We are all San Diego State fans tonight

Tonight at 9:20 p.m. ET, UConn and San Diego State will face off for the 2023 National Championship. Obviously, we’d all prefer Kentucky to be playing tonight, but that’s not happening, so if you want to enjoy the last college basketball game until next fall (or potentially July if you count the games in Canada), it’s time to pick a side. As someone who has been cheering for Kentucky Basketball my entire life, I don’t see how it can’t be San Diego State.

UConn may not rank among Kentucky’s top rivals, but you could make an argument that the Huskies should be at least in the top ten. The two teams have only played five times, with UConn holding a 4-1 advantage. The most recent losses to the Huskies are the most devastating. In 2014, Shabazz Napier ended Kentucky’s improbable tournament run; three years prior, Kemba Walker sent the Cats home from the 2011 Final Four.

Even Kentucky’s lone victory in the series, John Wall’s coming out party in Madison Square Garden in 2009, includes obnoxious UConn memories for this blogger. I had a very tense run-in with a very angry and drunk Husky fan in the bathroom at MSG. One of them also punched Drew Franklin in the face. Thank goodness Wall let us have the last laugh.

Add in the fact that a UConn win would give the Huskies their fifth title, the third since John Calipari came to Kentucky, and Dan Hurley being very unlikable and you’ve got more than enough reason to cheer for San Diego State to pull off the upset — and it would be an upset. UConn is currently a 7.5-point favorite. KenPom only gives San Diego State a 31% chance of winning. Everyone loves an underdog.

If you’re like me and don’t know a lot about the Aztecs outside of Lamont Butler’s buzzer-beater on Saturday, here’s a quick cheering guide. Actually, let’s start with that buzzer-beater because how can you not?

The shot that got them there

San Diego State was down by as many as 14 points in the second half vs. Florida Atlantic but came back to cut the Owls’ lead to two with 9:05 left. Butler’s incredible pull-up jumper with one second on the clock completed the third-largest comeback in Final Four history and earned the Aztecs their first national championship appearance. Afterward, Butler said he felt the presence of his sister, who was shot and killed in January 2022, with him when he took the shot.

“I think about her every day,” Butler said. “Ever since she passed. She was one of my biggest supporters, and I know she’s up there happy right now, watching me play the game that I love. And I think she was with me with that shot. She probably guided the ball in a little bit. I miss her, and I’m just happy I’m able to do this for her.”

If you can’t cheer for that, what are we doing here?

Culmination of a long program build

San Diego State didn’t just come out of nowhere. The Aztecs have been to 15 NCAA Tournaments and won seven Mountain West conference titles. Steve Fisher pioneered the program build in 1999, knocking on doors to give tickets to people to boost attendance. Three years later, the Aztecs made the NCAA Tournament and have been 11 times since. Kawhi Leonard led them to the Sweet 16 in 2011 and now has his jersey retired.

When Fisher retired in 2017, his longtime assistant Brian Dutcher took over and continued the Aztecs’ development into a perennial power. In 2020, San Diego State went 30-2 and was ranked No. 6 in the final AP Poll. Had the NCAA Tournament not been canceled, the Aztecs would almost certainly have been a No. 2 seed. Over the past four seasons, they’re 59-11 in the Mountain West Conference and have been ranked in the AP Poll for the past three. Given their run in the tournament this year, a Pac-12 invitation seems inevitable.

Defense wins championships

To quote Kentucky Joe, defense, defense, defense, yeah. San Diego State’s calling card is Dutcher’s full-court press defense, which held Alabama to 3-27 from three-point range in the Sweet 16 and Creighton to only 23 points in the second half in the Elite Eight. The Aztec’s defense ranks No. 4 in KenPom but faltered slightly vs. Florida Atlantic, with the Owls shooting 41% en route to 71 points, well above 63.1, San Diego State’s average points allowed.

That defense will be put to the test vs. UConn, which has an arsenal of scoring threats and sets to deploy them. Since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the Huskies are only the sixth team to win their first five tournament games by double-digits. If they beat San Diego State by 27 or more points tonight, they will break the all-time NCAA Tournament record for point differential (+129), which was set by…the 1996 Kentucky Wildcats.

Go Aztecs.