San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher likes to divide the college basketball season into three parts: nonconference, conference and the postseason that, he hopes, includes the NCAA Tournament.
This year they can add a fourth: the Redemption Tour.
“I was telling Dutch,” senior forward Jared Coleman-Jones said, “that this is the perfect setup for the ultimate redemption for us, rectifying games against certain teams we lost to that personally, as a program, we don’t feel like we should have lost to.
“That’s no disrespect, but we have faith in our team.”
It starts Saturday night at Utah State (5 p.m. PDT, CBS Sports Network), the first of three games against teams that beat the Aztecs (18-6, 11-4) earlier this season. And not just beat them, but beat them in ways that, as fellow senior Wayne McKinney III put it, “really stung.”
The Aggies came to Viejas Arena on Dec. 28, trailed by 18 in the first half, were still down seven with 1:30 to go … and won 67-66 on a 3-pointer by Tucker Anderson with 6.8 seconds left.
Next up on the schedule is New Mexico on Tuesday at Viejas Arena. The Aztecs played in Albuquerque on Jan. 11, were outrebounded on the offensive boards 18-3, trailed by 20 and lost 62-48, their most lopsided regular-season defeat in 40 games.
“We kind of got punked,” junior Nick Boyd said.
After a trip to Wyoming — which the Aztecs beat on Feb. 1 but also might quality for redemption status given the wild swings on the scoreboard and the incessant chirping between players that led to Boyd’s ejection — the Aztecs play at UNLV. The Rebels beat them 76-68 at Viejas Arena on Jan. 18 for just the fourth time in the last 24 meetings.
“It’s an advantage, that opportunity to get back at them,” Boyd said. “I don’t like losing. I’m pretty sure no one likes losing in life. When you get an opportunity to play them again, you definitely have a little more pep to your step. You’re excited to go out there and prove it.”
Added Magoon Gwath: “I’m sure everybody in the team, in the back of their mind, has been thinking about these games coming up after losing to them.”
Which one do they want most?
“We want to get all of them,” McKinney said. “All of them.”
They’ve had to wait the longest, nearly two months, for another crack at Utah State (23-4, 13-3) after the Aggies won at Viejas Arena for the first time since ing the Mountain West in 2013-14.
The Aztecs went from 52.0% shooting in the first half to 25.9% (0 of 11 on 3s) in the second, from outscoring the Aggies 40-12 over the opening 18 minutes to being outscored 45-26 — at home — over the final 22, from having their way with the Aggies’ matchup zone defense to looking like they’d never seen one before.
Boyd cut out the Union-Tribune’s sports section the next day, a photo of him walking off the floor below a banner headline of “Disaster.” He pasted it on the wall above his bed.
“The Utah State loss was a big one for us, because of the fashion we lost,” Boyd said before practice Thursday. “It was a gut punch to us, kind of embarrassing a little bit, having a great lead at home and a soldout crowd and then to give that up.
“Yeah, that was a tough one for the team. But I think it kind of built our character for who we are now, and now we’ve got an opportunity to go there and do the same thing they did to us.”
It won’t be easy. The Dee Glen Smith Spectrum is one of the West’s most intimidating road venues, with the 4,000-strong “The Hurd” student section and its “Bull Sheet” with detailed (and sometimes compromising) information about opposing players.
“I’m sure they’ll make it personal on a few things and a few guys,” Dutcher said.
The Spectrum also sits at 4,770 feet, the fifth of six high altitude games on the Aztecs’ schedule this season. They are 2-2 so far, wins at Air Force (at the buzzer in overtime) and Nevada, losses at New Mexico and Colorado State.
There’s also the matter of Utah State’s 2-3 zone with man-to-man principles that completely flummoxed the Aztecs in the second half – aimlessly ing the ball across the perimeter before jacking up a shot at the 30-second clock buzzer.
The rosters are the same as Dec. 28. The teams aren’t, though.
Gwath wasn’t the player then that he is now, finishing with four points in 27 minutes in the last meeting. Boyd was just entering a protracted slump that he didn’t shake until last week. McKinney has 25 points off the bench in his last two games. They’ve been better against zones.
And they’re motivated. Losses will do that. Losses that really sting will really do that.
Practices this week, to say the least, have been spirited.
“You would think so,” Dutcher said of having his players’ full attention. “But you don’t want them overly emotional about it. Do your job, do it at a high level, have a next-play mentality when things don’t go well. That’s just the maturity of a good team.
“As much as you want to be emotional and want to beat a team that’s beaten you, you don’t do it with emotion. You do it with execution.”
