LAS VEGAS — If the Aztecs expect to make an NCAA Tournament run to remember rather than another to forget, if they plan to prove that their unprecedented depth truly is built for the brightest of lights, they need more big and small.
The big is Nathan Mensah, a 6-10 version of Yosemite's El Capitan, a daring climb for ballhandlers and a rough fall if shot-hoisting fortunes go south. The small is Darrion Trammell, a score-first guard who averaged 18.7 points per game before transferring from Seattle University.
Against Colorado State on Thursday in a Mountain West tournament quarterfinal at the Thomas & Mack Center, the pair remained on mute too often and too long in a 64-61 nailbiter that should have been a 1-seed-vs.-8-seed stroll.
Trammell finished without a point, going 0-for-5 from the field. Mensah ended with four points on just two shots with four rebounds, though half of those points and rebounds came in the closing minutes.
Can the Aztecs win when it matters most without more firepower from the pair? Some days, the answer will be yes. Some days, no.
Can the team be the fullest version of itself without more consistent production from the two? Absolutely not.
March stacks up challenges. Count that as one, or two, for San Diego State.
"I told the guys after the game, 'If it wasn't your night tonight, don't worry about it,'" Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said. "Don't get frustrated because tomorrow is another game, and it might be your night. If you are frustrated, it can't be. So put your frustration behind and your individual performance, embrace the victory, and then get yourself motivated to play tomorrow because if you remain frustrated, you won't play tomorrow either.
"My job as a coach is to get them out of that frustration, get them re-engaged and tell them they could have a magical day the next day."
The Rams, 15-17 coming in, were supposed to be the ones with tired legs after playing a day earlier. The Aztecs, regular-season champions, were supposed to be the puma, poised to pounce.
Trammell chose a wider lens to consider his part in all of it.
"It's bigger than me," he said. "At the end of the day, this is March. I trust my work. I know it's gonna click when it's supposed to click. All I can do is play hard and give everything I can to my team."
Contributing on Thursday meant outrebounding Mensah, a full foot taller, 5 to 4.
"Do something for the team," Trammell said of his mindset amid the offensive struggles. "Tonight, it was rebounding."
Mensah's seeming absence for the bulk of the game created a different type of concern, despite some foul trouble. At that height, the rebounds should come. At that height, the offense should show more flashes.
When teammates shoot 18.2 percent from 3, as the Aztecs did in the first half against the Rams, the need is magnified.
"I feel like we're a team, when one person is down, another person helps," Mensah said. "Jaedon LeDee played big minutes. Keshad Johnson, big minutes. Adam Seiko from the bench, big minutes. That's this team.
"I know they can always count on me on defense, so I make my presence felt there if I'm not playing well offensively."
As others step up — LeDee finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and a team-high three blocks; Johnson recorded eight points and eight rebounds; guard Lamont Butler scored 16 points — the ceiling for this team becomes even more intriguing.
A little more from Mensah? A little more from Trammell? What do the Aztecs look like then?
Mensah grabbed perhaps the biggest rebound of the game on a miss by Isaiah Stevens that could have given Colorado State the lead with 16 seconds to play. The senior undoubtedly turned in the most pivotal of the Aztecs' nine blocked shots, snuffing Patrick Cartier on a potential tying basket as the clock withered to less than a second to go.
Glimpses.
"We always say, one play can change the game," Mensah said. "That (block) was the one play I had that helped us get over the hump."
Turn in a few more of those types of minutes and San Diego State becomes something far scarier. If Trammell buries a few more 3s, something second nature when he played at Seattle, the Aztecs become a full-blown defensive nightmare.
They're both capable of that. They're also capable of Thursday.
Ready … set … March.
"I've been doing this for a good amount of time," Trammell said. "I'm not really too worried about it. Confidence is never an issue with me."
The Aztecs survived against the Rams because, well, that's what they do at this time of year in this place. They've won 16 straight conference tournament openers, tied for the third-best active streak in the country.
They bend. They rarely break.
This group, however, owns unreal depth that — if milked to the max — could train-wreck office brackets. To do that, Trammell and Mensah must be a more consistent part of the things along the way.
"I told Nate after the game, I like the job he did because he sat so much," Dutcher said of the block and late-game impact. "He got in foul trouble and then he didn't play great in the second half, but when we're trying to get stops with the game on the line, he is going to be on the floor."
More of that would be big.
It's the small things, after all.
