AZTEC NOTEBOOK : Game Time Changes, But SDSU In Dark

Oops.

Officials at San Diego State were scrambling Tuesday to make final arrangements for Saturday’s basketball game at Wyoming. The game was originally scheduled for 7:35 p.m. (MDT) but was moved up to 3:05 p.m. by Wyoming. Everything was set, except for one thing.

Nobody bothered to tell SDSU.

The Aztecs found out late Tuesday morning when someone from their hotel in Laramie called and wondered why they had ordered a team meal Saturday afternoon when they were supposed to be playing.

All season, SDSU thought Saturday’s game was at night. All schedules printed by the school listed it that way. Suddenly, the scramble was on.

Now, instead of spaghetti for the pre-game meal, the Aztecs will have steak and eggs. And instead of flying out of Denver on Sunday morning, they have scheduled a flight out for late Saturday night.

Except they couldn’t get on a flight to San Diego, so they will fly into Los Angeles and bus down.

Add travel: As they enter the final 1 1/2 weeks before the Western Athletic Conference tournament, the schedule doesn’t favor the Aztecs (10-13, 5-8). The trip to Laramie this weekend is one of the worst in the WAC--a two-hour flight to Denver and then about a 2 1/2-hour drive to Laramie. Plus, they lose an hour with the time-zone switch.

Then, the Aztecs are at Hawaii next Saturday. They take the red-eye flight home after the game, leaving Hawaii at 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Then, a few days later, they fly back to Laramie for the conference tournament, which begins March 6.

Said guard Ray Barefield: “I think it could be very tiring, but if we go up there focused, it’s not so tiring because we’re going up to do a job rather than just going up. There’s a quest involved.”

Frustration: Two Aztecs have seen their playing time reduced in the past couple of weeks--guard Chris McKinney and forward Joe McNaull.

McKinney, a freshman from East St. Louis, Ill., earned a starting position at the beginning of the season but has started just one of the past five games.

“I’m rolling with the punches,” McKinney said. “(Jim Brandenburg) is the coach, and if he thinks it’s good for the team. . . .”

But McKinney hinted that he will think hard about whether to return next year.

“That decision will be made over the summer,” he said.

McNaull was averaging about 15 minutes a game until Brigham Young’s Steve Schreiner taught him a few lessons in a 75-55 loss Feb. 7. In three games since, McNaull’s average has been cut to 10 minutes a game.

“I have to take it like it is,” McNaull said. “I’m a freshman and I’m new to the system.

“It can be (frustrating). Against Colorado State (Thursday), I know I could have played (more). (Brandenburg) said the match-up was bad, but nobody else was really doing anything, and he didn’t give me a chance to play. I’ve got to accept that and play as hard as I can when I get the chance.”

Aztec Notes:

Forward Courtie Miller has three stitches above his right eye, the result of a Chris Lowry elbow Saturday night against Air Force. . . . Miller is not the only one hurting. Guard Arthur Massey has a cold.