The Nike Elite basketballs that San Diego State normally uses have been stashed in the bottom of the rack for the past week. At the top are six brand new, bright orange Wilson Evo balls they ordered from Amazon.
That’s because the Players Era Festival is using Wilson balls, same as the NCAA Tournament does.
And the Aztecs don’t want to make the same mistake teams at the Champions Classic in Atlanta did earlier this month. Kentucky spent the week practicing with the Spalding ball the event was contracted to use and shot 40% on 3s and won; Michigan State and Duke reportedly did not and shot 12% and 17%, respectively, and lost.
As far as the city and opponent in Tuesday morning’s opening game of the eight-team event, they know them well.
Las Vegas is SDSU basketball’s second home. The Aztecs have played here 73 times since the 2009-10 season, winning 57 times between annual regular-season games at UNLV, the Mountain West Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center and nonconference events like this one.
And their opponent at MGM Grand Garden Arena at 11 a.m. on TBS?
Let’s just say SDSU and Creighton have some history.
They are 1,300 miles apart and belong to different conferences. One is a public university on the Pacific Coast, the other private and church-based in Omaha, Neb. One is known for defense, the other for offense. One wears scarlet and black, the other blue and white. And yet, this is the sixth time they have played since 2011.
“Someone we’re very familiar with,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “A familiar foe.”
Creighton coach Greg McDermott is closing in on his 500th career victory and he was recently asked to list his top 25.
Two came against the Aztecs — the 85-83 win at Viejas Arena in 2011 after trailing by 17, and the 72-69 overtime win in the 2022 NCAA Tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, after trailing by nine inside 2:30 to go in regulation.
Aztecs fans will remember the others more fondly: 86-80 in the 2013 Wooden Legacy in Fullerton after trailing 14-2; the 31-point shellacking in the 2019 Las Vegas Invitational down the street at the Orleans Arena; and, of course, the most recent encounter in the 2023 Elite Eight in Louisville, Ky.
That was decided with 1.2 seconds left, when Darrion Trammell drew a controversial foul in the lane and sank a free throw for a 57-56 victory that sent the Aztecs to the Final Four for the first time in program history.
McDermott took the high road when asked afterward about the call, a sign of respect between programs that were chummy enough to share a charter flight to the Maui Invitational earlier that season.
“Two teams played their tails off and officiating is part of the game,” McDermott said in Louisville. “We’re not going to go there. We lost the game because we didn’t do enough, and San Diego State did.”
No one who played for SDSU that day is still on the roster. Three players from Creighton are, and only Ryan Kalkbrenner got more than three minutes.
Yes, he’s still in college.
It is his fifth season, and Tuesday will be his 140th career game (and 109th career start). He’s 7-foot-1. He’s a preseason All-American. He had 49 points in the opener against Texas-Rio Grande Valley.
And then Friday night against rival Nebraska … he took one shot in 39 minutes.
It was a puzzling turn of events in a 74-63 home loss that tumbled the Bluejays from No. 14 to 21 in The Associated Press poll, and one that could have repercussions Tuesday in Las Vegas.
The Cornhuskers fronted Kalkbrenner in the post and gave aggressive backside help to deter the lob over the top.
The risk: They left perimeter shooters open.
The reward: The Bluejays went 12 of 42 behind the arc and had 17 turnovers trying to force the ball inside.
“If you’re getting open shots, you live with it,” said Kalkbrenner, who finished with four points, all on free throws, in 39 minutes. “They can commit five people to me, and if they’re giving up wide-open 3s, I don’t care if I shoot. We’ve got to knock them down next time, and we will. We’ve got a lot of good shooters on this team. I’ve got confidence in them.”
Your move, Coach Dutcher.
Do you steal the blueprint and hope the Bluejays didn’t practice with the sticky Wilson balls? Or do you try to double-cross McDermott by having your young bigs try something unexpected?
“They’ll spend the next three days (since the Nebraska loss) seeing how they didn’t get it to him and find ways they can,” Dutcher said. “I’m sure that will be their point of emphasis that he got one shot. We could play the identical defense to Nebraska, and Nebraska could play them again today, and they’d find a way to get to him for more than one shot.”
One person who likely won’t be passing Kalkbrenner the Wilson ball is fifth-year senior point guard Steven Ashworth.
He’s another familiar foe, having faced the Aztecs in three years at Utah State before transferring to Creighton last season and using his extra “Covid” year there this season. He landed on a Nebraska player’s foot in the second half, rolled his right ankle and was helped off the floor in tears.
“Torqued it pretty good,” McDermott said. A school official has since said Ashworth is doubtful Tuesday.
That takes 16 points, 6.4 assists and 23 of 23 free throws out of the lineup, helping mitigate the significant experience deficit facing an Aztecs team that has six freshmen or sophomores in the rotation.
It also evens the injury ledger. SDSU is still without preseason all-conference guard Reese Waters for at least another month.
“It’s hard to play short-handed,” Dutcher said. “Even though they’re still going to be good, they’re obviously better with him on the floor.”
The wild card, of course, is how his roster of freshmen and sophomores and newbies handles its first game together away from Viejas Arena, going from a crazed environment against No. 3 Gonzaga to a 10 a.m. tip in an empty venue where you can hear sneakers squeak.
“You never want to lose a game, especially this early,” sophomore wing Miles Byrd said of the 80-67 loss to the Zags. “But when you lose a game to the No. 3 team in the country, I don’t think you can really count that as a loss. It’s more of a lesson. We’ve seen what a top team in the country looks like. I think we’re right there.
“We have a couple young guys who are still (on a learning) curve. I was playing but I didn’t play very well obviously (zero points in 22 minutes). A few tweaks, and we would have been right in that game. It was a good showing for us, but we have to keep improving.”