Several days after the fact, people still wanted to talk about the San Diego State men's basketball team's loss to Brigham Young, the Aztecs' first defeat after 20 straight wins.

"The BYU game is history," coach Steve Fisher said. "To be honest with you, we didn't watch much of the BYU game (on film). We were beaten that night by a superior team."

Said senior guard D.J. Gay, the team's leader: "The BYU game was definitely a team self-check."

And check this out: SDSU was ranked No. 4 by Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN polls at the time, and with the way things have gone down the ladder in the last couple of days, the Aztecs missed on a grand opportunity to climb up the ladder.

Brigham Young, which "Jimmered" SDSU last Wednesday, was dumped by host New Mexico (a pretty decent team, but unranked), 86-77 on Saturday. Jimmer Fredette, who sliced and diced the Aztecs for 43 points, wound up with "just" 32 against the Lobos. Losing to an unranked team will hurt No. 9 BYU's bid to move in the rankings.

Then there's No. 3 Duke. The Blue Devils journeyed to New York City for a nonconference game against St. John's at Madison Square Garden. So much for "I love New York" -- St. John's smoked Duke on Sunday, 93-78, before almost 20,000 screaming fans. It was St. John's biggest win in a decade, at least.

Despite being shellacked by a squat that hasn't been relevant in years, Duke fell just two spots to fifth.

Then there's previously No. 5 Connecticut. They were hit with a loss on Saturday, a 79-78 double-overtime decision to now 15th Louisville, which sent them down one notch.

Syracuse? Pity the poor Orange. Ranked No. 4 just a couple of weeks ago, four straight losses (two against Marquette and Seton Hall, teams they should beat) have made the wheels fall off their tricycle. Instead of having a shot at potentially being No. 1, Syracuse slid all the way down to 17th.

San Diego State rebounded with a 96-57 whipping of Wyoming on Saturday night at Viejas Arena, which made the team feel a little bit better.

Still, given the aforementioned developments, the Aztecs have to be kicking themselves, despite Fisher calling that game a thing of the past. Had the Aztecs beaten BYU, coupled with Duke getting dropped, SDSU might be looking at being No. 2 in the country, behind Ohio State. Kansas is sitting in that chair in both polls.

Instead, the Aztecs have slid three slots to No. 7 on the AP Poll, while BYU moved up to eighth. Pittsburgh has moved into SDSU's previous No. 4. The ESPN poll has the Aztecs sixth, ahead of UConn.

So it's hardly all gloom and doom around here. Being sixth or seventh this time of year is no crime, and San Diego State remains a dangerous squad.

"I was an assistant coach (in the Mountain West Conference) when Utah went to the Final Four," said Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer, "but they are better than them. They are really, really good ... When they make perimeter shots, I don't know if anyone in the country can beat them."

There's still work to do. The Aztecs have nine games left, and while the February 26 rematch against BYU is going to arguably be the most anticipated athletic event in school history, they can ill afford to focus on that contest and forget the other ones.

Then again, it's a pretty favorable docket. There are road games against Colorado State, Nevada-Las Vegas, Air Force and Wyoming. Only UNLV, which the Aztecs beat in an uninspiring 55-49 outing at Viejas earlier this month, should present a challenge. The remaining road contests should be gimmes.

Besides BYU at home, the Aztecs have Texas Christian (no problem), Utah (ditto) New Mexico (despite an impressive record, the Lobos haven't beaten anyone of note besides BYU) and Colorado State (again, no sweat).

Of those nine games, they could certainly win all of them. Even if the Aztecs went, say 7-2, that wouldn't be a tragedy; it would give them a rather nice regular-season record of 28-3.

San Diego State needs to pile up as many victories as possible to get as high a ranking and tournament seed as possible (top is realistic), meaning a weaker opponent in the first round and beyond. Remember, SDSU's men have never won an NCAA Tournament game.

Surely, the Aztecs want to avoid last year's debacle. Slapped with an 11th seed in the Midwest Regional, SDSU was shuttled off to far-flung Providence, RI (Midwest?) and lost to Tennessee, 62-59.

This year, two of the regionals open in far more geographically friendly Tucson and Denver. The Aztecs would definitely love some of that, rather than jetting to Charlotte, Washington, DC, Tampa, Tulsa, Cleveland or Chicago, the other opening sites.

Another thing: The Aztecs have virtually no room for error in the attempt to nail the type of seeding they want. Though it's been an excellent conference for years, the Mountain West still isn't on the radar among the East Coast crowd.

That East Coast bias thing is no joke, not just rants of propaganda from a yelling sports talk show host. A Big East or Big Ten team with a similar (or even slightly inferior record) will get the nod over a Mountain West team every time. The ESPN people probably think Kawhi Leonard and Chase Tapley are a couple of local surfer dudes, not SDSU hoops standouts.

To get more notice, the Aztecs will have to make noise in the NCAA Tournament, not go home after one game. But the remaining regular season must first be tackled.

"They have everything they need to make a deep run to try to win the national championship," Schroyer said.