Aztecs’ Life on the Road Isn’t Easy : SDSU Wraps Up Regular Season Against Colorado State
About the best thing that can be said about the San Diego State basketball team’s trip from San Diego to Fort Collins is that the airline did not lose the Aztecs’ luggage.
Friday was that kind of day.
What was supposed to have been a four-hour trip turned into a six-hour odyssey.
Coming off their most bitter defeat of the season against Hawaii on Thursday night (69-68), this was not the way Coach Smokey Gaines hoped to prepare SDSU for tonight’s game against Colorado State at 6:35 at Moby Gym (KSDO-1130 AM).
First, the Denver airport was fogged in. That resulted in the Aztecs’ flight being delayed 90 minutes at Lindbergh Field.
As if hanging around an airport isn’t tedious enough, the players inflicted more torture upon themselves. They insisted on reading story after story about how they had been upset the night before in a game they had no right losing.
That’s just the beginning. Sitting next to the Aztec players were the Hawaii players who were booked on the same flight to Denver. Hawaii plays Air Force in Colorado Springs tonight.
“I didn’t feel too good about traveling with the team that beat us,” a subdued Michael Kennedy said.
Once in Denver, the team rented vans to make the 65-mile drive to Fort Collins. If luck was with them, they had a chance to get to Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins in time to practice. The team had to practice at a local high school because Colorado State was playing host to Wyoming on Friday night at Moby Gym.
Practice had been scheduled from 6 to 7. However, when the flight was delayed, Aztec assistant coach Dave Babcock called the high school from the San Diego and Denver airports to see if the gym could be held.
He was told that the Aztecs could not start practicing after 6:30.
Heavy rush-hour traffic out of Denver, which was compounded by mixture of snow and rain, resulted in a 7 p.m. arrival at the Aztecs’ Fort Collins hotel.
Forget about practice.
“Sure, we wanted to practice,” Gaines said, “but we couldn’t get a place to play.”
SDSU will hold a shooting practice at Moby Gym from 1 to 2 this afternoon.
By the time the Aztecs take the court against the Rams in their regular-season finale, they will have a better idea of where they stand in the Western Athletic Conference race.
SDSU (11-4 in the WAC, 21-5 overall) is a half-game behind Texas El Paso. The Miners (11-3, 19-7) play New Mexico (8-6, 15-10) at The Pit in Albuquerque this afternoon. UTEP closes the regular season in Fort Collins against the Rams on March 2.
“The worst thing about losing to Hawaii is now we have to depend on UTEP to lose,” Kennedy said. “But I don’t think the outcome of the UTEP game will affect how we play tonight. We have to beat Colorado State.”
The Rams (6-7, 14-11) have been disappointing this season, but they’re a smart, talented team that has lost a lot of close games.
Colorado State gave the Aztecs a real scare in San Diego. SDSU fought back from a 14-point second-half deficit to defeat the Rams, 75-72 on Feb. 7 at the San Diego Sports Arena.
After that game, Gaines said it was the Aztecs’ biggest win of the season.
He hopes to revise that assessment after tonight’s game.
Aztec Notes
Reserve forward John Martens is listed as possible for tonight’s game. He suffered separated ribs when Gerald Murray fell on him in practice this week. . . . Sophomore guard Anthony Sands, who has had very little playing time recently, did not make the trip to Colorado. Why? “He couldn’t get out of an exam,” Smokey Gaines said.