DAYTON, Ohio – The inspiration for Dayton’s Wright brothers and the world’s first airplane was a toy helicopter powered by a rubber band that their father brought home for them to play with.
They wound it up, let it go and watched it fly up, up, up … until it hit the living room ceiling and crashed.
Sort of like San Diego State’s basketball team in the same city 147 years later.
Hit its ceiling. And crashed.
The team that began the season by losing all-conference guard Reese Waters for its entirety and instead stuttered along with one of college basketball’s youngest rotations that included six freshmen or sophomores experienced the power of gravity Tuesday night in the NCAA Tournament’s First Four, a 95-68 loss against North Carolina that reached new levels on the wince-o-meter.
“It’s tough, you know,” SDSU guard Nick Boyd said. “It’s hard to put into words coming to the biggest stage and getting your butt whooped. Yeah, this is hard to explain. … We got punked.”
The capacity crowd at UD Arena was treated to a thriller in the doubleheader of play-in games for the main bracket.
It wasn’t this one. Alabama State beat St. Francis (Pa.) in the early game between 16 seeds on an improbable shot with one second left).
North Carolina was a controversial inclusion in the 68-team field, made more controversial that its athletic director also happened to be the chair of the selection committee (and happened to receive a $67,905 bonus in his contract if the Tar Heels made the tournament).
The Aztecs were the next-to-last team to receive an at-large berth, and that was based not on current form but what they did — and who they played — in November, namely an overtime victory against No. 1 seed Houston in the third-place game of the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas.
The SDSU team that played four months later in Dayton looked nothing like that one, trailing 47-23 at the half after the Tar Heels were 7 of 9 behind the 3-point arc against statistically the nation’s 13th best defense.
UNC’s Seth Trimble said he wasn’t surprised the Tar Heels had so much success against one of the nation’s top defenses.
“We know who we are on the offensive end and know what we’re capable of,” he said. “It doesn’t surprise me what we did tonight.”
The logistics didn’t help, certainly.
SDSU learned its First Four assignment on Sunday afternoon, then were hustled onto a charter flight early the next morning, then straight to UD Arena for media obligations and a mandatory open practice. UNC, with a far shorter trip, was able to practice at home and implement a game plan before leaving; the Aztecs had zero closed-door prep practices before trying to defend the nation’s No. 22 offense.
But even two weeks of scouting, film sessions and practice weren’t changing last night’s result, not the way the Tar Heels – clearly out to make a statement to bracket haters – were shooting and defending.
“Obviously, we wish we would have given them more of a game,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “We hang our hat on defense, and we couldn’t get a stop. Really happy for the season we had, but disappointed how it finished.”
If there was a moment that epitomized the ineptitude, it came three minutes into a tie game. Miles Byrd, as he’s prone to do, stuck out his long arms and poked away a pass, and he was off to the other end for an uncontested dunk …
Until fumbling the ball, retrieving it, dribbling to the left corner and launching – and missing – a 3.
The Aztecs corralled the offensive rebound, and Magoon Gwath, back on the floor for the first time since hyperextending his right knee on Feb. 22, was fouled. He made one of two free throws for a 6-5 lead.
Blink. They were down 22-11.
Blink. They were down 33-13.
Blink. They were down 44-23 as UNC guard RJ Davis got the ball on the right side in the closing seconds of the first half. He launched – and made – a deep 3 to pour salt in the wound.
It brought back painful memories of the last time the Aztecs were an 11 seed and faced an ACC team in the NCAA Tournament, a 78-62 loss against Syracuse in 2021 at Hinkle Fieldhouse just down I-70 in Indianapolis where they also trailed by 24 at the half.
The largest deficit in that game was 27. On Tuesday, the Aztecs were, gulp, down 40.
A day earlier, Dutcher had said: “We have to find a way to make it a lower scoring game. It can’t be up in the 80s and 90s. We have to play in the 70s if we want to have a chance to win.”
The Tar Heels had 82 … with 7½ minutes to go.
Before last season, Boyd played UNC in a preseason scrimmage while at Florida Atlantic and said of Davis: “RJ was killing us, I’m not going to lie. We’ve got a tall task.”
The senior guard was as advertised, finished with 26 points in 28 minutes on 8 of 12 shooting, including a perfect 6 of 6 behind the arc. Three teammates were in double figures as well: Trimble with 16, Ven-Allen Lubin with 12 and Jae’Lyn Withers with 10.
SDSU had two: Nick Boyd and Wayne McKinney III with 12 each.
Gwath had only one full practice, Sunday in San Diego, before returning to the floor and the starting lineup. He looked rusty at first – missing a 3 on the opening possession, turning it over, picking up a pair of early fouls – before settling into the game and finishing with nine points, five rebounds, two blocks and a steal.
The team stats were even uglier. UNC shot 52.6% overall against a defense that held opponents to 37.8%, best in the nation entering the night, and a sizzling 58.3% on 3s (14 of 24). SDSU was 39.7% and 8 of 27, and four of those came in the closing minutes.
The Tar Heels had six turnovers in the opening eight minutes but made 6 of 9 shots and 4 of 4 behind the arc. It was that kind of night.
And this kind of night: Up 35 with the shot clock expiring late in the game, UNC’s Ian Jackson fired a desperation 3 from close to 30 feet.
It banked in.
And this kind of night: Senior walk-on Desai Lopez subbed in for the final minute, never having scored in his SDSU career, and got the line for two free throws.
And missed both.
The final horn sounded, mercifully, the players shook hands, and the Aztecs shuffled off the floor, through a tunnel and into the quiet of their locker room, their season ending with a whimper instead of a bang.
This one might sting for a while.
Notable
Had the Aztecs won, they would have gone to the hotel, packed up and flown to Milwaukee for a main bracket game on Friday. Instead, they spent the night in Dayton with plans to fly home via charter on Wednesday morning … The officiating crew: Doug Sirmons, Tony Padilla and Nathan Hall. None had worked an Aztecs game this season, although Padilla worked several in recent years … SDSU is now 0-3 against UNC all-time, all three blowouts. The last two came in 1988 and 1990 … SDSU has now lost two straight NCAA Tournament games, by 30 and 37 points … The announced crowd was 12,561, with considerably more baby blue than scarlet and black.
Originally Published: March 18, 2025 at 8:44 PM PDT
