San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
AZTECS BASKETBALL AGAIN FACES UCLA IN SCRIMMAGE
One of the college basketball season’s first matchups between ranked teams is this morning at Viejas Arena, when No. 8 UCLA faces No. 19 San Diego State.
The players, the coaches, a few staffers, a couple administrators, three referees and a stat crew will be the only people to see it. There are no fans, no boosters, no ushers, no concession workers, no TV, no media.
Two teams, one empty arena. Lace ’em up and play.
“It’s a big test,” SDSU junior guard Lamont Butler said. “UCLA, they’re a top-25 team as well. It’s going to be really fun for us to see how we do.”
The NCAA allows Division I teams to play closeddoor scrimmages instead of only exhibitions against non-div. I opponents. For years, however, coaches weren’t allowed to even reveal whom they were playing, let alone what happened. Box scores were protected like nuclear launch codes.
The rules have since relaxed. Fans and media still can’t attend, but now everyone knows who’s playing whom — there are websites that list them: Boise State at Oregon, Colorado State at Minnesota, Wyoming at Colorado — and coaches can share stats and openly discuss the proceedings at their discretion. (The Aztecs and Bruins scrimmaged last year at Pauley Pavilion, but UCLA requested stats and the final score remain confidential.)
“You’re just trying to find a really good game against a really good team to see where you’re really at,” said Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher, whose team also has a Nov. 1 exhibition at Viejas Arena with fans against NAIA San Diego Christian. “The exhibition games are fine, but they’re a whole different dynamic. They’re more, let’s get into a game routine, let’s show them what warm-ups are, let’s go through our game-day prep in the building, so when they step on the floor against Fullerton (for the Nov. 7 opener), it’s not the first time.
“Each of them provides value. Obviously UCLA, without giving any disrespect to San Diego Christian, will be the more challenging competition.”
The Aztecs have also scrimmaged Stanford and USC in past years, as well as UCLA before Mick Cronin became coach in 2019.
He and Dutcher are good friends, a kinship forged by both being sons of coaches, and this marks their third meeting in as many years. The first was in 2020, a 73-58 SDSU win in a four-team event at Viejas Arena without fans that was hastily arranged after both teams had out-of-state tournaments canceled during the pandemic. Last year they scrimmaged at Pauley Pavilion in what was described as a “close game.” This year, at Viejas.
The approach, though, will be different.
Most teams in closeddoor scrimmages default to their basic offensive and defensive schemes without an opponent-specific game plan. But Dutcher said they sensed UCLA had prepared for the Aztecs’ personnel and plays last year, and Sunday he’ll do the same for the Bruins.
“Not because what happened last year in the scrimmage,” Dutcher said, “but because we have a really hard schedule right away. I want to see how the new guys handle a scout. When we tell them we want to take this away, then they have to take it away. If we just let them play and play to our principles, we won’t really know how they handle a scout. … I want to see how we do when we’re prepped for a game.
“We’re right into the fire with this year’s schedule: Fullerton, BYU, Stanford, Maui (where five of the eight entrants are nationally ranked). We can’t ease in.”
There are other questions: Who starts at forward, incumbent Keshad Johnson or TCU transfer Jaedon Ledee? Can point guards Butler and Darrion Trammell be on the floor together? Who’s the go-to guy in crunch time? Does the bench go eight deep, nine deep, 10 deep or more? Are the freshmen ready?
The Bruins return starters Tyger Campbell and Jaime Jaquez Jr. from a 27win team that reached the Sweet 16, plus add a pair of five-star recruits in 6-foot-5 Amari Bailey and 6-9 Adem Bona.
UCLA as a general rule doesn’t play nonconference road games in California, and you figure it won’t invite the Aztecs to Pauley Pavilion during the regular season in fear of it becoming a road game at home given the partisan red and black turnout for their neutral-court meeting in Anaheim in 2012. This, then, is the next best thing.
You don’t get the fans. You still get the Bruins.
“We still get to play them to see how we measure up,” Dutcher said. “Instead of playing intrasquad scrimmages all the way, we’re going to play against a really good team and we’re going to know what we are. We’re going to come back and say, ‘Wow, we’re better than we hoped we would be.’ Or we’re going to say, ‘We have eight miles to go before we play a (regular season) game, we have so much work to do.’
“We’ll get that answer.”