Around this exact time nine long years ago, the San Diego State Aztecs basketball team was busy building toward a special season. Win after win followed win after win, and before you knew it, the Aztecs, led by the magical coaching of Steve Fisher, were 20-and-0 and ranked No. 4 in the entire nation.
I didn't believe it then, and I still hardly believe it now. My gutty, little Aztecs winning 20 games in a row? Ranked as the fourth best team in the country? Up there with the likes of Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA and anybody else you could think of?
Nah.....couldn't really have happened. But it did.
The amazing 2010-11 SDSU hoops squad would finish up at 34-3, knocked out of the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16 in somewhat hearbreaking fashion by UConn, the eventual national champion. Though I still don't believe it, I'll never forget it. The amazing turnover-free point guard D.J. Gay setting up the talented and athletic duo of Malcolm Thomas and Billy White. Chase Tapley and James Rahon knocking down outside jumpers. Tim Shelton, the glue guy. And, of course, there was that Kawhi Leonard kid, who has gone on to do a few things, you may have noticed, in the NBA.
How could anybody forget it? It was a once-in-a-lifetime season. I must have said it 100 times that winter. "Enjoy this ride, because you'll never see the likes of it again."
Now, I'm not so sure.
Fast forward to current day, and the San Diego State basketball team, now coached by Fisher's top assistant Brian Dutcher, is starting to get me to believe something otherworldly might be in store for all of us Aztecs fans again. A win on Wednesday night at Colorado State, always a tough place to play because of the altitude, improved SDSU to 9-0 for only the second time in school history. And it has everyone thinking about the first time they did it.
Now, for sure 9-0 isn't 20-0 and this year's team isn't even ranked -- yet. But like the 2010-11 team, it has come up with some impressive early season victories. The Leonard-led squad announced itself in the second game with a road upset of 11th-ranked Gonzaga, followed immediately by an unlikely comeback win over Wisconsin-Green Bay. In that game, they trailed 28-6 at the outset before roaring back for a 79-70 victory. With The Show starting to warm things up, and racous sellouts becoming the norm at Viejas Arena, the Aztecs beat good Wichita State and Cal teams to reach 9-0 in early December -- just like this year's team has.
The winning would continue through the first of the year, and through the first five conference games, before No. 9-ranked BYU finally stopped them on Jan. 26. Seven more wins followed before BYU caught them again, this time at Viejas, exactly a month later. The Aztecs would earn their revenge on the Cougars, however, when they took them apart in the Mountain West Conference Tournament championship game, 72-54. That victory sent Fisher's bunch into the NCAA's at 32-2 -- a No. 2-seed in the West Regional.
More fun was ahead the first weekend of the tournament in Tucson, Ariz. SDSU beat 15th-seed Northern Colorado as expected in the first round, then had its hands (really) full with No. 7-seed Temple in round number two. Ben Higgins and I were at that game, sweating out a double overtime victory and slapping hands underneath the table on press row when the Aztecs finally prevailed, 71-64.
I'll always remember Ted Leitner sending me down to the Aztecs locker room to do some post-game interviews for his radio broadcast, and I walked down there and asked questions through tears of joy in my own eyes. They were 34-2. Next up was UConn in the Sweet 16, with the game to be played in Anaheim at the Honda Center. San Diego State would lead by the three late in the second half when a time out was called and SDSU's James Franklin bumped into UConn star Kemba Walker as the two teams returned to their benches. Walker flopped on the floor, and the refs bought it, and called a technical foul.
That seemed to change everything. The magic finally had run out. Walker would score 36 points and the Huskies took the game, 74-67. I vaguely remember Arizona beating Duke in the night's second game -- a game I could hardly watch because the Aztecs' amazing run finally had fizzled out. And, as I thought at the time, I'd never get to see anything like it again.
But now this year's team has come along, and I'm starting to feel the excitement building again. Like nine years ago, the 2019-20 Aztecs perked interest in their second game, giving up a 16-0 run early in the second half before coming back to win at BYU, 76-71. At the Las Vegas Invitational last week, the Aztecs were very impressive in blowing out Creighton and rallying from 16 down (this year's Wisconsin-Green Bay test) to beat Iowa.
Where they go from here is, of course, anybody's guess. But 14-0 is very real possiblity (they'll be solid favorites in their next five games) before they take on conference-favorite Utah State on the road on Saturday, Jan. 4. That could be the game that tells us whether or not we're in for something amazing again. Or -- dare we hope? -- for something even more amazing.
After all, this year's version of SDSU plays defense like that year's version did. Only this squad seems to have a more complete offensive attack. Sure, this year's team doesn't have Kawhi Leonard, but in all reality, neither did the 2010-11 team. Leonard was good then, but not off-the-charts great like he is these days. Malachi Flynn is something to behold and K.J. Feagin is supposed to be. Yanni Wetzell is a force in the post, and Nathan Mensah might be, too. Jordan Shackel and Matt Mitchell provide deft shooting from the outside.
Dutcher seems to have his mentor's old touch. So, what the hell? Why not dream a little bit, while we still can?
It's not like it has never happened before.