The Players Era men’s basketball tournament continues Tuesday night in Las Vegas for unranked Oregon and San Diego State, two teams that lost their event openers on Monday.
Oregon (4-1) fell 84-73 to No. 21 Auburn, and the Aztecs (2-2) were blown out 94-54 by No. 7 Michigan.
The Ducks and Aztecs meet for the second time in two seasons, and in the same tournament. Oregon defeated San Diego State 78-68 on Day 2 of the Players Era tournament last season, and the Ducks went on to capture the tournament championship with an upset of Alabama.
Oregon kept it close with Auburn on Monday, but a 10-0 run for the Tigers late in the second half and 18 turnovers for the Ducks did them in. Takai Simpkins led the Ducks with 22 points and has scored in double figures in four of five games this season.
Top scorers Nate Bittle (10 points) and Jackson Shelstad (nine points) were held well under their scoring averages of better than 18 points a game going in. But head coach Dana Altman was more concerned about defense.
“We just made too many defensive mistakes,” Altman told the school’s athletics website. “Our rotations really caused us some problems. Then the turnovers, we had 18 turnovers, they only had six.”
The Aztecs have to find a way to shake off a 40-point loss. Elzie Harrington’s 15 points led San Diego State against Michigan, but the Aztecs made just 17 of 62 shots (27.4%) for the game.
San Diego State made just five shots in 28 attempts in the second half, and they struggled against Michigan’s size. That could be an issue against the Ducks, who also get offensive production from a tall frontcourt.
“When you’re bad, you’re bad from the top-down and I’m the top. So I didn’t have us ready to compete at that level against a very good team,” San Diego State head coach Brian Dutcher said. “I told them after the game that we can’t think one thing about Michigan when we walk out of the arena or we’ll have no chance to play against Oregon.”
