COMING OUT OF SHELL
Tomiac didn’t play big role with Terrapins, but has been good fit
Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 65-60 win against Pepperdine on Sunday afternoon at Viejas Arena:
1. Another diamond
Maryland transfer Josh Tomaic has been hearing about comparisons to Yanni Wetzell since he arrived at SDSU.
They’re obvious: roughly the same size, grad transfers, foreign, afterthoughts at their previous school.
They’re also unfair. Tomaic’s skill set is different, and he doesn’t have Malachi Flynn dribbling off his ball screens. He’s also not getting the minutes Wetzell did, particularly after Nathan Mensah was shut down for the back half of last season.
This much is valid, though: the Aztecs coaching staff ’s ability to shift through the scrap heap of the transfer portal, uncover diamonds and then polish them.
The 6-foot-9 forward from Spain’s Canary Islands averaged 1.3 points, 1.1 rebounds and 5.7 rebounds in four years at Maryland, one as a redshirt and three suited up. Eye-popping, no. But no one improved more in preseason practice, visibly making strides on a daily, even hourly, basis — from a serviceable backup to, wait a second, we might have something here.
Through four games
Tomaic (pronounced ToeMY-itch) is arguably their most efficient player, shooting 73.3 percent, second on the team with 15 rebounds and first in steals with six. He’s done it in a mere 16 minutes per game, which ranks eighth on the team.
“I thank my coaches and my teammates, because they have a huge impact in that,” said Tomaic, who knew nothing about SDSU until the coaches called him last spring. “They make me feel comfortable. It’s a process, you know? We all know it’s going to be a process. I knew it that since day one.
“Every day I feel better. I feel better in practice every day. I’m just trying to be ready mentally and watch film and bring to the table whatever I can bring to the table.”
He had nine points and three rebounds in 14 minutes off the bench against UCLA. His best work came Sunday, with 10 points (5of-6 shooting), five rebounds and three steals, also in 14 minutes. The Aztecs were plus-12 points with him on the f loor, best on the team by six points.
His value and versatility was encapsulated on backto-back possessions in the second half during SDSU’s 24-4 run that turned the game. He knocked down an 18-foot jumper from the left corner, then found himself with the ball on the right block against Pepperdine’s 6-9, 225-pound Kene Chukwuka. Tomaic spun, faked, pivoted, faked again, pivoted again before getting Chukwuka to bite and f lipping in a left-handed hook.
Oh, and he has 3-point range, too. He shot 38.9 percent behind the arc at Maryland, has already made one in a game this season and can hang with some of SDSU’s best perimeter shooters in practice.
All those tools didn’t im
mediately show up on game tapes. Instead, coach Brian Dutcher and his staff used their coaching connections to get hours and hours of practice film.
They saw something. “Josh does what all good bigs do,” Dutcher said. “If they don’t double-team him, he’s going to back down and score it. He’s also good enough once he feels the double to spray it out and get us open looks. He’s not a guy who when you throw it in there, he’s only trying to score. He’s got his head up, he’s playing on balance and he’s finding his teammates when he draws the second defender.
“And obviously, he’s got more to show.”
2. Charging ahead
Maybe the craziest stat of the season belongs to Matt Michell. Through four games, he has committed 11 fouls. Eight are offensive.
Seven have come in the first half.
Most are not your garden variety charges, where he plows down the lane out of the control, jumps in the air and a defender gets run over after sliding underneath him. Most come from methodically backing defenders into the paint and lowering his shoulder, sometimes 15 or 20 feet from the basket.
The frustration was evident Sunday after two more charges sent him to the bench for the remainder of the first half. Twice at ensuing timeouts, Mitchell left the huddle to talk (or was it plead?) with different officials, trying to understand why they’re all are calling the same thing against him.
Is he really pushing off, or is he being unduly penalized for being 6-6, 240(ish) pounds and strong as an ox? Is the bull or the china shop to blame?
All four of his fouls against Saint Katherine were at the offensive end, including three in the first half. The two against Pepperdine made it six straight. He also
had two in the first half against UCLA that sent him to the bench early.
The fallout of the firsthalf fouls means he’s on the f loor less than in the second half (14 fewer minutes combined against UCLA, Saint Katherine and Pepperdine). It also often means the Aztecs won’t risk him guarding the opponent’s best wing for fear of further foul trouble. On Sunday, it wasn’t until midway through the second half that they turned him loose on Kessler Edwards, who had 19 points in the first 24 minutes (and three the rest of the game).
“He’ll get used to it and get less of those,” Dutcher said. “I think right now, every time Matt drives, someone falls down. Sometimes, he’s got to be careful. He can’t run people over. … These officials have a tough job. I was probably complaining too much. But this is not an easy game to officiate. Matt’s got to do a better job being on balance and not put them in positions where they have to guess block/ charge, because it’s the hardest call to make in basketball.”
3. Frozen streams
Look at it this way: The web stream not launching for the first eight or so minutes Sunday spared Aztecs fans the agony of watching the first eight minutes.
But the frustration level is understandable, and growing. This was the second straight stream with technical issues; the f irst half of Saint Katherine game on Wednesday sounded like it was being broadcast from inside a fish tank, and that was when it wasn’t stalling.
The nation’s No. 24-ranked team deserves better.
When one of the Mountain West’s broadcast partners — Fox, CBS, Stadium — passes on a game, the home team is allowed to sell the rights locally but the Mountain West still gets to post a stream on its website.
For SDSU, the first call is
to Fox Sports San Diego, purportedly an all-sports station serving San Diego. It was offered the last three games — CBS Sports Network showed the opener against UCLA — but passed on all three. (An FSSD media representative declined comment.)
The next call is to YurView, available locally on Spectrum and Cox cable but not on internet-based, cutthe-cord providers. It showed the UC Irvine and Pepperdine games. It doesn’t produce its own telecast, instead airing the feed from the arena’s cameras with an SDSU commentator.
If no one locally wants the game, as was the case with NAIA Saint Katherine, SDSU simply does its own stream and sends it to the Mountain West.
A network telecast involves a TV truck in the parking lot, multiple camera crews, producers onsite and back at the studio, and millions of dollars’ worth of high-end equipment. A web stream is a couple cameras with limited angles and, often, no replays.
The equipment also tends to malfunction. A Mountain West spokesperson said a bad cord into a camera caused the audio problems against Saint Katherine, and Sunday’s stream was delayed when an encoder crashed that sends the signal to Mission Control in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The good news: SDSU’s next three games are on Fox Sports 1 (Arizona State) and CBS Sports Network (BYU and Saint Mary’s), and the majority of its conference games are expected to be as well.
The bad news: In this craziest of seasons, with games postponed and rescheduled sometimes with little time for network trucks to relocate, there undoubtedly will be more web streams and more chances for frustration.