Things won’t get any easier for the Aztecs when they face No. 6 Houston in the Las Vegas final on Saturday – San Diego Union-Tribune

San Diego State played the first game of the Players Era Festival on Tuesday morning, leaving MGM Grand Garden Arena for hotel rooms next door.

Four hours later, several coaches and players were back and sitting courtside watching Houston.

You’ve seen the Cougars – statistically the best college basketball team of the last five years (129-21) – on television many times. You know their roster, their tendencies and plans. But they wanted to see it in person, wanted to experience it.

Nasty cannot be translated into two dimensions.

They’ll be seen up close again on Saturday (4 p.m., TNT) when the Aztecs take on the third-place game in the inaugural event, which features a total payout of $9 million to participants the Cougars enter at No. 6. NIL collectives.

“Well, everyone knows how good our defensive program was,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “They were better. They rank higher than us every year. They are the No. 1, 2, 3 best defense in the country. They play so hard and physical, they bounce the ball back, they have great experience. They are a potential Final Four team.

“It’s the ultimate challenge.”

The SDSU players collectively are already a million dollars richer just from their appearance in Las Vegas, and another quarter of a million is at stake on Saturday. Third place receives an additional $150,000 and fourth place receives an additional $100,000.

Less quantifiable is the value of playing against Kelvin Sampson’s team, as long as it doesn’t destroy you.

The Cougars held Jackson State to 40 points, Louisiana to 45, Hofstra to 44 and Notre Dame to 54. Last season they held three teams in the 30s. They have finished in the top 5 of Kenpom.com’s defensive efficiency metric five years in a row.

They grab, poke, punch, shove, claw, push, chop and hold so much, on every possession, against every player, with such intensity and ferocity that the officials can’t possibly blow the whistle for everything. And when they do, Sampson barks at them from the sidelines.

After No. 9 Alabama shot just 36.7% but attempted 41 free throws and beat the Cougars in overtime on Tuesday, Sampson lamented: “We defended them pretty well, but we couldn’t defend them at the foul line. “

Alabama coach Nate Oats likened it to a “Vegas cage game” and added, “This is the hardest playing team in America.”

There is only one photo on the wall of the team’s dressing room at home. It shows 2022 backup defensive back Ramon Walker diving for a loose ball to preserve possession during a double-overtime win at Wichita State.

They log “soil burns” as a statistic.

“That’s what it’s all about, not being afraid to get dirty sometimes, to play physical,” freshman guard Mercy Miller told the Houston Chronicle. “That’s what you get when you come to Houston.”

Oklahoma transfer Milos Uzan added: “I think I have a good feel for what it’s like here: super physical.” It’s really just about doing whatever it takes to win. I understand it and I’m all for it.”

The question: Is Dutcher’s collection of newcomers and youngsters ready for this? Are you ever?

“They just impose their will on you,” Dutcher said. “You can’t sit there and cry about it. It is what it is. We have to be persistent and persevere and not constantly think that we will be fouled.”

Since 2009-10, SDSU has the third-best overall record in Division I at 137-36 (.792). The only better programs are Gonzaga and Houston, and the Aztecs (3-2) will play both this month.

They lost by 13 to Gonzaga and by 10 to an undefeated Oregon team that will likely be ranked next week. Aside from brief, shaky stretches in the first half, the Aztecs both played relatively evenly, a source of encouragement for a team that has a freshman and two sophomores in the starting lineup and then relies on three other underclassmen off the bench.

“You just make fewer mistakes in games like this,” said Dutcher, whose team returned to San Diego for two practice and film sessions between games. “We made too many mistakes to win against good teams, but that doesn’t mean we don’t play good basketball at times. We just need to find a way to extend these routes.

“We’ve put together a quick game plan that we think will give us a chance and then we’ll go out there and compete. We played every game.”

The last time they faced Houston was in the opening round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament in Wichita, Kan. The Aztecs were down by double digits but were able to recover and equalize late. Houston held the ball for the final shot, and senior guard Rob Gray — known for his man bun — scored on a curling layup in traffic with 1.2 seconds left.

A Desperation 3 from Trey Kell narrowly missed the buzzer.

Since then, both programs have been on an upward trend. Two years later, the Aztecs were 30-2. They have been to the last four tournaments, including the national championship game and the Sweet 16 in the last two.

For Houston, which left the American Athletic Conference last year and moved to the Big 12, its 2018 NCAA appearance began a six-year streak of winning at least one game in the tournament. The last four have reached the Final Four, Elite Eight, Sweet 16 and Sweet 16. The Cougars have finished No. 2 in the Kenpom metric four years in a row and entered the Players Era Festival as No. 1.

It’s almost like the Aztecs looking at themselves in the mirror, only better.

“I hope we can play them to the last shot again,” said Dutcher. “If that happens, I’ll be pretty happy with our performance.”

Originally published: November 29, 2024 at 6:18 pm PST