SAN DIEGO: San Diego State’s Jaedon LeDee walked off the court docket after a monster efficiency in Las Vegas on Sunday evening with the Continental Tire Main Event championship belt in his proper hand and the garish MVP medallion draped round his neck.
The Aztecs’ bruising ahead continued to hit the jackpot within the following days. He received 4 nationwide participant of the week awards, together with being named considered one of 5 gamers on the Oscar Robertson National Players of the Week checklist, plus the Mountain West Player of the Week Award.
If there was any query about who would carry the load for the Aztecs (4-1) following their stirring run to the nationwide championship sport final season, LeDee has shortly answered it. The 6-foot-9, 240-pound senior is the nation’s main scorer at 26.8 factors per sport and twentieth in rebounding at 10.6.
He went off for 34 factors and 17 rebounds, each profession highs, in a 100-97 additional time win in opposition to Washington on Sunday evening, a watch-popping consequence for a program that prides itself on its defensive focus. LeDee turned the one participant in Mountain West historical past to place up these numbers whereas capturing at the very least 50% p.c (10 for 20) from the sphere.
“It’s fun,” LeDee mentioned. “We’re still defensive-minded. We have a lot of scoring firepower outside of me. You just try to combine that this year with the defensive stuff we already do.”
Not fairly two months after the Aztecs reached their first Final Four, in LeDee’s hometown of Houston, he introduced he was withdrawing from the NBA Draft and returning for his ultimate school season.
“I wanted to come back. I had a chance at a bigger role this year, so I knew that. I had so much fun last year I wanted to do it again,” LeDee mentioned.
It was a giant deal for the Aztecs, who misplaced a number of key gamers to commencement and the switch portal after shedding the nationwide title sport to UConn.
“I’m glad he didn’t leave for the NFL. Forget the NBA,” coach Brian Dutcher joked concerning the powerfully constructed LeDee.
Five video games into one other season of excessive expectations on Montezuma Mesa, LeDee has twice set his scoring profession excessive and is capturing 58.4%.
“It’s my third year here. I’m very comfortable in what we do and I know how we operate and how we do things,” mentioned LeDee, who additionally performed at Ohio State and TCU. “I love it.”
LeDee offers the Aztecs a unique dynamic.
“He’s been great. Obviously he walks the line as being a really good offensive player, of playing for himself and then playing for his teammates,” Dutcher mentioned. “A lot of times point guards are the ones who walk that line, because they have the ball so much.”
Dutcher likened LeDee’s function to the one guard Malachi Flynn had in main SDSU to a 30-2 document and an anticipated No. 1 or 2 seed in 2020 earlier than the pandemic worn out March Madness.
“There’d be times I thought early in games when he’d be wide open when he wouldn’t shoot the ball,” Dutcher mentioned about Flynn, who’s now with the Toronto Raptors. “He’d just pick and choose. He’d give his teammates the ball, and then he’d take over a game. I think Jaedon has to play the same way. Even though he’s not a point guard, he has the ball a lot of time away from the basket. He’s going to have to continue to grow his playmaking ability to go along with his really good scoring.”
LeDee began just one sport final 12 months however was a giant a part of the Aztecs’ 9-deep rotation.
“He was ready to do this last year. But I just didn’t feel we needed him to be so aggressive last year with the team we had,” Dutcher mentioned. “I thought Jaedon was dangerous off the bench as a scoring threat. This year he’s in more prominent role. He was capable of doing a lot of this last year, but the dynamics of the team were different.”
LeDee mentioned he took nothing as a right coming into this season.
“It’s something I had to come in and earn. I come in every day ready to work and try to earn my keep every day,” he mentioned.
The Aztecs started the season ranked No. 17 in The Associated Press Top 25 however fell out after a 9-level loss at BYU within the second sport. They play California on Saturday in San Juan Capistrano.
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AP school basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
