Three thoughts on No. 20 San Diego State’s 67-66 loss against Utah State on Saturday afternoon at Viejas Arena:

1. A hard call

Did official Michael Irving blow the block/charge call on Miles Byrd with 1:29 left?

Did it cost the Aztecs the game?

Yes, and no.

Both can be true.

Earlier in the second half, Byrd was whistled for a block on an almost identical play. The Aggies missed, grabbed the offensive rebound and fed Ian Martinez slashing down the lane. Byrd slid over to draw a charge.

“On that one, my feet weren’t set and I left the ground,” the SDSU sophomore said. “That one, I see being a block. I’d just rather not comment on that second one.”

The second one, same deal. Aggies miss, offensive board, Martinez slashing down the lane. Byrd knew it was coming this time and was in perfect position outside the restraining line when the 6-foot-3 Costa Rican crashed into his right shoulder and torso, sending him to the hardwood.

Irving immediately put his fists on his waist, the gesture for a block. It was Byrd’s fifth foul, and his day was done. Martinez made the basket and the free throw to trim SDSU’s lead to 65-61, triggering a 9-1 run to close the game and secure the Aggies’ first road win against a ranked opponent in 33 years.

“I thought we had a chance on the charge because (Byrd) saw the play coming so far in advance and he was waiting for it,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “It wasn’t one of those where you slide under at the last minute. Then it’s like, bang-bang, that’s hard. Maybe he didn’t take it head on (and) got it halfway. But in my opinion, he was definitely set and waiting.

“That’s no disparagement to the officiating. That’s a hard call. That’s the call they get right half the time and wrong half the time. That’s just the nature of the game.”

Irving is a veteran West Coast official who was working his fifth SDSU game of the season (and second straight) but who also wasn’t having one of his better days. In the first half, he signaled an offensive foul after Miles Heide was thrown to the ground before realizing his mistake and reversing it. In the second half, he ruled a tipped rebound that went out of bounds was Aztecs ball, only for fellow official Nate Harris to overrule him (correctly, replays showed).

After seeing several angles of the block call, Fox analyst Robbie Hummel, a former college player at Purdue, said on the national telecast: “That’s a tough one to foul out Miles Byrd.”

And unlike the NBA, block/charge calls aren’t reviewable in college, even in the final two minutes when several other decisions are.

But as egregious as it might have been, a blown call didn’t decide the game. A blown 18-point lead did.

The 0 of 11 from 3 in the second half did. The 14 plodding possessions over the final 16 minutes in which the shot clock dipped under 10 seconds and the panicked Aztecs managed just four points. The multiple inbounds plays by Utah State that resulted in easy baskets. The two silly fouls by Byrd that got him to four. The quick shot leading by four with 1:22 to go, the one time they should have milked the clock. The season-high 16 turnovers.

“It’s the game of basketball, it’s a game of runs,” Nick Boyd said. “This team might be hot, or that team might get hot. It’s about how you handle their run, and we didn’t handle their run to the best of our ability and that’s what allowed them to hit a big-time shot at the end.”

2. Late-half lethargy

You want the real reason the Aztecs lost?

Look no further than the last 100 seconds of each half. They were outscored (yes) 19-4.

The second-half swoon was a killer, for sure, up seven inside two minutes to go and forcing an Aggies miss (only to surrender an offensive rebound that started the dominoes tumbling). The end of the first half was equally catastrophic, giving the Aggies new life when it looked like their main objective over the final 20 minutes would be not getting 30-pieced.

This is not a new problem, either.

In the opener against UCSD, the Tritons went on a 12-0 run late in the first half that erased an 11-point deficit. Against Oregon, the Aztecs went from up two to down 10 in the closing 4½ minutes. Against USD, from up 11 to up two.

In eight of 10 Division I games this season, in fact, the Aztecs have lost ground in the final five minutes of the first half.

Saturday, they let Martinez get loose for a pair of 3s from the right wing, had a blown assignment on ball screen coverage lead to an uncontested dunk and allowed five points in the half’s final eight seconds. After a Martinez 3, Boyd tried to spin dribble through backcourt pressure and lost the ball to Jordy Barnes, who fed Mason Falslev, who got SDSU’s Jared Coleman-Jones to bite on his head fake and dribbled around him for a layup at the buzzer.

“We let them battle back at the end of the first half, and that gives them confidence,” Byrd said. “They come out and start the second half well, and after that it’s a game.”

What’s the solution?

“Just clean up some of the stuff,” Byrd said. “I truly don’t think the final score tells the whole story. There was a point in the first half where we looked really good, like a top 10 team in the country. Just being more solid and keep maturing game by game, so we don’t give up runs late in the half, we don’t give up runs in the second half as well. Just be more solid.”

Boyd, sitting next to him in the postgame interview, added solemnly: “Just focus.”

3. Triple threat

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised at Saturday’s meltdown. It was the first game after Christmas … on national TV … with an afternoon tip.

The Aztecs historically have been less than stellar in each of those situations. Saturday, then, represented a triple threat of calamity.

Post-Christmas game: SDSU is 4-5 in its last nine and 2-4 in its last six at home.

The Aztecs had a week between games, but really only two days of practice. The players scattered for a short holiday break with their families after beating Cal in San Jose on Dec. 21 and returned to campus Christmas night, allowing for the typical two-day prep before facing Utah State.

For some reason, that’s a bad formula for this program. The troubles go back two decades, even struggling in victory. There was an overtime win against Sam Houston State and a 57-53 squeaker against UC Riverside.

It got so bad that they started booking non-Division I opponents — Occidental, Redlands, Saint Katherine, San Diego Christian — in that scheduling slot knowing there would be rust, but then the Mountain West started playing conference games between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The Aztecs appeared to have shaken the late December blues last year with an epic win at Gonzaga — their third straight win in the game after Christmas — but reverted to old habits Saturday.

National TV: The Aztecs are 13-17 in their last 30 big-boy network telecasts, and six of those wins came during the 2022-23 season and magical NCAA Tournament run. They’ve now lost five of the last six on CBS or Fox.

Afternoon tips: Most national TV games during the regular season are played in the afternoon, so the record of mediocrity is similar. And remember, the Mountain West tournament championship traditionally tips at 3 p.m. – and the Aztecs are 3-8 in their last 11 appearances.

The bad news: Their next game, Saturday at Boise State, is at 2 p.m. Mountain time on CBS. The following Saturday, they’re at New Mexico in another CBS game that hasn’t announced a tip but almost certainly will be early afternoon as well.

The good news: There’s only one game immediately after Christmas each season.

Originally Published: December 29, 2024 at 6:30 PM PST