SDSU Tip Ins: Gladden’s scoring, defense and rebounding, 3’s stand out in Walton Classic win

SAN DIEGO – The debut edition of the Bill Walton Classic had all the hallmarks of the legendary Hall of Famer’s life in basketball and San Diego, a perfect place for the San Diego State Aztecs to carry their matchup with the Colorado Buffaloes for nearly the entire game in a 77-66 win on Saturday afternoon.

Playing in the same venue where Walton famously led Helix High to back-to-back CIF San Diego Section 2A championships in 1969 and 1970, which then was known as the San Diego Sports Arena and now Pechanda Arena, the Aztecs (2-0) looked comfortable as ever in a venue they hadn’t played in since 1997.

The Scarlet and Black never looked back after dashing off a 7-0 stretch following Colorado (1-1) getting the opening bucket, and built a double-digit lead by just under the 13-minute mark that held the rest of the way for all but four brief moments — two each in both halves where the Aztecs scored next to push it back out.

Here are three areas worth an extra look at from SDSU’s win in its first of three neutral site games that will be hosted in California for the 2026-27 season:

Chance The Passer flashes efficient scoring touch

To say that Boston University transfer Chance Gladden had no problem with Colorado would be an overstatement, but he definitely pulled up in the new thing in his second regular season game in scarlet and black.

It was clear in SDSU’s opener against Fullerton that Gladden’s focus was on distribution as he attempted just five shots while equalling the third-most assists in a game in his career with eight. On Saturday he topped the 20-point plateau for the ninth time, and had the most efficient shooting game of his career in doing so.

By going 5-of-6 from the field and 10-11 from the line, the sophomore guard posted his highest field goal percentage (.833) when attempting five or more shots, and was the 14th time he’s missed just one free throw in a game in his career — he’s only had two games with a single miss where he attempted more.

Also important were when the scores came, as he responded to three consecutive instances where the Buffaloes had scored after the 9-0 SDSU run that gave them their lead of 10-plus points when freshman forward Luka Skorić’s triple made it 15-5 at the 12:57 mark.

First, it was game-high scorer Barrington Hargress, who finished with 33 points on 11-of-20 from the field, stopping an 0-for-8 shooting slide for CU with a driving score, which Gladden responded to with a layup of his own. Then a drawn foul and pair of conversions at the line to answer a fast break bucket, before finally scoring 6 of an 8-point run to open the lead to 18 ahead of the 5-minute mark of the first half.

15 of the point guard’s 20 points game in the first half, helping to pick up the mail for a unit that only got 7 minutes from fifth-year forward Bear Cherry due to picking up a pair of fouls. Sophomore forward Tae Simmons was the only other Aztec with multiple field goals in the opening 20 minutes.

“It's obviously new because it's new coaches and a new system, but I just try to do whatever I can to win. In the last game I had 4 points, and in this game, I had way more than that. I’m just trying to find my role and help us win it as much as possible,” Gladden said.

With the three-headed back court and two efficient post starters, plus the growing impact potential coming off the bench, the Aztecs will have a lot of potential blessings to scoop out of their lap.

Defense dials in, rebounding a strong point again

After watching a pair of top-25 teams hang 80-plus on the San Diego State defense in their first two exhibition games, then to see Cal State Fullerton nearly reach that mark in the opener, there certainly were some thoughts about whether this team may rely more on its offense than in seasons prior.

Those can be put aside for a moment, as the typical black and blue effort from the Scarlet and Black on the defensive end looked like its familiar blanketing self against the Buffaloes.

For the opening 20 minutes, CU missed 14 of their first 16 shots and only made two consecutive attempts as SDSU ultimately held them to 20.0% from the field. More than anything, it was the Buffs inability to make shots that saw them fall behind by as much as 18 twice in the first half, as they finished with fewer turnovers in both halves than the Aztecs.

Even as things loosened up in the second half, where both teams shot better than 50% from the field, SDSU did well to prevent the Buffs from scoring anything more than 7 points in a row — which came as part of opening the second half by out-scoring the Aztecs 12-2 and pull within 37-29.

“(Colorado head coach Tad Boyle) used our switching to his advantage in the second half. They rolled the post inside, kicked out for some 3’s. They got a little better rhythm offensively, and then obviously, like any team, when you're better offensively, you're better defensively,” head coach Brian Dutcher said. “They played a better second half, and we found a way to do just enough to keep a comfortable lead where it didn't get close enough where we started sweating possessions.”

After bringing up Cherry’s diminished offensive role, it also meant more minutes for Skorić and freshman forward Luca Vincini, with both posting positive plus-minus totals off the bench.

Vincini in particular was key in leading the team with 7 rebounds, as the Aztecs again out-rebounded their opponent by double-digits.

Of course, CU also attempted 10 more shots and had 12 more misses than the Aztecs, but the offensive board battle was only an 8-7 edge for the Buffs.

Another notable number when it came to rebounding: six by Isaiah Sy in just over 19 minutes. The senior guard also had 7 rebounds off the bench in the final exhibition game against Long Beach State. He averaged 4.6 per-game last season while primarily starting at Oregon State.

3 Time with Davis leads early hot start from downtown

Dutcher has often said that he believes last year’s squad would’ve been an NCAA tournament team if he hadn’t made the decision to redshirt San José State transfer Latrell Davis, though it would’ve made for an even bigger effort to juggle minutes.

But after back-to-back efficient scoring games for the junior from Leeds, England, it’s hard to fault the decision. Even Davis, who finished with 18 points, saw the benefits with how his season has begun.

“I've been waiting over a year for this, so it's just great to be out there. It’s great to be with the team,” the shot-maker said. “The redshirt year helped me know what the team needs and helped me become a leader and a vet. It helped me show the new people the way we do stuff. Just going out there and playing hard and playing my game really is amazing to contribute.”

Perhaps the most impressive piece so far has been the rhythm that Davis has shown in the early stages from beyond the arc, making 5-of-8 against Cal State Fullerton and 4-of-6 against Colorado. In his first two seasons at SJSU, he shot 29.7% and 38.3% from beyond while primarily coming in off the bench.

Surely the current 64.3% run by Davis will come back to earth, but what has been most impressive is the variety of ways those shorts have come so far. Be it from working free for a feed in the half-court set, pulling up in transition, or dribbling off screens in man-on-man situations, Davis has been taking and making high-quality shots.

A running theme over the past several seasons for SDSU has been that they ranked either lower-middle tier or near the bottom in their conference from beyond the arc. In the past four seasons, they’ve finished seventh, seventh, last and ninth. 2021-22 was the last time they ranked in the upper-half, as the team had a pair of better-than 40% shooters from downtown in Matt Bradley and Adam Seiko.

So while two games of an at-least 28 game slate is hardly a representative sample, seeing eight go down from deep in each of the first two games — something that happened in only 12 of 33 games last season — is encouraging.

While it’s been Davis who has been pulling the cart so far, Sy has been good for two triples in each of the first two games after shooting 34.9% from 3-point land in his two seasons at Oregon State. Skorić made his first against Colorado across four attempts thus far.

Amongst the Pac-12 teams that have played two games so far, only Gonzaga (19) has made more than SDSU’s 16 thus far. Boise State made 12 in their opener win over National Christian College Athletics Association team West Coast Baptist, and faces Butler later on Sunday.

San Diego State returns to The Mesa on Wednesday, Nov. 11 for a rare midday start. They’ll face the Bethune Cookman Wildcats, the preseason favorites for the SWAC who have opened the season with losses to Fuman, at No. 19 Texas Tech and at Grand Canyon. They won the regular season conference championship but got bounced in the first round of the conference tournament.

Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Viejas Arena, with the women’s game against Colorado to follow later in the evening at 7 p.m. The men’s game will be broadcast on 760AM KGB, and both contests will be streamed on the Pac-12 Youtube channel.