Aztecs host a dangerous Bulldogs team in their third game in just seven days
The game ended after 10 p.m. and the team didn?t return to the hotel until 11. There were showers, iced bags, a meal, followed by attempts to unwind from a momentous road victory in a packed arena with the roars of geeked-up students still echoing in their ears. Some players drifted off to sleep around 1 a.m., some later.
Wake-up calls were at 6:45 a.m. Breakfast at 7. Bus to the airport at 7:30.
The San Diego State basketball team got to Boise Airport to learn their 8:55 nonstop home was delayed because the original plane had a mechanical problem. A replacement aircraft was smaller and, sorry, eight players no longer had seats. Some could connect through Portland and arrive in San Diego in the afternoon, others through Seattle and arrive at night.
Which was a problem with a game on Tuesday (instead of the usual Wednesday) against a scrappy, dangerous Fresno State game and the need to practice.
Airline staff finally sorted out the seating, crammed the collection of giants onto the regional jet with minimal leg room, repositioned the baggage so the weight was properly distributed and sent the Aztecs bouncing over the mountains to San Diego. They bused to campus, ate lunch, watched film for an hour and practiced.
They got through the physical part of prepping for Tuesday?s game, the double screens and curls into the lane and isolations on the wing. That still leaves the mental part.
Two big road wins, including one against a team that beat you twice last year and had won 17 straight at home. Alone atop the Mountain West at 5-0. A one-game lead over Boise State and at least two games over everyone else (and a full three games over rival UNLV). Home games this week against two teams that haven?t won at Viejas Arena in the 21st century. The third game in seven days in three different cities. Tired legs, fatigued minds.
Human nature says you exhale. You decelerate. You relax.
?The elephant in the room,? coach Steve Fisher said. ?I?m concerned about it ... You take a deep breath, mission accomplished, now we?re back home, friendly confines. If you stay on edge, it?s a plus for you. We have to preach that. We have to be very alert and vigilant as coaches to say: ?If we think someone is not pulling their weight, get them out and get somebody else in.?
?Hopefully that won?t be necessary.?
So it is with that caveat, that trepidation, that the Aztecs host a Fresno State team which received a first-place vote in the preseason media poll, has the preseason player of the year, starts two seniors and three juniors, ended SDSU?s 47-game win streak against schools from California a year ago, was down four with 1:30 to go at Oregon last month and opened the Mountain West season with a 69-66 win at UNLV.
?They have the exact same record that we do: 12-6,? Fisher said. ?They?re saying: ?If we can do to San Diego State what we did to Vegas, we are right back in the hunt for a conference championship.? I know that?s the mindset they?ll come in with.?
The Bulldogs on paper are improved over the team that ended SDSU?s prodigious California streak, with better bigs to go with the Mountain West?s most veteran backcourt and maybe its best. Senior Marvelle Harris is the conference?s preseason player of the year and 32 points shy of becoming No. 3 on the school?s all-time scoring list. Watson, now a junior, was its freshman of the year in 2014. Starting point guard Cezar Guerrero is a fifth-year senior. Another senior, Texas transfer Julien Lewis, comes off the bench.
(No wonder, then, why 6-foot-4 guard Darnell Taylor transferred to Division II Cal State San Marcos for his senior year and is averaging a league-leading 20.2 points.)
Fisher calls Harris ?one of the premier players in the country, not just the league.? He had 25 of the Bulldogs? 59 points in the upset in Fresno last season and is coming off games of 32 and 26. He ranks in the top 5 of the Mountain West in points (19.6), shooting percentage (.423), assists (4.2), steals (1.7) and minutes (34.4).
?He?s a great scorer,? said sophomore guard Trey Kell, among the candidates to cover Harris. ?He can shoot the 3, he has a good mid-range and he also knows how to get to the rim. When a player can play all three levels, it makes it hard to defend because you have to respect his shot and you also have to respect his ability to drive.
?But we try not to make it a one-on-one matchup and (instead) make it a five-on-one matchup.?
That?s the game within the game Tuesday night, the Mountain West?s best defensive team against arguably its best player. The bigger matchup, though, might be between the ears.
Fisher doesn?t have to flip the calendar back far to find evidence. New Mexico was upset at home to Wyoming on Saturday afternoon. So did Colorado State against Utah State.
?This league is so close that if you are the least bit complacent and you?re not quite ready to play as hard as you can, you?re going to get beat,? Fisher said after his team ended Boise State?s 10-game win streak. ?I think we?re a legitimate team. Now we need to back it up by saying: ?Don?t get full of ourselves.??
The game ended after 10 p.m. and the team didn?t return to the hotel until 11. There were showers, iced bags, a meal, followed by attempts to unwind from a momentous road victory in a packed arena with the roars of geeked-up students still echoing in their ears. Some players drifted off to sleep around 1 a.m., some later.
Wake-up calls were at 6:45 a.m. Breakfast at 7. Bus to the airport at 7:30.
The San Diego State basketball team got to Boise Airport to learn their 8:55 nonstop home was delayed because the original plane had a mechanical problem. A replacement aircraft was smaller and, sorry, eight players no longer had seats. Some could connect through Portland and arrive in San Diego in the afternoon, others through Seattle and arrive at night.
Which was a problem with a game on Tuesday (instead of the usual Wednesday) against a scrappy, dangerous Fresno State game and the need to practice.
Airline staff finally sorted out the seating, crammed the collection of giants onto the regional jet with minimal leg room, repositioned the baggage so the weight was properly distributed and sent the Aztecs bouncing over the mountains to San Diego. They bused to campus, ate lunch, watched film for an hour and practiced.
They got through the physical part of prepping for Tuesday?s game, the double screens and curls into the lane and isolations on the wing. That still leaves the mental part.
Two big road wins, including one against a team that beat you twice last year and had won 17 straight at home. Alone atop the Mountain West at 5-0. A one-game lead over Boise State and at least two games over everyone else (and a full three games over rival UNLV). Home games this week against two teams that haven?t won at Viejas Arena in the 21st century. The third game in seven days in three different cities. Tired legs, fatigued minds.
Human nature says you exhale. You decelerate. You relax.
?The elephant in the room,? coach Steve Fisher said. ?I?m concerned about it ... You take a deep breath, mission accomplished, now we?re back home, friendly confines. If you stay on edge, it?s a plus for you. We have to preach that. We have to be very alert and vigilant as coaches to say: ?If we think someone is not pulling their weight, get them out and get somebody else in.?
?Hopefully that won?t be necessary.?
So it is with that caveat, that trepidation, that the Aztecs host a Fresno State team which received a first-place vote in the preseason media poll, has the preseason player of the year, starts two seniors and three juniors, ended SDSU?s 47-game win streak against schools from California a year ago, was down four with 1:30 to go at Oregon last month and opened the Mountain West season with a 69-66 win at UNLV.
?They have the exact same record that we do: 12-6,? Fisher said. ?They?re saying: ?If we can do to San Diego State what we did to Vegas, we are right back in the hunt for a conference championship.? I know that?s the mindset they?ll come in with.?
The Bulldogs on paper are improved over the team that ended SDSU?s prodigious California streak, with better bigs to go with the Mountain West?s most veteran backcourt and maybe its best. Senior Marvelle Harris is the conference?s preseason player of the year and 32 points shy of becoming No. 3 on the school?s all-time scoring list. Watson, now a junior, was its freshman of the year in 2014. Starting point guard Cezar Guerrero is a fifth-year senior. Another senior, Texas transfer Julien Lewis, comes off the bench.
(No wonder, then, why 6-foot-4 guard Darnell Taylor transferred to Division II Cal State San Marcos for his senior year and is averaging a league-leading 20.2 points.)
Fisher calls Harris ?one of the premier players in the country, not just the league.? He had 25 of the Bulldogs? 59 points in the upset in Fresno last season and is coming off games of 32 and 26. He ranks in the top 5 of the Mountain West in points (19.6), shooting percentage (.423), assists (4.2), steals (1.7) and minutes (34.4).
?He?s a great scorer,? said sophomore guard Trey Kell, among the candidates to cover Harris. ?He can shoot the 3, he has a good mid-range and he also knows how to get to the rim. When a player can play all three levels, it makes it hard to defend because you have to respect his shot and you also have to respect his ability to drive.
?But we try not to make it a one-on-one matchup and (instead) make it a five-on-one matchup.?
That?s the game within the game Tuesday night, the Mountain West?s best defensive team against arguably its best player. The bigger matchup, though, might be between the ears.
Fisher doesn?t have to flip the calendar back far to find evidence. New Mexico was upset at home to Wyoming on Saturday afternoon. So did Colorado State against Utah State.
?This league is so close that if you are the least bit complacent and you?re not quite ready to play as hard as you can, you?re going to get beat,? Fisher said after his team ended Boise State?s 10-game win streak. ?I think we?re a legitimate team. Now we need to back it up by saying: ?Don?t get full of ourselves.??
