Onward for Aztecs, but real test still to come

This was no test, San Diego State’s semifinal tangle with San Jose State. The Spartans entered the week 0-8 in their brief Mountain West Tournament history. The 20 victories at tipoff amounted to the program’s most since 1981.

This was a pop quiz.

San Jose State’s not built for the cage fighter the Aztecs annually become when conference teams converge on the Thomas & Mack Center. San Diego State has elbowed through the close ones. It has clawed to the end of the clock in the shadow of the Vegas Strip more times than it can count.

The 64-49 finish was a box on the to-do list. The real test begins now, with another title game in the crosshairs and a 2-7 record in the last nine visits there lurking.

If the Aztecs win, sweeping the regular-season and tournament titles, can they scale the bracket to a coveted 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament? Would the two-fer in the Mountain West be enough to change the minds of bracket barons who likely have the Aztecs standing in wet, 6-seed cement?

The Aztecs now have reached the championship game in 13 of its last 15 trips. They’ve reached the semifinals every season since Fidel Castro stepped down in Cuba.

“March is for players,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said a day earlier, of the rising stakes on the shortening calendar. “We’ve done enough coaching during the year. We know who we are. We know what we should be doing. Then a player or two is going to make a play in March that either advances you or sends you home.”

What happened Friday did not come down to clutch plays, however. It was pretty much preordained. Dutcher alone is 11-0 against the Spartans and his program has won at a 70.7 percent clip in the tournament.

The Aztecs handcuffed San Jose State to the tune of the 14-point half in a regular-season meeting at Viejas Arena, a 72-51 leg stretcher on Jan. 28. This Spartans offered little in the way of significant or prolonged resistance, shooting just 26 percent in the first half that closed with misses on nine of the last 11 possessions.

They missed a dunk. They dribbled off knees. Shots hits backboards. Too often, shots hit nothing at all.

In fairness, these nine-deep Aztecs wear out more than your legs and lungs. At their best, they peck away at your psyche and will. They uncorked a bevy of balance on Friday, a collective fist coming from all directions.

Keshad Johnson scored 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting. Darrion Trammell, scoreless in a tight quarterfinal win against Colorado State, more aggressively hunted his shot and added 15 of his own. Micah Parrish scored nine and grabbed seven rebounds. Nathan Mensah finished with eight rebounds and two blocks.

When Johnson’s emphatic dunk caused the lead to bulge to 18 with 16:32 to play, the Aztecs smelled titlegame blood.

“I think everyone would have to agree that our defense won us the game tonight,” Dutcher said. “We’re proud of how we defended.”

The damage kept coming until starters jogged to the bench with a little more than a minute left to a standing ovation from Aztecs fans. The win and size of it amounted to style points at least, if not quantifiable substance.

San Diego State was neither pushed, nor expected to be. The program’s 33rd conference tournament victory is the most in the country since 2009 with a plucky little bunch named Gonzaga one behind.

Dutcher was in late-season form with the officials, burning the ears of all three after a no-call on a Lamont Butler drive into an arm-swinging thicket. Shortly after, he marched from one end of the bench to the other with palms pointing to the sky on what appeared to be a clean steal by Matt Bradley that ended in a foul.

When a questionable blocking call against Jaedon LeDee revved up Dutcher again, the far-side official pantomimed that LeDee had was moving.

It seemed as if everyone on the Aztecs side was trying to stay sharp for the slog ahead.

“Just the culture of our program,” Dutcher said. “All these guys will tell you, when they come to San Diego State they’re told, if you defend at a high level … If you don’t like playing defense, don’t come to this program.” Win, the Aztecs did — as expected. The real test awaits.