{"id":179663,"date":"2026-02-16T02:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T02:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/179663\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T02:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T02:15:09","slug":"sdsu-71-nevada-57-magoons-return-continuity-and-a-nascar-believer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/179663\/","title":{"rendered":"SDSU 71, Nevada 57 \u2026 Magoon\u2019s return, continuity and a NASCAR believer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three thoughts after San Diego State\u2019s 71-57 win against Nevada on Saturday night at Viejas Arena:<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Magoon\u2019s return<\/p>\n

As the final seconds drained off SDSU\u2019s victory, Nevada coach Steve Alford turned to his assistants and began talking about Magoon Gwath.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he plays like that,\u201d Alford told his staff, \u201cthey\u2019re at a whole \u2018nother level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gwath returned against Nevada after missing six games with a hip injury. The 7-foot sophomore forward looked like he\u2019d never been away, scoring 13 points \u2014 including 3-for-3 shooting on 3-pointers \u2014 with five blocks and three rebounds in just 13 1\/2 minutes on the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe rebounds, he blocks shots, he might be shooting 55% from 3. That\u2019s phenomenal for a 4-man or a 5-man, whatever you want to call him,\u201d Alford said postgame. \u201cThey\u2019re already at a really high level; if they can keep him healthy, that\u2019s a whole \u2018nother level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gwath said he felt particularly good after shedding the bulky brace he has been wearing to protect his surgically-repaired right knee. He sported a neoprene sleeve against the Wolf Pack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt great,\u201d Gwath said. \u201cLost two pounds on my leg with that brace. It was much easier to move. It was just easier to play out there. I\u2019m moving a lot better. \u2026 I feel like I got my timing back with getting that brace off.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was about this time last year that Gwath injured his knee and missed the remainder of the regular season and the Mountain West tournament. Postseason surgery was followed by six months of rehab.<\/p>\n

Gwath has shown flashes of his potential this year, but his progress was slowed coming off the injury \u2014 particularly because of that darn brace.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would say that this is the first time since then where he looked like the Magoon we know he\u2019s capable of being,\u201d SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. \u201cNot limping with the knee brace, playing really fluid, and so it\u2019s great having him back. Hopefully, he continues to enjoy good health and plays himself back into game shape where he can play a lot of minutes for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gwath\u2019s 3-point shooting adds one more thing for opponents to consider.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe starts stretching the floor as a 5-man and he creates problems for the other team,\u201d Dutcher said. \u201cWe can play him at the power forward and we can play him at center, and he\u2019s a hard matchup at either position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dutcher said Gwath\u2019s minutes are being limited, but he will be extended as he returns to game shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so proud of how he came back,\u201d Dutcher said. \u201cIt\u2019s as easy as putting a smile on your face. You know, it\u2019s so hard for him that he wasn\u2019t having any joy playing basketball because he\u2019s playing hurt (before 3 1\/2 weeks off). And he\u2019s not the player he knows he can be because he\u2019s hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so to see him out there, seeing him in practice, where he\u2019s finally feeling in good health, feeling like he\u2019s himself and playing with a smile on his face, is important to everybody on the team, and, most importantly, Magoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Diego State coach Brian Dutcher and former coach Steve Fisher have been the school\u2019s only two men\u2019s basketball coaches in the Mountain West. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\n2. Continuity<\/p>\n

Former SDSU coach Steve Fisher was sitting Saturday night where he usually does, a couple rows above the SDSU bench, as Dutcher guided the Aztecs.<\/p>\n

Do Aztecs fans realize how uncommon it is to have just two head coaches since 2000?<\/p>\n

In the Mountain West, Boise State is the only program that comes close to matching that. The Broncos have had three coaches: Leon Rice, Greg Graham and Rod Jensen.<\/p>\n

Since 2000, there have been five head coaches at Air Force and Nevada, six at Fresno State, Grand Canyon, San Jose State, Utah State and Wyoming and seven at Colorado State and New Mexico.<\/p>\n

There have been 10 at UNLV, where the casinos don\u2019t change a deck of cards as frequently as the Rebels do coaches.<\/p>\n

In the 25 years before Fisher and Dutcher arrived, SDSU had six head coaches \u2014 Tim Vezie, Smokey Gaines, Jim Brandenburg, Jim Harrick Jr., Tony Fuller and Fred Trenkle.<\/p>\n

Since the Mountain West\u2019s inception in the 1999-2000 season, SDSU has the best overall record (602-283, .680) and conference record (286-154, .650).<\/p>\n

How much does continuity play in SDSU\u2019s success?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s everything,\u201d Dutcher said. \u201cWe have a culture. There\u2019s other guys that start a program, they\u2019re there one or two years and they\u2019re raving about their culture. Culture is 26 years. That\u2019s what culture is. We have a good culture here, and we have great support from our university, we have great fan support and all that goes into having a really good program.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m just proud of everything we\u2019ve done here. All of us. The City of San Diego should take great pride in Aztec basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA San Diego State-branded car promoting upcoming local NASCAR event featured the No. 45 of Daytona 500 winner Tyler Reddick. (SDSU Athletics)
\n3. Making a believer<\/p>\n

NASCAR driver Tyler Reddick won the Daytona 500 on Sunday afternoon, a day after leading the \u201cI Believe\u201d chant \u2014 remotely via the Viejas video board \u2014 with teammates Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst from the Michael Jordan-owned 23XI racing team.<\/p>\n

Coincidence? We think not.<\/p>\n

Reddick may want to incorporate the chant into his pre-race ritual going forward. He likely gained some local followers after his No. 45 car was SDSU-branded and parked on the Viejas Arena concourse over the weekend as part of a promotion for this summer\u2019s race in Coronado.<\/p>\n

Reddick did not lead a single lap of the Daytona race, surging to the front to take the checkered flag while cars crashed behind him.<\/p>\n

SDSU guard BJ Davis said on Friday that he enjoyed playing a NASCAR game on his PlayStation. The Daytona finish was appropriate for the way Davis drives in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of messed up, but I used to start crashes because I thought that was pretty cool,\u201d said Davis, before emphasizing, \u201cOnly on the game, though. Not in real life. I don\u2019t want to see that. I love NASCAR. I\u2019ve got a pretty cool car (Dodge Charger) myself now. I love racing. I love driving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis said he drove the cars of Dale Earnhardt or Kyle Busch in the NASCAR game. Maybe Davis can give that Reddick car a spin before it\u2019s removed from campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three thoughts after San Diego State\u2019s 71-57 win against Nevada on Saturday night at Viejas Arena: 1. Magoon\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,181,74,76,75,305,127,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-179663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}