However, during timeouts, it switches to commercials and crowd shots. The numbers go away.
Mercifully, it turned out to be the San Diego State basketball team, saving them from watching.
The Aztecs’ showdown with No. 7-ranked Michigan lasted all of four minutes, looking like it was one of the best college rosters the NIL could buy to erase an early deficit and shift into overdrive for an impressive, solid, emphatic, clear 94-54 victory on the opening night of the 18-team Players Era festival.
Or to put it more succinctly: the Aztecs were taken to the woodshed.
Ninety-four to fifty-four.
It was the program’s most lopsided defeat in more than a quarter century since an 86–38 shellacking at Utah in 1999 during a 4–22 season that led to the firing of coach Fred Trenkel and, ultimately, the hiring of Steve Fisher.
This is their second lopsided result in their last two meetings with highly regarded college basketball programs. In the First Four of the NCAA Tournament last March, they fell behind North Carolina by 40. On Monday night, they trailed Michigan by 42.
Counting losses in last season’s final two games, the Mountain West and NCAA Tournaments, a program that has played in the 2023 national championship game is 2-4 in its last six contests.
“I think it’s safe to say, Dusty May got revenge on me at Florida Atlantic,” coach Brian Dutcher said, trying to lighten the somber mood, referencing SDSU’s dramatic win against May-coached FAU in the 2023 Final Four. “It affected me, it affected all of us. Michigan has a very good team.”
The contest gets easier Tuesday night (8 p.m., TNT), facing an Oregon team that is ranked No. 66 in KenPom metrics and turned it over 18 times in an 84-73 loss to Auburn on Monday. But even that might not be enough for an SDSU team that was considered one of the best in school history and suddenly, inexplicably, lost only four games in the season.
“When you’re bad, you’re bad from top to bottom, and I’m on top,” said Dutcher, whose team’s KenPom ranking dropped to 57 after starting the season at 29. “I didn’t prepare us to compete at that level against a very good team. I told them after the game, ‘We can’t think a single thing about Michigan when we walk off the field, or we’ll have no chance to play against Oregon.’
“As much as it may serve as a learning experience, this is not the time to learn from it. It’s time we put this behind us as quickly as possible, know we’re good, get our swag back and come out and compete at a high level. … I told guys they have to cut out the noise.”
The worst thing about getting to 40-a-piece, besides the sheer embarrassment for a proud program, is that point differential is a significant tiebreaker in the 18-team event to determine the matchup for the third game. Finish in the top 14, you play on Wednesday and get home for Thanksgiving. Finish in the bottom four, you’ll stay there until Thursday and eat turkey in a windowless hotel conference room.
And even a one-point loss against Oregon would almost certainly lead the Aztecs to that fate.
“I’m just trying to get over the damage this game took and get to the next game and get my swag back up,” junior Miles Byrd said.
Magoun Gwath moved into the starting lineup, and Miles Heide returned to it after suffering an ankle injury in practice before the last game. But it made no difference to the Wolverines, who simply walked around them and anyone else who got in their way.
Two bright spots for SDSU came in the form of freshman Elzie Harrington and junior BJ Davis. He finished the season shooting a combined 17.1% from the field for 26 points a night, while starters only managed seven, five, five, four and zero points.
Gwath capped off his season debut last week with a 20-point, seven-rebound, three-block performance with seven points (2 of 8 shooting), two rebounds, five turnovers and no blocks in 20 minutes. Leading scorers Reese Dixon-Waters and Miles Bird had a combined five points on 3-of-15 shooting.
Michigan had six players in double figures, all with between 10 and 13 points. The loss was collective, outshooting the Aztecs 50% to 27.4%, outshooting them 38-12 in the paint, outshooting them 49-34, and posting a 22-3 advantage in second-chance points off the offensive boards.
The only win of the night for the Aztecs was a coach’s video challenge in the first half that overturned a goaltending call.
May was asked if he expected more resistance from a program that had won its last four games against ranked opponents in the non-conference tournament held in Las Vegas, including Creighton and Houston last year.
“Apparently, yes,” he replied. “But we had a great night. They’re still finding themselves after Magoon was out and just coming back. It’s not that easy to put all these pieces together. The players really need to have some self-awareness and make a very intentional effort to play off each other and do the things that are needed to really click.”
“We showed our guys. They’re the third-winningest program in the last 12 years in college basketball. There’s no program that I, personally, have more respect for than them because of the consistency with which they do it and (how) they do it their way. Everybody that comes in, Kawhi Leonard and whoever, plays a certain way. Yeah, we didn’t expect it to happen.”
Six days after falling 14–2 to Troy in what was ultimately a double overtime loss, the Aztecs learned their lesson and did so on their first two possessions: a driving layup by Taj DeGorville, followed by a step-back 3 by Byrd, giving them a 5–0 lead.
Then Michigan did it: a 17-2 run in which the Aztecs missed seven of eight shots and had two turnovers.
The margin would swell to 17 midway through the first half as the Wolverines dominated the boards – on one possession, they had four volleyball tips at the rim before one ultimately fell – and the Aztecs settled for contested mid-range jumpers in the lane, the worst shooting percentage in basketball if you listen to the analytics gurus.
Harrington scored nine of his team’s final 12 points to make it a respectable 45-33 at halftime. He finished with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
But they cooled off again early in the second half and by the time they finally scored they were already behind by 20.
By the time they scored 40 points, they were down 27 points.
Soon, it was in the 40s.
“There comes a time when you’re so down, you’re really just coaching for the next game,” Dutcher said. “It’s not possible to come back when you’re down that much. It’s just trying to keep his confidence up. There’s no point in yelling at someone who’s down 30 or 40 points. He already feels bad enough, you know?
“I’m just trying to encourage them, tell them the best way to get through this is to believe in yourself, believe in your teammates, don’t get stuck in pity because nothing good can come of it. We’ll work through this. We’ll find a way.”
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