A small gym on a campus tucked against the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. Five hundred or so fans trying to compensate for their numbers by chanting “Defense” as loudly as possible and stamping their feet against the wooden bleachers.
“Our coach always says every game is 40 minutes,” said Daniel Rosenbaum, the team’s star guard. “We just had to keep it solid.”
In this dismal winter for local college basketball, UCLA and USC have struggled, as has Cal State Fullerton. A slow start has left San Diego State scrambling. Among big schools, only Irvine seems poised to advance to the NCAA tournament.