San Diego State Basketball: 3 keys for Aztecs to move to 19-0 against Nevada
By John Vaccaro
Take Away the “3”
A lot of teams this season are daring opposing teams to shoot the 3. Thanks to the line being moved back, there are quite a few teams struggling to hit from outside, suddenly making this a viable strategy. Nevada isn’t one of those teams that have had trouble knocking down 3s.
Nevada has been one of the best 3 point shooting teams in the country this season, knocking down 38.1% of their attempts. It is actually inside the arc where they have been much less impressive. Their 48.2% finishing rate inside the arc puts them barely inside the top 200 in the country. I think this should mean that San Diego State goes in the opposite direction of the rest of the country for this game. They should take the 3 away from Nevada and instead dare them to try to score inside.
San Diego State has been great at making life difficult for opposing shooters this season. They’ve held opponents to a miserable 27.2% from behind the arc so far this year. I think keeping Nevada ‘s numbers somewhere down around there should be the focus of the SDSU defense. It’s not like their interior defense wouldn’t be able to stand up to a little added pressure anyway. They’re currently only allowing opponents to shoot 44.1%, which makes them a top 50 2 point defense as well.
Nevada’s two leading scorers combine to attempt 12 3s per game and make 5 of them. If SDSU can take that weapon away from them then it will make it very difficult for them to get into a rhythm and make it much easier for the Aztecs to stifle the Wolfpack offense. I also don’t believe that the Aztecs would be too worried about 5’10” Jazz Johnson trying to score in the lane against their bigs if their guards over pursue to defend the 3.
There is an obvious key to slowing down Nevada’s offense and that’s taking away the 3-ball.