SAN DIEGO STATE BASKETBALL : Aztecs Face First Test in Din of Dean Dome

What’s red and black and green all over?

This year’s San Diego State basketball team, which will fill their new red and black uniforms with enthusiasm, youth and inexperience. The Aztecs open their season today at No. 5 North Carolina (4:30 p.m. PST, no local radio or television), and, by the time it’s over, they could be Carolina blue as well.

The waiting has become as tiresome as the five weeks of practice. SDSU has had good days, bad days and long days. Finally, it is Game Day--and the schedule is telling them to grow up. In a hurry.

“I think it’s going to be a challenge,” Coach Jim Brandenburg said. “I think it’s going to be a heck of an experience for our guys. Whether it’s a good experience or a bad experience will depend on our attitude going in.”

The old schoolyard saying is that it’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. Just this once, as the Aztecs suit up in the Smith Center--affectionately called the “Dean Dome”--that may be true.

“If we don’t show intimidation, if we play hard and smart, I think it will really be a plus for this basketball team,” Brandenburg said.

There are six newcomers plus three players who redshirted last season joining the SDSU mix. How green are the Aztecs? Well, during a stop in play in Monday’s exhibition game, one of the Aztecs got up, peeled off his warmup jacket and started to enter the game. He got about five steps onto the court before he heard Brandenburg.

“You’ve got to check in,” Brandenburg hollered, pointing at the scorer’s table.

So, before the Aztecs left for North Carolina Thursday, Brandenburg mustered up his best “Hoosiers” speech after Wednesday’s practice.

“I (told) the guys they have worked all of their life to play in front of large crowds against great national competition,” Brandenburg said.

Then he turned philosophical--on the subject of noise.

“At North Carolina, there will be a lot of noise,” he said. “Who is to say what is good noise and bad noise? Noise is noise, whether it’s in the (San Diego) Sports Arena or in the Dean Dome.

“What we need to do is make sure the crowd noise drives us rather than intimidates us.”

In the beginning, SDSU will look to veterans Marty Dow, Arthur Massey and Vern Thompson for leadership. Dow, a 7-foot-1 senior center, was developing into one of the Western Athletic Conference’s better big men last year before a torn tendon in his foot ended his season. Massey is a senior point guard who has displayed leadership potential in practice this fall. And Thompson is a 6-6 senior forward who started 20 of 31 games last season.

North Carolina (21-13 last year) is coming off its first season with double-digit losses since 1965-66. But Coach Dean Smith put together the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class, and the Tar Heels were picked by Atlantic Coast Conference coaches to win the league. Three starters return from last year’s team--guard King Rice (9.2 points, 6.4 assists per game), forward Pete Chilcutt (9 points, 6.6 rebounds a game) and swingman Rick Fox (16.2 points, 43.8% three-point accuracy).

“It’s going to be hard in the Dean Dome, but I think if we don’t blank out because we’re playing at North Carolina, we can compete real well,” Massey said.

Said Brandenburg: “These games can do so much for us as far as things it’s going to take to be successful. We are the sum of our experiences. When you have these experiences, if you handle them correctly, they can make us better people and better basketball players. This can make us a better basketball team.”

Aztec Notes

In the only time these two teams have played, North Carolina defeated SDSU, 103-92, in front of a sold-out crowd at San Diego Sports Arena in 1988.