17 straight seasons. That’s how many years San Diego State consecutively played past the quarterfinals in the Mountain West Conference tournament.
Time to start a new streak.
The Aztecs were booted from the conference tournament Thursday afternoon when they lost to Boise State 62-52 in their final episode of their trilogy together this season. Just like most, the first two are always better than the final one.
It was a rude awakening for a program that prides itself on hitting that extra gear in the post season. The Aztecs play their best basketball in March—so much in fact that since the Brian Dutcher era began, 7 of the 8 seasons his team has played in the Mountain West Championship.
The Aztecs having already won the previous two matchups by healthy margins knew this was going to be unlike what they had seen before. No matter how different it truly was, the make up of the game came down to the old familiar ingredient.
Boards Boards Boards
The Aztecs and the Broncos all season long have been two of the worst 3 point shooting percentage teams in the conference. So when Boise State came out flinging from deep at a high rate it was a bit of a shock to the system.
SDSU on the other hand had stayed relatively disciplined on that front sticking to taking 3’s at opportune times. The Aztecs attacked the paint and to their credit forced Boise’s O’Mar Stanley to earn 3 early fouls to weaken their frontcourt.
The Aztecs failed to truly take advantage of Stanley’s departure.
The Broncos were able to dominate in second chance points. Though their three point barrage was largely unsuccessful shooting at a 27.5%, they shot so many that they were able to continue in taking the risk, as they just got to the offensive rebounds. On the afternoon Boise was 18-3 on the offensive glass alone.
That leads us to our next component of this troubling loss.
The Non Magoon Effect
Not having the Mountain West’s defensive player of the year put SDSU at a disadvantage from the start. It allowed Boise to take this risk in game planning and shooting caution to the wind.
Credit to Broncos’ point guard Alvaro Cardenas (14 points, 4 assists) who was able to run the offense a bit more fluently. Boise as a team was successful in finding the switches as SDSU’s Jared Coleman-Jones admitted in the post game presser. Without Magoon’s length on the defensive end this surely was a factor.
So what does this mean for the Aztecs who are now firmly on the bubble? To put it how Coach Dutcher did, Gwath who warmed up and was pain free, was being held back for caution’s sake.
Never putting a player out there before he’s ready is paramount to this staff and though he may have been ready to go, the intention was to have Gwath ready for first game of the actual post season—no matter the tournament destination.
Whether the availability of Magoon to the team is an attractive factor for bracket makers in choosing the Aztecs remains to be seen. But couple that with the fact it is damn difficult to beat a conference team three times in one season, perhaps the early exit won’t be looked at too roughly.
Either way, all Aztec Nation should be rooting for New Mexico and Utah State the rest of the way this conference tournament. Boise State and Colorado State continue to be potential bid stealers as they continue to win.
The Drought
Rebounds, injuries, gameplans. All that are factors to what happened yesterday. But in the end, a team is hard pressed to win a game when going just over 9 minutes without a basket.
Only free throws made contributed to the Aztecs point total after the 9:11 minute mark. This scoring drought summarized their 19 point 2nd half total. The Aztecs were doomed by lethargic offense and just not their night shooting.
Nick Boyd’s 20 points stood alone as the team’s only double figure scorer—a mark that is just too underachieving with a team this offensively talented.
Up next: We wait, watch, and pray to the basketball God’s in favor of a ticket to the dance come selection Sunday. Beating a top seeded Houston should help—maybe.
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