Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 85-68 loss against No. 21 USC in an exhibition Friday night at Viejas Arena:
1. The gulf
Coach Brian Dutcher and his players remained calm, or at least gave the impression that they are. It was only an exhibition. It doesn’t count on their record. They always improve as the season goes on. They’ll be better prepared the next time they face a top 25 opponent.
Latrell Davis: “We played against a good team, a physical team. We’re going to play against a lot more teams like that, so it’s a good test for us. I mean, it’s only an exhibition. You have to just move on and keep getting better.”
Elzie Harrington: “We don’t want to come out here and play a team we should blow out and get some false confidence (versus) seeing where we need to get better. … I think those are lessons you learn playing against good teams and something we can be grateful for despite not playing our best tonight.”
Dutcher: “We’re going to be good. When we’re good, I don’t know. … We know what the starting baseline is, and now we have a direction to grow from. Like I said, if I didn’t have talent, I’d be really concerned. But I have enough talent to compete with the teams we just played.”
And all of that might be true.
But so is this: The space between the haves and have-nots of college basketball is no longer a gap. It’s a yawning gulf, something that was readily apparent in exhibition losses against the preseason Nos. 5 and 21 in the Associated Press poll.
Arizona last week and USC on Friday were bigger, taller, stronger and longer, more athletic and more talented. The Wildcats had a 7-foot-2 center and a bunch of 6-11 guys on the bench. The Trojans’ starting five went 6-5, 6-7, 6-10, 6-11 and 7-0 (and 7-1 UConn transfer Eric Reibe is still sidelined after summer foot surgery).
A CBS Sports story earlier in the week put the 79 power conference schools (including the Big East in basketball) plus Gonzaga into payroll tiers, based on conversations with more than 100 sources.
The highest tier of $20 million-plus has 11 teams, and four more are just under $20 million. Sixteen are between $15.1 million and $17.5 million, including both Arizona and USC. Eighteen are between $12.1 million and $15 million.
The lowest of the 80? Stanford, with $5 million.
SDSU’s estimated payroll this season: $5 million.
There are also a half-dozen mid-majors north of $5 million — programs like Utah State, Grand Canyon and Memphis. That puts the Aztecs somewhere around 85th nationally in NIL and revenue-sharing for men’s basketball.
It doesn’t mean that someone with a $5 million payroll can’t beat someone with a $15 million payroll, but more money – especially three times more money — typically means rosters that are bigger, taller, stronger and longer, more athletic and more talented.
It means trailing by 19 against Arizona and by 23 against USC after giving up 51 — fifty-one! — in the first half.
It means the gap has become a gulf.
Can the Aztecs close it? They’ll get plenty more chances, with games against No. 18 Iowa State and two more power conference foes in the Players Era 16 in Las Vegas next month, with games away from Viejas Arena against No. 25 BYU and No. 22 UCLA in December, with at least two games against No. 15 Gonzaga in the Pac-12.
“We have a tough nonconference schedule, so these are preparing us for that,” said Dutcher, whose team hosts Long Beach State in its final exhibition Wednesday. “These are lessons that need to be learned right now, and they’re all valuable.
“No one is going to worry about an exhibition, win or lose. It’s how you grow from that.”
SDSU guard Elzie Harrington dribbles the ball in the second half of Friday’s exhibition loss against USC at Viejas Arena. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
2. Elzie’s team
If we learned anything about these Aztecs, it’s that this is Harrington’s team.
The 6-6 sophomore guard followed a four-point, five-foul performance at Arizona with 19 points, four assists, two steals and a block in 28 minutes. He shot 6 of 10, including 3 of 4 behind the arc.
“It was my first game back against Arizona,” said Harrington, who missed most of the summer after postseason leg surgery. “I was probably playing a little timid. I was more comfortable out there, trusting myself more. I still turned the ball over too much, but I had more trust in myself.”
It was the night’s most positive development, seeing the Harrington who showed so much promise as a freshman before his season was derailed by lower leg pain that simply wouldn’t go away. The surgery is rare and complicated, removing what amounted to an extra bone in his leg without causing nerve damage.
The turning point Friday came during a timeout midway through the first half Friday, when assistant coach JayDee Luster approached Harrington.
“Coach Lus was like, ‘You’re being too passive when you get to the paint,’” Harrington said. “The next play, I was going downhill, and there wasn’t a big. I jumped, and he didn’t.”
The result was a highlight dunk over USC’s towering defenders. Harrington landed, looked at the student section and flexed briefly.
The message was clear: He’s back.
SDSU guard Latrell Davis shoots a free throw during the exhibition against USC on Friday at Viejas Arena. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
3. Latrell’s shoulder
Davis followed an 0-for-8 performance at Arizona with 11 points and five rebounds (and five turnovers) in 19 minutes. It was the Davis most expected, bulling his way into the lane and attacking the rim, a bruising running back plowing through the line.
The 6-3 guard wore a wrap on his left shoulder, which he dislocated during the summer, sat out nearly a month, then dislocated again. He returned to full practice the week of the Arizona game.
“I felt like the first game against Arizona I was scared,” Davis said. “I didn’t know if I was meant to play. I was like, ‘If I go out there, is something going to happen to my shoulder?’ I played like that, and I didn’t like the way I performed.
“I said to Elzie and everybody all week at practice, ‘It’s at the point where, all right, if it pops out, it pops out.’ I’m just going to play hard because I can’t let it affect my game and let down the team that way.”
Dutcher admitted it could be a lingering issue all season.
“He’s always at risk,” he said. “This is one of those cases now where if it pops out, we’ll rehab him and get him back in. After missing a full year (redshirting), I don’t think surgery is going to be an option during the season.
“Hopefully, it doesn’t pop again and we don’t have to worry about that. But if it does, we’ll try to get him through the season as healthy as we can.”