Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 83-60 win against Fresno State on Tuesday night at Viejas Arena:
1. A second chance
Just over four years ago, Zaon Collins was a four-star recruit in his senior season at Bishop Gorman High School. He was driving to practice. He was late. He was speeding.
Collins slammed into another car in an intersection, traveling at 88 mph in a 35 mph zone, according to police. The driver of the other car, a 52-year-old U.S. Army veteran and school janitor, was killed.
In June 2023, after a protracted legal case, Collins pleaded guilty to a felony charge of reckless driving resulting in death and was sentenced to three months at Clark County Detention Center plus three years’ probation. He served 56 days before being released for good behavior.
Tuesday night at Viejas Arena, as he has been all season, the 6-foot-1 sophomore point guard was in uniform for Fresno State.
“With Zaon, what happened to him in the past happened,” Bulldogs first-year coach Vance Walberg said. “I’m a big believer in everybody getting a second chance. And we did that. … I met with him. I met with his parents, and we talked a long time and through a lot of different things, and we felt like it was the right thing.”
Collins, who had been committed to UNLV at the time of the accident, was out of organized basketball for 2½ years while his case worked its way through the court system. He returned to a basketball court last season, playing for nationally ranked Salt Lake City College.
Several Division I schools showed interest. He chose Fresno State.
“I really don’t try to think about it,” Collins told ABC30 Fresno before the season. “It comes up in my mind sometimes, and I just look to the man above to get me through that time. Basketball is an outlet for me, (and) when I think about it and feel down and kind of depressed, you know, I just pray on it and find a gym.
“Again, I send my apologies out to the other family involved. Many people don’t get a second chance, but I’m very blessed and grateful for this opportunity.”
Collins has started 24 of 25 games for the Bulldogs, ranking first on the team in assists (4.7 per game) and third in scoring (12.0 points per game) with a high of 27 points against Washington State. He had four points, six rebounds, four assists and a technical foul in 29 minutes Tuesday.
“Life is about second chances,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “He’s got his, and now hopefully he’ll take advantage of it and live a productive life both on and off the floor.”
2. The air up there
In the locker room before the game, Aztecs coaches flipped around games on TV and saw preseason No. 1 Kansas losing 91-57 at BYU. And quietly chuckled.
A day earlier, Kansas State had lost at Utah, also on the back end of a two-game road trip into elevation.
“I felt like saying, ‘Well, welcome to the Mountain West,’” Dutcher said. “That was our road trip, then we’d go to Colorado State and Wyoming, then we’d go to Air Force and New Mexico. We’d have to stay at altitude, and it’s hard. They’re finding that out themselves right now, and they’ll have to make adjustments.
“I don’t want to take away from the way that BYU played, but I don’t know if they’re (34) points better than Kansas on most nights. But you stay at altitude for three or four days, and you’re going to get caught.”
Which is what Kansas did for games at Utah on Saturday and at nearby BYU three days later.
The elevation at Utah and BYU: 4,657 and 4,679 feet.
The elevation in Lawrence, Kan.: 866 feet.
“I thought this would be a great opportunity to be a team-bonding situation, but it hasn’t been,” coach Bill Self said after the Jayhawks lost by 30-plus against an unranked opponent for the first time since The Associated Press poll launched in 1948. “It hasn’t been a good trip, and guys need to get home.”
The Big 12 thought it would save teams time and money by scheduling Utah and BYU, less than an hour apart by bus, as a two-game trip. Big 12 teams are now 3-9 on the trip. In the second game of the back-to-back, when the rarefied air really kicks in, they are 1-5.
The Mountain West used to employ a travel partner system for road trips. One would play at Utah on Thursday and the other at BYU, then switch on Saturday.
After a few years of getting blown out in the second game (SDSU went 2-13), the sea-level teams lobbied to split up mountain trips. Even now, on the occasion that the Aztecs draw back-to-back conference road games in elevation, Dutcher will fly home between them.
The Big 12 will, or should, learn. We’re not in Kansas anymore.
“What do you mean by altitude? The air and all that?” Jayhawks senior guard David Coit said last week about his first career trip into elevation. “Never, never been in anything like that. I don’t know how that’s about to feel. Are you more tired? This is, like, a scientific fact?”
3. Coaching carousel
Walberg is one of three new coaches in the Mountain West this season. There could be several more by spring.
The annual coaching carousel hasn’t started spinning yet, but this could be a particularly active year for the conference. An early scorecard:
New Mexico: Richard Pitino is widely expected to leave. He has been connected to Florida State (where Leonard Hamilton is retiring) and Miami (where Jim Larranaga already has). South Florida has an interim head coach as well, and Pitino has been known to covet a move to Florida.
But here’s the wild card: Virginia, where coach Tony Bennett retired just weeks before the season and interim Ron Sanchez is 13-13 overall and tied for 10th in the ACC (and, presumably, on his way out).
UNLV: Kevin Kruger probably got a year longer that he otherwise would have out of respect for his father, Lon, who coached the Rebels to four NCAA Tournament appearances and one Sweet 16 from 2004-2011. But he’s in his fourth season now and the Rebels (14-12) are still treading water.
This would be the 12th straight season without a tournament berth, not nearly good enough for a program that has been to four Final Fours and won a national title.
Utah State: Could the Aggies lose a head coach after one season for the second straight year? Danny Sprinkle did it last spring, jumping to Washington after one season in Logan. Now Jerrod Calhoun could be a hot commodity a year after coming from Youngstown State and leading the Aggies to a 22-4 record.
The jobs to watch: Cincinnati and West Virginia. Calhoun has a degree from the former and was an assistant for five years at the latter under Bob Huggins. Wes Miller is in his fourth season at Cincinnati without a tournament appearance, and current West Virginia coach Darian DeVries, an Iowa native, is an obvious candidate if/when Fran McCaffery is pushed out at Iowa.
San Jose State: Tim Miles deserves Mountain West Coach of the Year consideration, building another roster basically from scratch into a competitive outfit that beat first-place New Mexico. A wise power conference program would pursue him as an offensive coordinator, much like No. 9-ranked Texas Tech did so successfully with former Wyoming head coach Jeff Linder.
Air Force: Most contracts are for five years, and Joe Scott is in Year 5. And he’s 14-74 in conference games, including 0-15 this season.
