San Diego State Basketball: 2019-20 keys to end losing streak at Boise State

Take Away Derrick Alston’s Supporting Cast

The last time these teams played, it was Derrick Alston that I was worried about SDSU stopping. There was plenty of reason to believe at that time that Alston lighting it up was the only viable path for Boise State to pull off the upset. At the time, he was scoring 27% of the team’s points and leading the conference in scoring. Since then, Boise State’s dynamic has changed.

Derrick Alston hasn’t stopped being an unbelievable scoring option. His numbers have dropped, but only to 18.38 points per game. The real big difference in their offense right now is that he is getting more help from his supporting cast. He now only accounts for 24.6% of the team’s scoring and has regularly been getting double-digit performances out of at least two other players in other games. It has also become more common for one of his teammates to lead the team in the scoring. This means that SDSU should shift their focus from stopping Derrick Alston and instead take away his help.

Boise State’s current run has coincided with improvements from their supporting cast. When Alston was dominating the box score, Boise was struggling to win games in this conference. Now the stout SDSU defense needs to do whatever they can to force them to revert to that version of Boise State. We’ve seen them shut down plenty of ancillary options throughout the season, including their most recent games against New Mexico and Air Force.

If they can stop the Boise State supporting cast like they have done to many other supporting casts throughout this season, then it should turn Boise State back into the team that struggled at the start of the conference schedule and claim their 26th consecutive win.