Three thoughts on No. 4 San Diego State’s 80-68 win against Utah State on Saturday night at Viejas Arena:
1. The ball saga continues
You might have noticed when referee Eric Curry tossed up the ball for the opening tip, it wasn’t shiny orange with a swoosh. It had a darker color, deeper and wider channels, with a different grip pattern.
That’s because it was a Wilson ball, not Nike.
The new Nike ball has become a source of consternation across the Mountain West, both publicly and privately. The conference contracted with ShotTracker this season to provide real-time analytics, and Nike-sponsored schools all received a new model of basketball with a tracking sensor implanted.
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The players don’t like it, claiming it’s slippery and has a dead spot that makes it bounce inconsistently. And the coaches aren’t all using the ShotTracker data, either because they’re not that statistically inclined or, in the case of UNLV’s T.J. Otzelberger and several others, because they claim the numbers aren’t always accurate.
Solutions were complicated by the various stakeholders. They could use last year’s model of Nike ball that the players preferred, but those didn’t have the chips inside and then you’d have incomplete ShotTracker data for the schools relying on it. They could use another brand of ball, but then you’d violate your endorsement contract with Nike.
SDSU Athletic Director John David Wicker and the Mountain West came to the rescue, reasoning that it was better to ask for permission than forgiveness from Nike. And Nike granted SDSU a waiver to use a different basketball, reasoning that the Aztecs are headed to the NCAA Tournament where they’ll play with Wilson balls.
To appease the conference and ShotTracker, SDSU realized it had some Wilson balls with the tracking chip that ShotTracker had shipped in September while the arrival of the new Nike balls was delayed until late October. That’s what they used Saturday.
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When the players showed up for practice Thursday and saw Wilsons on the ball rack, several hugged the coaches. That’s how excited they were to use them in their remaining home games.
They celebrated Saturday by shooting 14 of 38 behind the arc (43.8 percent) after shooting 35 percent in 10 games with the new Nike ball, although, it should be noted, they had improved in recent weeks as they adjusted to them.
The question now becomes: Who else requests a waiver? Six other Mountain West schools are sponsored by Nike, and you know players are going to ask — beg — their athletic directors to switch.
The other question: What ball will be used in the Mountain West Tournament?
“We will use a Nike ball,” said Senior Associate Commissioner Dan Butterly, noting that the conference has a marketing deal with Nike for its soccer and basketball tournaments. “I’ll have more details as we get closer, but they are our partners and we are working with Nike on the ball for the tournament.”
2. The hot hand(s)
Here’s what coach Brian Dutcher said about Matt Mitchell’s 24-point second half:
“We do what we always do. We find a hot hand and we ride it.”
Against New Mexico three days earlier, it was KJ Feagin, with 15 of his game-high 18 points coming in the first half.
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Before that, a career-high 18 points on 6-of-6 shooting by reserve guard Trey Pulliam against UNLV.
Before that, 18 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals from Malachi Flynn against Wyoming.
Before that, 17 points and 16 rebounds by Yanni Wetzell against Nevada.
Part of that is the diversity of talent on the roster. Part of that, though, is selflessness — recognizing the hot hand and riding it to the detriment of your individual stat line.
“That’s a credit to this team,” Dutcher said. “They knew Matt Mitchell was rolling. Instead of me having to call a play every time down the floor for Matt, good teams know who’s playing well and they find a way to get it to him. They just spaced the floor, they found Matt when he was open, and Matt was just rolling … He wasn’t bringing the ball up and having to do it himself.”
And Mitchell, perhaps more than any other player, presents a unique defensive challenge. Back off and he makes the 3, which he did four times in the second half — each one deeper than the last. Crowd him and he drives, using his 240 pounds to create leverage and draw fouls in the lane — and he’s shooting 84.8 percent from the line.
“When he starts getting going like that, he is a load to stop,” Utah State coach Craig Smith said. “He’s a mismatch nightmare. So quick, yet so powerful.”
The one thing about being “in the zone” is that it rarely happens in back-to-back games. There’s a regression to the mean.
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The point is, though, that rarely matters on this team. Someone else will step up.
“He’s a stud,” Feagin said of Mitchell. “He works just as hard as I do or anyone else on the team. When anyone on the team gets going, I’m not surprised. If any of us on the team need to do the bulk of the scoring, we’ve shown that we can do that. We have a group of guys who are all talented and are all sacrificing for the team.”
3. Who’s next?
Kawhi Leonard’s No. 15 hangs alone from the Viejas Arena rafters.
Now what?
It wasn’t a hard decision to put a two-time NBA Finals MVP up there. The hard decision is what other jerseys should join his.
The first thing is what to do with the three numbers that were previously retired but lost in the dustbin of history: men’s players Milton “Milky” Phelps (22) and Michael Cage (44), and women’s all-time leading scorer Judy Porter (33). Hard to believe they wouldn’t go up there, too.
The next issue becomes the criteria for future jersey retirements, since the current athletic administration has made it clear it no longer wants to “retire’ numbers. Do you cut it off there? Or do you open it to others?
Is it based more on what you do after college, or what you did while there? And for how long?
Leonard and Cage were second team All-Americans (and played nine and 16 years in the NBA). If Flynn is a first or second team All-American, does he automatically join them even if he plays only one season at SDSU?
What about Brandon Heath, the all-time men’s leading scorer with 2,189 points?
Or D.J. Gay, whom many consider the MVP of Leonard’s 2010-11 team that went 34-3 and reached the Sweet 16?
Or Xavier Thames, who had maybe the greatest single season in school history in 2013-14 and led the Aztecs to their only other Sweet 16?
Or Jamaal Franklin, a Mountain West Player of the Year and two-time honorable mention All-American?
Or Chase Tapley, the only person to start on four NCAA Tournament teams?
Or Randy Holcomb, the recruit most credit with the start of the program’s ascension after Steve Fisher arrived in 1999?
Decisions, decisions.
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February 03, 2020 at 12:06PM
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3 thoughts: No. 4 SDSU 80, Utah State 68 ... a new ball, riding the hot hand and the next jersey retired - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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