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Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 67-38 win against Air Force at Viejas Arena on Wednesday night:
1. Kimo-mania
Coach Brian Dutcher was already down two players with the flu, and another was playing but still gimpy with a sprained ankle. And the rest of them were playing with sprained brains, trailing 3-12 Air Force by double digits midway through the first half.
He wanted to take guys out, but that also meant he had to put someone in.
That someone was Kimo Ferrari.
By the end of the night, Viejas Arena had a new fan favorite.
“I told him after the game, ‘I thought I had a chance to be next mayor of San Diego but I don’t think I can beat you, Kimo,’” Dutcher said. “The crowd loves him, and the coaches love him.”
Ferrari is a 6-foot (with hair) guard and had two points, on a layup with 4:35 left. But he’s no charity case buried on the bench who lives for scrap minutes in 30-point blowouts. He’s an accomplished Division I player with 75 career games in four seasons at Brown, including a 39-point performance on Senior Night last year.
He had a COVID year of eligibility remaining, and the Ivy League doesn’t allow grad students to play. He grew up in San Diego, attending Saint Augustine and Francis Parker, and dreamed of one day wearing scarlet and red, scholarship or not.
He’s also on a loaded roster. His only other meaningful minutes against a Division I opponent came in the opener against UC San Diego, but he gave up a baseline drive and layup – a cardinal sin in the Aztecs’ defensive scheme – and quickly returned to the bench. His only other action was against Division III Occidental and mop-up duty in lopsided wins against Fresno State and Cal.
“Kimo took advantage of the fact that we were short-handed,” Dutcher said. “He was there to put in. Kimo is good player. He practices hard every day, but sometimes that doesn’t mean you get minutes. But he got minutes today and maybe that will spur him on to more minutes.”
The numbers suggest it could. The Aztecs were plus-14 points in Ferrari’s eight first-half minutes and plus-20 for the game. He also had four rebounds, three on the offensive end despite being the shortest player on the floor, and was a constant defensive pest.
Fans were cheering when he was at the scorer’s table to sub in. The noise crescendoed every time he squared to shoot. It erupted when he finally scored, followed by chants of “Kee-mo, Kee-mo.”
He already had a team full of fans. Now he has a city, too.
Miles Byrd: “We all know what Kimo is about. He’s a hard worker and great energy guy. If you watch, he’s the first guy up (on the bench) after every good play. I was happy he was out there and got his moment, and you see San Diego loves him just as much as we do.”
Taj DeGourville: “We don’t have a better teammate than Kimo, so he deserves all the love he gets.”
Jared Coleman-Jones: “Kimo doesn’t play a lot, but when he comes (in) it’s like he’s been playing the whole game. He swings the whole energy of the game. I’ve got tons of respect for Kimo, and I hope he gets more minutes for us. I know he’s a crowd favorite, but he’s really a good basketball player. I want people to see that.”
2. The line
One of the statistical bedrocks that Steve Fisher preached incessantly was the goal of making more free throws than your opponents attempt. It’s sometimes unattainable, but even if you fall short, the basic idea is to still get more free points than the other team.
That’s not happening for the Aztecs this season, in a rare departure from history. Through 13 games, they have attempted 220 free throws, the fewest in the Mountain West and 40 fewer than their opponents. Their 11.8 makes per game rank 302nd nationally. On average, opponents score nearly four points more per game at the line.
How rare is that? The last time SDSU finished a season with fewer free throw attempts than their opponents was 2003-04, when it fell 76 short. (In 2013-14, they finished the season plus-295, or plus-8.2 per game.)
Another way to look at it is the percentage of a team’s points that come from free throws. It’s 16.9% for the Aztecs this season, which ranks 285th nationally and is down from 21.2% last year (63rd nationally).
It also doesn’t help that they’re shooting just 69.5% from the line, only the second time in the last nine years they’ve been under 70%.
It’s not all bad, though. The Aztecs haven’t been getting to the line, but neither have their opponents, which average a mere 20 attempts per game, well below the national average.
Boise State was one of those teams that had made more free throws (252) than their opponents had attempts (206). The Broncos shot only one more than the Aztecs last Saturday.
“We’re not getting to the line as much,” Dutcher said, “but as long as we stay even, we may not be the team that shoots twice as many as our opponent but we don’t want the opponent shooting twice as many as us. We’ve played teams that are living at the foul line and we haven’t put those teams on the foul line, which is a good thing for us. It gives us a chance to win.”
3. Blockage
For most of the season, the Aztecs were ranked No. 1 nationally at more than eight blocks per game. Since, they’ve dropped to sixth at 5.8 after five swats in their past three games.
Magoon Gwath led the nation through seven games at 4.0 blocks per game. He’s averaged half that over the past six games.
That doesn’t mean they’ve stopped protecting the rim. Their opponents, in a sense, are doing that for them.
“If they’re looking around, worried that someone is going to come over and block a shot, that affects the game, too,” Dutcher said. “If they’re thinking about that, that’s a good thing for us.”
Or listen to Boise State coach Leon Rice on Saturday after the Broncos shot a season-low 33.7% and lost to SDSU for only the second time in their last eight meetings at ExtraMile Arena.
“They’re long and they’re shot blockers,” Rice said. “They protect that paint. Every year they’ve been good at it, but this team is really good at it.”
Number of blocks against the Broncos: zero.
Explained Coleman-Jones: “People will watch film and say, ‘We have to adjust because we can’t just drive it in and let Magoon swat a floater to BJ and let BJ get into transition with Byrd and Byrd dunks the ball on the fast break.’ We had to adjust as well. They’re not driving it to the rim to score. They’re driving it to the rim to kick it out to get open shots.
“What they’re trying to do now is get us into scramble. … We’re really good in our rotations defensively, and I think that’s what keeps us so high in the defensive rankings.”
He’s not wrong. Despite the dip in blocks, the Aztecs continue to shut down teams and climb in the Kenpom defensive efficiency ratings. They’re now up to No. 8 among 364 Division I programs.
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