SPOKANE, Wash. — Greetings from Spokane Arena. We have for you this evening a first course of pure adrenaline laced with sugar, followed by a second course of a bag of thumbtacks. No substitutions, please. Enjoy.
There will be those who watch Alabama-Grand Canyon in the first of these two Round of 32 games and wonder if defense has been outlawed in the NCAA Tournament. They will then watch the San Diego State-Yale nightcap and grimace and wince for 40 minutes straight.
No doubt the Crimson Tide and the Lopes will get up and down. Nate Oats thinks his crew unlocked some decent defense for the first 30 minutes of a first-round game against Charleston, but a season-long trove of results suggests a regression to the mean is much more likely than a repeat. Grand Canyon answered some questions with a win over Saint Mary’s in the first round, but this is also just the second power-conference team Bryce Drew’s team has faced all season.
And while Yale has scorers — all five starters average in double figures — it doesn’t play particularly fast, ranking 328th in adjusted tempo as of Sunday. Which suits San Diego State just fine. The Aztecs very much do not care if shots are falling on the offensive end as long as bodies are crumpling on the other end. “I tell them, we’re one of the few teams in the country that when we don’t make shots, we can still win games,” coach Brian Dutcher said on Saturday, and he’s not wrong.
San Diego State has allowed a team to score 80 points just once this season. The second game here likely won’t be a blowout either way. But it’s unclear if Yale will get an easy look all night and, for that matter, if the Aztecs will make any of their good looks at all.
From a full sprint in Game 1 to a full grind in Game 2 here in the Pacific Northwest.