San Diego State Basketball: 2019-20 keys to beat Utah State at home

LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 21: The San Diego State Aztecs team remains undefeated after defeating the Utah Utes in the Air Force Reserve Basketball Hall of Fame Classic at Staples Center on December 21, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 28: Jordan Schakel #20, Yanni Wetzell #5 and KJ Feagin #10 of the San Diego State Aztecs (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

Stay Out Of Foul Trouble

There were a few things you could take away from San Diego State’s demolition of New Mexico on Wednesday night. Obviously, the first two are that San Diego State is great and New Mexico is really bad in their current state. The next thing I took away from that game was that San Diego State has some depth issues. There wasn’t very much time in that game where it looked like the Lobos every really had a chance, but there was a point in the first half where they started to pull closer to SDSU and that point coincided with foul trouble for Malachi Flynn and Yanni Wetzell.

During that time Adam Seiko struggled to run the Aztec offense and they had trouble taking care of the ball. This stretch also featured Corey Manigault finding regular success in the paint and it saw the Lobos pull the game to within 14, which was as close as they got after the game’s first media timeout.

It didn’t end up mattering much against the Lobos as a 9-0 run to end the half followed shortly after that stretch and pretty much put the game away, but having Wetzell or Flynn off the floor for extended periods would be tough to overcome against a Utah State team that has recovered from their slump early in 2020. SDSU hasn’t really had a dependable big guy other than Wetzell since Nathan Mensah’s health issues began. They play Nolan Narain and Joel Mensah, but either of those guys is going to have a really rough time trying to stop Neemias Queta.

If Flynn is in foul trouble, there is always going to be a drop-off in play when you have to take the front-runner for Mountain West Player of the Year off the court. The Aztecs at least have a little bit more depth in the backcourt, with Seiko and Trey Pulliam regularly getting minutes, but this team still clearly misses Flynn whenever he’s off the floor.

The first time these two teams played, SDSU committed 20 fouls and ended up with four each on Wetzell and Matt Mitchell and 3 each on Flynn and KJ Feagin. In that game they only had two players play more than 10 minutes off the bench and only four appear in the game.

Utah State has done a great job drawing fouls this season to the tune of 21.7 free throw attempts per game. They also draw the 36th most total fouls per game from opponents.

Another 20 fouls against Utah State could put this SDSU team in a spot they don’t want to be in on Saturday and it is something they absolutely need to avoid.