No. 6 Houston and San Diego State are set to meet in the third-place game of the Players Era Festival on Saturday in Las Vegas.
Each team participating in the event is receiving $1 million in NIL money. Per media reports, the champion would win an extra $500,000; the team that places third will win $150,000 and fourth place will garner $100,000. The first-of-its-kind opportunity isn’t lost on San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher.
“It’s vitally important for us,” Dutcher said. “The Mesa Foundation has done an incredible job helping us win NIL, making our fan base aware that we need NIL to be successful. Then to get to play in the (Players Era) event will be nothing but helpful to our program moving forward. It’s competitive out there and we have to remain competitive. Not only on the court, but in the NIL world.”
Houston (4-2) finds itself in the third-place game after losing an 85-80 overtime thriller in its tournament opener against No. 9 Alabama before beating Notre Dame 65-54 the following day.
Houston’s four wins have come by an average of 37.5 points. The Cougars also lost to Auburn by five earlier in the month.
“When you’ve got two really good teams, somebody’s going to win and somebody’s going to lose,” coach Kelvin Sampson said following the loss to Alabama.
“It doesn’t mean that the team that wins is that much better. It doesn’t mean that the team that loses is a bad team. I mean, those two teams are about as even as it gets.
“We were up on Auburn. … We had a chance to win. We had a chance to beat Alabama. The bottom line is we didn’t beat either one, but we had a chance to. We just have to keep working to get better.”
Houston is led by LJ Cryer, who is averaging 13.5 points through six games this season. He was 9-of-26 shooting from the floor and scored a season-high 30 points against Alabama. Emanuel Sharp is second at 13 points per game.
San Diego State (3-2) was unable to build off a 71-53 win over No. 21 Creighton in its tournament opener, losing to Oregon 78-68 on Wednesday.
“Second half, we battled back,” Dutcher said. “I’ve got a good group of kids. And they’re getting better. And we battled back and got close enough, but didn’t get over the hump. So all these experiences are giving us a chance to grow as a team. And that’s what we’re going to look at it as, a chance to grow to start stacking games, like I’ve said.”
BJ Davis leads the Aztecs in scoring with 15.6 points per game and has been their top scorer in Vegas with 18 in each game. Davis also averages 4.2 rebounds, one of four Aztecs averaging four-plus this season.
San Diego State’s other loss this season came to No. 3 Gonzaga on Nov. 18. The Aztecs’ matchup against Houston will mark their third game against a ranked opponent in their first six games.
–Field Level Media
