How Does McMullen Hate the Road? Let Him Count the Ways

If you want some reasons why the San Diego State basketball has trouble winning on the road, just ask senior center Mitch McMullen. He has a list full of them.

The hotel bed is too soft. The bed is too hard. The gym is too hot. The gym is too cold. The air is thin. The air is dry. The plane is crowded. The plane is late. The food tastes terrible. The bus is late. The weather is cold. The weather is wet. The crowd is noisy. The referees are too strict.

Need any more? McMullen has plenty. It’s all part of his latest way to break of out a road slump that has affected all of the Aztecs, but none more than McMullen.

McMullen, the Aztecs’ leading scorer and rebounder, is averaging more than twice as many points and nearly 25% more rebounds at home than on the road.

That differential is one of the reasons the Aztecs (12-14, 4-10 in WAC) open a regular season-ending trip at New Mexico tonight (6:30) having lost eight road games in a row and 24 of their past 25 Western Athletic Conference games outside of San Diego.

But on this trip, which concludes Saturday night at Texas El Paso, McMullen is trying a new tack. On the advice of Mike Blum, an SDSU graduate student who specializes in sports psychology, McMullen has prepared a list of all that can go wrong on the road. The idea is that if he is prepared for adversity maybe it won’t affect him so severely.

“Now that I am mentally aware of them before they happen, then hopefully I will be prepared for them if they do happen,” McMullen said.

The list includes almost every annoying, upsetting or depressing thing that McMullen said he might face on the road. The list runs from the personal to picky.

“Everything from being away from my wife (Kathy) to delays in travel,” McMullen said. “Whatever they are, I have not handled the stress very well. I’ve been trying to keep my game face on, but the stress is just eating me up inside.

“Now I realize I have to accept the fact that adversity will happen on the road. It’s the same as an alcoholic. Once they accept they are an alcoholic, they can deal with it. It’s all theory right now, we’ll just have to try it out and see.”

McMullen could not have picked two tougher places to test his new cure. The Aztecs have not won at New Mexico (18-8, 10-4) since 1984, and they last beat UTEP on its home court in the championship game of the 1985 WAC tournament. Since then, the Aztecs have lost eight in a row to the Miners, their longest losing streak against a WAC team.

To make the Aztecs’ task that much more difficult, both the Lobos and Miners (20-6, 9-5) are playing for a possible conference title and NCAA tournament berth. The Lobos are tied with Colorado State for first and UTEP is one game behind. The Lobos and Miners play host to SDSU and Hawaii this week, while Colorado State finishes its regular season at Utah and Brigham Young.

And while their opponents are playing for a possible championship, the Aztecs need to sweep the two games to avoid their second last-place finish in three seasons. Without two victories, and possibly even with two victories, SDSU will be playing Wednesday night in the preliminary game of the WAC tournament at Utah for the right to meet the top-seeded team in the quarterfinals the following night.

If the Aztecs are to avoid that fate, they figure they must get a stronger game from McMullen than he has been delivering on the road of late. In nine road games, he has scored in double figures only three times (once in a conference game) compared to 15 of 17 home games. McMullen’s highs of 16 points (at Arizona State) and 10 rebounds (at Texas Tech) compare to career bests of 31 points (against U.S. International) and 14 rebounds (against Hawaii) at home.

Much of McMullen’s road troubles can be traced to fouls. He has fouled out of five of the nine road games, including four of the Aztecs’ six conference road games, and has had four fouls in three other games. At home, in 17 games, he has fouled out four times and had four fouls nine times.

“He gets into quicker foul trouble on the road just by the physical nature of it all,” SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg said. “Mitch gets somewhat frustrated on the road and because of that he ends up with a lot of fouls.

“He just has to learn to deal with it, to be a little smarter, a little more clever. Instead of getting too frustrated, he has to learn how to play the game and still be effective. We’re working hard on getting him to bring the frustration level down.”

McMullen said he hopes his list of road woes, although a late-season attempt, can help him and the Aztecs salvage the end of their season.

“When I get on the court, all that stress from all the little things that have gone wrong beforehand builds up inside me,” McMullen said. “I have all this anger and anxiety. I can’t play with all that tension. I play too mechanical on the road. I need to loosen up a little bit.”

If the plan works for McMullen against the Lobos and Miners, the real test could come at the WAC tournament. In two games at Utah’s Huntsman Center, McMullen had eight points and 12 rebounds while the Aztecs lost by a total of 46 points.

McMULLEN’S STORY

Pts. Rebs. Mins. Fouls HOME AVERAGES 17.8 8.9 30.3 3.9 ROAD AVERAGES Pts. Rebs. Mins. Fouls 8.0 6.4 26.7 4.2 OVERALL AVERAGES Pts. Rebs. Mins. Fouls 14.5 8.1 29.0 4.0