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When Mountain West agreed to a new television contract with CBS and Fox Sports, it allowed them to schedule games six days a week on one condition: teams wouldn’t have to play twice within 48 hours during the season. regular.
It came out the window with the global pandemic, and the result on Saturday was a predictable slog with a 13-hour tip after an exhaustive overtime game Thursday night, rambling and jarring, clanking and clicking, with all the grace of a offensive lineman on the balance beam.
No problem. The state of San Diego has not fallen. It can also be ugly.
The No.22 Aztecs held off Boise State 62-58 at Viejas Arena for their 10th straight win to put them a win – Wednesday at UNLV – to repeat themselves as regular season champions of Mountain West and having the delicate situation of a title decided by a pair of forfeits for perhaps the first time in college basketball history.
The SDSU (19-4) would technically be 14-3 if they beat the Rebels in sixth place. Colorado State, if it wins its last three games, could go 15-3. And that’s what the final ranking would say.
Except the Mountain West gave the Aztecs a pair of forfeits when New Mexico pulled out of their streak earlier this month. They are not recorded in the official ranking, but applied only to determine the regular season champion and seeds in the conference tournament.
It’s as complicated as the game on Saturday.
“Boise are a good team and they made it difficult,” said Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher. “They were two good teams, knowing what each other’s strengths are and doing a good job of trying to win them away. It didn’t look fluid or smooth.
“But it was beautiful for a coach.”
Nothing prettier than with 1:33 on the left, when 6-foot-10 Nathan Mensah was 6-2, guard RayJ Dennis lit him under the basket. Matt Mitchell recognized it, called for the ball at the top and lobed Mensah for an easy two.
After the traded teams missed 3s, the Broncos shot one point on a Devonaire Doutrive layup with 16.3 seconds left. From there, it was about making free throws. Jordan Schakel went 4 of 4 and Mitchell 2 of 2 as Dutcher decided to commit an intentional foul instead of allowing the Broncos to attempt a potentially tied 3.
“To our credit, it doesn’t always work,” Dutcher said. “It works when you’re doing free throws, and these two guys had timely free throws to secure the win.”
Schakel, to his credit, finished with 17 points despite fouling issues, picking up his third moments in the second half and playing just 18 minutes, 10 below his average. But he did have a back-to-back 3 that gave the Aztecs an eight-point cushion with nine minutes remaining which they almost wasted when the Broncos started to pull back 3s, hand in hand, unbalanced themselves. .
No one else hit double the numbers on a day when both teams shot under 40 percent, were a total of 10 of 44 behind the arc and had more turnovers than baskets in the first semester. Mitchell was a frequent visitor to the coaching table, admitting that the left ankle he rolled earlier this month was “persistent” and finished with eight runs on 2 of 11 shots two days after scoring 24 (well that he had eight rebounds and four interceptions).
Boise State’s Derrick Alston Jr. had a similar experience with dead legs. He went from 29 points Thursday to just seven (and five turnovers) in 2 of 12 shoots. He did six 3 on Thursday; it was 1 in 9 on Saturday.
The Aztecs took a similar defensive approach on the stiff guard 6-9, keeping bodies fresh on him (four different players covered him), making him take some tough shots and basically hoping for the best.
“We played him just as hard the first night, but good players can score on good defense,” said Dutcher. “He bounced back and had a few hard punches against us in the first game. (Today) we did nothing. He had a few clean looks, the first half especially, that just didn’t suit him. He had an unusual shooting night and we took advantage of it.
What should have been a showcase for Mountain West’s top two teams turned into a clearly tired group of players combined with an umpiring team ranked 78th, 129th and 134 in Kenpom’s metric for Division I umpires (who caused Boise State coach Leon Rice to lash out on several (calls in his post-game media availability). The halftime score was 24-20 after the teams had 18 baskets and 19 turnovers while missing 22 of 26 3-point attempts. No one had more than five points.
The Broncos (18-6, 14-5) did something they couldn’t in 45 minutes Thursday night and actually led – 2-0 on a float in the lane by guard Marcus Shaver, who was without goal in the first game and had 13 on Saturday. The Aztecs quickly took the lead and were never left behind again, although they were never able to create much separation.
“The teams were hectic and no one could find a rhythm,” said Mitchell. “Just fighting together, staying together and staying together is the thing we do best.”
The sweep puts Boise State (18-6, 14-5) in fourth place with a game to play and the uncomfortable possibility of securing the fourth seed at the Mountain West tournament, where the likely quarterfinal opponent would be Nevada, which also swept them away.
“We played a good team,” said Rice, whose team ended the regular season at home against Fresno State on Tuesday. “It’s a zero-sum game. Someone has to win, and someone has to lose. We don’t like it. It does not suit us. They hurt in this locker room. They wanted so much to win.
“We’re going to go back to Boise, regroup, collect all the eggshells and glue them back together.
Notable
As is customary on Senior Day, the SDSU has kicked off all of its seniors, which means Joshua Tomaic, the transfer graduate from Maryland, got homologation for the first time this season in place of the junior. Nathan Mensah. He responded with seven points (3 of 3 on shooting) and four rebounds in 19 minutes, including three offensive clutch boards in the home stretch … The Aztecs are now 50-2 in the Dutcher era when they have teams of less than 60 points. Boise State entered the series with an average conference record of 77.8 … The SDSU shot 39.7 percent. Boise State shot 35.2%, which was slightly lower than Thursday … After being passed by 14 on Thursday, the Broncos won the battle of the boards 39-33 … The SDSU achieved just three turnovers in the second period after nine in the first. … Trey Pulliam had another solid game, with four assists and no turnover in 31 minutes.
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