SDSU STARTING ’21 UNRANKED
San Diego State was not ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 men’s basketball poll released Monday, landing 14th among others receiving votes (or 39th overall) despite finishing sixth and 16th the last two years.
No biggie, according to Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher.
“I know the 30-2 team wasn’t ranked in the preseason (in 2019-20),” Dutcher said. “And I know last year’s team that won the regular-season and conference tournament titles in the Mountain West wasn’t ranked in the preseason.
“It’s hard ranking teams. I don’t worry about it. I know we’ll get what we deserve in the end. If we deserve to be ranked, we’ll play well enough to be ranked. And we have enough strength of schedule to play ourselves into a ranking.”
Also released were the preseason Kenpom ratings, the most respected of the college basketball metrics. They’ll change once teams start playing games and real-time data is available, but the preseason numbers provide insights into what the computer projects based on returning and incoming roster pieces.
The Aztecs are No. 33 overall, their highest preseason spot in seven years and the fourth time they’ve started in the top 35 since 2010-11. The other three, they reached the NCAA Tournament as an 8 seed or better and won at least one game.
They started the season 44th last year and finished 30th. They went from 97th to sixth in the 30-2 season in 2019-20 with Malachi Flynn.
But it goes both ways. The year before that, they started 64th and finished 125th. Four times in the previous decade, the Aztecs improved on their preseason Kenpom rating. Five times, they got worse. Once, in 201213, they started 31st and finished 31st.
Driving their No. 33 position this year is a preseason defensive efficiency rating of 10th nationally after finishing last season at 21st. They’re 67th in offensive efficiency, down from 45th at the end of 2020-21.
“I hope we have a top 10 defensive team,” Dutcher said. “The defense has been ahead of the offense so far. We’ve all seen it. We have to get a bit of an offensive rhythm, but I like that when we haven’t made shots (in practice), we’ve slid our feet and guarded. We have to win games somehow. If we can’t make shots, we have to do it with defense. That’s just a mentality.”
Gonzaga is No. 1 in the AP poll, followed by UCLA, Kansas, Villanova and Texas. The only other West Coast team ranked is Oregon at 13th. USC, Arizona, Colorado State, Colorado and BYU were also among others receiving votes.
Mountain West poll
The preseason Mountain West media poll will be released Wednesday morning. Colorado State is expected to be picked first, followed in some order by SDSU, Nevada and Boise State. San Jose State and Air Force likely will be in the bottom two, but where everyone else ends up is anyone’s guess.
Kenpom predicts the Aztecs will win the regularseason title for a third straight season. Nevada at 49th is the only other Mountain West team in the preseason top 50. Colorado State, which was four spots higher than SDSU in the AP poll, is 72nd in Kenpom. Boise State (80) and Utah State (95) give the conference five teams in the top 100.
Kenpom forecasts the Mountain West to be the nation’s ninth best conference, up two spots from last season and the third best midmajor league behind the WCC and AAC.
Extra home game
Dutcher plans to add one more nonconference game to the current schedule, likely in late December against a non-Division I opponent. That would give the Aztecs 30 total games, 16 at home.
They drew a bye in the first week of the Mountain West season, meaning they have a 10-day window between UCSD on Dec. 22 and their conference opener at UNLV on Jan. 1.
“Especially after Christmas break, I want to get our timing back before we start conference,” Dutcher said.
Viejas COVID rules
SDSU is expected to announce pandemic protocols for basketball games at Viejas Arena by the end of the month. The state currently requires proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for indoor events with more than 1,000 people, although that is set to expire Nov. 1.
The Los Angeles City Council is imposing a vaccine requirement for restaurants and indoor venues starting in November, but city and county officials in San Diego say they will not, citing an 80 percent vax rate.
SDSU’s rules for Viejas are expected to include proof of vaccine or negative tests anyway, plus a mask requirement once inside.
A UC San Diego release about basketball tickets said “no food is allowed in RIMAC Arena and no concession services will be available inside the building,” but SDSU is not likely to go that far.
The Aztecs host NAIA Saint Katherine of San Marcos in a preseason exhibition Nov. 3. The opener is Nov. 9 against UC Riverside at Viejas Arena.