AZTECS ARE KEEPING THEIR LEGS RESTED
Older team, taking MW title early will help during March
San Diego State’s basketball team last played Sunday. Here’s how it spent the week preparing for today’s game against UNLV:
Off Monday, a 54-minute practice Tuesday, off Wednesday, a 90-minute practice Thursday and a one-hour practice Friday.
That’s it. Fewer than 31⁄2 hours on the court, total.
It’s been that way for the last few weeks, the luxury of having both your conference byes in February and a veteran, savvy, cerebral roster that absorbs sophisticated game plans with fewer repetitions on the court. The calculated decision of rest over reps has paid off so far, with the No. 4 and 26-0 Aztecs seemingly getting stronger when the grind of the nation’s most arduous travel conference is usually exacting a toll.
Look at the second halves of their four games in February, when, presumably, fresh legs would be
most apparent. They have outscored opponents by a combined 52 points, compared to 15 in the first half, and are shooting 51.8 percent overall (and a blistering 44.3 percent behind the arc).
That includes a 49-29 second half against Utah State, the preseason conference favorite, after trailing by eight at intermission; a 22-8 run deep at Air Force at 7,081 feet after the Falcons closed to three with 61⁄2 minutes to go; a 47-26 second half against New Mexico after leading by two at intermission; and a 22-8 run at Boise State after the Broncos closed to eight with 10 minutes to go.
“We don’t want to spend an exorbitant amount of time practicing,” coach Brian Dutcher explained. “There’s always room to do more, but at some point you have to draw the line and
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say: ‘We’ve done enough.’ Fresh legs are more important than being out there 21⁄2 hours (per day) trying to do everything perfect. We’re resting legs as much as we can, yet not at the expense of being prepared to play.”
It helps, then, having fewer games to prepare for.
The Aztecs had nine games in January, when they had no byes.
Through the first three weeks of February, they’ve played four.
There was a stretch in mid-january where they had three games — at Wyoming, home against Boise State, at Fresno State — in seven days. In February, the gaps between games have been seven, three, five and six days.
Some coaches might use that as a mini-training camp. Not Dutcher. He uses the breaks to rest, particularly his starters who are playing more minutes as the season progresses.
Practice plans are already abridged. Sometimes they go even shorter than scheduled, because if coaches are satisfied with a certain offensive or defensive segment, they end it and start the next one.
“We can’t win the game in practice,” Dutcher said. “We can help ourselves get better to win the game, but we can’t make practice our game. We have to rest legs, and we have to put a game plan in. So as soon as they do the rep correctly, we move onto the next thing.
“We’re not out there trying to prolong practices. They’ve played together for a full season, they know how to play and they just have to show us that they know what we expect.”
His players understand and appreciate it.
Jordan Schakel: “The coaches have done a phenomenal job of limiting our practice time and our minutes in the game. I think all of us are fresh.”
Yanni Wetzell: “It’s essential that we have rest time. The cliché that a lot of people talk about is those who win in March are those who are healthy in March. That’s a huge thing for us. The starters are playing a lot of heavy minutes, so it’s important we all get our rest and we’re all healthy.”
Don’t be fooled, though. Just because they’re not practicing long hours in the afternoons doesn’t mean they’re not in the gym. They are. The DNA of this team, more than any of its recent predecessors, is rooted in its work ethic. Players can do optional individual workouts outside of practice, and almost all of them do.
“The other day, everybody was there at 9 a.m.,” Schakel said. “It felt like a second practice for us. Literally, everybody on the team was there. That gives us the ability to focus on team stuff when we come in for practice.”
The afternoon practices are typically split this time of year between installing a game plan and individual skills.
But knowing their players are shooting on their own — and not just one or two guys, but the entire team — Dutcher and his staff can eliminate that from the practice plan.
Another advantage: With more time between games, you can space the scouting report across several days instead of cramming it into one or two.
Another: At this point of the season, you are generally facing teams for the second time and are already familiar with their offensive and defensive schemes.
And another: You wouldn’t dare try this with, say, last year’s team that had eight freshmen or sophomores.
But with a roster loaded with fifth-year seniors and fourth-year juniors possessing high basketball IQS, just telling them or showing them on film is sometimes enough.
“Definitely an Wetzell said.
Yet another: You’ve already clinched the Mountain West title, so early, in fact, that the banner will be hung from the Viejas Arena rafters before today’s game.
“We’ve always unveiled them at the first or second game the following year,” Dutcher said, “but then, inevitably, three or four of the guys who were on (that team) aren’t there to enjoy that moment.
“Because we won it and we have the time to do it, we wanted to hang it so the seniors — KJ (Feagin), Nolan (Narain) and Yanni — can sit there and see it unveiled. They were a big reason we won it, so we’ll do it in front of them.”
Wetzell smiled when he heard.
“That’s pretty awesome,” said the grad transfer who went 0-18 in the SEC last season at Vanderbilt.
“It shows us gratitude. We’re just blessed to be part of a program that’s willing to do something like that and thank the seniors for what they’ve given this team and program. It’s going to be an exciting moment when that advantage,”
UNLV at No. 4 Aztecs
Records:
Series history: With the 71-67 win in Las Vegas on Jan. 26, SDSU leads 37-36. The Aztecs have won 16 of the last 17, including six straight at Viejas Arena.
Rebels update: A month ago, the Rebels were 5-1 and in second place in the Mountain West. They’ve gone 4-5 since. But they’ve won their last two, both impressively: 78-73 at New Mexico and 80-56 at home Tuesday against surging Colorado State. Tuesday’s game was arguably their best performance of the season, leading by 35 and outrebounding the Rams 46-26. The main man is Bryce Hamilton, who is averaging a team-high 15.6 points and has 23 or more in six of his last nine games. His 29 points (10-of-17 shooting) in the first meeting are the most against the Aztecs all season. Amauri Hardy (14.0 points) was shut down by KJ Feagin, finishing with two points on 1-of-6 shooting in 37 minutes. The Rebels are part of a mass of teams trying to avoid the play-in game in the Mountain West tournament. The top five get byes, and there are currently five teams between second and sixth place that are separated by one game in the loss column.
Aztecs update: In a rare move, before the game SDSU will hang a championship banner for the current season — having clinched it 11 days earlier. The Kenpom metric now gives the Aztecs a 66.6 percent chance of finishing the regular season 29-0, with a projected 17-point margin against UNLV, 16 against Colorado State on Tuesday and eight at Nevada on Feb. 29. SDSU is fourth overall in Kenpom but the only team ranked in the top 10 in both offensive (seventh) and defensive (sixth) efficiency. The four-point margin in the first meeting was the Aztecs’ second closest of victory this season (after 59-57 against San Jose State). In recent weeks, the Rebels have gone small — starting four guys 6-5 or under, plus 6-9 Vitaly Shibel — and turned into a run ’n’ gun team that jacks 3s. In an 82-79 overtime loss against Nevada, they attempted 39. SDSU’S defense is designed to deter penetration at the expense of (ideally, contested) 3s, and 41.7 percent of opponents’ shots are from behind the arc. But opponents are also making only 28.2 percent of them, seventh worst in the nation.
Next up: CBSSN)
UNLV 14-14, 9-6; SDSU 26-0, 15-0
Colorado State at Viejas Arena on Tuesday (8 p.m., banner drops, a moment that the three seniors and everyone else on this team remembers for the rest of their lives.”
As he stands there today looking up, it won’t be with tired legs.
mark.zeigler@sduniontribune.com