Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
SJSU men’s basketball has never experienced a week like this past one.
That’s because it involved winning Mountain West games to start the season – two of them to be exact – first over UNLV and then over Colorado State.
SJSU had never beaten CSU in 23 all-time meetings before Saturday afternoon’s 78-70 victory.
“That locker room is so cool, I was about to break out in tears just thinking about it,” said SJSU head coach Tim Miles following the win. Miles previously coached the Rams from 2007-12.
What’s more, before last Wednesday’s night scrappy overtime win over UNLV, the Spartans had never started Mountain West play with a win.
Nine seasons. Nine 0-1 starts.
A majority of them being blowouts, foreshadowing a season ensconced in misery and empty bleachers at home games.
Through two games, SJSU (11-4, MW 2-0) has already surpassed their overall and conference win total from last season and is on pace to surpass its conference win total from the past five years – a whopping eight games.
Miles, a man known for rebuilding programs the way Billy Mays is known for pitching clean products, has turned Hamburger Helper into filet mignon in his second year on the job.
Might sound harsh, but it’s valid.
Since joining the Mountain West in 2013, SJSU has suffered a .127 winning percentage.
And now, Spartan nation can expect competitive basketball. A happily accepted, but completely foreign concept.
Omari Moore shines again
Credit goes to Miles, but without star guard Omari Moore, none of this would be happening.
The rising NBA prospect displayed his non-stop motor and scoring abilities, while he amassed a career high 29 points in SJSU’s 78-70 victory in Miles’ return to Moby Arena.
He played for 37 minutes and his production never dipped, going on a 7-0 run by himself to secure the win the final two minutes after CSU brought the game within 66-62 on a drained three from Isaiah Stevens.
“They talk about Isaiah Stevens as one of the best players in this league and our guy [Omari Moore] did really well and outdid him tonight,” said Miles.
Moore is also equipped with the ability to shake off shooting woes and never lose confidence in his shot-making abilities. In his three previous games, he averaged 12.3 points on 39% shooting from the field, which included an 0-for-6 line from three against UNLV.
But against the Rams he didn’t cower. Instead, went 4-for-4 from beyond the arc to start the first half and finished with a career high five threes.
“In the first half it took us a minute to adjust to their defensive schemes,” Moore said, “I was able to hit a couple shots because they were going under and then in the second half we had a good scheme for what they were doing.”
When last season ended, Moore could’ve easily entered the transfer portal and he would’ve had plenty of offers and some very good reasons not to come back.
However, he remained loyal to SJSU and is now being rewarded as the face of one of college basketball’s best stories.
Resolve, resolve, resolve …
Spend enough time with coach Miles and through osmosis the word ‘resolve’ will quickly enter your vernacular.
It’s about as commonly used in press conferences and interviews as a grizzly grunt from Tim Allen in an episode of “Home Improvement.”
Last year, when SJSU lost all but one conference game (usually by at least 15-20 points) it was often used to show that there was a lack of it. Now, it’s being used to show that there is plenty of it.
On Wednesday, UNLV used a 20-4 run to overcome a 13-point deficit at the 11:10 mark, propelled by an electric onslaught of offense from EJ Harkless, who claimed 13 of the 20 points.
However, SJSU didn’t back down, and was able to force overtime after holding UNLV without a field goal in the final 3:21 of the game.
They secured the win in overtime as Moore added an arena-thundering baseline dunk, Sage Tolbert nailed a big three and true freshman Garrett Anderson knocked down two huge free throws from the charity stripe.
Resolve was put on full display again three days later against CSU, when SJSU went down 17-5 to start the game and scored just 11 points in the first 13 minutes of the game.
SJSU clawed their way back into it via Moore, excellent three-point shooting and a shutdown of the Rams’ Stevens, and went up by five with 11 minutes left to play in the half.
The lead slipped away five minutes later and very easily could’ve meant the game as well.
And if it did, it wouldn’t have been regarded as utterly disastrous. After all, CSU whooped SJSU by 36 last season when the teams met in San Jose.
But no moral victory was needed as the Spartans came away victorious, roaring back offensively on a 10-0 run as Tolbert put the silencer on the game with a key three-pointer and monstrous jam.
Rebound margin is a conduit for something bigger
If you quickly leaf through SJSU’s team scoring and defense stats, nothing pops off the page.
The Spartans score the ninth-least points per game (69.8) and give up the fifth-most (65.5). Even with the 29 point performance, Moore still isn’t within the top eight scorers of the Mountain West.
The newfound, historic success doesn’t make all that much sense until finding out, SJSU men’s basketball has the second-best rebounding margin nationwide at 10.8.
It’s built through first-year transferees Tolbert (Temple) and Robert Vaihola (Fresno State) and second-year transfer Ibrahima Diallo (Ohio State).
The switch up is incredible considering SJSU men’s basketball had the second-worst rebounding margin in the Mountain West just a year ago at -5.1.
It’s a credit to the three-headed monster, but also Miles’ and his coaching staff’s ability to pluck major talent from other schools and let them flourish.
Tolbert averaged 3.45 boards per game at Temple the past two years and now he leads the conference with 8.3.
Vaihola on the other hand, averaged two boards per game for Fresno State and is now pulling down 6.2 a game.
“We are an excellent rebounding team and its because of guys like Rob Vaihola and Sage Tolbert,” said Miles. “That’s been critical for us to end possessions, but also give us other opportunities.”