Well the first 30 minutes or so played out the way I expected them too. A close, hard fought, moderately high scoring game which was very back and forth. I expected this game go down to the wire, but instead, with the score tied at 44, BYU went on a 16-8 run to take a 60-52 lead with 4:12 to go. They went on to win 71-58. At the very least even though I predicted BYU to lose, I correctly predicted their point total on the dot with 71, so I take solace in that lol. To me, San Diego State played that game exactly how they had to. They allowed Jimmer Fredette to get his points while severely limiting the rest of the team. Outside of Fredette, BYU hit 11-32 baskets which is a little better than 33%. One of the players who I said had to sept up for BYU did last night in Brandon Davies, who went 6-8 from the field for a total of 14 points and 5 rebounds. You obviously knew Fredette was going to get points and he did. With his performance last night, I don't think anyone in the country doesn't know who he is anymore and last night's game is final confirmation come tourney time, no one will be sleeping on the Cougars.
The area in which this game was lost was on offense for the Aztecs. Like I said, defensively I thought they played the game pretty well but they just couldn't do anything on offense. First off the free throws could pose a concern later on in the season. They only shoot 67% from there and shot 9-15 (60%) last night. I was talking to my friend and he said they're not going deep in the NCAA Tournament unless they make their free throws and I don't know about that. As it is they will probably be pretty comfortable favorites in their first 2 round games and they have extra motivation that everyone is disrespecting them and they want to show that their great record was not a fluke. In addition, everyone said that about Memphis a couple years ago and while it did finally cost them the title, they still made the championship game. And I think this Aztec team while not as good as Memphis was offensively that year is much better defensively.
The other areas I thought they played poorly was connecting on second chance points. I've seen them play teams like Gonzaga, St. Mary's, UNLV, etc. this season and it was the first time I saw them getting rebounds but not converting layups. They held a 35-31 advantage on rebounding, although it felt like more. They went 17-42 from 2 point range which is 40.5%. They usually shoot roughly 10 percent higher than that for a game so last night they really struggled. In addition, they committed a lot of turnovers in the first half which helped BYU stay in it. D.J. Gay who coach Steve Fisher describes as "not the best player, but the most important" on the Aztecs team had his worst game of the season going 0-7 from the field and 0-5 from 3 point range for a paltry 2 points. I really doubt he plays that poorly again the second time around at the Aztec Bowl at Viejas Arena in late February for the rematch. And lastly, if the 0-5 is any indication, they just couldn't hit 3's. They shot 5-20 from the field while BYU shot 5-15. So the combination of missed free throws (SD State went 9-15, BYU 16-19), missed second chance points which I haven't seen all season from this Aztecs team and finally missed threes doomed this Aztecs team on this night.
San Diego State has a relatively easy schedule in the near future but will be faced with two good tests at Colorado State and at UNLV. I think this team will win out regular season and will make the conference championship game in the MWC Tournament. If it was BYU-SDSU Round III, I'm sure it'd be a hell of a game, especially on a neutral court and I think you'd have to still give the slight edge to San Diego State. Even though they're now a team with a loss, a lot of times, there's something to take out of finally losing a game. The pressure's off, the media goes away a bit and you can just focus on playing basketball and be the best team you can possibly be. I think this team will be ready come March and I hope to see another big game between these two. Maybe Jimmer will drop 50 then.
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