San Diego State will be without Magoon Gwath on Wednesday night at Grand Canyon, and perhaps longer.
The 7-foot starting forward accompanied the team to Phoenix but is listed as “out” on the Mountain West’s availability report for the 8 p.m. PST game at GCU Arena. The report doesn’t specify injuries, although it is likely a hip issue, not his surgically repaired right knee.
Gwath tweaked the hip last week at Wyoming, then did it again early in Saturday’s home game against New Mexico, subbing himself out and briefly heading to the locker room. He returned to the game later in the first half and played 5½ minutes in the second half before being subbed out for good with 9:06 left.
“Same thing as Wyoming,” coach Brian Dutcher said Saturday. “He has a hip flexor problem. At Wyoming, he turned it the wrong way and we had to take him out. … Today, two minutes in, he took himself out because you can see he has a hip impingement of some kind and it bothered him.”
The team had Sunday off, and Gwath was held out of Monday’s practice, hoping a couple days of rest might calm down the hip. But after further evaluation, he was ruled out for Grand Canyon and is considered “day to day, week to week” going ahead. Senior Jeremiah Oden is expected to start in his place, with increased minutes off the bench for freshman Tae Simmons.
The Aztecs play at UNLV on Saturday, then return home to host Colorado State before heading to Utah State the following weekend for a showdown of the Mountain West’s top two teams in the standings.
Gwath, believed to be SDSU’s highest paid player, has largely been a shell of his midseason self last year, when he routinely posted double-doubles and ranked among the national leaders in blocks – landing him both Mountain West freshman and defensive player of the year honors. He initially entered the NCAA transfer portal after the season and spoke with both Michigan and Kentucky before returning to SDSU and getting surgery.
He is averaging 9.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.47 blocks this season but averages only 18 minutes per game. He has yet to play more than 24 minutes in regulation and several times has been left on the bench during crunch time of close games.
Gwath seemed to turn a corner Jan. 10 against Fresno State, with 18 points (on 8 of 12 shooting), eight rebounds and two blocks in 23 minutes. But he scored nine total points in the two games since.
Against New Mexico, he was whistled for what Dutcher called “a frustration foul” for shoving a Lobos player under the basket.
“I just told him to keep his head up and don’t take the frustration out on the court,” junior wing Miles Byrd said. “I think right there a little bit of frustration seeped into a play. But we all know what Goon’s about, we all know what type of person and player Goon is. I’m forever going to have Goon’s back on that court.”
Said Dutcher: “We know we can’t be the team we want to be to win a title without him. We’ve got to get him healthy and we’ve got to get him confident, playing like he did against Fresno State.”