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3 thoughts: SDSU 92, BYU 87 (2 OT)

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Three thoughts on SDSU’s 92-87 win in double overtime Monday against BYU in the first round of the Maui Invitational:

1. Twenty hours: That’s about how long 15th-ranked SDSU has to get back to the hotel, get to sleep with the adrenaline of a double OT game pumping, wake up, watch film, absorb a new game plan, maybe have a walk-through in a ballroom and get to the Lahaina Civic Center before playing Pittsburgh in the semifinals at 7 p.m. PST on ESPN.

But few, if any, teams are better at it. In their last 15 regular-season games with a one-day turnaround, the Aztecs are 15-0. Since 2003-04, and including postseason games, the Aztecs are 25-5 with 24 hours or less to prep.

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The secret is a veteran coaching staff that can quickly break down film and identify an opponent’s strengths or weaknesses, and a staff that also has been through the basketball wars enough to understand that less sometimes is more.

“If you have a week to prepare, you do breakdown drills on all the things they do to get looks,” coach Steve Fisher said last year, after they beat No. 20 Creighton a year ago with a 20-hour turnaround. “But you don’t have time … You can’t give them the full monty and expect anything to stick. You’ve got to give them just enough to where they know what to do. You can’t try to do too much.”

2. Legs: With ample rest and equitable prep time, the Aztecs are probably better than a Pitt team that came to the islands early and lost to a Hawaii team that has lost to High Point.

But …

JJ O’Brien played 48 minutes Monday, all but two minutes of the double overtime thriller. Winston Shepard (40) and Aqeel Quinn (38) also logged career-high minutes. Two other starters, Dwayne Polee II (29) and Skylar Spencer (37), were close to career highs as well.

O’Brien might be the biggest concern. It is quickly apparent he is the team’s adhesive – the proverbial glue guy who keeps everything together – in much the way that Xavier Thames and D.J. Gay were Iron Men before him. Fisher is reluctant to take him off the floor (through four games, he is averaging 35-plus minutes), and O’Brien worked hard in the offseason to retool his body with heavy minutes in mind. But Fisher also knows it can’t continue.

After playing him 38 minutes in last week’s 53-49 win against No. 25 Utah, Fisher said: “That’s too much.”

The only good news from the rotation against BYU is that Angelo Chol is fresh. He played just 12 minutes – eight in the first half, four in the second half, not at all in either overtime. The coaches afterward insisted nothing was awry and wished they had used him more, but they had a flow in the rotation and wanted to stick with it, for better or worse.

Figure Chol doesn’t play 12 minutes again Tuesday.

3. Will there be a next time? It will be interesting to see if good friends Fisher and BYU coach Dave Rose talk seriously about a future home-and-home series, as Fisher hinted they might while in Maui.

Monday night probably wasn’t the best time to discuss it, akin to asking a woman if she wants to have another kid immediately after child birth. SDSU had survived a wrenching double OT game in which it nearly saw the end of its 124-game win streak when leading with five minutes to go in regulation. And BYU had suffered a crushing loss that star guard Tyler Haws said “just really hurts,” headed to a loser’s bracket game against Division II Chaminade at 11:30 a.m. Hawaii time – a mere 14 hours later.

There is probably more upside to a deal for BYU, which has had success at Viejas Arena (winning its last three straight) and would get SDSU at 4,500 feet at the Marriott Center every other year. Do the Aztecs win Monday’s game if it’s at altitude?

Might be one of those careful what you wish for scenarios …

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