LOST OPPORTUNITY MOTIVATES AZTECS
Coach Dutcher focused on now but says it’s OK if players use last season to push them
Almost the only thing capable of stopping the Aztecs basketball team last season was an unforgiving global pandemic. It wasn’t BYU in Provo or Utah State in Logan. It wasn’t Creighton, which rose to No. 7 in the final AP poll. It wasn’t Utah or Top 25 Iowa.
The chance for the most memorable season in the program’s 99 years cruelly was cut short at 30-2 with the NCAA Tournament near enough to touch and taste. The magic of unflappable guard Malachi Flynn, the Stretch Armstrong post moves of Yanni Wetzell, the lockdown defense of KJ Feagin seemed star-aligned.
As practices steam toward an uncertain season, how unfinished does that business feel to the Aztecs without those talent-soaked teammates?
Eyes-forward coach Brian Dutcher said he’s ready to turn the page, given that the goosebump potential of that season is gone forever. Senior forward Matt Mitchell countered that all fuel is good fuel, especially when the ache of a thrilling opportunity lost will never truly fade away.
There’s a third option: They’re both right.
“I am, yeah,” said Mitchell, when asked if the very large rug pulled from underneath them would be used as motivation. “I know that it was our right to be there and that we would have made a lot of noise in the tournament. But to a certain extent also, you’ve got to let it go because it’s not the same team.”
The baseline-to-baseline gold of the 2019-20 team was how perfectly the puzzle pieces fit as Flynn, Wetzell and Feagin filled complementary roles.
Flynn will not be there to fearlessly fire the final shot, like he did on the NBA-level 3-pointer that held off 29-point underdog San Jose State in December or knife to the hoop when the shot clock melts. But Jordan Schakel is one of the best pure shooters in Aztecs history. Cal State Northridge transfer Terrell Gomez finished No. 8 in the country a season ago in 3-point percentage.
No one will be there to tangle the legs of defenders in knots quite like Wetzell, but the return of shotblocking force Nathan Mensah means post peril of another and perhaps more difficult kind.
One of the trickiest things to replicate will be the defensive handcuffs Feagin routinely broke out.
It’s not about recapturing last season, though. It’s about reinforcing the roster mortar and confidence that weaponized that group.
“For me personally, it’s in the rear-view mirror this year,” Dutcher said. “I’m focused on this year’s
team, what this year’s team can be. I’ve read some comments from some of the guys like Matt and Jordan who have a lingering effect from last year that felt like there was unfinished business.
“I like that from them, too. Everyone’s gotta go about business and be true to how they feel. If I’ve got veterans that are using that as a motivating factor for this season, I think that’s a good thing.”
Confidence, it seems, will be in ample supply, despite replacing 38.3 points, 14.3 rebounds from the trio that averaged 30.6 minutes per game.
“We’re ready to play whoever, whenever, whatever time,” Mitchell said. “You give us a day, you give us a team, you give us a place, we’ll show up ready to play.”
The Aztecs remain deep with experienced guards Trey Pulliam and Adam Seiko, along with physical forward Aguek Arop. They also added
6-9 senior Joshua Tomaic, a Maryland transfer.
With each practice, the task of re-creating the polish of a season ago builds.
That team finished third in the country in scoring margin (15.3).
“I love our pieces,” Dutcher said. “But it’s going to take time to learn how to play with each other.”
What-ifs about the lost season do little for the Aztecs of today. There’s little doubt, though, that the NCAA Tournament crickets make the stomach grumble.
“We’re going to do anything and everything possible … to get there,” Mitchell said.
The lesson the last lap of Aztecs taught was that a team with that many offensive options applying enough defensive elbow grease remains in every game.
The takeaway: They were never out of it and never done.
Mitchell and Schakel will not be the precise and efficient ball-handlers Flynn became … and that’s fine. No two songwriters leverage the same musical skills or arrange the notes in exactly the same way. Be the best cogs this particular wheel requires.
The shimmer a season ago rose revealed itself in the details. The Aztecs were No. 10 in the country in field-goalpercentage defense (38.7), No. 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.38, just 0.1 from the Top 5) and No. 16 in free-throw percentage (77.1).
So, find a way to be better than you were in March. A little quicker. A little more confident. A little more unselfish. And yes, a little hungrier.
Do that across a roster this deep and the end of 2019-20 season will be more than painful.
It will be a bridge.