SDSU BACK TO ‘D’ BASICS IN PREP FOR ANTEATERS
Aztecs could be without LeDee as they take on dangerous UC Irvine
If you wandered past the JAM Center at San Diego State the past two afternoons, you might have heard more than sneakers squeaking.
Or put another way: The SDSU men’s basketball team had some spirited practices.
“We’ve gone hard for two days,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “I mean, we’re not saving legs. We’re trying to get better. We challenged them. We’re (mad). We set the tone. We’re trying to get better. We know what we need to get better
at, and we need to be a better defensive team.”
Those are words rarely uttered in a program that ranked second and fourth nationally in defensive efficiency for the previous two seasons.
But when you let a team score on six straight possessions and 13 of the 17 in the second half, as the Aztecs did Tuesday in the second half of a 79-73 loss at Grand Canyon, that’ll get your attention.
There were some offensive drills on Thursday and Friday as the No. 25 Aztecs, enjoying their final few days of being ranked until they are almost certainly dropped Monday, prepared for a 7:40 p.m. tip Saturday against UC Irvine at Viejas Arena. But maybe 80 percent of practice was devoted to D, to the supposed bedrock of this program.
“A lot of it is just getting back to our fundamentals, because if you’re not fundamentally sound defensively, it doesn’t matter what you do,” Dutcher said. “We’re trying to challenge them defensively. We have to get better defensively.”
Added guard Reese Waters: “I think it’s more of a focus thing than us not being able to do it. We’ve shown spurts in games of shutting teams down for six, seven straight possessions. We can do it. It’s more, as a team, buying in and communicating and being on the same page.”
So that’s one big issue when they take the floor against the Anteaters.
The other: Whether Jaedon LeDee, who single-handedly is responsible for 29 percent of their points and 27 percent of their rebounds and 34 percent of their free throws, takes the floor at all.
The double-double machine sprained his right elbow in the second half Tuesday, spent the last two practices exclusively on the an exercise bike and is considered questionable for UC Irvine.
“It hurts, it hurts to move,” Dutcher said. “It’s a like an ankle sprain but on the elbow.”