Take three on Fresno State loss at San Diego State: mounting injuries limit options
Fresno State had to start 2020 without Nate Grimes.
That’s a solid hit considering the Bulldogs opened the new year on Wednesday at No. 13 San Diego State, and the Bulldogs’ senior forward has had success in his career against the Aztecs.
With Grimes out with a right wrist injury, senior point guard Noah Blackwell out with a knee injury and freshman Niven Hart also out with an injury the Bulldogs had to go deep into the bench.
They were able to stay in it, but ended up losing 61-52 at Viejas Arena to fall to 4-10, 0-3 in the Mountain West Conference.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
NOT ENOUGH O
The Bulldogs were without Grimes and Blackwell and, for most of the first half, freshman forward Orlando Robinson.
Robinson went to the bench at the 14:38 mark after picking up a second foul, leaving the Bulldogs without a lot of offense on the floor.
“That hurt,” coach Justin Hutson said. “You’re already wondering where you’re going for points when Nate was out and it’s like we talked about before, you’re in a certain flow and all of a sudden you lose a couple of guys and you have to re-adjust.
“You can’t keep running the same things all the time, so we were pretty stagnant in the first half.”
Grimes was leading Fresno State with 9.8 shots per game and Robinson was fourth with 9.0, but had taken 14 shots in scoring 24 points against San Francisco and 18 shots in scoring 27 points against UC Riverside in the Bulldogs’ past two games.
Freshman guard Jarred Hyder, in his second game back from a knee injury, came off the bench and gave Fresno State a jolt by scoring seven quick points. But the Bulldogs ended the first half hitting only 7 of 27 shots including 2 of 11 at the 3-point line and turning over the basketball 12 times.
The 25.9% was their poorest shooting half of the season – they were 7 of 26 (26.9) in the second half of a 72-66 loss at San Diego in November.
The 12 turnovers also were more than they had in seven of their first 13 games.
Fresno State finished 18 of 52 (34.6%) including 4 of 20 (20%) from the 3-point line, with 18 turnovers and only four assists.
Hyder was 8 of 17 with 23 points and Robinson was 4 of 5 in scoring 11 points.
But the Bulldogs were limited much of the game at the offensive end.
Aguir Agau, who went in averaging 4.1 shots per game, ended up playing a career-high 33 minutes. Assane Diouf, who started in place of Grimes and had taken 1.3 shots per game, played a career-high 16 minutes.
Anthony Holland, taking 2.9 shots per game, matched his season-high with 29 minutes. Lazaro Rojas, 0.9 shots per game, played a season-high seven minutes, all of them coming in the second half.
“Short turnaround from UC Riverside, very short turnaround from knowing we didn’t have Nate and deciding where we were going to play and what we were going to get through,” Hutson said.
“That short turnaround really hurt us and Orlando getting in foul trouble takes away a guy that you can throw the ball to and demand double teams.”
GRIMES PROGNOSIS
How much did the Bulldogs’ miss Grimes?
In four career regular-season games against San Diego State, the senior forward had hit 23 of 32 shots (71.9%) in averaging 12.3 points and 9.3 rebounds.
He got his first big chance as a redshirt sophomore, playing a career-high 24 minutes in a 77-73 victory at Viejas Arena. He went into that game averaging 11.3 minutes, 3.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots per game, then hit all seven of his shots in scoring a career-high 15 points, pulled down 10 rebounds including four at the offensive end and had four blocked shots.
It was his second career double-double, but the first against a Division I opponent. He had 10 and 17 in a rout of NCAA Division II Cal State Monterey Bay earlier that season.
His status will be evaluated, but is likely doubtful to play on Saturday when San Jose State comes to the Save Mart Center.
“I’m not sure,” Hutson said. “It could be a week or two, maybe.”
SO YOU’RE SAYING THERE’S A CHANCE
The Bulldogs are 0-3 in conference play for the first time since 2009 when they were still in the Western Athletic Conference.
In the Mountain West, teams that have started 0-3 have not often rallied to make a run toward the top of the conference.
Just two of 28 teams have finished in the top half of the Mountain West – UNLV in 2003, which finished 8-6 and in fourth place; and Boise State in 2015, which rattled off eight wins in a row and won 14 of its last 15 games to win the regular-season championship at 14-4.
The Broncos, not surprisingly, were led that season by two senior guards in Derrick marks and Anthony Drmic.
Fresno State, obviously, is not in that position. It had one senior on the floor at San Diego State (New Williams) and two juniors (Mustafa Lawrence and Rojas).
The Bulldogs returned to Mountain West play with the fourth lowest percentage of minutes from upperclassmen in the conference.
93.8 – New Mexico
85.2 – Boise State
81.3 – UNLV
74.0 – San Diego State
72.5 – Air Force
68.5 – Nevada
59.8 – Utah State
50.5 – San Jose State
47.0 – Fresno State
36.9 – Colorado State
29.2 – Wyoming
The four teams at the bottom of that list were all 0-2 in conference starting play on Wednesday.
This story was originally published January 1, 2020 at 3:48 PM.