SDSU’S DEFENSE SLOWS CHARLESTON’S 3S
If you run your finger across the final box score looking for a single statistic that defined San Diego State’s 63-57 win against College of Charleston in the NCAA Tournament, you’d stop at the Cougars’ 3-point shooting.
Five of 24.
The Cougars were second in Division I in 3-point makes this season at 10.1. They made five, a 15-point differential.
There’s your ballgame. “They just made us uncomfortable shooting 3point shots,” said Charleston forward Ante Brzovic, who was 0 of 4.
The Aztecs (28-6) do that a lot to teams, ranking sixth nationally in 3-point defense at 28.6 percent. And that’s against a relatively high volume of attempted 3s; more than 40 percent of opposing shots come from behind the arc, well above the national average.
The strategy against Charleston was twopronged: contest their initial 3s but don’t allow secondary 3s off offensive rebounds, when the percentages go up significantly because the defense is scrambling to identify shooters.
“We trusted our game plan,” SDSU guard Matt Bradley said. “The biggest thing was boxing them out on the glass. The first half, they had one offensive rebound, but then the first three minutes of the second half, they had five. We had to come together tightly and quickly in order to stop that.
“They hit some big shots, but I’m really proud of our guys and how we defended them.”
Added Micah Parrish: “We really had to respect them, basically.”
Mountain woes
SDSU ended the Mountain West’s 11-game losing streak in the NCAA Tournament. But the conference’s struggles continue.
Its teams are now 2-14 in their last 16 opening games in the tournament after three more went down Wednesday and Thursday: Nevada against Arizona State (98-73) in the First Four, Utah State against Missouri (76-65) and Boise State against Northwestern (75-57).
The Aztecs also ended a lesser-known Mountain West losing streak in the tournament — 12 straight by teams that had reached the conference tournament final and were fatigued from three games in 40-odd hours. SDSU beat Utah State in the championship game last Saturday in Las Vegas.
New Mexico got beat (8369, at home) in the NIT by Utah Valley in the NIT on Wednesday night, meaning SDSU and San Jose State are the conference’s only teams left standing. San Jose State opens the CBI against Southern Indiana on Saturday in Daytona Beach, Fla.
The crew
One big difference between the regular season and NCAA Tournament are officials with little to no familiarity with the players. The crew Thursday: A.J. Desai, Todd Austin and Kipp Kissinger.
Desai (ACC) and Austin (SEC) have not worked SDSU games in the past few years. Kissinger at least knew coach Brian Dutcher and a few of his players.
Now primarily based in the Big Ten, Big 12 and Missouri Valley, Kissinger has worked a handful of Aztecs games, most recently a home loss against BYU in 2020 (without fans) and the infamous 59-57 win against San Jose State when Malachi Flynn drained a deep 3 at the buzzer. The Kenpom.com metric has him No. 5 in its ref ratings. Desai is 70 and Austin is 90.
Notable
Lamont Butler shed the cumbersome brace on his right pinky that he has worn in practice since spraining the finger in the Mountain West final against Utah State. Instead, he had a tape wrap on the finger, making it easier to shoot and went 3 of 5.
• The Aztecs are 14-0 when holding opponents in the 50s.
• SDSU is now 7-14 alltime in the NCAA Tournament. All seven wins have come against worse seeds.
This is the fifth time it has advanced to the round of 32. Only twice has it reached the Sweet 16, in 2011 and 2014.
• With the win, the Aztecs actually dropped a spot in Kenpom to 15th. Its defensive efficiency climbed to No. 8, however.
• SDSU snapped Charleston’s 10-game win streak, the fifth longest in the nation. The Cougars entered the day 16-0 when holding opponents in the 60s.
• Darrion Trammell had a rough shooting day: 1 of 7 from the floor, 2 of 5 from the line. But the one he made, a 3 from the left wing, started a 11-2 run in the second half that built a nine-point lead, SDSU’s largest.
• The top plus/minus? Aguek Arop, at plus-12 points in 21 minutes.
• SDSU led for 21:30 of the game, and Charleston for 15:27. There four lead changes and four ties.