LAS VEGAS \u2014 The soundbites from San Diego State players hit all the right notes about intensity and intention, but, really, they didn\u2019t need to say anything.<\/p>\n
You could see it, hear it, feel it, on the floor during practice all week. The sneaker squeaks. The talking. The energy. The speed. The purpose.<\/p>\n
The urgency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s that time of year,\u201d junior guard BJ Davis said.<\/p>\n
The Aztecs spent 30 games trying to fulfill the promise and expectations that came with being one of the best teams (on paper) in school history. Didn\u2019t do it. Couldn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n
Now they have three games to salvage it. Win Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the Mountain West tournament at UNLV\u2019s Thomas & Mack Center and claim the conference\u2019s automatic NCAA Tournament berth, and the marine layer will magically lift that has hung over this team since the double-overtime loss against Troy on Nov. 18 followed six days later by the 40-point woodshed trip against Michigan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe greatest opponent in March is always yourself,\u201d said coach Brian Dutcher, whose team has lost four of its last six games. \u201cYou have to play to your potential. We have a high enough ceiling that if we play to it, we\u2019ll have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
That starts Thursday in the 6 p.m. quarterfinal against Colorado State, which beat Fresno State 67-63 in Wednesday night\u2019s first round and beat the Aztecs 83-74 just 2\u00bd weeks ago in Fort Collins. Win that, and they play in the 9 p.m. semi Friday. Win that, and they drag their bleary-eyed bodies into the final a mere 15\u00bd hours later.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be easy,\u201d junior guard Miles Byrd said. \u201cIt\u2019s a league that has eight or nine teams that have a chance to win the conference tournament, a lot of talent from top to bottom. \u2026 It\u2019s going to be a challenge, but that\u2019s what you play the game for.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou love challenges, you love being pushed, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to be this week in Las Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The No. 2-seeded Aztecs (20-10, 14-6) have several things in their favor.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re playing at Thomas & Mack, where they have 48 wins since 2008-09 \u2014 the most by any Division I program in an arena where it doesn\u2019t play home games. They\u2019re 5-1 as a No. 2 seed in the Mountain West Tournament, winning the title in 2011 and losing in the final by two points in 2015, and have reached the championship game in 14 of the last 17 years.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re also playing Colorado State at 2,000 feet of elevation, not the 5,023 of Moby Arena.<\/p>\n
Asked what he learned from the Feb. 21 loss in Fort Collins, Davis said: \u201cI learned that the altitude really does matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Aztecs pressed the Rams into submission in the first meeting at Viejas Arena, forcing 17 turnovers and winning 73-50. They tried again at 5,023 feet \u2014 something Dutcher historically has shied away from at altitude \u2014 and there was a 32-point swing in the result.<\/p>\n
But with 10 of his 11-man rotation available, and the Rams having played a day earlier, Dutcher will have the option of extending his defense to disrupt a Rams team that ranks 48th in the nation in offensive efficiency and speed up a team that is 361st (out of 365 Division I programs) in tempo.<\/p>\n
The disadvantages?<\/p>\n
After ranking first in the nation in defensive efficiency from Jan. 1 through late February, the Aztecs suddenly have reverted to their November form, when they surrendered 108, 94, 80 and 91 points in consecutive games. Over their last five, opponents are averaging 81.6 points and shooting a blistering 42.9% behind the arc.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I knew the exact answer to fix it, it would be fixed,\u201d Dutcher said. \u201cBut I know one thing: We have to rebound better. We get a lot of initial stops, then the teams that do a good job on the offensive glass and second-chance opportunities have cost us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe rebounded pretty even with Vegas and got the (89-86) win. Had they had a 10-rebound advantage, we probably wouldn\u2019t have escaped with a victory. We have to rebound at a higher level if we plan on winning in the Mountain West Tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defense and rebounding. They\u2019re the pillars of a proud program, and also largely a function of heart and effort.<\/p>\n
Those ingredients, the players freely admit, have sometimes been absent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what we\u2019ve got to do,\u201d Byrd said. \u201cWe know if we come in lackadaisical, we\u2019re going to end our season shortly and live in regret. \u2026 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s intentional to take games off, but there have been games where we haven\u2019t had the right focus coming in and it\u2019s led to a loss that probably shouldn\u2019t have been a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
The intensity at practice the last few days would suggest they\u2019re acknowledging and addressing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this talented a team, you could hear the noise about how the team is no good and how we\u2019re underachieving and stuff like that,\u201d Byrd said. \u201cA lot of teams, especially in this day and age with NIL, they might have already fallen apart.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we can hang our hat on, that we still love each other and we\u2019re still in here working every day, pushing for the goal that we started out with in July. I\u2019m proud that we haven\u2019t given in. People might not believe it, but I think we have a lot of dogs on this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mountain West Tournament: San Diego State vs. Colorado State<\/p>\n
When:<\/strong> 6 p.m. Thursday<\/p>\n Where:<\/strong> Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas<\/p>\n TV:<\/strong> CBS Sports Network<\/p>\n Radio:<\/strong> 760-AM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 The soundbites from San Diego State players hit all the right notes about intensity and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":649437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1369,1370,3549,7264,18257,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-649436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-college-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116214080886715278","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}