By Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
Photo via Titus Wilkinson of The Spear
From the Blue Man Group to the Jabbawockeez, Las Vegas is where yesterday’s appointment television fades into irrelevance.
However, if you’re San Jose State men’s basketball after a 81-77 overtime victory over Nevada in the quarterfinal of the Mountain West Tournament, it’s now a step out of the shadows and into newfound relevance.
And now, with a win over No. 1 seed and No. 20 ranked San Diego State in the semi-finals at the Thomas & Mack Center, they’ll be the talk of not only Vegas, but the nation.
“If you’re going to be greedy in anything in life, be greedy in winning,” said SJSU head coach Tim Miles after SJSU notched its first Mountain West Tournament victory of all time.
Throughout the first 20-win season since 1981, SJSU has made the Mountain West aware of its presence. A byproduct of reigning Mountain West Player of the Year Omari Moore, who’s 26-point and 10-assist double-double led SJSU to its overtime triumph on Thursday.
“Why not keep winning and make it to March Madness?” said Moore with SJSU being two wins away from its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1996.
Sage Tolbert, SJSU’s second-leading scorer with 20 points and two blocks said, “I don’t plan on losing anytime soon.”
When Nevada handed SJSU a 26-point home blowout back in January, Tolbert had just three points – he had three dunks on Thursday alone.
Down 44-35 with 14:21 left in the second half, Nevada surged back behind a 17-4 run, and felt all momentum shift after back-to-back threes from Jarod Lucas and Tre Coleman made it a 52-48 game with 8:08 left.
In SJSU’s prior two losses to Nevada, they couldn’t withstand big Wolf Pack surges.
But a struggling Moore punched back, notching a three-point play on a vintage drive that caused Miles to nearly yank his arm out of his socket out of sheer excitement a few plays later.
“My coaches just told me to, ‘keep going, keep going, stuff’s going to fall.’ I just kept being aggressive. My teammates believed in me, my coaches believed in me so I was able to see some stuff go through the net and help us withstand that little run,” said Moore.
Within the waning minutes of regulation, Moore scored on back-to-back drives to give SJSU a 65-63 lead, but Lucas however, wasn’t done.
Yo-yoing the ball at right wing, facing the Wolf Pack fans and staring directly at Moore, Lucas cut to the hoop, stopped on a dime in the middle of the key, got Moore out of position and sunk the turn around jumper to tie the game at 65 – his 18th point of the second half.
On the other side of the floor, Moore missed a step-back three-pointer to win the game.
When overtime kicked off, Moore sank a three in the midst of a 7-0 run, putting SJSU up 74-67 and despite some hiccups from the free throw line – Spartans’ went 9-for-14 – ran with the lead all the way to victory.
“I’m just extremely grateful to be these guys’ coach and I can’t tell you the thrill of watching the confidence grow, see the development of all those guys,” said Miles after the win.
On Friday night, when Thomas & Mack Center’s PA announcer requests for SJSU fans ‘to make some noise’ those in attendance will hear faint cheers of a program who’s never won a postseason game and has been to the NCAA Tournament just three times.
However, when it’s SDSU’s turn, the arena will serve as a roomy MRI machine. Piercing noise from merciless fans who’ve seen three NCAA Tournament appearances since 2018.
The Spartans are 1-16 all time and have lost the last 10 matchups.
Brand recognition, culture, history, all point to SDSU – the Mountain West Coach of the Year award Miles just won, is named after former Aztec head coach Steve Fisher.
“So this is definitely a good opportunity for us to play them again and you know kind’ve get our get back in a sort because they embarrassed us to be completely honest with you on their floor,” said Moore.
In the only meeting this year, the Aztecs held SJSU to 14 first half points, en route to a 72-51 victory. At one point, the Spartans missed 16-straight field goals between Omari Moore’s layup at the 10:32 mark in the first half, and Trey Anderson’s three-pointer at the 16:46 mark of the second half.
With the Aztecs up 46-26 at the top of the first half, SDSU head coach Brian Dutcher subbed out four of his five starters. Continuing the lightning quick transition buckets, clamping of Moore while clogging his driving lanes became unnecessary cardio.
But how much of it can be accredited to SDSU’s Viejas Arena? The Aztecs’ 12,261 fans per game is the most in the Mountain West and 10,000 more than SJSU’s at Provident Credit Union Event Center. What’s more, the Aztecs are 56-5 in the last four seasons at the Mecca of the Mountain West.
“When they don’t come to our court to play you know it’s kind of hard to tell what type of team they are,” said Tolbert. “Playing them here at a neutral court, we’ll really get to see what they’re made of.”
Nearly a year to the date, after losing in overtime to cap off a 8-23, one conference win season, Miles fired a warning shot.
“You can look anybody in the eye and tell them we are going to come back next year and be bigger, stronger, better. Enjoy it while it lasts,” Miles said with great conviction.
This season and especially on Thursday, Miles and SJSU followed up on that statement.
They outscored Nevada 46-26 in the paint, held Wolf Pack center Will Baker to just a single point and forced Nevada to shoot 38% from the field and 28% from three.
Albeit Moore, SJSU has been subpar on offense be it three-point shooting (25%) and free throw shooting (65%).
“Nobody on this team feels like we’ve even played our best basketball yet to be completely honest with you,” said Moore after making 11 of his 25 shots from the field and was 2-for-9 (22%) from three.
Getting past SDSU, its fan base and the pressure of being on the precipice of true nationwide acclaim and glory is the next test and the biggest one yet.
“I’ve never been afraid of a challenge,” said Miles. “Knowing San Jose State and the challenges that are there. I think I was a guy that said, ‘You know I can do this. We can establish the mindset in these kids and we can flip this thing’ and we have.”