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“AZTECS-WELCOME REAL WORLD”

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Grand Canyon University, who, yes Grand Canyon ambushes San Diego State.

Wow-ut oh-You’re kidding me?

No, the Antelopes beat them.  Yes the tiny religious for-profit school in Phoenix beat SDSU hours after State was ranked 25th in the nation in this week’s AP poll.

Had to see this coming, well I did.  Maybe the fans didn’t.  The players had to know what they were getting into.

It’s a Quad 1-win for the Lopes, the former NAIA school from years ago, who have a sugar daddy backer to the program, the legendary NBA owner and Hall of Famer, Suns iconic philanthropist, Jerry Colangelo.

There will be lots of lessons learned in this (79-73) setback, a game that wasn’t all that close, a game that slipped away in the first half and then saw SDSU get put away early in the second half.

The Aztecs feel good run from last year’s NCAA Final Four run is now officially in the rear view mirror.  Understand this team here today is not that team from last year’s team that took U-Conn into the finals.

San Diego State has a ‘target on its back’ now every time they go into someone else’s arena.  That’s the way basketball is.

Jaedon LeDee might be the best big man on the West Coast, surely the best players in the Mountain West.  But he cannot do it all himself.

Playing in a raging arena where everyone wore Purple & White, LeDee played Superman for segments of the game.  But in the end even his (24-10 rebound) night could not carry a team.  He went to war inside getting double teams. He put it on the  floor and muscled his way to the hole for points.  He posted low and his short jumpers.  He went outside an hit step back jumpers.  He kept making plays till he ran out of gas, or they starting doubling him.

At the end SDSU could not withstand the wild runs the Lopes made, (9-3) in the first half and a (17-4) burst in the 2nd half.

LeDee didn’t get much help.  Micah Parrish hit 4-long jumpers but disappeared in the second half.  The guards all struggled against the Antelopes speed.

And GCU got a ton of points from their guards, 56-in all, from Ray Harrison, Ty Foster and Collin Moore.

And bashing the boards was again an issues as Grand Canyon had a (40-31) edge on the glass, led by Gabe McGlothan’s dirty work night of (15P-13R).

Work to do at San Diego State.  Still need to find more production off the bench, any point production.  Still need not to get smashed on the glass.

Only one loss, for sure, but looming out there in a non conference prove it game with Gonzaga and then conference play.

It was fun to watch, but it was not a win, and it exposed deficiencies that Brian Dutcher has to shore up going forward.

Grand Canyon, trying to be an NCAA team on an annual basis, now that it is pretty sold as a WAC contender, was (0-9)

against Top 25-teams in school history.  Not anymore.

And now the Aztecs know, ‘target on the back’ basketball is coming everytime they travel, even if they have ‘Superman’ on their roster.

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