Dick Vitale wouldn’t think too much of it. Nor would any of the other talking heads in college basketball. San Diego State 76, Drake 73. In overtime. In Des Moines, Iowa. On an otherwise lazy and quiet Tuesday evening.
But make no mistake Aztec fans. This victory was a big one. Down six with four minutes to play. On the road. Solid opponent. A young team coming together down the stretch to force overtime. And then winning in overtime.
Not easy to do in college basketball. The second time this season that Steve Fisher’s team has won an overtime game away from home. Games where every play counts, and nobody in the arena is counting on you to make the plays.
Due credit should be given. But will it be? Or put another way: has San Diego State done enough during this non-conference season to put itself in a position to grab an at-large berth for the NCAA Tournament come March?
The unfortunate answer: probably not.
Sure the Aztecs are a solid 9-3, and with expected victories next week at home over UC Riverside on Tuesday and Pomona-Pitzer on Thursday, SDSU will finish up its non-conference with a heady 11-3 mark.
But what if the Aztecs don’t win either the regular season Mountain West Conference championship or the MWC Tournament? What then? Another berth in the NIT, or do they get to go dancing?
Vitale and others like him have never heard of Kawhi Leonard or Chase Tapley, both sensational young freshmen with gobs of talent. They know nothing about the likes of athletic transfers Tyrone Shelley and Malcolm Floyd, nor do they know about the big fella in the middle, Brian Carwell.
They’ve never seen Billy White jump. They don’t appreciate the job junior D.J. Gay has done running the point and keeping a handful of newcomers on the same page at both ends of the court.
Maybe the name Steve Fisher rings a bell around the country, but is anyone aware of the fact that he’s probably doing the best coaching job he ever has, in getting a group of fresh faces to play as a team?
New Mexico, undefeated until the other night (when it lost at Oral Roberts), is already ranked. UNLV was ranked earlier this season. BYU is the preseason MWC favorite. Utah won it last year.
The Aztecs are good — very good. The Aztecs are talented. There probably isn’t a team in the country beyond the Top 10 that could come into Viejas Arena and walk out with an easy win.
But will any of that matter to the selection committee? Of course, the Aztecs could take it out of the hands of the suits and just win the Mountain West. But that won’t be easy. The conference is deep. As good as SDSU was last year (a school-record 26 victories), it still finished fourth in the regular season.
Then the Aztecs made a nice run to the MWC Tournament final, beating both UNLV and BYU. But they lost in the final to Utah by two points. They were not chosen for the NCAA’s.
It came down to SDSU’s non-conference resume. It wasn’t good enough. So what about this season?
The Aztecs played one national television game…and lost. Lost big. St. Mary’s beat them, 80-58. The selection committee will remember that game. The Aztecs lost at Pacific. Good team, Pacific. But not in the minds of the committee.
SDSU did finally beat Arizona, after seven consecutive losses, but Arizona is only 6-5. The Aztecs had a chance for nice road win at Arizona State, but came up short. The victory over Drake was solid, but Drake is currently under .500.
The NCAA Tournament will have to take its usual 15 to 20 at-large teams from the big six BCS conferences. That doesn’t leave much room for the others. The Aztecs are one of the others.
It’s a real good team Fisher has. Leonard, Tapley, Shelley, Thomas, Carwell, White and Gay. Tim Shelton. It will be right there for the conference championship.
To get to the NCAA’s…the Aztecs will probably have to win it.
– Ello –
