Star Power

“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.

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Being as you San Diego State sports fans say you don’t go to games because the product has been poor over the last decade or two, what’s going to be your excuse to not attend the Aztecs’ women’s basketball games this season?

Inconvenienced? Sorry, that won’t work since SDSU plays its games on campus at Viejas Arena, where by the way, it went undefeated last season. Cost? Please. You can take the whole family to a game — and probably grab a couple of hot dogs and a coke — for under $25-dollars.

Don’t really like women’s basketball? Well, just remember that it was the great John Wooden who said that the women are the only ones who actually still play the game the way it was intended to be played. And under Beth Burns, widely regarded as the finest coach anywhere in the city in any sport, you can be assured that her team does play the right way, along with playing as hard for 40 full minutes as any team you’ll see.

There’s no star power. Really? The Aztecs feature senior guard Jene Morris, who just so happens to be on the NCAA’s Preseason All-American team and has been named the Preseason Player of the Year in the Mountain West Conference. Alongside her is point guard Quenese Davis, who in just three seasons, is already far and away SDSU’s all-time assists leader. And underneath is junior center Paris Johnson, who was a two-time CIF Section Player of the Year while she was at San Diego High School.

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