CONTRASTING STYLES MEET
Low-scoring Aztecs vs. team that dares you to outscore it
The numbers aren’t pretty.
3-point accuracy: 332nd among 358 Division I teams.
Effective field goal percentage (which accounts for 3s being worth more than 2s): 300th.
Free-throw percentage: 317th.
Ratio of total points from 3s: 334th.
Average points: 320th. “At some level,” San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher told his team at practice Monday afternoon, “all the offense (execution) in the world doesn’t matter if the ball doesn’t go through the rim.”
So it was no mystery how SDSU (4-2) expended its practice time ahead of tonight’s home game against Long Beach State, considering the Beach is a team that dares you to outscore it and considering what happened in the Aztecs’ previous outing: a 58-43 loss to No. 20 USC in Friday’s Wooden Legacy final in Anaheim.
It was their fewest points since a 49-43 loss against Arkansas-Little Rock in 2015.
The historical optimism: That Aztecs team eventually figured it out, went 16-2 in the Mountain West, won 28 total games and reached the semifinals of the NIT. Over
the final 11 games leading to New York, they averaged 75.8 points, including 92 against UNLV and 93 against Washington.
“We are guarding at an elite level,” said Dutcher, whose team ranks 13th nationally in the Kenpom defensive efficiency metric. “We played great defense against USC, but we have to clean up our offense. We have to be more free-flowing and dangerous at the offensive end, and we have to rebound the basketball. That’s getting our full attention right now.”
USC is even better defensively (No. 6 in Kenpom) and stymied SDSU’s top offensive weapons. Matt Bradley entered the game averaging 15.2 points and finished with three (and none for the first 38:40), his lowest output in his last 62 college games. Trey Pulliam had three turnovers after having three total in his previous four games.
Dutcher spent an hour alone with Bradley watching film.
“Both Cal tape and San Diego State tape,” Dutcher said, “looking at positions on