Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I need to get cooking, so I’m going to go ahead and give this Game Recap roughly the same effort as the San Diego State men’s basketball Aztecs put forth in their third and final game of the Maui Invitational.
First the good news: Despite getting stomped 87-57 by Iowa State this morning/afternoon, the Aztecs do not need to give back their impressive Tuesday win against Xavier. At least I think they don’t. Perhaps someone should consult the rule book just to be sure?
Anyway, this game started much like the previous one, with SDSU falling behind massively early to a team on fire from beyond the arc. The Cyclones were helped on their way by a few of things.
- Jalen McDaniels getting into extremely early foul trouble.
- An uninspired zone defense that left Cyclones shooters wide open on the perimeter
- SDSU’s perplexing inability to rebound, like, at all
Those are the kind of things that allow teams to jump out to 14-point halftime leads, and unlike the previous game no valiant surge ever threatened to materialize. The Aztecs basically played the second half while carrying their boarding passes and carry-on items. Mentally, they were already back on the mainland.
Iowa State, despite having eight available players, looked like the damn Golden State Warriors shooting over that stupid zone, hitting nine 3s before halftime and 14 overall. Guard Marial Shayok (Klay-ok?) led the way with four of them for 21 points.
Anyway, that sucked and I don’t want to write about it anymore.
Taking the long view, SDSU’s three day Maui Invitational experience was still a qualified success. OK, that seems wrong. A qualified non-disaster? Basically SDSU got what could be a decent resume win, and got throttled by one great team and another really good one — losses that probably, ultimately, won’t get held against it by anyone who matters.
But my goodness are there some things to clean up, and quickly.
Turning point
In 1914, Frank Lindley became a high school basketball coach in Kansas, where he was known for his many innovations, including the zone defense. This is all Frank’s fault.
Best Some of Aztecs Twitter
What’s next for the basketball Tecs
SDSU (3-2) returns home and dons the turquoise unis to face winless Jackson State next Tuesday at Viejas Arena. Please don’t think about that yet. Have some egg nog and forget basketball exists. That’s my plan.
KABEER THIRTY 