Aztec Update : Basketball Team Still Looking for Support When It Plays at Sports Arena

Friday night’s game between Syracuse University and Villanova drew 32,520 fans to the Carrier Dome at Syracuse, N.Y. That’s 121 more fans than San Diego State has drawn to all nine of its home games at the San Diego Sports Arena this season.

The Aztecs average only 3,599 fans a game at the 13,741-seat Sports Arena.

So, a logical question is, do the second-place Aztecs really have an advantage by playing five of their final six Western Athletic Conference games at home?

After a number of home games, some of the Aztec players have said they felt like they were practicing rather than playing a real game.

“These kids have feelings,” Aztec Coach Smokey Gaines said, “and it’s tough to play before 18,000 fans on the road and 2,000 at home.”

Taking a page out of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s book, Gaines added: “If we don’t draw people this week, we should move our team to Los Angeles.”

As of Sunday night, SDSU ticket manager Vickie Larsen said that advance sales have not been picking up. Even the day after the Aztecs beat BYU for the first time in seven tries in Provo, Larsen said the phones weren’t busy.

“Most of our sales for basketball are walk-up on the day of the game,” Larsen said. “People know they can get seats because they know we won’t sell out.”

Still, there is some advantage to being at home.

“Even though we don’t have a lot of fans at the games,” Aztec guard Creon Dorsey said, “I feel more comfortable playing at home. I know just where the ball will bounce, and I feel that I have to win for the fans who are there.”

SDSU is 7-2 at home and 9-3 on the road. The Aztecs are 7-3 in the WAC, and that includes road wins over Wyoming, Air Force, Hawaii and BYU.

San Diego State, BYU and New Mexico are tied for second place in conference. New Mexico was upset by Colorado State, 61-52, on Saturday night in Fort Collins. Texas El Paso is in first with an 8-2 mark.

The Aztecs entertain Colorado State on Thursday, Wyoming on Saturday, UTEP on Feb. 14, New Mexico on Feb. 16 and Hawaii on Feb. 21. Their only remaining conference road game is the season finale at Colorado State on Feb.23.

UTEP plays four of its six WAC games on the road. New Mexico and BYU both play three at home and three on the road.

When it comes to weather, there is no wackier conference than the WAC.

On Jan. 25, the Aztecs enjoyed a 79-degree day at Honolulu by strolling around in short-sleeved shirts.

One week later, the Aztecs returned from an evening practice at the Special Events Center at Salt Lake City wearing hats, gloves and scarfs. It was minus nine degrees.

That’s a temperature swing of 88 degrees in one week.

And imagine if the Aztecs had decided, for some reason, to travel to Peter Sink, which is 25 miles east of Logan, Utah. A mountain station operated by Campbell Scientific and television station KUTV recorded a minus 69.9 degrees in Peter Sink last Friday.

That broke the record for the most frigid temperature ever recorded in the continental United States. Rogers Pass, Mont. had recorded a minus 69.7 degrees in 1954.

It doesn’t look as if Aztec guard Jeff Konek will be named the most popular visiting player to face Utah this season.

In the first half of Saturday night’s 67-65 loss to the Utes, Konek grabbed Ute forward Albert Springs as Springs attempted to score on a breakaway layup.

Springs’ momentum carried him into the cement wall, which is just a few feet behind the basket.

The Utah fans screamed for Konek’s ejection for unsportsmanlike conduct, and booed him for the remainder of the game. The 6-2 Aztec guard did quiet the crowd momentarily when he buried a 15-foot jump shot just seconds after the booing began.

Gaines says, “I don’t think about our team getting ranked in the Top 20.” SDSU is 16-5 and was tied for the lead in the WAC going into Saturday night’s game against Utah.

After the Aztecs squandered a 10-point second half lead against Utah, and lost, 67-65, Dorsey said, “Whenever people say that if we win a certain game we might be ranked in the Top 20, we seem to lose. The thought of being ranked stays in the back of your mind.”

Aztec forward Andre Ross on his team’s performance Saturday night: “There were a lot of mental mistakes going on out there.”