QUITE A FINISH TO DAY
But Saturday didn’t start so well for SDSU when the NCAA delayed a vote on transfer rule for next season
Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 69-67 victory against Nevada on Saturday night at Viejas Arena:
1. The transfer rule
The day ended well for the Aztecs, watching Trey Pulliam go the length of the f loor to dramatically muzzle the Wolf Pack at the buzzer.
But it did not begin well, with news that the NCAA will delay voting on name, image and likeness legislation as well as a relaxed Division I transfer rule when the full body convenes virtually today.
The NIL delay was somewhat expected, given the tangled web of state laws, federal lawsuits, pending Supreme Court rulings and looming congressional interest. The transfer rule, however, was supposed to be rubber stamped and take effect this spring, allowing basketball players a one-time move without having to sit out a season.
That’s not what you want to hear if you’re a program like San Diego State, which signed only one high school prospect in the November window (and a longterm project at that) and which could be looking for three, four, five impact players with eligibility next season.
Percolating in the background of the 2020-21 team is what it might look like in 2021-22. The NCAA has granted everyone an extra year of eligibility, freshmen through seniors, meaning the entire roster conceivably could return intact.
But will it?
Seniors Matt Mitchell and Jordan Schakel are expected to enter the NBA Draft. Grad transfer Joshua Tomaic, who has Spanish citizenship, should have pro opportunities in Europe since he doesn’t count against a team’s foreign roster allotment. Terrell Gomez, who also has his undergraduate degree, has talked often this season about preparing for the “next level.”
And who knows who else might test the pro waters or entertain a transfer.
With an NCAA moratorium on in-person recruiting or campus visits, the Aztecs largely (and probably wisely) stayed away from high school prospects they couldn’t properly evaluate. But they did so thinking, like everyone else, the new rule would pass in January and radically open the transfer market in the spring.
Will the NCAA get it done by then? Maybe, maybe not.
Even if it doesn’t, though, there might be hope. Under the current system, transfers can apply for an NCAA waiver allowing immediate eligibility. It used to be a long shot outside of extreme personal circumstances, but increasingly they have been granted. In December, the NCAA approved a blanket
waiver for all transfers whose applications had been denied or not yet considered.
The Aztecs didn’t have to look far Saturday night to see that. Nevada sophomore guard Grant Sherfield transferred from Wichita State in March, hoping the one-time transfer rule would be approved in May so he wouldn’t have to sit out a year.
It wasn’t, and he applied for a waiver. In September, it was granted.
Saturday night, he had 20 points against the Aztecs, including a deep, contested, tying 3 with 4.6 seconds left that nearly forced overtime.
2. Great faith
Up one with 19 seconds left, coach Brian Dutcher diagrammed an inbounds play during a timeout for … Nathan Mensah?
It seemed odd, considering Mensah had missed 3 of 4 from the line Saturday and was their worst free-throw shooter on the f loor at 67.4 percent. And considering Schakel and Gomez, two of the nation’s best free-throw shooters, are on the roster.
But consider the circumstances. They were inbounding from the corner of the baseline following an SDSU timeout. And because it wasn’t after a score, they could no longer run the baseline. “The dead corner,” coaches call it.
The sideline and baseline act as sixth and seventh defenders, and the angles are such that inbounding to the far side of the court becomes a risky proposition with the obstruction of the backboard. Knowing the most important part of an inbounds play is getting the ball safely inbounds — another coaching truism — Dutcher opted for the least expected recipient of the ball: his biggest target. His center.
Mitchell inbounded. Gomez, Schakel and Adam Seiko were arrayed across the free-throw line extended. Mensah was at midcourt.
The play was for Gomez and Schakel to act as decoys on the far side while Seiko broke deep, and the 6-foot-10 Mensah burst forward into the vacated space in front of Mitchell. If Mensah was trapped, the plan was to quickly pass back to Mitchell. But Robby Robinson fouled Mensah before he could.
“With the ball stuck in the dead corner,” Dutcher said, “I just felt he was the most apt to get open because of his size and usually 5-men don’t deny (the pass). And I have great faith in Nate from the foul line. I mean, we can look at what he’s done this year. He’s shooting a high percentage. He’s good under pressure.”
Mensah calmly made both for a three-point margin, meaning Sherfield’s 3 merely tied it and set up Pulliam’s dramatic winner.
“I definitely think they were surprised,” Mitchell said of the play going to Mensah, who was 8 of 10 from the line Thursday against Nevada. “That’s all about trusting your teammates and knowing they can knock down free throws. We had nothing but trust in him.”
3. Buzzer beaters
Depending on how you define “buzzer beater,” Pulliam’s one-legged, one-handed running bank shot was either the first at Viejas Arena in SDSU history or just the first since last season.
You’ll remember Malachi Flynn’s step-back 3 last season that gave the Aztecs a 59-57 win against San Jose State. But there were 0.9 seconds left, and the Spartans got the ball with a shot to win.
In 2013, Chase Tapley picked up a loose ball on the left side and drained a 3 to beat visiting Boise State 63-62. But that came with 2.8 seconds left.
Xavier Thames went coast to coast for a layup and 56-54 win against visiting USC in 2011 … with 1.8 seconds left.
Jamaal Franklin scored in the lane in a 69-67 win against visiting UNLV in 2012 … with 0.3 seconds left.
In terms of buzzer beaters in the most literal sense — the ball going through the net as time expires — there hadn’t been one at Viejas Arena since it opened in 1997. If you count any venues, it was the fourth by an Aztecs player in the last 25 years.
The others all came away from home and, like Pulliam’s, came in a tie game headed for overtime:
Jan. 8, 2005 at BYU: Chris Walton grabbed an offensive rebound 6 feet from the basket and shot falling away in the same motion for a rare 59-57 victory in Provo, Utah. The ball perched perilously on the back rim before dropping in and silencing the 12,633 in the Marriott Center. Said Cougars guard Mike Hall: “It felt like it was on the rim for 10 seconds.”
Nov. 10, 2006 vs. Murray State: The Aztecs were technically the home team, but it was part of a season-opening event played at Saint Mary’s in Moraga. Brandon Heath stole the ball in the backcourt with three seconds left, took two dribbles to midcourt and launched a desperation heave. It banked in for an 87-84 win. “I didn’t think about it,” Heath said later. “I just let it go.”
March 8, 2012 vs. Boise State: Jamaal Franklin made a twisting, falling, off-balance 3 as the clock hit zero for a 65-62 decision in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas. The 18thranked Aztecs had blown an 11- point lead inside six minutes to go. “When he let it go,” Broncos coach Leon Rice said, “I felt good about it as far as you couldn’t guard it any better.”