SDSU MUST RAMP UP VS. BRONCOS
Aztecs have had an easier time of it for past eight games
San Diego State hosts first-place Boise State for a pair of games today and Saturday at Viejas Arena that could decide the Mountain West’s regular-season basketball championship.
The Broncos have preseason conference player of the year Derrick Alston Jr., two transfers from Arizona who come off the bench, a transfer from Oregon, a guard who averaged 14.8 points at Portland, another guard who scored 19 points in 3½ minutes last season, and a 6-foot-10, 232-pound beast of post from Serbia via East Tennessee State. They are 18-4, swept Utah State out of first place last week and average a conferenceleading 77.8 points per game.
But more than the Broncos, the No. 22 Aztecs’ greatest opponent this week might be something less tangible. It might be human nature and the inherent tendency toward complacency. It might be catching their breath leaping into the icy water after relaxing in a jacuzzi for the past five weeks.
It’s why they held a team meeting after beating Air Force by 37 points because they were up by 52. Why coaches have nitpicked in
film sessions despite winning eight straight by an average of 26.4 points against the conference’s bottom half. Why practices have been intense, driven affairs with meticulous, maddening attention to detail. Why coach Brian Dutcher has called timeouts in the second half of 30-point blowouts and screamed at his team.
He knew what was coming. He knew Boise State was just over the horizon. He knew the bar would be raised, the water would get colder.
“The opponent is always yourself,” Dutcher said. “You play against yourself, whatever your standard is. So instead of worrying about all of the teams we just got done playing, we’re playing to whatever we feel our standard is. If that means we’re up 20 and not playing up to our standard, we have to hold ourselves accountable.
“Hopefully that accountability will pay off when we get into a game where know the margins are smaller and we can make less mistakes.”
Ask the Broncos. They know.
Never has the disparity in ability been greater across the Mountain West. Consider: The top four teams are a combined 30-0 against the bottom five, 21 were by 20plus points and only three were decided by single digits.
The Broncos (18-4, 14-3) had a similar stretch from Dec. 21 to Jan. 20, going 9-0 against New Mexico, Air Force, San Jose State, Wyoming and Fresno State by an average of 23.2 points.
Then they went to Colorado State.
Looked lethargic, half a step slow, out of sorts. Lost 78-56.
Said coach Leon Rice: “That was more of a product of when you play really good teams that are super solid defensively and do the right things and are in the right spots and have enough athleticism that you can’t just go one-on-one, you have to play the right way completely or the game is going to punish you.
“I’ve got a lot of aggressive guys who want and can do it on their own a little bit. But to beat the good teams, you can’t do that. There’s always a cycle of that when you go up against teams that are good enough and talented enough. Because anything less, and you’re in trouble.”
The statistics tell a similar story. As the nine-game stretch against lesser opposition continued, their percentage of baskets assisted dropped precipitously as players were able to merely beat defenders one-on-one instead of scoring from the flow of the offense — from 69 percent to 39 percent over the last four games.
They had only 11 assists in the first game at Colorado State. They adjusted to the pace and athleticism in the second game, and had 18 assists in an 85-77 victory.
SDSU kept its assist percentage high through twogame series against Air Force, Wyoming and San Jose State, but it noticeably dipped to 30.8 percent and 28 percent in two games last week at Fresno State. Part of that, in fairness, was how the Bulldogs defended the Aztecs, sticking to the shooters on the perimeter and not giving early help in the paint, resulting in more isolation plays.
A more concerning area, though, might be on the glass. Fresno State outrebounded SDSU in both games and crushed them on the offensive boards, 11-5 and 14-3. The Aztecs had no second-chance points in the first game and four in the second after six straight games where they had at least 13.
Dutcher was particularly animated during several timeouts despite comfortable margins on the scoreboard.
“If I was mad, it was definitely about rebounding,” he said after Saturday’s 75-57
win. “We played good initial defense and didn’t secure the ball. We managed to win this game. But that’s something as a coach you know down the road, if we don’t rebound the ball in a close game, it could cost us a victory. We’ll get back and work on our rebounding for three days.”
And they have, devoting a larger portion than usual of practice to the unappreciated craft.
“It’s just a level of grit and toughness,” Dutcher said Tuesday. “Sometimes you have to want the ball more than the opponent. Obviously, there’s boxing out, there’s hitting a body. But sometimes there’s just that fight factor and we have to pick up the fight factor, because Boise rebounds the ball at a very high level.”
At stake is nothing less than the regular-season title, seeding in the conference tournament and NCAA Tournament invitations.
Thanks to the Mountain West awarding them a pair of forfeits for the missed games against New Mexico, the Aztecs (17-4, 13-3) control their own destiny. Sweep the Broncos and win at UNLV next week, and they repeat as conference champions.
Split or lose both against the Broncos, and they could tumble to the dreaded fourth seed, which likely means a quarterfinal date against a dangerous Nevada team that swept Boise State and took SDSU to the brink twice at Viejas Arena.
The Aztecs are in better shape for the NCAA Tournament, climbing into the top 25 of the NCAA’s NET and most other metrics after being in the 40s following backto-back losses at Utah State in mid-January. A split against Boise State probably clinches an at-large berth.
But that involves quickly adjusting to a far higher level of skill, athleticism and hunger than they’ve faced in more than a month. This isn’t San Jose State staring across at them on the opening tip.
“You can always look back and say, ‘We could have been better here, we could have been better there,’ ” senior Jordan Schakel said of the eight straight wins. “But I think overall we did a pretty good job, and I was happy with how we handled ourselves during that stretch. … I think we’re prepared. I think we’re ready to go.”