Mountain West Tournament
YLAS VEGAS anni Wetzell woke up Monday morning and looked at the calendar, and it hit him.
It’s March.
“I felt this little edge about me,” Wetzell said. “I looked forward getting to the gym. I got a great workout in, then I went to the weight room. I don’t know, it’s just this feeling inside me that I’m ready to go. It’s the month we’ve been all working toward, for our whole lives almost.”
Malachi Flynn nodded.
“This is what matters,” he said. “We’ve known that all along, leading up to this. March is what matters in college basketball. That’s where you prove yourself and prove yourself as a team.”
It is the beauty and bane of the college game, rewarding and relentless, that what you did for four months counts less in public opinion than what you do over a few games. San Diego State’s basketball team understands that cruel reality. Embraces it.
Then again, what choice do they have?
Their March begins at
Aztecs (1 seed) vs. Air Force (9)
11:30 a.m., Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas CBSSN; 101.5-FM, 1360-AM
Today:
On the air:
11:30 a.m. today at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament against a 12-19 Air Force team that it beat by 15 a month ago at 7,000 feet. Win that, and they play in the semifinals Friday night. Win that, and they advance to Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. championship game.
What really matters for the Aztecs, what will ultimately define their season, starts two weeks later in the NCAA Tournament, but there still are enough tangible benefits to keep them engaged in Las Vegas.
At stake is likely whether they are 1 or 2 seed in the 68team bracket, and where they’d go for the second weekend — two hours by bus to Los Angeles or five hours by plane to New York? There’s the opportunity for a team addicted to winning to continue feeding their habit. There’s also — and don’t underestimate how badly they want this — a possible revenge encounter in the Mountain West semis against UNLV, the “1” in their 28-1 record.
“Definitely,” Matt Mitchell said, “that’s a game we really want again.”
Two things have to happen first. UNLV has to beat Boise State in the 4-5 quarterfinal today, which seems likely considering they played here eight days earlier and the Rebels led by 27 in the second half. And SDSU has to avoid arguably the biggest upset in Mountain West Tournament history, considering the Aztecs have won 12 straight quarterfinals and the Falcons, wait, have they yet to win even one?
“Really pumping me up right now,” Air Force coach Dave Pilipovich said sarcastically after confirming the Falcons are 0-16 in Mountain West quarterfinals.
“Well, they’re a good team, they’re definitely a good team,” Falcons senior
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