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San Diego State upsets No. 6 Nevada

San Diego State v Houston

WICHITA, KS - MARCH 15: Head coach Brian Dutcher of the San Diego State Aztecs looks on against the Houston Cougars during the second half of the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at INTRUST Arena on March 15, 2018 in Wichita, Kansas. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

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San Diego State used a sound defensive effort and balanced scoring to pull off Wednesday night’s biggest upset with a 65-57 Mountain West home win over No. 6 Nevada.

The Aztecs (17-9, 9-4) have now won seven of their last eight games, as the league’s hottest team earned their best win of the season. Devin Watson and Jeremy Hemsley each scored 15 points for San Diego State while Jalen McDaniels chipped in 10 points. Defense also came through in a huge way for the Aztecs as they held the star Nevada trio of Jordan Caroline, Caleb and Cody Martin to only 33 combined points on 9-for-33 shooting.

While this is a monster win for the Aztecs, they’re not particularly close to the NCAA tournament bubble right now thanks to a mediocre profile that includes some bad missteps. San Diego State is going to be an intriguing team to follow down the stretch. They got hot late last season to play their way into the tournament with the Mountain West autobid. We’re also still weeks away from the postseason getting started and seeing if this San Diego State team is truly one to watch like they were last season.

For as good as this win is for San Diego State, the real intrigue from this outcome is what happens next with Nevada?

The Wolf Pack (24-2, 11-2) cruised to an easy start this season thanks to an unintentionally light non-conference schedule and a weak Mountain West. That’s resulted in the No. 6 ranking in the AP poll along with some strong rankings in other metric areas. But the 24-1 start and positive national acclaim hasn’t necessarily translated to positive seedings from respected bracketologists.

Many NCAA tournament projections had the Wolf Pack sitting around a No. 4 seed entering Wednesday night’s game. Now, after suffering a second Quadrant 3 loss this season, Nevada will likely be falling even further. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Wolf Pack on the No. 5 or the No. 6 seed line after losing on the road to the Aztecs.

To make matters worse, Nevada still hasn’t even played a Quadrant 1 team yet. So while the Wolf Pack’s computer numbers are already suffering from the weak schedule, they’re also a complete mystery against the best competition.

The Mountain West race just got a whole lot more interesting thanks to Wednesday night’s outcomes. With Utah State’s win over New Mexico, they only rest a game behind Nevada in the league standings. The two conference leaders still have one more head-to-head clash to be played as well, with Utah State fighting hard for an at-large bid if they fall short of winning the conference tournament.

It’s doubtful we’ll see the trio of Caroline and the Martin twins all play so poorly during the same game again this season. But having that happen -- even once -- on Wednesday night might have just cost Nevada some valuable seeding that could really hurt them come March.