There is no doubt there was an unfamiliar feeling in the air last Saturday when the San Diego State men’s basketball team was thoroughly beaten by Colorado State.
It’s been a while since SDSU has been defeated in such a fashion. The Aztecs trailed by at least seven points for the last 29 minutes of the game and never seemed like a threat to win it.
Every team in the nation has had a game like SDSU had on Saturday. The punishment in the polls for losing wasn’t too harsh, though.
The Aztecs are ranked 17th in both the ESPN/USA Today Coaches and the Associated Press Top 25 Polls.
The five spot drop (four spots in the AP Top 25) wasn’t bad when you consider UNLV was handed a harsher punishment after losing to SDSU.
Now that the Colorado State loss is in the past and the team didn’t suffer too much of a drop-off in the rankings, it will have to shift its attention to the Boise State Broncos.
Boise State is 10-10 overall and 0-5 in Mountain West Conference play.
Even though they have yet to win a MW game, that isn’t stopping head coach Steve Fisher from warning his team about the Broncos.
“We need to be focused with a laser-type focus on our next opponent, which is a good Boise State team.” Fisher said.
In the string of those five setbacks was an overtime loss to UNLV, who besides SDSU, has looked like the best team in the conference.
The Broncos are led by two freshmen. One of those freshmen is guard / forward Anthony Drmic, who leads the team in scoring with 12.6 points per game. Drmic also averages a little less than five rebounds a game, too. The other freshman is guard Derrick Marks, who averages 8.9 points and 3.1 rebounds a game.
Marks shined in the loss to UNLV with 21 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Boise State will be coming into the game desperate for a win, just like Colorado State was on Saturday.
Fisher is just hoping the Colorado State loss doesn’t have a lingering effect on his team.
“There’s no shame in getting beat,” Fisher said. “But there’s a tragedy in losing and having that impact how you prepare to play in your next game. We’re going to need our Aztec fans to be there in mass and be part of their team and we need to start a new win streak on Wednesday.”
The Aztecs are 2-0 coming off a loss. The two wins came by a combined three points against USC and Cal.
The game will be at 7:15 p.m. tomorrow night at Viejas Arena..
