Charles Gawlik, Staff PhotographerDENVER – Some describe it as peaking at the right time, building steam or riding the wave of momentum. And it is absolutely crucial, essential for postseason success.
Call it whatever you want, but the San Diego State men’s basketball team is on a roll heading into today’s 10 p.m. Mountain West Conference Tournament quarterfinal game against Colorado State at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
SDSU junior forward Mohamed Abukar feels the momentum building after a pair of blowout wins to finish the season.
“I definitely think we are playing our best basketball right now,” he said.
“We’re coming together, and our Wyoming game was probably our best game of the season. We can ride that wave into the conference tournament, hopefully build on it.”
What the Aztecs – seeded No. 1 in this weekend’s tourney – want to do is continue riding along. Three more successful games guarantee the team an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
And SDSU has made it clear that anything but a tourney berth would be extremely disappointing.
“We have three games to play, we’re trying to win the conference tournament and get two rings instead of one,” said junior forward and first-team All-MWC selection Marcus Slaughter, whose team won the regular-season league title last Wednesday after defeating Wyoming. “We don’t want the (NCAA Selection) Committee to decide where we go; we want to win these three games. We know if we can win these three games and win the conference tournament, we get that automatic bid.”
The Aztecs take on the No. 8-seed Rams, who beat TCU, 64-60, in Tuesday’s qualifying game. And, although SDSU (21-8, 13-3 MWC) defeated Colorado State (16-14, 5-12 MWC) in both of the regular-season matchups, the Aztecs can ill-afford to take any team lightly.
The Rams have one player who could make cause a major speedbump in SDSU’s smooth ride to the title: center Jason Smith.
Smith, a first-team All-MWC selection, ranks among the top five in nearly every statistical category in the conference, including scoring (16.6 points per game), blocks per game (2.17) and rebounds per game (7.3).
The 7-footer will cause problems in the paint for the Aztecs, who have been susceptible to giving up points to the oppositions’ post players.
That should put more pressure on Abukar, a second-team All-MWC selection. He didn’t play in SDSU’s final regular season game – a win against South Dakota State on Friday – to rest a sore shin.
But Abukar said there was no reason to worry, insisting he could play 10 straight games if he wanted.
For now, head coach Steve Fisher is only concerned with today – so that the Aztecs can have a tomorrow.
“The more you win, the more you build on that resume that you have going in,” Fisher said. “And I think that’s significant. If you’re playing on TV (today) and then again on Friday and Saturday, they have more opportunities to watch you. If you’re out that first day, it isn’t as much fun and there’ll be a little more sweat to endure on (Selection) Sunday.
“And we don’t want that. We want to go in with the feeling that we’re the best team in the league. We proved it for 16 games, and now we have to prove it all over again for three (more) games.”
