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Post by aztecmichael on Mar 29, 2024 9:48:49 GMT -8
I want to thank: - Ledee for his effort, class, and play. He was our offense. - the team for its effort and S16 - the coaching staff for accomplishing so much - our defense that showed up in so many games and did so without a strong, traditional 5. Butler gets special call out for his defense (too bad his offense vanished) Now for some reality: - we desperately needed a strong, traditional 5. It was very apparent in yesterday’s game. Could you imagine the year Ledee would have had with a strong 5. I believe he would have been our first 1st team all American. - I had high expectation for our guard play. I thought we would be good due to our strong guard play. It never manifested on the offensive side. - I do not know what happened to Waters. From able to hit quick releases and off balance shots to not being able to hit good looks. 40+ straight FT to less. - 5th place MWC finish - easiest path to S16. Yale beat auburn in large part due to CBM quick ejection. Beating Yale to obtain S16 was a gift. I suspect a few of the MWC teams could have won our 2 MM games. It looks good making S16, but reality was that it was not as impressive as we want to believe. - the 5th place MWC finish is more reflective of our season than reaching the S16 It is a good era to be an Aztec fan. Ledee was so fun to watch. But this team was not exceptional and did not have legit chance to make a further run in MM even if we had not encountered UConn. Go Aztecs 16 out of 353 isn't exceptional?
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Post by frustratedfan on Mar 29, 2024 9:56:24 GMT -8
Reese Waters. That dude epitomizes heart & soul. He played half the season on two bad ankles. Outstanding post. Thank you, thank you for posting this. People on here have been questioning Waters for most of the season. The only thing wrong with Waters is his TWO bad ankles. He didn't take any time off, and he wanted so badly to contribute to this team. Unfortunately, he was battling TWO bad ankles. I can't even walk on a bad ankle, let alone running up and down a basketball court, stop and pivoting, or doing a jump shot on it. Waters was doing all that on TWO bad ankles. Like you said he epitomizes all heart and soul. I am grateful we have him, and he is coming back next year. Mark my words, next year you will see what a healthy Waters can do and that means trouble for opposing teams.
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Post by koolk65 on Mar 29, 2024 10:07:03 GMT -8
Reese Waters. That dude epitomizes heart & soul. He played half the season on two bad ankles. Outstanding post. Thank you, thank you for posting this. People on here have been questioning Waters for most of the season. The only thing wrong with Waters is his TWO bad ankles. He didn't take any time off, and he wanted so badly to contribute to this team. Unfortunately, he was battling TWO bad ankles. I can't even walk on a bad ankle, let alone running up and down a basketball court, stop and pivoting, or doing a jump shot on it. Waters was doing all that on TWO bad ankles. Like you said he epitomizes all heart and soul. I am grateful we have him, and he is coming back next year. Mark my words, next year you will see what a healthy Waters can do and that means trouble for opposing teams. I like Waters. I know he knows that he must put in the work offseason like LeDee did. Also, I want to see a beefed up Miles Byrd.
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Post by mfaulkhof2011 on Mar 29, 2024 10:41:34 GMT -8
I know nobody likes to hear excuses and Dutcher certainly didn't take the bait, but let's be realistic. We were slow to the loose ball all night. Our shots were off at least in some part due to fatigue.
Here is the reality. We played the last game on Sunday and then played within 30 minutes of the first game on Thursday. We flew 1250 miles and got home at 4am Monday after playing the late Sunday game. We then were groggy all day Monday and had an afternoon walk thru. Tuesday we had a practice and then flew 3K miles and lost 3 hours flying West to East. They dove 85 miles for a HOME game.
I know on our best day maybe we wouldn't have been able to hang. However, we were within 4 with a minute to go in the first half. They hit a three and we missed so down 9 at half. No disgrace there.
Then in the 2nd half fatigued we tried to summon up one last charge. However, although adrenaline got us through the first half the 20 minute break isn't always the greatest thing. We could not replicate that same energy. This I think was a HUGE factor in the rebound differential. I know, I know everyone said all year we didn't have a 5 so we got what was expected but a 59-29 rebound edge is inexplicable. We haven't always been a great rebounding team but never like this. It also led to a weaker defensive effort in the 2nd half and shots not falling.
Love that Dutcher and the guys didn't make any excuses but I will for them. If the game had been in LA and a day later I would have loved to see this again. I know the LA regional played yesterday too. Not sure why Friday/Sunday teams have to play Thur/SAT and fly across the country. And don't tell me Clemson had to do it. They played 3 hours earlier in Tennessee and were asleep in their warm beds still in the Eastern time zone by 10pm Sunday night. Then when they went East to West they played for them a 7:10pm EST game against Arizona. That's not the same.
I'm proud of our guys. We were out manned and UCONN is the superior team. I'd just like to see it be a little fairer. On another note, I thought the refs called it pretty fair last night.
I'm already excited to see what Dutcher will do next season. Every MWC team loses a lot next year except for maybe Boise St. so it should be wide open and fun again.
Go Aztecs!!
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Post by heuschele on Mar 29, 2024 10:42:07 GMT -8
I want to thank: - Ledee for his effort, class, and play. He was our offense. - the team for its effort and S16 - the coaching staff for accomplishing so much - our defense that showed up in so many games and did so without a strong, traditional 5. Butler gets special call out for his defense (too bad his offense vanished) Now for some reality:the ti - we desperately needed a strong, traditional 5. It was very apparent in yesterday’s game. Could you imagine the year Ledee would have had with a strong 5. I believe he would have been our first 1st team all American. - I had high expectation for our guard play. I thought we would be good due to our strong guard play. It never manifested on the offensive side. - I do not know what happened to Waters. From able to hit quick releases and off balance shots to not being able to hit good looks. 40+ straight FT to less. - 5th place MWC finish - easiest path to S16. Yale beat auburn in large part due to CBM quick ejection. Beating Yale to obtain S16 was a gift. I suspect a few of the MWC teams could have won our 2 MM games. It looks good making S16, but reality was that it was not as impressive as we want to believe. - the 5th place MWC finish is more reflective of our season than reaching the S16 It is a good era to be an Aztec fan. Ledee was so fun to watch. But this team was not exceptional and did not have legit chance to make a further run in MM even if we had not encountered UConn. Go Aztecs 16 out of 353 isn't exceptional? Do you believe we were the 16th best team? Really? Or do you think CBM bone headed allowed Yale to get past Auburn? How do you rationalize the 5th place MWC finish? If you think we were playing our best ball at the end of season, how do you explain our limp to finish out the regular season including our only home loss? I suspect we were better than 5th best in conference and the unbalanced schedule means you cannot simply say scoreboard does not lie. I think we are likely a top 32 team but with the wrong match up we could have lost in the first round of mm. Match ups have a big role in how far you get in MM and we had some good fortune (including CBM being a chump) that allowed us to get to S16. I would not rank this team as one of 16 best in nation. If we had faced Auburn and CBM was not still suspended, I would think we lose more than 50% of the time and Auburn got hosed getting seeded #4. However S16 is what the banner will state when it gets hung in the rafters. I will fondly remember Ledee with other Aztec greats such as kawhi, cage, Flynn, X, Davis, etc. definitely one of the best seasons for an Aztec ever. I wish we could have seen him play along side a legit 5. I believe he would have been 1st team All American.
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Post by sdsuball on Mar 29, 2024 12:25:00 GMT -8
16 out of 353 isn't exceptional? Do you believe we were the 16th best team? Really? Or do you think CBM bone headed allowed Yale to get past Auburn? How do you rationalize the 5th place MWC finish? If you think we were playing our best ball at the end of season, how do you explain our limp to finish out the regular season including our only home loss? I would say we were a top 25-30 team that got good matchups in MM.
The 5th place MW finish is easy to rationalize. Teams had more time to game plan for LeDee, teams in the MW are used to SDSU's physical style of play, and we played an unbalanced (harder) MW schedule.I suspect we were better than 5th best in conference and the unbalanced schedule means you cannot simply say scoreboard does not lie. I think we are likely a top 32 team but with the wrong match up we could have lost in the first round of mm. Match ups have a big role in how far you get in MM and we had some good fortune (including CBM being a chump) that allowed us to get to S16. I would not rank this team as one of 16 best in nation. If we had faced Auburn and CBM was not still suspended, I would think we lose more than 50% of the time and Auburn got hosed getting seeded #4. It would have been a close, competitive game either way.However S16 is what the banner will state when it gets hung in the rafters. I will fondly remember Ledee with other Aztec greats such as kawhi, cage, Flynn, X, Davis, etc. definitely one of the best seasons for an Aztec ever. I wish we could have seen him play along side a legit 5. I believe he would have been 1st team All American. Sometimes it goes the other way in MM. Remember getting Syracuse in the first round a few years ago? That was a brutal first round matchup for us. Or barely losing to Creighton? We should celebrate success, as luck can go either way on a year by year basis.
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Post by mojo56 on Mar 29, 2024 15:52:42 GMT -8
Every time I watched U Conn grab on offensive rebound all I could think of was how much I miss Josh Davis. I was hoping Pal might be that guy but he just doesn't have the physical ability to bang down low. Hoping we recruit...err...pay a big time rebounder.
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Post by 🥸 Hopeless Aztec on Mar 29, 2024 16:05:18 GMT -8
Every time I watched U Conn grab on offensive rebound all I could think of was how much I miss Josh Davis. I was hoping Pal might be that guy but he just doesn't have the physical ability to bang down low. Hoping we recruit...err...pay a big time rebounder. Great Call! Could you imagine a Josh Davis playing alongside LeDee. Or better yet, all the rebounds he would get with the brick houses we built this season. He would have been feasting. I do agree it would have been great to see PayPal play that role, but he just wasn't built for that. This season was just so much fun because we never knew what team was going to show up. Man, when the right team showed up, we were a lot of fun to watch. There were games when I didn't think anyone could beat us, but then there were games......well, you know.
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Post by uwphoto on Mar 29, 2024 16:08:48 GMT -8
Every time I watched U Conn grab on offensive rebound all I could think of was how much I miss Josh Davis. I was hoping Pal might be that guy but he just doesn't have the physical ability to bang down low. Hoping we recruit...err...pay a big time rebounder. Great Call! Could you imagine a Josh Davis playing alongside LeDee. Or better yet, all the rebounds he would get with the brick houses we built this season. He would have been feasting. I do agree it would have been great to see PayPal play that role, but he just wasn't built for that. This season was just so much fun because we never knew what team was going to show up. Man, when the right team showed up, we were a lot of fun to watch. There were games when I didn't think anyone could beat us, but then there were games......well, you know. Josh Davis...almost beat Arizona by himself that day...got banged up second half. Fantastic rebounder!!
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Post by AzTex on Mar 29, 2024 17:12:13 GMT -8
Every time I watched U Conn grab on offensive rebound all I could think of was how much I miss Josh Davis. I was hoping Pal might be that guy but he just doesn't have the physical ability to bang down low. Hoping we recruit...err...pay a big time rebounder. Josh Davis might not have gotten the most rebounds in a year when he was here, but as best as I can remember in my 60+ seasons of watching Aztec basketball, he was the best at rebounding and put backs. So, his rebounds were especially valuable.
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Post by aztecdan8 on Mar 29, 2024 18:02:32 GMT -8
Every time I watched U Conn grab on offensive rebound all I could think of was how much I miss Josh Davis. I was hoping Pal might be that guy but he just doesn't have the physical ability to bang down low. Hoping we recruit...err...pay a big time rebounder. Josh Davis might not have gotten the most rebounds in a year when he was here, but as best as I can remember in my 60+ seasons of watching Aztec basketball, he was the best at rebounding and put backs. So, his rebounds were especially valuable. Actually, early on and for a good chunk of the season he was bad at putbacks. He was unbelievable at his prior school (Tulane?), but for us he missed a ton. Couldn’t buy one. I remember everybody was frustrated. It was like he was in a hellaciously bad shooting slump, except it was with putbacks. Late that season, it was like a switch was flipped, he started making them at a high rate - almost automatic. From there, he was a critical piece of our run to the Sweet 16. That was a great year, a fun, talented, high BBIQ team. X is probably in my top 5 all time Aztecs. Davis might be too.
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Post by CbLsD on Mar 29, 2024 18:06:45 GMT -8
Josh Davis might not have gotten the most rebounds in a year when he was here, but as best as I can remember in my 60+ seasons of watching Aztec basketball, he was the best at rebounding and put backs. So, his rebounds were especially valuable. Actually, early on and for a good chunk of the season he was bad at putbacks. He was unbelievable at his prior school (Tulane?), but for us he missed a ton. Couldn’t buy one. I remember everybody was frustrated. It was like he was in a hellaciously bad shooting slump, except it was with putbacks. Late that season, it was like a switch was flipped, he started making them at a high rate - almost automatic. From there, he was a critical piece of our run to the Sweet 16. That was a great year, a fun, talented, high BBIQ team. X is probably in my top 5 all time Aztecs. Davis might be too. X is my number one favorite all time Aztec.
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Post by heuschele on Mar 29, 2024 18:07:19 GMT -8
Every time I watched U Conn grab on offensive rebound all I could think of was how much I miss Josh Davis. I was hoping Pal might be that guy but he just doesn't have the physical ability to bang down low. Hoping we recruit...err...pay a big time rebounder. Josh Davis might not have gotten the most rebounds in a year when he was here, but as best as I can remember in my 60+ seasons of watching Aztec basketball, he was the best at rebounding and put backs. So, his rebounds were especially valuable. As great as he was at rebounds, loose balls, and put backs, he was bad at outside shots and FT. He is on my all time fav Aztec list. Trenches beast like ledee (but ledee has outside game). Virtually never saw a ball get stripped out of his hands.
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Post by aztecdan8 on Mar 29, 2024 21:52:57 GMT -8
Actually, early on and for a good chunk of the season he was bad at putbacks. He was unbelievable at his prior school (Tulane?), but for us he missed a ton. Couldn’t buy one. I remember everybody was frustrated. It was like he was in a hellaciously bad shooting slump, except it was with putbacks. Late that season, it was like a switch was flipped, he started making them at a high rate - almost automatic. From there, he was a critical piece of our run to the Sweet 16. That was a great year, a fun, talented, high BBIQ team. X is probably in my top 5 all time Aztecs. Davis might be too. X is my number one favorite all time Aztec. Probably me too. Also loved Arop. He’s WAY up there for me.
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Post by docmm on Mar 29, 2024 21:56:58 GMT -8
Arop has the best Aztec Heart in my 28 years of following them in person.
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Post by chris92065 on Mar 30, 2024 0:59:25 GMT -8
16 out of 353 isn't exceptional? Do you believe we were the 16th best team? Really? Or do you think CBM bone headed allowed Yale to get past Auburn? How do you rationalize the 5th place MWC finish? If you think we were playing our best ball at the end of season, how do you explain our limp to finish out the regular season including our only home loss? I suspect we were better than 5th best in conference and the unbalanced schedule means you cannot simply say scoreboard does not lie. I think we are likely a top 32 team but with the wrong match up we could have lost in the first round of mm. Match ups have a big role in how far you get in MM and we had some good fortune (including CBM being a chump) that allowed us to get to S16. I would not rank this team as one of 16 best in nation. If we had faced Auburn and CBM was not still suspended, I would think we lose more than 50% of the time and Auburn got hosed getting seeded #4. However S16 is what the banner will state when it gets hung in the rafters. I will fondly remember Ledee with other Aztec greats such as kawhi, cage, Flynn, X, Davis, etc. definitely one of the best seasons for an Aztec ever. I wish we could have seen him play along side a legit 5. I believe he would have been 1st team All American. Yes, I do. And if we didn’t have to face UConn, we would most likely be the top 8.
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Post by gigglyforshrigley on Mar 30, 2024 5:14:50 GMT -8
This team accomplished a great feat by getting into the Sweet 16, no doubt.
There's also no doubt we benefitted by Yale miraculously beating Auburn.
This team did really well considering we did not have an ace spot up 3 point shooter (a la Sharper, Seiko, Rahon, etc), nor did we have a rim protecting big man. Obviously nothing to hang our heads on by losing to UConn, they are just way better than us this year. I hope we can get both of those roles filled this coming season though
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Post by docmm on Mar 30, 2024 7:27:51 GMT -8
This team accomplished a great feat by getting into the Sweet 16, no doubt. There's also no doubt we benefitted by Yale miraculously beating Auburn. This team did really well considering we did not have an ace spot up 3 point shooter (a la Sharper, Seiko, Rahon, etc), nor did we have a rim protecting big man. Obviously nothing to hang our heads on by losing to UConn, they are just way better than us this year. I hope we can get both of those roles filled this coming season though When you mentioned Rahon, I involuntarily twitched as I thought I remembered being disappointed in his shooting too numerous times to count. So I looked up his career 3-pt shooting and FT% numbers: 40.7% and 77.6% Fr @ Santa Clara 43.4% and 69.2%So @ SDSU 32.0% and 59.5% SDSU 29.8% and 68.4% SDSU His last two years were pretty bad for a SG. He WAS a good defender. I think because he started out so strong, his declining numbers seemed even worse.
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Post by gigglyforshrigley on Mar 30, 2024 7:30:02 GMT -8
This team accomplished a great feat by getting into the Sweet 16, no doubt. There's also no doubt we benefitted by Yale miraculously beating Auburn. This team did really well considering we did not have an ace spot up 3 point shooter (a la Sharper, Seiko, Rahon, etc), nor did we have a rim protecting big man. Obviously nothing to hang our heads on by losing to UConn, they are just way better than us this year. I hope we can get both of those roles filled this coming season though When you mentioned Rahon, I involuntarily twitched as I thought I remembered being disappointed in his shooting too numerous times to count. So I looked up his career 3-pt shooting and FT% numbers: 40.7% and 77.6% Fr @ Santa Clara 43.4% and 69.2%So @ SDSU 32.0% and 59.5% SDSU 29.8% and 68.4% SDSU His last two years were pretty bad for a SG. He WAS a good defender. I think because he started out so strong, his declining numbers seemed even worse. His role was a shooter though. And he was a good shooter who just happened to miss a lot his senior year. Much different than a bad shooter. Defenses still have to respect it
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Post by docmm on Mar 30, 2024 7:35:45 GMT -8
When you mentioned Rahon, I involuntarily twitched as I thought I remembered being disappointed in his shooting too numerous times to count. So I looked up his career 3-pt shooting and FT% numbers: 40.7% and 77.6% Fr @ Santa Clara 43.4% and 69.2%So @ SDSU 32.0% and 59.5% SDSU 29.8% and 68.4% SDSU His last two years were pretty bad for a SG. He WAS a good defender. I think because he started out so strong, his declining numbers seemed even worse. His role was a shooter though. And he was a good shooter who just happened to miss a lot his senior year. Much different than a bad shooter. Defenses still have to respect it Good shooters whose job is to be a "shooter" don't shoot 59% from the FT line and 32% from 3 like he did in his Junior year. We were so loaded then, Tapley and DJ covered his shooting with their 3s and our dream front line of Kawhi, Malcom and Billy took care of everything else. What a year! Other than Jimmer and Kemba, everything was perfect.
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