AZTECS WILL GET TESTED EARLY
The supposed reward for being the No. 1 seed at the Mountain West men’s basketball tournament is you get the earliest game, giving you more rest for the next day.
This year, there’s one big disadvantage: Before Thursday’s noon quarterfinal, top-seeded San Diego State must go to Thomas & Mack Center for pregame COVID-19 testing … at 6:15 a.m.
The lone consolation is that its opponent — the winner of Wednesday’s game between Wyoming and San Jose State — has a 5:45 a.m. testing slot.
The idea is to test early enough so there’s still time to retest to rule out a false positive.
The obvious question: Why not test the night before?
That’s what SDSU and Utah State did before their 11:30 a.m. tip in Logan, Utah, on Jan. 16. That’s what the Pac-12 does for any game starting at 1 p.m. or earlier.
The earliest Pac-12 testing slot is 7:30 a.m., and it doesn’t require a bus trip. Players, coaches and staff merely ride an elevator to the second floor of the Park MGM hotel, where all teams are housed for the conference tournament next door at T-Mobile Arena.
Mountain West men’s and women’s teams are spread out across the city. Testing is performed at Thomas & Mack Center on UNLV’s campus, which can be 10 to 20 minutes away depending on the hotel location.
Another issue: The Mountain West has both men’s and women’s tournaments together this week, meaning 21 teams (11 men’s, 10 women’s) must all have 30-minute testing windows on the mornings of practices or games.
The testing plan, Mountain West Deputy Commissioner Bret Gilliland said in a statement sent to the Union-Tribune, “is designed to create as controlled an environment as possible to protect the health and wellbeing of all participants give
the unique circumstances involved with 21 teams at a single venue. This includes daily testing for all Tier 1 personnel each morning prior to any maskless interaction by student-athletes during their practice sessions and in advance of their tournament contests later in the day.”
The logistics of conducting hundreds of daily tests plus safety considerations were such, a conference spokesperson said, that they opted to start in the early morning instead of allowing testing the previous night. NCAA Tournament regulations also stipulate that teams must be tested seven consecutive days before leaving for Indianapolis, where the entire event will be staged this year.
It is the latest conference decision that has coaches fuming. None contacted would speak on the record about it but privately voiced their displeasure.
“Student-athlete welfare,” one said sarcastically.
“Ridiculous,” another said.
Two weeks ago, it was the decision to play makeup games despite their objections that it could lead to injuries, unnecessary exposure to the virus and debilitating losses for teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Two of the three happened, most notably Boise State’s home loss against sixth-place Fresno State in which starting forward Abu Kigab badly injured his shoulder.
On Friday, Colorado State’s NCAA résumé took a major hit with a last-second loss at Nevada in the Rams’ fourth game in seven days. On Saturday, Utah State’s nearly did as well before winning at Fresno State without injured guard Brock Miller after he had played in 92 consecutive games.
Bubble watch
SDSU seems to be hovering between a 7 or 8 seed in most projected NCAA Tournament brackets, despite rankings and metrics that suggest it should be more like a 5 or 6. The Aztecs are 19th in The Associated Press and 21st in the USA Today coaches poll. They are 19th in the NET, Kenpom and Sagarin; 17th in ESPN’s BPI; and 10th in Bart Torvik’s Trank and the old RPI.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Aztecs as a 7 seed. Jerry Palm of CBS Sports is less convinced and has them as a 9, which means they would be in the unenviable position of facing a 1 seed in the second round.
More interesting is what happens with the rest of the Mountain West. As of Sunday evening, Lunardi has Colorado State and Boise State among the last four teams in, and Utah State as the first team out.
The problem is that at least two of those three will lose in the conference tournament (and all three if SDSU is the champion) and drop. Also, teams breathing down their neck like Syracuse, Seton Hall, Memphis, Ole Miss and St. John’s have better opportunities to move up by winning a game or two in their conference tournaments.
Tournament set
The Mountain West Tournament seedings were finalized with two Saturday night games. Utah State took over the 2 seed from Colorado State with a comeback win at Fresno State, and UNLV dropped to the 7 seed with an 80-69 loss at Wyoming.
SDSU’s path looks like this: Wyoming or San Jose State in the quarterfinals Thursday, Boise State or Nevada in the semis Friday and then most likely Utah State or Colorado State if it reaches the 3 p.m. final Saturday.
The preseason media poll accurately picked the Aztecs to win. It also predicted Air Force would finish 10th and it did. Seven other teams were forecast within two spots of where they finished.
The biggest aberrations were UNLV, picked fourth and finished seventh; and New Mexico, picked seventh and finished 11th. The only other team that did not meet or exceed expectations was Boise State, which was picked second (and received four first-place votes on the 18 ballots cast) and finished fourth.