By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) — MBB Beat Reporter
Standing 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds with a roll of quarters in his pockets, Alvaro Cardenas is your cliche scrappy point guard. Cliche isn’t a slight, moreso a reference to the uplifting common story of the player who relies more on effort and intelligence than genetics.
The freshman from Grenada, Spain has been a regular on the court for San Jose State — averaging 25 minutes per game — good for fourth most on the Spartans and is second on the team in assists with 2.8 per game.
He’s the quintessential set-up man for an offense that is occupied by lengthy guards and hybrid forwards that live and die by the three ball. His mentality is to be “aggressive” and “create for teammates.”
“I’m not a scoring point guard, Cardenas said. “I really like passing the ball and getting my teammates open.”
Catching up with Cardenas after practice on January 26th, there’s a sense of focused awareness on what he is and isn’t.
“I’m not the fastest guy or the most explosive, but I’m competitive and I can just dive for every ball, try to play the best defense I can,” Cardenas said. “I really got to be locked in because everyone is more athletic than I am.”
He’s not going to isolate defenders and back them down in the post nor will he sit on the wing and wait for the ball to find him to shoot a spot up three. Instead, he is wreaking havoc and doing the dirty work the team needs.
During the loss to Air Force, Cardenas’ 3/10 shooting and five fouls wasn’t flattering in the box score. Someone that didn’t spend a millisecond watching the game and saw that would write off his performance immediately. Yet, there’s something to be said for his effort on defense and willingness to put his body on the line for loose balls.
Following the game against the Falcons, Miles had high praise for him.
“There was no doubt, I thought he played very strong tonight,” said SJSU head coach Tim Miles.
Miles admitted that he did mask costly errors at the end, but was involved in a “whole bunch of plays that really helped the [Spartans] keep the fight along.”
At this point in the season, the Spartans are on a six game losing streak and with a roster full of young gunners and transfers, the goal is to maintain high effort and competitive drive in each and every game. Without establishing that resiliency to bounce back after a loss and answer the bell after losses, then they will dwindle away.
Resiliency for Cardenas was built through losing one-on-one games as a kid against his older brother. No crowds or fancy hardwood. Just two brothers going mano a mano.
“I was getting my tail busted everyday,” Cardenas said.“We would play for three hours outside and I didn’t really beat him until like a year ago really, so we would always end up fighting.”
There are three kinds of people in the world. Those that give in, give up or get even. Cardenas is the last.
“It was like Christmas … I remember I beat him like five games to zero. We were playing for three hours and I remember he was so mad he just straight up jumped into the pool with his clothes on.”
The mentality to bounce back has been ingrained in him and will have to be at the forefront of the mindset for the entire team.
Playing hard defense, diving for loose balls and rolling around in the mud for a possession becomes infectious. Getting other players to embody that mentality breeds great defense and offense. All five guys can operate without worrying that someone’s going to skip out on their assignment because it’s inconvenient for them to try harder.
There are invisible marks being left on the Spartans through Cardenas that have the potential to become indelible and eventually seen through their record.