San Diego State Basketball: 2019-20 keys to make UNLV their 21st victim

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SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 11: Adam Seiko #2 of the San Diego State Aztecs (Photo by Kent Horner/Getty Images) /

Force Turnovers

The UNLV offense was absolutely on fire last week and even in its “bad” performance against Nevada on Wednesday, they managed to score 72 points. That performance followed a week where they averaged 98.5 points per game. However, there is an obvious issue with their offense even in some of its best games. They turn the ball over frequently.

As it happens, San Diego State’s defense is pretty adept at creating turnovers. They’re forcing opponents to commit 15 turnovers per game and more impressively, are forcing a turnover on nearly 20% percent of their opponents’ possessions. If they can make UNLV turn the ball over with that level of regularity it will go a long way toward slowing down their offense. It would completely disrupt any rhythm UNLV can get into and make their guards much more tentative.

There is also the bonus on the other end of the floor that any live-ball turnovers SDSU can create would likely lead to easy buckets on the other end. Those easy buckets could spark SDSU’s offense in the case this turns into a shootout with the Runnin’ Rebels and help them take a hostile home crowd out of the equation.

Everything has started on the defensive end for SDSU for as long as I can remember and I believe that’s where their success needs to start in this game.