No. 4 San Diego State men’s basketball touched the hardwood and began its warm-up at Thomas & Mack Center about an hour before tip-off against UNLV.
Just moments later, word of the death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant had spread.
Talk about bad timing.
“I think everybody’s reaction was just to be shocked at first,” junior forward Matt Mitchell said. “Me personally, I didn’t believe it. I just kept shooting, I was like, ‘There’s no way.’ It had to be a hoax or something like that.”
The Aztecs woke up with ambitions to improve to a school-record 21-0 start, but now, thoughts and memories of the Lakers legend flooded their minds.