Miles Byrd says when San Diego State loses a basketball game, “sometimes it feels like the end of the world.”
And it did Saturday after an 83-74 loss at Colorado State, the Aztecs’ second straight that likely knocked them out of at-large consideration for the NCAA Tournament. The game ended about 6:30 p.m. The team loaded onto the bus for the one-hour trip to the Denver airport and a late-night flight home.
The Aztecs dropped to 18-8 overall and 12-4 in the Mountain West, at the time two games behind Utah State in the loss column with a mere four games to play. Didn’t look good.
“I mean, I think we all kind of had that feeling when we were on the bus on the way to the airport,” Byrd said. “And then we were on the plane, on the tarmac about to take off, and we were watching Utah State (against Nevada) and saw them lose.
“I saw a little bit more excitement throughout the team and coaching staff, just knowing that we’re still in the hunt.”
A reprieve.
A lifeline.
“We’re very fortunate, I would say,” senior Reese Dixon-Waters said, “and we’re not going to take this for granted.”
“We’ve had a little help,” coach Brian Dutcher said.
Instead, Utah State (23-4, 13-3) comes to Viejas Arena on Wednesday night with only a one-game lead, meaning an Aztecs win puts them back in first place with three games to play. Two of those three are on the road in places the Aztecs have historically struggled — New Mexico and Boise State — but the point is, there’s still a chance.
“If they had won,” Dutcher said of Utah State’s 80-77 loss at Nevada, “our fate would have been in someone else’s hands. Now we have our fate in our own hands.”
Then he added this qualifier:
“Unfortunately, we’re not playing really good basketball right now.”
The question now becomes whether hope can rejuvenate the moribund Aztecs, whether opportunity can erase lethargy.
“When we see them drop a game at Nevada and we’re a game out and now we’ve got them at the crib on Wednesday,” Byrd said, “if you don’t get excited about that, if you don’t love basketball, if you don’t love the situation we’re in, you’re not happy with what you’re doing.
“We’ve just got to have urgency. We have to feel the urgency of the moment.”
These teams met 3½ weeks ago in Logan, Utah, and the Aztecs played well enough to win. They held Aggies leading scorer MJ Collins without a basket for the first 34 minutes, and had a 19-5 edge in fast-break points, and had leads of 11 in the first half and seven midway through the second.
“Man, it’s frustrating,” Dixon-Waters said afterward. “In a way, I’m at a loss for words because I feel we had that game all the way to the last five minutes.”
And they did that without injured starters Magoon Gwath and Elzie Harrington, and BJ Davis and Pharaoh Compton in foul trouble, and Dixon-Waters hobbling on an ankle he rolled with 13 minutes left.
They’re all healthy enough to play Wednesday night, but they also all were Saturday at Colorado State and that didn’t go well.
Dutcher could slide some chess pieces around the board to energize his team. He could shake up the starting lineup, re-inserting Harrington so Davis can return to the bench, where he averaged 11.0 points per game and shot 42.3% on 3s compared with 8.9 points and 27.3% in seven starts. Or bump up the minutes of freshman Tae Simmons, who on many nights is their leader in plus/minus points while on the floor but is third on the depth chart at power forward.
The bigger tweaks, though, might need to come between the ears.
Dixon-Waters called out his teammates for a pair of poor practices ahead of the Colorado State game, adding: “We just have to manage frustrations, manage emotion, and be better in certain stretches of the game where things aren’t going our way.”
The last time the Aztecs lost three straight? You have to go back to January 2018, or 261 games ago. They are 9-0 in their last nine games following consecutive losses.
“At some point, pride has to play a part in that and we’ve got to be the most prideful team out here on Wednesday,” Byrd said. “I went to the national championship my freshman year and I didn’t play. I feel like I’ve still got a lot of work to do. I feel like everybody on the team has that feeling.
“We were in the First Four last year, went to Dayton and got blown out. We haven’t proven anything. I think all of us hold that on the top of our head and remember last year how that felt, being in Dayton and not being in the round of 64. That hurt me, honestly. I’m playing with a lot of pride, a lot of energy, just trying to finish this year strong.”
If they need inspiration or just proof of concept, they can look to Nevada.
The Wolf Pack lost by 14 at Viejas Arena last weekend, then by 16 at 11th-place San Jose State in what some ranked among the worst defeats in program history.
And then? They returned home Saturday night and beat first-place Utah State.
“That,” Dutcher said, “is the Mountain West.”
San Diego State vs. Utah State
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Viejas Arena
TV: Fox Sports 1
Radio: 760 AM