Melvin Goins drained a critical three-pointer, his fourth of the game, with :19 remaining as the 6th seeded Tennessee Volunteers edged 11th seeded San Diego State 62-59 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.  Goins finished with 15 points off the bench for the Vols, who advance to play 14th seeded Ohio in the 2nd round of the Midwest Regional.

The Aztecs delivered the effort and intensity needed to come out of Providence with their first-ever NCAA tournament win, but were unable to hit the big shots when needed down the stretch.  Kawhi Leonard airballed a contested three-pointer at the buzzer that would have tied the game.  Leonard finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

D.J. Gay had a solid game with 16 points, including three big free throws with :09 left to cut the lead to one.  The Aztecs were undone, though, with their shooting from beyond the arc.  SDSU was 3-for-18 (16.7%) from three, and was outscored by Tennessee 24-9 from distance.

After the jump, read more PLUS Craig and Chris break down the game in a brand-new 619 Sports podcast:Goins led Tennessee with 15 points, matched by J.P. Prince, who scored 11 of his 15 in the first half.

Prince was at the line with 47 seconds remaining and the Volunteers leading 57-56, but missed two free throws.  The Aztecs outrebounded UT 30-29, but were unable to corral the one critical board they needed, as Prince’s second miss found its way into the Vols’ hands, leading to the Goins deciding three.

The Aztecs took their last lead of the game with 9:45 to play when Malcolm Thomas (8 points, 4 rebounds) finished an up-and-under move in the paint.  But SDSU went the next 4:09 without scoring a point, missing four shots with a turnover.

The Aztecs led for a good portion of a sloppy first half before a late 12-3 Volunteers run gave Tennessee a 34-26 advantage at halftime.  The Aztecs shot just 32% in the first half, and 38% for the game.

Listen to the latest 619 Sports podcast, as Chris and I break down the game and give our takes on the end of the Aztecs’ season, and what to expect next year:

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One of the all-time great Aztecs basketball stars, Michael Cage moved on to a 15-year NBA career and now is a TV analyst for the Clippers and the Mountain West.  He’s watched the Aztecs courtside a number of times this year, and likes their chances to upset Tennessee in today’s first-round NCAA tournament game.

Michael joined 619 Sports this morning and was FIRED UP for the big game.  The rebounding star shared his thoughts on what makes Kawhi Leonard so tough on the glass, why he thought the Aztecs were screwed by the selection committee, and what he’s looking for against the Volunteers.  By the end of the interview I was ready to suit up for the game, Ben Kneller style!  Our conversation is after the jump:

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Find out more about Michael Cage at his website, mcage44.com.

Can SDSU spring the upset and earn their first-ever NCAA tournament victory?  How do the Aztecs match up with the Volunteers?  And who are the key players on the spot to deliver a win?

Craig and Chris are ready for the Aztecs’ big game with this preview podcast.  Find out why Tennessee’s depth advantage may not matter, how the Vols are a mirror image of the Aztecs, and why we hope D.J. Gay got a good night’s sleep, all after the jump:

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Be sure to follow 619 Sports on Twitter and Facebook for live tweets during the Aztecs’ NCAA tournament games!

San Diego State’s junior forward Malcolm Thomas transferred from Pepperdine after his freshman season to be part of a winning program.  Now, he’ll be in the starting lineup for an NCAA tournament team on Thursday vs. Tennessee.  Along the way, Thomas has learned how to use his size and strength to his advantage in the post.

Thomas joined 619 Sports this week to talk about how he’s become a physical presence on the court:

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Saturday, March 13th, 2010.  The greatest day in SDSU sports history?  What about San Diego sports history?

On how many other days could you say that San Diego saw TWO college basketball conference tournament championships, and a North American championship for the Sockers?  Craig and Chris were there to cover it all for you on 619 Sports…here, they discuss the meaning behind such a great day in our town’s history:

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While most SDSU supporters cringed at the announcement of Providence, Rhode Island as the destination city for the men’s basketball team, Aztecs’ senior guard Kelvin Davis was beaming.  That’s because Kelvin is from nearby Waterbury, Connecticut, and will have the chance to play in front of his family and friends.

Kelvin joined 619 Sports after the announcement of the Aztecs’ seeding to discuss his determination, the help his family has given him through his battles with cancer, and his desire to keep his senior season going as long as possible:

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After capturing the Mountain West Conference tournament in dramatic fashion over UNLV, the San Diego State Aztecs had nothing to sweat about during Selection Sunday.  The only questions were: seeding, location, and opponent.

The answers: #11, Providence, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.

It’s not a fan-friendly trip for Aztecs supporters, but the Volunteers present a challenging but beatable opponent.

After learning their fate, members of the SDSU basketball team met with the media to talk about their amazing tournament championship, and the quest to pick up the Aztecs’ first win in the NCAAs.

Aztecs’ point guard D.J. Gay joined 619 Sports’ Craig Elsten to discuss his clutch, ironman performance in Las Vegas:

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MWC Freshman of the Year Kawhi Leonard spoke to 619 Sports about his growth curve, and fulfilling the dream of reaching the Big Dance:

Download audio file (031410-kawhi-leonard.mp3)

“Viva Los Aztecs!”

For the second consecutive year, both the SDSU men and women have reached the finals of the Mountain West Conference tournament. The Aztec men did it in heart-stopping fashion for a second-straight day, knocking off No. 8-ranked New Mexico, 72-69, to not only reach the championship round, but also — more importantly — all but officially clinch a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Bracketologists everywhere have now moved SDSU (24-8) from the nerve-racking neighborhood of the bubble belt to the cushy surroundings of lock-city regardless of what happens in today’s men’s final against host UNLV. In beating the regular-season champion Lobos for the second time this season, and snapping their 15-game winning streak, the Aztecs have advanced their RPI ranking all the way into the nation’s Top 25.

“We’ve lost only four games all season, and two of them are to San Diego State,” said the conference’s Coach of the Year, New Mexico’s Steve Alford. “We’ve won six games over Top 25 teams, and that Aztec team is as good if not better than any of them.”

Meanwhile, Beth Burns’ lady Aztecs displayed all of their many talents in a 77-47 dismantling of BYU in Friday’s women’s semifinals. SDSU (20-10) is in the conference tournament final for a third-consecutive season but, unlike the previous two years, must win today to be NCAA bound. If the Aztecs play anything like they did against the second-seeded Cougars, defending MWC champ Utah won’t stand a chance in a reprise of last year’s final, which was won by the Utes, 63-58.

“We’ve got our eyes on the prize and we’re playing really well,” said Burns, whose hard-to-figure preseason conference favorites stumbled throughout the regular season but have now won their last five straight. “It’s March, and it’s a whole different deal at this point.”

In a city built on star power, San Diego State basketball has showcased its bevy of headliners all week long at the Thomas & Mack Center, the men winning twice over Colorado State and now New Mexico, and the women winning twice as well over Wyoming and now BYU.

The stars for the Aztec men came in the form of shooting-stars in the men’s semifinal against New Mexico. All season plagued by poor outside shooting, SDSU found the range Friday, knocking down 10 of their 16 three-point attempts. Freshman Kawhi Leonard, a 19-percent three-point shooter on the season, set the tone for the evening by knocking down back-to-back three’s to open the scoring and help SDSU race out to an 11-0 lead.

Leonard, who earned his 15th double-double of the season with 15 points and 12 rebounds, would finish 3-of-4 from the arc, the same total posted by his less-heralded classmate Chase Tapley, who turned in another gutty performance following his 5-of-6 shooting (including one three) in Thursday’s first-round 72-71 escape against Colorado State. Tapley, last year’s Northern California High School Player of the Year (taking a back seat to Leonard’s California State Player of the Year award), has now made8-of-10 field goals in the tournament despite playing with a broken bone on the ring finger of his left (non-shooting) hand.

“The kid’s got guts, I’ll tell you that,” said Fisher. “He’s in a lot of pain, but he refuses to let that stop him. Sure he plays somewhat in the shadows of our other guys, but we know how important he is. He’s a keeper.”

Junior forward Billy White, returning to play in his hometown, put on quite a show as well. White made 11-of-14 from the field, including a three, and swished all five of his free throws to finish with a game-high 28 points. With the score tied, 64-64, White busted free down the court to receive a long pass from Leonard, drew contact on a driving layup and finished off the three-point play to give SDSU the lead for good.

“Just before we went out, I told Billy to make his mother proud,” Fisher said. “Turns out he made everybody proud.”

Still, it would take one more center-stage performance to clinch the victory. Junior point guard D.J. Gay provided it with just under a minute to play, stepping around a Malcolm Thomas screen with the shot-clock running down and nailing a three from the top of the arc to make the score 70-66. Gay had been the hero against CSU in the quarterfinals, making two free throws with 23 seconds remaining for the winning points.

Against one of the nation’s best teams in the Lobos, Gay wound up with only five points, but he directed the Aztecs offense with precision, handing out seven assists and not committing even a single turnover.

The stars on the women’s side were plentiful as well as SDSU raced to an early 25-10 lead over BYU and never looked back. Senior guard Jene Morris turned in a tour deforce performance with 28 points on 10-of-14 shooting, six assists and six steals. Her back court partner, senior point guard Quenese Davis, added 18 points including a three hits from beyond the arc.

With BYU having closed a 19-point deficit to 10 in the final moments of the first half, Davis delivered a knock-out blow with a three from the deep right corner. Her sister Coco added two free throws before the break to send SDSU into the locker room with a 44-29 advantage.

The lead soon ballooned to 26 points early in the second half as the Aztecs, who shot 58.3-percent from the floor in the first half, continued firing on all cylinders. Center Paris Johnson wound up with 10 points and junior forward Allison Duffy contributed nine on 4-of-5 shooting.

SDSU’s defense was the biggest star on this day, however, holding BYU more than 20 points below its season average, harassing the Cougars into a 1-of-14 shooting day from beyond the arc, and forcing 19 turnovers which turned into 23 easy points at the other end of the floor.

Now with their championship tickets once again punched, the Aztec men and women will look to finish the job, something neither was able to do last year. Utah won both title games a year ago, winning 52-50 in the men’s game and 63-58 in the women’s final. The men will have a new opponent this time in UNLV, which ousted 14th-ranked BYU, 70-66.

The women will have a chance at retribution against Utah, which knocked out the regular-season champion TCU Lady Frogs, 69-57.

“I think both of us came here this season to try and accomplish the same thing,” Fisher said. “We want to be the ones cutting down the nets this time.”

– Ello

CBS lead college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg thinks there’s a strong possibility the Mountain West Conference can get four teams into the field of 65.  But could a team from the Pac-10 steal away SDSU’s bid?  Kellogg joined 619 Sports to preview the selection of the 2010 NCAA tournament field:

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The Aztecs Winning A Game On Free Throws? Believe It! D.J. Gay Beat Colorado State in Thursday's MWC Quarterfinals With A Pair From The Line In The Final Minute

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — I’ve known Randy McClintock for more than 25 years now. Went to college with him at San Diego State. Big Aztec fan, Randy is. Wears a No. 21 Evan Burns (Evan Burns?) white Aztec jersey to games.

Sat with him in the stands here Thursday afternoon for SDSU’s Mountain West Conference tournament opener against Colorado State at the Thomas & Mack Arena. Sat with Randy for a lot of Aztec games over the years.

You’d think we’d be used to it by now. But no matter how many times these guys drive you nuts with silly plays and wild shots, missed free throws (an Aztec tradition) and fumbled rebounds, doing almost everything they can, seemingly, to keep lesser teams in the game, it never gets easier to root, root, root for the ol’ Red and Black.

Finally, when it was over, when Colorado State’s Travis Busch’s desperate heave falling out of bounds from half-court sailed well wide of the mark, and SDSU had survived, 72-71, to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive, Randy and I exhaled.

“I’ll tell you,” Randy said. “We’re never going to see (the age of) 70 if we have to keep watching games like this.”

Never did it feel like truer words had been spoken. Cursed through the decades by heart-breaking losses on the football field and basketball court, the life of a die-hard Aztec fan seems as if it can lead us all to only one conclusion: we will die hard (and probably too early, like Randy said).

Even the wins are hard to take. Like Thursday’s.

Favored SDSU charged into the contest as a heavy favorite — and promptly fell behind, 7-0, in the opening three minutes. They were able to right the ship for awhile thanks to freshman guard Chase Tapley, who knocked down everything he threw up, despite playing with a broken bone in his (non-shooting) left hand. Give SDSU Athletic Trainer Mark Haines mad props for pulling out all the stops to get Tapley on the court.

Without him, they would have been in big trouble — as we would all eventually find out in the second half. With his 15 points before intermission, the Aztecs were able to carve out a 41-33 lead. Ominous clouds were forming, however. (They always are when SDSU is playing).

That’s because during the first half, jumping-jack Aztec forward Billy White came back down after a jump and badly twisted his ankle. Again give Haines credit for taping Billy back up and getting him back out there. But with Billy lacking full lift-off, the conference’s best rebounding team (by far) had lost an important advantage. The Rams would attack the glass the rest of the game and punish SDSU time-and-again with second-chance baskets. (At an SDSU Alumni function following the contest, Coach Steve Fisher would spot former Aztec rebounding great Michael Cage in the crowd and tell Cage that he could have used his services during the game).

Another thing that would eventually work against SDSU actually looked like a major break for the Red and Black when it first happened. It was midway through the first-half, and CSU’s best player, power forward Andy Ogide, threw a forearm shiv at Aztec center Brian Carwell after grabbing a defensive rebound. Officials didn’t see it clearly at first, but after looking at a replay monitor, they decided the play merited a flagrant technical foul — and they ejected Ogide from the game.

Frankly, it was a terrible decision (a simple technical foul would have sufficed), but now the Rams — undermanned to begin with — were going to have to try and beat the Aztecs with their most potent weapon silenced for the rest of the afternoon. Only against San Diego State could this development actually turn out well for CSU, as Fisher explained:

“When Ogide went out, they came in with all perimeter players,” said the Aztecs Coach, who has seen a lot of things over the years but maybe not quite as many strange things as Randy and I (and you) have. “That forced our big guys to have to cover all over the floor, and it made it tough to get out on all of their shooters.”

As SDSU would soon learn, not getting to Colorado State’s shooters nearly sent the Aztecs to another NIT. The Rams would storm back into the game by making 8-of-15 from beyond the arc, including four by guard Adam Nigon and two more by point guard Dorian Green. SDSU responded by pounding the ball inside to White and Malcolm Thomas, who scored at will against the Ogide-less and now smallish CSU front line.

That strategy worked for awhile, but eventually the Rams were able to clog things up around the basket. That’s because Tapley’s broken hand became too painful for him to continue in the second half. Sixth-year Senior Kelvin Davis took Tapley’s place but, on this day at least, had about as much of a chance of making an outside shot as Randy or I did.

Davis went oh-fer from the perimeter then even air-balled a free throw. His line for the afternoon: 0 points, 0 rebounds. Tyrone Shelley, playing with a broken thumb, gave it a try as well but was nearly as ineffective as Davis was. Then super-frosh Kawhi Leonard fouled out. And SDSU’s season appeared as if it were about to be fouled-up.

A driving three-point play by Green put CSU up, 71-70, with just under a minute remaining. Where would the Aztecs go for a game-winning basket? To the hobbling White? To the one-thumbed Shelley? To the misfiring Davis? Inside to Thomas, who was being completely surrounded? To Leonard or Tapley, who were sitting next to Fisher on the bench?

To Randy (who was at least healthy, but being covered by me)?

D.J. Gay, the Aztecs point guard, decided he really could go to nobody. So he drove hard to the hoop and hoped…and was rewarded with a foul called against CSU’s Travis Franklin. Of course, by this time, SDSU had already missed 10 free throws in the contest. And now we were counting on Gay to make a pair and give the Aztecs the lead.

Earlier this season, at New Mexico, Gay had been fouled on a three-point attempt with one second to play, the Aztecs trailing by two. With 13,000 fans in The Pit screaming at him, Gay could have won the game by making all three free throws. He made two (still not that bad considering the circumstances) and the game went into overtime, where SDSU lost.

This time, the entire fate of the season rode on his free throws. An Aztec season hanging in the balance — and free throws to be the determining factor. (Be honest long-time SDSU fans. Did you really think he was going to make them both?).

He did.

CSU committed a turnover with five seconds left, and then Tapley — brought back in with his broken hand throbbing — missed the front end of a one-and-one. The Rams raced to half-court where Busch flung his half-court heave. The ball landed wide of the backboard as the final horn sounded.

Fisher exchanged a handshake with losing CSU Coach Tim Miles and told him, “you guys should have won that game.”

In the end, though, Randy and I — and the rest of Aztecs faithful — actually were the ones who won. Our reward is a chance to sweat out another maddening Aztecs basketball game in the MWC semifinals.

– Ello