San Diego State vs UNLV Basketball Recap

San Diego State 68, UNLV 58


The San Diego State Aztecs have no margin for error in the remainder of the regular season. They played like their season was on the line Saturday afternoon in on their home court.

Coach Steve Fisher's team put on a defensive clinic at Viejas Arena, as a team in dire need of a long winning streak gained a significant scalp against the UNLV Runnin' Rebels. San Diego State is still on the wrong side of the bubble, but this win - if followed by a five- or six-game winning streak - could be the start of a late-season surge that will give the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee something to think about on the second weekend of March.

UNLV might still be in good shape for a tourney trip, but Lon Kruger's crew had a bad week on the ranch. Vegas was vanquished on Wednesday by Los Lobos from New Mexico, and in this journey to the Montezuma Mesa, the Rebels were vexed by SDSU's desperate and dogged defense.

The numbers paint a partial picture of the Aztecs' defensive acumen. UNLV hit only 35 percent of its field goal attempts and found the bottom of the bucket on only 3 of 17 3-pointers. Guard Tre'Von Willis - UNLV's best player and scorer - hit only 5 of his 15 shots, and the Rebels' final total of six offensive rebounds didn't give them many chances to overcome their many misses.

Stats, however, could only tell some of the story on this day in the Southwesternmost corner of America's contiguous 48 states. What was especially impressive about San Diego State's effort was that it was as disciplined as it was passionate. SDSU hounded the red-clad Rebels across the 94-foot hardwood slab, but in addition to moving their feet, the Aztecs didn't go for pump fakes or shot fakes. They stayed on the floor were rarely caught out of position. Rotations were airtight, and help defense routinely choked off driving lanes for UNLV ballhandlers.

Upon further reflection, the fact that San Diego State defenders obtained such good positioning is something which accounts for UNLV's inability to crash the offensive glass. A big part of offensive rebounding is found in the ability to draw defenders to one side of the court, so that a missed shot can be cleaned up by a teammate on the weak side. The Aztecs, though, didn't get caught in these kinds of situations, as UNLV's ball movement didn't come remotely close to disrupting SDSU's defensive reactions and movements.

San Diego State needs to throw down this level of defense in each of its next several games. If the Aztecs can protect their basket against BYU and other Mountain West foes the way they did against UNLV, they might just have a chance to make the NCAAs after all.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer