Game Recap: San Diego really isn’t a State, USD wins City Championship

San Diego State University, the city’s oldest institution of higher education, lost a men’s basketball game on its home floor to the University of San Diego, a private Roman Catholic college off Friars Road, undergraduate enrollment 5,855. It was a sad thing to witness.

Do any of us want to dwell unnecessarily on the ugly 73-61 loss that handed the City Championship to USD? Not me, palooka, and probably not you.

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Game Recap: Luxuriously attired SDSU drops the hammer on one of the country’s worst teams

Men’s basketball’s new NET rankings, the long-awaited replacement for RPI, had a bit of a bumpy launch this week with a bizarre Top 10 and math nerds saying very unkind things about the formula. After watching the telecast of tonight’s action at Viejas Arena, I’ll give the new rankings system this: Jackson State at 349 seems … about right.

San Diego State, which debuted at 96 in NET after losing by 30 to Iowa State in Maui last week, regrouped to crush the Tigers 87-44 in a performance as pretty as the Aztecs’ turquoise Native American Heritage Month unis. Or nearly as pretty, anyway.

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Game Recap: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Look man, what do you want from me here? Would you like me to break down the deficiencies, misplays and tactical errors that led to the Aztecs’ 90-64 loss to No. 1 Duke in the opening round of the Maui Invitational? Why?

That would be a little like picking apart the structural deficiencies of a really nice sports car that just got demolished by a BNSF freight train. If you don’t want your ride to get wrecked, keep it off the damn tracks. But with the Aztecs in harm’s way amid the deepest Maui field ever, here we are.

Duke, as they say, is Duke —but this year’s freshman-laden squad is extremely Duke, save for two big differences:

  1. They amazingly don’t have anyone on the roster who stands out as extremely punchable.
  2. They somehow possess more raw talent and offensive firepower than we’re used to seeing. From Duke.

Barring injury or major upset, the Blue Devils are probably going to cruise to the National Championship in March. Coach K’s guys started their season by pummeling Kentucky by 34 points. Let it be known, for the record, that the Duke Blue Devils did not beat the Aztecs by that many points (SUCK IT, KENTUCKY), nor did they win wire-to-wire.

I CAME WITH THE RECEIPTS, FOLKS:

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Game Recap: Aztecs crush Texas Southern, look damn good doing it

Tonight marked my first look at the 2018-19 San Diego State men’s basketball Aztecs and … well … before I get to gushing over this 103-64 thrashing of Texas Southern, I feel like I should temper things a bit.

The last time the Aztecs kept it one hunnit, as the kids say, I was inspired to write this bit of sanguine nonsense that looks pretty dumb now. That 2016-17 team ended up being one of the most disappointing SDSU squads in a decade. So beware the siren song of the small sample size is what I’m saying.

That said …

These new look Tecs kind of pass the eye test, don’t they?

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Game Recap: Aztecs, minus Malik, beat San Jose State

Winners_Dont_Use_Drugs

San Diego State men’s basketball took a wobbly first step into the post Malone post-Malik era on Saturday night — an era the program has ushered in by choice.

Tonight, up in Eugene, Ore., a player mentioned by his coach on a dang FBI wiretap as the recipient of a hundred grand was cleared to play by the University of Arizona.

Tonight, at Event Center at San José State University, a player whose name appeared next to a $1,400 loan on a sports agency’s balance sheet wasn’t even allowed to make the trip.

What a world.

Yeah. We hear you, Max. We hear you.

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