Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 63-58 win against UC San Diego in the season opener Wednesday night at Viejas Arena:
1. Flying Byrd
If you’re searching for a common denominator in SDSU’s nervy games against UCSD last year and again Wednesday, if you’re looking for reasons the less-athletic, less-celebrated Tritons put scares into the Aztecs both times, consider that Reese Waters wasn’t healthy for either.
Last year, he was so sick that he missed shootaround, needed a pre-game IV and slogged through 17 largely ineffective minutes with four points on 2 of 7 shooting.
This year, the only Aztecs player on the Mountain West preseason all-conference team sat on the bench in street clothes and a protective boot on his fractured right foot.
He’s a perfect player for this kind of opponent, 6-foot-6, agile, experienced, poised, able to recognize different defenses and how to attack them, a shooter, a rebounder, a lock-down defender.
Someone else had to step up. And someone did.
In his first career start, 6-foot-7 redshirt sophomore Miles Byrd — another big wing who matches up well against the Tritons — had 20 points, eight rebounds, three assists, five steals and four blocks. His offensive rating in the Kenpom metric was an astronomical 144 (most guys are 90 or below).
The stat that impressed coach Brian Dutcher the most was none of those.
“He’s a dynamic player, so you know his energy is always high,” Dutcher said. “The thing I liked best about Miles today is he only had one turnover. He’s a guy who sometimes gets careless, but he was tight with the ball. That’s a huge improvement there.
“It was good to see him, in the first game of his third year in the program, step up and make such good plays.”
Byrd ignited the 12-0 run that erased a 50-45 deficit with seven minutes to go, scoring back-to-back baskets followed by a block and a steal.
He was granted a medical redshirt after appearing in only four games in his first season, then averaged 4.0 points in 14.1 minutes per game off the bench in his second. It was a big ask to step into the lead role in a tight game in his first career start, and he answered it.
“I’ve put in a lot of work here in the past two years,” Byrd said. “For the first game of my second sophomore season, as I would say, it’s exciting. But I’m already past it. I’m worrying about getting a good rest day (Thursday) and coming back Friday and putting in work.”
2. Matchup madness
Dutcher and his staff knew a matchup zone and switching man were part of UCSD’s defensive arsenal.
“I just didn’t think they’d play it very long,” Dutcher said. “I thought they’d try it for a possession or two, and if we hit a basket, they’d get out of it.”
The problem: The Aztecs weren’t consistently hitting baskets, and the Tritons stuck with it.
Hybrid zones with man-to-man principles or man defense with zone principles have their flaws, but finding and exploiting them in the season opener … with a new team … with six freshmen or sophomores in the rotation becomes exponentially more difficult. The Aztecs spent most of the preseason working against their base man and occasionally against a scout-team zone, but rarely against more boutique schemes.
“That’s challenging,” Dutcher said. “All the plays you’ve worked on against straight man aren’t working, and now you have to find ways to generate offense. We’re trying to figure it out on the fly, and that’s a hard thing to do. As much as sometimes you’re disappointed with the play, you’re only good at things you work on.”
With the offense at the opposite end of the floor in a loud, sold-out arena, out of earshot of the coaches, the Aztecs shot 32.1% in the first half and scored .727 points per possession. In the second half, with them screaming instructions from the bench: 59.1% and 1.345 points per possession.
Dutcher referenced one sequence in particular, up four with 30 seconds left.
UCSD went to double-team Nick Boyd as he dribbled off a ball screen, leaving one defender to cover both BJ Davis and Wayne McKinney III along the right sideline. Dutcher took a couple steps toward Davis and screamed: “BJ, cut!”
He slashed to the basket, Boyd found him, and the ensuing layup made it 61-55. Game over.
“So, good job, coach Dutcher,” Dutcher said. “But these are plays that as a player you learn. You’re like, ‘Man, if they’re not looking at me, I’m just going to cut behind them and get a layup.’
“I talked them through some things on the floor. … That’s coaching. I don’t want to play them like a PlayStation game where I’m moving them and telling them where to go. But as I’m teaching and as they’re learning, they’ll start doing it on their own.”
3. Going small
Midway through the second half, Dutcher junked his plan to play two bigs and went small with four guards. It won them the game.
There were strategic advantages at both ends of the floor, but there’s also the reality that the Aztecs’ lofty front line wasn’t able to impose its will against a smaller foe. And the reality that, going forward, going small won’t work against every opponent.
SDSU’s four bigs accounted for seven of the team’s 14 turnovers. They accounted for only three baskets in the paint. They had one offensive rebound in a combined 69 minutes.
Coleman-Jones was the best of the bunch, with nine points and nine rebounds (but three turnovers) in 23 minutes. He also has the most experience, a grad transfer from Middle Tennessee stepping up a level for his final season.
The other three are babes, requiring time and patience in a position that Dutcher says is the hardest to transition from high school given the increased speed and physicality. Magoon Gwath and Pharoah Compton were playing their first college games. Miles Heide averaged 1.9 points in 8.9 minutes as a freshman last season.
The Aztecs have veteran scorers in the backcourt between Waters, Byrd, Boyd, Davis, McKinney and Brown transfer Kimo Ferrari. But how far this team goes this season will likely depend on how quickly the guys up front acclimate.
“It’s incredible to be able to play here,” Coleman-Jones said, “and I know it will get better as the season goes on.”