3 thoughts: SDSU 110, Boise State 107 (3OT) … 15 seconds that saved the season, the refs and Rice vs. Fisher

Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 110-107 triple-overtime win against Boise State on Saturday night (that felt like it would last until Sunday morning):

1. 15 seconds

Let’s take a closer look at the 15 seconds that saved the Aztecs’ season:

It required smarts, savvy and strategy, but it started with some simple good fortune.

Down six inside 20 seconds to go in the first overtime, 6-foot-2 guard BJ Davis weaved his way into the lane and tried to hoist a right-handed, over-the-shoulder layup from the left side against 6-9 Boise State forward Dominic Parolin.

Bad decision. You’re down six. You need a 3-pointer. Even if Davis converted, it’s still a two-possession game with 15 seconds left and the chances of forcing a second OT greatly diminish, especially the way the Broncos were shooting free throws (27 of 31). But Parolin blocked Davis — blocked him emphatically — and the ball bounced to … SDSU freshman Elzie Harrington on the left wing.

Harrington sidestepped a defender and drained a 3 — 96-93 with 10.8 seconds left.

“Dom blocks that shot, and it goes right to a guy and he hits a 3,” Boise State coach Leon Rice lamented. “Sometimes it just is like that.”

Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher called timeout and set his press defense. He figured the Broncos would run an inbounds play where they line up all five players across the baseline, like receivers in a football formation. The plan was to have Miles Byrd step in front of his player as he released and try to draw an offensive foul.

But they didn’t run that.

In a previous timeout, Dutcher noted that in Boise State’s last game, a home win against New Mexico, a Broncos guard had pretended to set a screen and then cut deep for a pass over the top and an easy layup.

“Be aware of that,” Dutcher said he told his team. “You can say it all you want, but a guy still has to make a play, and BJ made an incredible interception on that play.”

The Broncos released Andrew Meadow deep. Davis switched the screen and jumped the route, intercepting RJ Keene’s inbound pass 60 feet from the basket.

Then he calmly dribbled up court against the 6-7 Meadow, sized him up and released a 3 that nestled into the net — never touched the rim — with 0.4 seconds left to force a second overtime.

“I knew we needed a 3,” Davis said. “I was kind of just seeing how he was going to guard me. I went to the right, and I was watching how he played it. I went back left, seeing he gave me a little space, and I pulled it. … That was just one-on-one park basketball. We’ve been doing that since we were just this high.”

Added Dutcher: “Looking back, yeah, they probably wished they would have fouled BJ, but when he’s dribbling the ball, you don’t know when he’s going to raise up. You don’t want to foul him on a 3.”

Especially with college officials allowing more NBA-like continuation plays this season. A day earlier at Cal, Notre Dame was whistled for a foul on a made 3 with 5.5 seconds left and lost by one on the four-point play.

There was another factor at work for the Aztecs, though: disrespect.

“One thing that was helping me was — I’m not going to say who — somebody was talking when they were up six,” Harrington said of the Broncos. “I was like, ‘OK, they’re not playing as hard. They think it’s over.’ I thought that was an advantage.”

Both Harrington and Davis also noticed hundreds of Aztecs fans heading for the exits as things looked bleak in the first overtime, admitting it fueled their motivation.

“I try not to feed into that too much,” Davis said. “I try to feed into what’s (happening) on the court and what I can control. But to the fans who (left), they missed something pretty cool.”

2. Ref rants

Next season can’t come soon enough for coaches at the five Mountain West programs leaving for the Pac-12.

Not because they don’t like their 2025-26 teams. Because they don’t like their 2025-26 officials.

When the Pac-12 disbanded two years ago, the officiating consortium that supplied referees to the six West Coast leagues did as well. Most of the top guys went to the Big 12 consortium that still services the WCC, Big West, WAC and Big Sky. The Mountain West thought it would outsmart everyone and join the Big Ten’s consortium that also administers several lower-level Midwest leagues.

Big mistake.

It didn’t take long to realize that last season, regularly getting crews with little experience with the league’s coaches, players, arenas, logistics and fan bases. In May, word leaked out that the new Pac-12 will align with the Big 12 consortium headed by John Higgins, reuniting with top officials like Mike Greenstein, Tony Padilla, Gregory Nixon, Eric Curry and Deron White.

The problem isn’t that the Big Ten doesn’t have quality officials. It just doesn’t have enough to ship across the country to work Mountain West games, instead filling those assignments with a diet of underqualified Horizon, MAC and Summit League referees — or local Division II guys, in some cases.

Juan Corral is a Division II official who has been tapped for only 24 Division I games over the last two seasons. Four have involved SDSU, including last Tuesday at San Jose State.

Saturday night’s crew was led by Michael Irving, a Mountain West veteran who moved to the Big Ten consortium and tried to keep some semblance of order; Rob Kueneman, who was officiating SDSU for only the third time in 697 career games over 17 college seasons; and David Walker, who was working his first-ever game in the Mountain West (let alone his first-ever Div. I game in the Pacific time zone).

Walker’s previous assignment was Dec. 28 in Vermillion, S.D., for South Dakota against NAIA Mount Marty University.

And that’s where you send him next? To SDSU-Boise State at Viejas Arena on a Saturday night? In a spirited Mountain West rivalry featuring two physical, defensive-minded teams?

He was predictably overmatched, missing numerous calls and continually drawing the ire of both coaches.

“I’ve got to mark my words carefully,” said Rice, who was assessed a technical foul by Kueneman in the first half after contesting yet an iffy call by Walker.

Then he addressed several specific incidents, adding sarcastically: “I’m just speaking hypothetically. I’m not criticizing any of these great officials. They’re trying hard. I would never criticize them.”

The good news is SDSU, Boise State, Utah State, Colorado State and Fresno State have only 2½ more months of this. As for everyone else, the Mountain West plans to stick with the Big Ten consortium.

Good luck with that.

3. Who’s in first?

An hour before the game, Rice stepped outside in the Viejas Arena parking lot when Steve Fisher pulled up. Here you had the two coaches with the most regular-season conference wins in Mountain West history.

In what order, though, remains a point of contention.

After a 62-53 win against New Mexico last Tuesday, Boise State’s media relations department noted that it was Rice’s 169th conference win, passing Fisher for first place. Local media outlets ran with it, and Rice addressed the milestone in his postgame news conference.

“That’s why it means something,” Rice said, “because I know this league in and out, I know the great coaches who have been here and I know who I just passed. Steve Fisher is Naismith Hall of Fame kind of coach with the stuff he did in his career.

“When we moved from the WAC to the Mountain West, I was pretty sure we wouldn’t win one game in this league.”

He won more than one, but, it turns out, not 169.

Boise State was working off information from the conference office, which inadvertently counted Rice’s career totals that included one season in the WAC before the Broncos moved to the Mountain West in 2011-12.

Rice, then, has 10 regular-season conference wins in the WAC and 159 in the Mountain West. Fisher has 168 in 18 years at SDSU.

That means Rice needs 10 more to pass him. He has 17 games to do it, since they’ll be in the Pac-12 next season.

The Kenpom metric currently projects the Broncos to go 11-6 in their final 17 games, so it might be close. Rice could be tied with Fisher entering their home finale on March 3 … against San Diego State.