AZTECS TO FACE ORANGE IN NCAAS
Sixth-seeded San Diego State draws 11th-seeded Syracuse in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at 6:40 p.m. PT Friday at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
To gauge and frame the oddness of an NCAA Tournament lost to the cruel winds of a global pandemic before the sport stubbornly reclaimed it a year later, start with Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher and his hotel sink in Indianapolis.
The man who steered San Diego State to a 53-6 record the last two seasons, the man who signed a six-year contract extension worth $7.855 million in September, the man in charge of a team CBS analyst Seth Davis pegged for an Elite Eight run Sunday, is getting creative.
Forget unlocking the trademark zone defense of first-round opponent Syracuse. Dutcher’s first brainstorming session involved laundry.
“I’m thinking of trying to wash some things in my sink and hang them out to dry,” Dutcher said.
In the Big, Weird, Unprecedented Dance of 2021, the Aztecs darted directly from Las Vegas at daybreak after cutting down nets for winning the Mountain West Tournament. They’ll stay in the makeshift bubble as long as they play.
Each person in a team’s travel party starts in a single room until, Dutcher said, a pair of negative COVID-19 tests allow the next level of gathering and activities to begin.
The longer a team plans to hang around, the more wild thoughts like bathroom laundry
creep into heads. Each moment of strangeness curb-stomps the alternative, a wrenching March ago that seems a million miles away.
A 30-2 team watched the virus pull the plug on the tournament, along with once-in-a-lifetime dreams.
Conf licting thoughts swirl among the Aztecs of today about the wounds of a still-lingering yesterday. Fresh opportunity offers a salve. It’s impossible, however, to forget what might have been.
“I think last year’s still a little bittersweet,” Mountain West Tournament MVP Matt Mitchell said from his Indianapolis hotel room with unclear sink intentions, via Zoom. “But it kind of does, in a sense, wash it away for the older guys.”
When the net-cutting, trustfalling-coach buzz ebbed, Dutcher said coaches used the FaceTime function on a phone to speak with Malachi Flynn, the 2019-20 Mountain West player of the year who plays for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.
They also tried to juggle time zones to reach Flynn’s former teammate Yanni Wetzell, now playing professionally in Australia, but failed to connect.
They’re trying to share the moment with the players who missed theirs.
“Malachi couldn’t have been more appreciative to hear from us and wished us well,” Dutcher said. “He said, ‘Go get ’em, Coach. Get a couple wins. Win this thing.’ ”
Mitchell and others stay in touch as they work to keep the connective tissue of two remarkable seasons alive.
In the midst of unmatched uncertainty about a basketball season shrouded in a health crisis, the Aztecs responded to a singular season with one nearly as impressive. They won the Mountain West regular-season title. They won the Mountain West Tournament title. They’ve won 14 straight games, trailing in the second half of just one.
The current roster, though, feels bigger than NCAA rules allow.
“They were in my life, I was in their life,” Mitchell said. “We were brothers for an entire year and we still are brothers.”
The Aztecs navigated the odd and absurd, from the Mountain West scheduling every series with two games in three days — both either home or away — to a pair of New Mexico forfeits and a makeup game nobody wanted at UNLV.
They dodged COVID at every turn. Instead of backpacks for a shorter road trip, they’re towing big suitcases because a run through the field could translate to multiple weeks in Indianapolis. The goal: Do whatever it took to reach a finish line two seasons in the making.
“It’s surreal,” Dutcher said. “Just the fact we’re playing an NCAA Tournament all in one city, one location. Used to be, you look at seeding and say, OK, you want a higher seed or would you rather stay West? That’s not even a conversation. Everyone takes the highest seed they can get. There is no region to be sought after.
“Now, it’s the challenge of playing through quarantine again. We got tested (Sunday night) and we’re in our rooms. We cannot leave our rooms and we test again first thing in the morning. … Everything ’s a challenge.”
In Vegas, Dutcher stayed in a suite as his No. 19 team added to its current 14-game winning streak, which is third best in the country.
Now …
“I’m a man of the people,” Dutcher said. “I’ve got a single room and a single bed and I can almost touch wall to wall with my arms if I spread them out.”
The smile revealed he is in no way complaining, while f lashing the relief of reaching the tournament that a remarkable team from a season ago could not. Where’s the sink?
“I hope I get to stay here for a month, I love it that much,” Dutcher said. “That means we’re winning games.”