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San Diego State played the first game Tuesday morning in the Players Era Festival and left MGM Grand Garden Arena for its hotel rooms next door.
Four hours later, several coaches and players were back, sitting courtside to watch Houston.
They have seen the Cougars — statistically college basketball’s best team over the past five years (129-21) — on television numerous times. They know their roster and tendencies and schemes. But they wanted to see it in person, wanted to experience it.
Nasty doesn’t translate in two dimensions.
They’ll get another up-close viewing Saturday (4 p.m., TNT), when the Aztecs face the No. 6-ranked Cougars in the third-place game of the inaugural event distinguished by its $9 million in total payouts to the participants’ NIL collectives.
“Well, everyone knows how good a defensive program we’ve been,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “They’ve been better. They’re ranked higher than us every year. They’re the No. 1, 2, 3 best defense in the country. They play so hard and so physical, they rebound the ball, they have great experience. They’re a potential Final Four team.
“It’s the ultimate challenge.”
The SDSU players collectively are already $1 million richer just by showing up in Las Vegas, and another quarter-mill is at stake Saturday. Third place gets an additional $150,000, fourth place an additional $100,000.
Less quantifiable is the value of playing Kelvin Sampson’s team, assuming it doesn’t break you.
The Cougars held Jackson State to 40 points, Louisiana to 45, Hofstra to 44 and Notre Dame to 54. Last season, they held three teams in the 30s. They’ve finished in the top five of the Kenpom.com metric of defensive efficiency for five straight years.
They grab, bump, swipe, shove, scrape, harry, hack and hold so much, on every possession, against every player, with such intensity and ferocity, that officials can’t possibly whistle everything. And if they do, Sampson is barking at them from the sidelines.
After No. 9 Alabama shot only 36.7% but attempted 41 free throws and beat the Cougars in overtime Tuesday, Sampson lamented: “We defended them pretty well, but we couldn’t defend them at the foul line.”
Alabama coach Nate Oats compared it to a “Vegas cage match,” adding: “That’s the toughest-hardest playing team in America.”
There’s only one photo on the wall of the team’s locker room back home. It’s of back-up guard Ramon Walker from 2022, diving for a loose ball to preserve a possession in a double-overtime win at Wichita State.
They log “floor burns” as a statistic.
“That’s what it’s all about, not being afraid to get dirty sometimes, to play physical,” freshman guard Mercy Miller told the Houston Chronicle. “That’s what you get when you come to Houston.”
Added Oklahoma transfer Milos Uzan: “I think I’ve got a good feel of how it is here: super physical. It’s really just doing whatever it takes to win. I understand it, and I’m all in.”
The question: Is Dutcher’s collection of newcomers and youngsters ready for this? Are you ever?
“They just impose their will on you,” Dutcher said. “You can’t sit there and cry about it. It’s what it is. We have to be tough-minded and play through it and not get caught up in thinking we’re getting fouled all the time.”
Since 2009-10, SDSU has the third-best cumulative record in Division I at 137-36 (.792). The only programs better are Gonzaga and Houston, and the Aztecs (3-2) will play both this month.
They lost by 13 to Gonzaga and by 10 to an undefeated Oregon team that likely will be ranked next week. Other than short, shaky stretches in the first half, the Aztecs played both relatively even, a source of encouragement for a team that starts a freshman and two sophomores, then leans on three more underclassmen off the bench.
“You just get to make fewer mistakes in games like this,” said Dutcher, whose team returned to San Diego between games for two days of practice and film sessions. “We’ve made too many errors to win against good teams, but it doesn’t mean we’re not playing good basketball in stretches. We just need to find a way to extend those stretches.
“We put a quick game plan in that we think gives us a chance, and we’ll go out there and compete. We’ve competed every game.”
The last time they faced Houston was in the opening round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament in Wichita, Kan. The Aztecs trailed by double digits but rallied and tied it late. Houston held the ball for a final shot, and senior guard Rob Gray — known for his man bun — scored on a twisting layup in traffic with 1.2 seconds left.
A desperation 3 by Trey Kell just missed at the buzzer.
Both programs have been on upward trajectories ever since. Two years later, the Aztecs were 30-2. They’ve been to the past four tournaments, including the national championship game and the Sweet 16 in the past two.
For Houston, which last year left the American Athletic Conference for the Big 12, the 2018 NCAA appearance started a six-year run of winning at least one game in the tournament. The last four have gone Final Four, Elite Eight, Sweet 16 and Sweet 16. The Cougars have finished No. 2 in the Kenpom metric four straight years and entered the Players Era Festival at No. 1.
It’s almost like the Aztecs are looking at themselves in the mirror, only better.
“I hope we play them to a last shot again,” Dutcher said. “I’ll feel pretty good about our effort if that happens.”
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