Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 89-71 win against Lamar on Wednesday night at Viejas Arena:
1. Byrd gets wings
The most promising development Wednesday was this stat line: 19 points, 6 of 10 shooting, 3 of 5 from 3, five rebounds, four assists, two steals, two blocks, a team-high plus-20 points while on the floor.
Miles Byrd.
It was arguably his most complete game of the season, although, by his own admission, that wasn’t a very high bar. He went from a projected top-40 pick in the NBA Draft and Mountain West preseason player of the year to just another guy out there. Over his previous four games, he was averaging 6.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 4 of 18 on 3s, six assists vs. nine turnovers, and one block.
“I’m finally getting back to my in-season self, I feel like,” the redshirt junior guard said. “A lot more confident, a lot more smiles out there.”
Part of it was a recurring hip issue, an abdominal strain, a sprained finger and bulky wrap on his shooting hand, followed by a bout with food poisoning that resulted in more IV bags (two) than points (zero) last week against Utah Valley.
Part of it, though, was mental bruising from the crush of expectation. Put another way: He was in his own head.
“It’s the pressure of knowing that you had a chance to maybe be drafted last year,” coach Brian Dutcher said, candidly. “You went to the (draft) combine and played well. There’s pressure to repeat that performance every night, to keep your NBA Draft stock high while helping your team win games. That’s pressure on everybody. That’s pressure on him.
“He has to play through that, just play without fear and play comfortable and not try to press too hard when things aren’t going well. I thought he did a good job of that today.”
What changed? What switch flipped?
“I’m having conversations with myself, my people, coaches,” Byrd said. “I’m built for this, I think. I’m confident in myself. It’s the type of player I am. When things start getting tough, sometimes it’s a natural, human reaction to try to go maybe a little harder to get over that hump. Instead, I look within myself and take a step back and realize I’m forcing things a little too much and have to let the game come to me.
“Health-wise, I feel a lot better out there. I was flying around a lot more, smiling a lot more. … I’m just getting back to the best Miles Byrd possible.”
SDSU sophomore Taj DeGourville, after swapping his No. 24 jersey for No. 35, dribbles against Lamar’s Cody Pennebaker on Wednesday night. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
2. Frustration
Taj DeGourville had a promising freshman season, appearing in all 31 games and averaging 18.9 minutes. He spent the spring retooling his body with better nutrition and workout habits. He was MVP of the Swish summer league. He passed over more NIL money to return to SDSU, was the leading scorer in both intrasquad scrimmages and won the starting job at point guard.
Then the season started, and things began to unravel.
He’s averaging 4.3 points per game, shooting 25% from the field and is last on the team in the advanced metric of PER (Player Efficiency Rating) by a wide margin. Against Lamar, he was the only Aztec players who had a negative plus/minus (-1) after three-point, three-turnover performance.
And now he has a badly sprained left wrist that, at times Wednesday night, limited him to tipping and reaching for the ball with only one hand.
That’s the backdrop for what happened with 12:39 left.
DeGourville was subbed out after less than two minutes for making defensive mistakes and then gesturing toward the bench. He shook his head when he saw the sub at the scorer’s table and blew past Dutcher as he walked down the sideline.
According to observers near the Aztecs bench (media is seated at the opposite end), he then ripped off his No. 24 jersey while former SDSU star Jamaal Franklin, sitting courtside with a clear view of the developing situation, rushed behind the baseline and ushered DeGourville into the locker room to calm him down while the game continued.
“He was frustrated over a defensive assignment and got taken out of the game,” Dutcher said, without providing details. “I told him as he went out, ‘Hang in there, I’ve got your back.’ But he was frustrated. That’s one thing, if you’ve been coaching long enough, you know players are going to deal with frustration.
“I thought he did a good job coming back in, getting himself back composed, getting back on the floor and contributing down the stretch. … You can get frustrated, that’s part of life. But it’s how you deal with it, and I thought he did a pretty good job dealing with it.”
DeGourville returned wearing No. 35 with 9:04 left and played for five-plus minutes – and played reasonably well.
The incident, though, is the byproduct of a larger issue facing this team: There simply aren’t enough minutes for what currently is an 11-man rotation, something Dutcher has referenced multiple times this season and did again Wednesday night.
“Got to find a way to keep them all playing,” Dutcher said afterward, “where they keep their confidence up and they don’t get discouraged when their minutes vary from game to game, and that can happen during the course of the season. To keep them all pulling in the same direction, where winning is the most important thing, if they believe that and live like that, then we’ll have a good season.”
3. Mountain climbing
The Mountain West has quietly pieced together some quality wins after a dreadful start.
New Mexico won at VCU on Wednesday. Boise State won at Butler. UNLV won at Stanford. Colorado State beat previously undefeated Colorado. Nevada beat previously undefeated UC San Diego.
Utah State is 8-1. Wyoming is 8-2 and played No. 16 Texas Tech within four points on the road.
Fresno State is 6-5, with four losses coming by five points or less.
The good news is it gives the Aztecs a chance to resurrect their season and rehabilitate their fading metrics if they can string together some conference wins. The bad news is, they’re probably no longer the prohibitive favorite for the regular-season title.
Of the top seven Mountain West teams in the Kenpom metric, six have climbed from their opening-day projections by an average of 19 spots. Only SDSU has fallen, from 29 to 47.
All seven are now in the top 100, and that doesn’t include Grand Canyon, which is 102nd and has one of the best home-court environments in college basketball.
The Aztecs have the conference’s third-best Kenpom rating, behind Utah State (41) and Boise State (44). In the NET, they’re seventh at 91, behind Utah State, Boise State, Colorado State, New Mexico, Wyoming and Nevada.
“Everybody in the league that plays well gives us more quality win opportunities,” Dutcher said. “The better the league is, the better our opportunities will be to grow our resume during the conference season. That’s encouraging.
“I hope they continue to win at a high level, all the Mountain West teams.”
The only way is up.