When Coach Dutcher referenced playing Air Force as a trip to the dentist, we didn’t know he meant a root canal under heavy anesthesia. Good thing for coach the team was only under a local sedative.
Air Force by the numbers is regarded as one of the worst teams in division-1 basketball. So when they came into Viejas Arena Wednesday night and at the half were within 3 points it had SDSU fans looking more disgruntled than Monty Montezuma’s famous face.
When it was all said and done the Aztecs pulled away in the second half to a dominating 81-58 victory over the Falcons. But it might have been one of the strangest near 30 point wins in recent memory. I mean at the half Miles Heide was the game’s leading scorer for both teams with12 points and even made a three point shot.
No knock on Heide, the young man is a proud work in progress for Aztec Nation—one that we had hoped to witness knock down a three this season. But let’s be honest, with all the firepower these Aztecs have, if you’re Air Force you absolutely take it. Credit to them, they made SDSU play their style of game—ugly.
“I hate playing Air Force.” said a candid coach Dutcher. “I don’t sleep for a week trying to prep for all their stuff. Most games they play this year they’re in the game. The fact we were only up 3 at the half wasn’t a surprise. Last year we were down 20-8.”
On defense SDSU struggled to close off open shots and defend the screens. Often they could be seen processing the Air Force ball movement rather than causing turnovers. Though Dutcher liked his team’s tenacity, he acknowledged they were not good and need to be much better vs Arizona come Saturday night.
BJ Davis and the Offense
Of course it didn’t help the Aztecs cause when they missed several buckets up close around the rim. Finishing at the basket at times has been a bug-a-boo for this team. Even Miles Byrd, despite coming off a nice bounce back performance last week, found himself not finishing at the rim and missing an emphatic wide open break away dunk attempt.
And that leads us to the elephant in the room. Far too often the offense comes out of the gates shooting well below their 50% field goal percentage on the night. It isn’t until BJ Davis the spark-plug off the bench enters in and the numbers begin to get more crooked on the scoreboard. This game proved no different.
As soon as BJ Davis checks in he asserts himself very well to the game. His 19 points on 6-11 shooting, 6 assists, and 27 minutes played all led the team. So at least we see Dutcher & staff are keen to playing the hot hand. Our question continues to be, where is the line drawn when you begin to start Davis?
Is there a fear to disrupting the successful flow they have BJ currently on? Because yes, there are different mentalities involved when it comes to starting a game at opening jump instead of being inserted from the bench. But if this team is going to compete against the tops in the nation, they will need to be running on all cylinders from start to finish.
The Aztecs in the second half dished it out on both sides of the ball and from all areas of the court. They effectively shared the ball very well 27-9 in terms of assists. When asked what was the difference between the two halves and especially knocking down shots, the simple answer is they just played harder.
“Just a mindset.” Coach Dutcher admitted. “I told them at half, keep your energy up. It’s basketball. Don’t get discouraged because we’re only up 3.”
Sometimes it is just as simple as that. The Aztecs listened to their coach and came out with more intensity, focus and defensive pressure. That pressure always leads to more turnovers and they were able to knock down 68% of their shots as a result of that energy and enthusiasm.
Defensively it helps to adjust at the half and that’s what they did. Maybe the most noticeable takeaway was that on a night where nothing really seemed cohesive in the overall snapshot, the team’s body language and attitude showed it was strong enough to get over the bumps in the road.
Last week’s perceived chaos on court with frustrations spilling onto the bench appeared as though it was just that—a moment of frustration from passionate players.
“We’ve had 3 games in 21 days. So all we’re doing is practicing and it’s grading on everybody.” said Dutcher. “They’re tired of hearing us, I’m tired of watching them some days. We need to play games.”
And play more games they will. Ready or not, hitting on all cylinders or not, the Aztecs next face #1 Arizona in Phoenix for a pseudo home game for the Wildcats. Stay tuned as more to come for this big matchup in the desert this weekend.
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