{"id":11039,"date":"2022-03-19T22:19:36","date_gmt":"2022-03-19T22:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/03\/19\/3-thoughts-creighton-72-sdsu-69-ot-perspective-pressure-and-perception\/"},"modified":"2022-03-19T22:19:36","modified_gmt":"2022-03-19T22:19:36","slug":"3-thoughts-creighton-72-sdsu-69-ot-perspective-pressure-and-perception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/03\/19\/3-thoughts-creighton-72-sdsu-69-ot-perspective-pressure-and-perception\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Thoughts: Creighton 72, SDSU 69 (OT) … Perspective, Pressure, and Perception"},"content":{"rendered":"
FORT WORTH, Texas – <\/span><\/p>\n

Three thoughts on the San Diego State season ending 72-69 overtime loss against Creighton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Dickies Arena on Thursday night:<\/p>\n

1. Perspective<\/h2>\n

Once Creighton finished the unlikely win after finishing with nine behind with 2:30 in regulation and three in overtime, the telecast cut into the studio and Charles Barkley offered his analysis of what he just saw has.<\/p>\n

“Creighton, congratulations, they won the game,” Barkley said. “But San Diego State just choked this game. Yeah, choked. They only had to make one or two games to win this game. Listen, they overplayed it for 39 minutes and gave up the game at the last minute. … Maybe I shouldn\u2019t say choking, but they blew that game flat.<\/p>\n

Call it what you will – suffocate, forgive, blow – it was not beautiful. But it, too, as much as jilted San Diego sports fans in their last moment of misery thinking, was largely out of character.<\/p>\n

Note: The Aztecs had won nine straight overtime matches and were 23-2 in their previous 25.<\/p>\n

In: They had won 37 straight as they led by five minutes (it was 58-50 Thursday), in 72 of the last 73, in 363 and in the last 375. They famously played 164 games in a row between January 2010 and February 2016 closed. .<\/p>\n

It is one of the reasons, perhaps the primary reason why they have developed such a loyal fan base, especially for a large metropolis in a sport that is more cordially followed in small college towns. And perhaps why, for those who have been to the Dickies Arena, this is one of the most devastating defeats they have ever seen.<\/p>\n

“The worst,” one said.<\/p>\n

Unless it’s indoor soccer, San Diego sports teams generally do not win much. SDSU Basketball does. The Aztecs are rarely beaten at home, rarely play late, rarely leave the conference tournament early. It is a relatively “safe” investment of emotional capital, a reliable connection to your identity. They bow sometimes; they do not usually break.<\/p>\n

But on the occasion that they make Azgag, as some call it, it is a satellite that drums out of orbit, and ignites flames when they enter again, scattering debris for miles, everywhere melting wreckage.<\/p>\n

The 164-game stretch began after losing a 14-point lead in the final minutes to Wyoming. It ended in a home loss to Boise State after the Aztecs missed seven straight free kicks and took a nine-point lead with just over a minute to go. The only such loss in the previous 73 games came last season against Colorado State … after blowing a 26-point lead, a Mountain West record.<\/p>\n

This was not so extreme in the way but will be remembered for where, in an NCAA tournament game that was apparently over.<\/p>\n

“We were dead in the water,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.<\/p>\n

“Like,” said Senior Guard Trey Pulliam, “we had it in our hands.”<\/p>\n

The unfortunate part for Brian Dutcher and his staff is that they probably did their best coaching job – yes, better than the 30-2 team – just to get into the Dickies Arena, to take on a group so challenged to scoring that as a 230th in offensive efficiency in January and having only one guy averaged more than 8.5 points … on 23 wins and an 8 seed in the NCAA tournament just weeks after being on the wrong side of the bubble.<\/p>\n

Fair or not, that’s the deal in college basketball. Seasons are too often defined as how you finish rather than how you get there, by destination instead of travel. That’s why players and coaches write the cross they carry.<\/p>\n

“The Angie and the Ecstasy of March,” Dutcher said.<\/p>\n

2. Pressure<\/h2>\n

Four times this season, Matt Bradley is in the free kick in a point game within 10 seconds.<\/p>\n

Two makes, five missed.<\/p>\n

He knows. You do not have to tell him.<\/p>\n

Cal Transfer is one of the more insightful, introspective players in recent SDSU history, impassively analyzing its performance, never shy away from a failure. And so it went Thursday night when before the end of the one-on-one discussion he clanked in regulation in a tie game with 7.0 seconds left.<\/p>\n

“It was a theme at the end of the game for, you know, pretty much this whole season,” Bradley said. “During this offseason, I definitely need to do a little soul searching and find out what’s going on with me mentally, what makes me do that.”<\/p>\n

Arizona State, Nov. 18: Up one, 8.7 seconds left, make, miss. The Sun Devils missed a 3 at Buzzer and the SDSU survived 65-63.<\/p>\n

Nevada, February 6: Up one, 9.6 seconds left, make missed. Wolf Pack center Will Baker had a look at a winner 3 but went out of bounds and SDSU survived 65-63.<\/p>\n

Pa Boise State, Feb. 22: Up one, 7.7 seconds left, missed, missed. Abu Kigab was left with 1.7 seconds left and made both free throws for a 58-57 Broncos victory.<\/p>\n

After that game, Bradley spoke openly about wanting another chance. He has it.<\/p>\n

“I knew this was my second chance coach Dutch and I was talking,” Bradley said. “Boise State did not really go through my head, but I knew this was my opportunity to close the game on the free throw line. It’s not about the skill down. have got.<\/p>\n

3. Perception<\/h2>\n

Mitch Moss is the host of the Las Vegas Radio Show, “Follow the Money.” Mountain West puts its kids through college.<\/p>\n

Moss annually bets the bottom on Mountain West in the NCAA Tournament. Last year, there were a total of 1.5 wins. This year two wins.<\/p>\n

“Cashing (Mountain West under-two) combined winnings on the opening day of the tournament,” he tweeted on Thursday, “does a bit to compensate me for shooting hot doses of Old Style because of my Kentucky future and flames.<\/p>\n

Last year, he called it “the easiest bet I make in any tournament.”<\/p>\n

The only difference this year is that Mountain West got four teams into the tournament, which means it had more chances to lose. It went 0-4, all against equal or less seeds, and was gone before the first Thursday was over. That’s nine straight losses in 1-11 and opener games since 2016.<\/p>\n

And let’s not forget the NIT. Utah State somehow managed a home game despite finishing seventh and hosted an Oregon team at the top minus two starting tackles. Ran out of his own gym in the second half, losing 83-72.<\/p>\n

Wyoming lost Tuesday game against Indiana, the Big Ten ninth-place team, Bully-Ball. Colorado State has a 15-point lead against Michigan, the Big Ten’s eighth-place team. Boise State, the regular season and conference tournament champion, was down 19 at the break against Memphis. SDSU blew a nine-point lead late against a Creighton team that lost its starting point guard for the season three weeks ago and was on six scholarship games and overtime.<\/p>\n

The “bad matchups” theory begins to lose credibility.<\/p>\n

Here’s a better one: Mountain West is a perimeter-oriented conference that is bigger on finesse than bigs and fights when faced with taller, fat athletes. In the NCAA and NIT losses this year, it was outscored by 70 points in the lineup and outrebounded by 38. It has punked.<\/p>\n

Even his biggest team, SDSU, went small after failing 6-foot-9 Nathan Mensah decided to cover 6-6 Aguek Arop to cover Creighton’s 7-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner. With no one higher than 6-7 on the floor for the Aztecs over the last 7\u00bd minutes of the game, Bluejays guard Trey Alexander was suddenly allowed to drive the track without the threat of a foul. He tied it with a floater late regulation, then seven of their nine points in OT.<\/p>\n

The Metrics said Mountain West was good. The current players spoke a different language.<\/p>\n

“I just think that’s the taste of the week,” said the Dutcher of Mountain West bashing. “Last year it was the Big Ten. Right now it’s the Mountain West. And tomorrow after the games it might be someone else. So that’s March Madness.<\/p>\n

Here’s the problem: The Big Ten is a power conference that has won 10 men’s NCAA titles and has the confidence of the selection committee. Mountain West has never come close to beating the Sweet 16 in its 23-year history, while the American Athletic Conference, Atlantic 10, Missouri Valley and West Coast Conference have all sent teams into the Final Four in the last 15 tournaments.<\/p>\n

“That will be the narrative, I understand that,” said Colorado State coach Niko Medved. “It’s funny, in the tournament everything is put into one game. It’s not the NBA where you play a five-game series or best-of-seven; it’s a game. You can be defined by that.<\/p>\n

“In the end, we did not do the work here today. I thought we had our chances and we did a lot of good things, but they forced us to do their will. But Mountain West was phenomenal this year. … There were some great games and programs here.I do not think the only game defines that.<\/p>\n

You could not. Nine in a row could.<\/p>\n

At what point does reality become perception?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n