San Diego State Basketball: 2019-20 keys for Aztecs to sweep New Mexico

Force Turnovers

This key is somewhat related to the last slide. As I said previously, the Lobo offense relies on a high volume of possessions to score points. If you start limiting their possessions, they tend to begin to try to force up tough shots or try to shoot early in the shot clock to force the game to speed up. However, when they do this, their offense becomes sloppy and even more turnover prone than usual. This is something the Aztecs need to capitalize on.

SDSU’s 14 turnovers forced per game don’t exactly look like the most impressive number. It only

puts them at 109th in the country. However, the fact that they force one on 18.6% of opponents’ possessions is way more impressive and good for 65th in the country. It could also be the most important factor in this game. New Mexico is one of the sloppiest teams in the country, committing turnovers on 17.1% of their possessions and 14.2 turnovers per game.

SDSU needs to take advantage of that sloppiness and force New Mexico to turn the ball over when the offense starts to get desperate and try to create opportunities that just aren’t there. This would essentially take possessions away from a Lobo team that will already be playing slower than its usual pace and make it even more difficult for them to try and find ways to score. The fact that these turnovers would likely lead to easy buckets on the other end would just be an added bonus.

If SDSU can force New Mexico to commit at least their season average in turnovers, then the slower pace of this game would make life miserable for a Lobo offense that is just starting to find its groove again. I believe that if they can consistently force turnovers, then this becomes an easy win for the Aztecs and one where their defense looks particularly impressive in shutting down the country’s 11th highest-scoring offense that is coming off of a 97 point effort.