Four days after a catostrophic event unfolded, SDSU rights the ship and is back on course. Billy White finishes with 17 pts and 8 reb-he's back!. The game of course, is nothing to get too excited about: it's Santa Clara after all. However, a lack of team chemistry and synergistic play on the part of SDSU led to the abominable performance on Monday; and it is these games that will help this team improve upon those aformentioned weaknesses. Kawhi continues to slooowly improve (13 rebounds); he is methodically improving his game with every game. This guy will be worth the price of admission sooner than later-stay tuned.
Overall, it was a strong performance all around. Balanced play from Malcolm and Davis and good guard play from Gay. This game served them well; enabling them to polish some rough edges and work on the inside game (i.e., rebounding).
Nice way to come back from an embarrassing loss to St. Marys - by pummeling a helpless Santa Clara. I'll take it! I think that despite the fact the opposition was weak that this was an important early season test of character for our Aztecs. Billy White... dude should be our featured player in each and every game! He could be the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year with some luck. Only downer thus far for B-White is his lackluster free throwing. Chase Tapley played well, Kawhi Leonard could really become a stud, and Malcolm Thomas, although not a true power forward, could really be a great roll player in the middle. NCAA success or NIT again will come down to DJ Gay at the point. I love the potential we're seeing in our San Diego State Aztecs! Let's roll boyz!
Totally agree with you ibwaterman. I think that White and Shelley will and should be the scoring forces on this team, at least early on. Leonard may start contributing more on the scoring end come league play. I also think Chase Tapley will contribute more this year than a lot of initially thought. I hope DJ can accept and embrace his new role as the point guard. We need him to facilitate, not score. Since coming to SDSU, he's been a streaky shooter at best. His performance against Fresno State was great in terms of assists to turnovers (6 to 1 if I remember correctly), but he also shot in the neighborhood of 2 for 12. The Aztecs have enough other scorers that DJ just needs to be facilitator and a lock down defender.