Aztecs’ at-large bubble burst during a late-season swoon. 

To get it started, the No. 2 seed Aztecs will face No. 7 Colorado State, which shocked SDSU 83-74 at Fort Collins on Feb. 21. That was part of an eight-game winning streak that was snapped by Boise State in the regular-season finale. 

The Rams (21-11) regained their winning form with a 67-63 win against No. 10 Fresno State in the first round on Wednesday night. 

Tipoff is at 6 p.m. PT and the game will air on CBS Sports Network. 

“This conference tournament is not going to be easy,” said guard Miles Byrd, who on Tuesday was named the MW Defensive Player of the Year. “It’s a league with I think eight or nine teams that have a chance to go and win the conference tournament. There’s a lot of talent from top to bottom in this league.

“We just have to stay focused, continue to practice hard, come in with the right mentality and know that we're going to get to where we want to go by doing it for each other and, you know, can't have any selfish basketball be played with us and I think we’re prepared for that.”

The big picture

Byrd said he’s never been in a position to have to win the MW tournament to get to the NCAA Tournament. 

But the Aztecs are in this position because they lost four of five games — including the one at CSU — before holding off UNLV to win their regular-season finale at home on Friday night. 

The Aztecs have been on the NCAA bubble for weeks and finally had it pop in the last weeks, when they twice lost consecutive games: at home against Grand Canyon and then at CSU, and then road defeats at New Mexico and Boise State. 

Those two-game losing streaks were sandwiched around a home blowout win against regular-season champion Utah State. 

The Aztecs were the unanimous preseason pick to win the regular-season title. Despite the late-season slump, they still had a chance to share the regular-season title before Utah State beat New Mexico on Saturday to claim it outright. 

The series

SDSU beat the Rams 73-50 at Viejas Arena on Jan. 28. Reese Dixon-Waters, named a second-team All-MW performer on Tuesday, scored 16 points and the Aztecs played their trademark tough defense, which had been missing at times in the first half of the season. 

The Rams then stunned the Aztecs 83-74 at Fort Collins on Feb. 21. With big man Magoon Gwath mysteriously playing only five minutes in the game, the Aztecs fell behind by double digits late in the first half and never recovered. CSU made 13 of 31 3-pointers, including five by Brandon Rechsteiner 

Key facts

The Aztecs and Rams are meeting for the 101st time overall, with SDSU leading the series 54-46.

SDSU and CSU will continue to be conference foes when they move into the new-look Pac-12 season, along with fellow MW schools Boise State, Fresno State and Utah State.

How to watch Colorado State vs. San Diego State

Date: Thursday, March 12

Game time: 6 p.m. PT

Where: Thomas & Mack Center | Las Vegas

How to watch: CBS Sports Network

How to listen: San Diego Sports 760 (local)