At the start of the NCAA Tournament, 8 teams were in Orlando. Two of them were San Diego State and Tennessee. Because they were in different regions, they were never really in the same sentence, unless you were rattling off the names of the 8 teams in Orlando.

But by the end of the opening weekend, I couldn’t stop putting San Diego State and Tennessee in the same sentence.

With their size, their length, their tempo, their strengths (the way they defend in the half court) and their weaknesses (those maddening offensive droughts), I settled on a new nickname for the Aztecs by the end of that opening weekend.

“West Coast Tennessee.”

That’s who San Diego State was. It was exactly why I outlined that style as a potential hurdle for top-seed Alabama, which drew the Aztecs in that Sweet 16 matchup.

Confession time: No, I absolutely didn’t think that San Diego State would beat Alabama, much less win 2 games after that and reach its first national championship game in program history. I did, however, think that SDSU was in ideal position to take a page out of the Vols’ playbook, which proved successful in their upset of Alabama in February. The pace was slowed, the rim was protected, the possessions were limited and a rock fight went against the Tide.

(Another confession: I didn’t have San Diego State winning its Round of 64 game against Charleston.)

Regardless of the way that plays out Monday night against the buzz saw that is UConn, this should absolutely give hope to Tennessee.

Or rather, Southeastern San Diego State.

Sorry, Vols. It’s hard to argue with that when San Diego State did what your team couldn’t. That is, bounce back from FAU’s attempt at a knockout punch in a win-or-go-home game. Yes, it took Lamont Butler’s buzzer-beater for the ages to make that happen. Still, though. A team that lacks explosive offensive players and doesn’t shoot the 3-pointer at a particularly high rate isn’t supposed to overcome a 14-point deficit. Not in March.

How many times have we said the exact same thing about Tennessee? Like, when Rick Barnes’ team falls behind by 8 points in March, it always feels like that’s all she wrote. The knock always seems to be that with that defense-first, slow-it-down style, the Vols have a limited March ceiling. It’s perhaps at the root of why the Vols have yet to reach the Elite 8 under Barnes.

Meanwhile, in the second half of win-or-go-home games in the NCAA Tournament, San Diego State overcame a 9-point deficit against Alabama, it rallied from down 7 to knock off Creighton and it flipped that aforementioned 14-point deficit against FAU. All of those rallies happened right around the 13-minute mark of the second half. Go figure that in each of the past 2 NCAA Tournaments, that’s right around where Tennessee splintered and went in the wrong direction.

Those moments are what separated Tennessee and San Diego State.

There’s an element of mental toughness that Brian Dutcher’s squad clearly has as a veteran-laden team. I mean, even Butler’s game-winning jumper against FAU showed a high level of poise after it looked like he wouldn’t get a shot off. Butler and Micah Parrish are the youngest members of the 9-man rotation and they’re Year 3 juniors. San Diego State has length (4 rotation guys are at least 6-7) and they have guards like Matt Bradley who look more like football players at 6-4, 220 pounds.

Bradley to San Diego State is Santiago Vescovi to Tennessee, and not just because they’re both crafty lefty guards. He’s the “go-to scorer” who is asked to do a ton on the other end, which is why he can have games when his offense is invisible, much like he was in the Sweet 16 against Alabama when he didn’t score until there were 3 minutes left.

Dutcher and Barnes both want to beat you in the same way. They want to have rim protectors who make you think twice about entering the lane (SDSU has Nathan Mensah and Jaedon LeDee while Tennessee has Uros Plasvic and Jonas Aidoo) and they have no problem playing a game in the 50s or 60s.

Don’t believe me? Look at the side-by-side of their national rankings and tell me these teams aren’t mirror images of one another:

2022-23
Tennessee
SDSU
Def. efficiency
No. 1
No. 4
Off. efficiency
No. 64
No. 68
Adjusted tempo
No. 288
No. 270
Opp. 3-point %
No. 1
No. 3

Oh, and San Diego State had 21 victories when it scored 75 or less (Tennessee only had 14). Each of the Aztecs’ past 10 wins came in games in which they scored 75 or fewer points.

They find comfort in the uncomfortable. Even when things get ugly — much like they did late in the FAU game — SDSU has an uncanny ability to not let a team off the hook. It actually withstood multi-minute field-goal droughts in the final 13 minutes in each of those games. The Aztecs can guard at a high level without fouling, and because of their ability to close out on shooters, teams that rely heavily on the outside shot are destined to hit a snag. SDSU opponents in the NCAA Tournament shot 23.2% from beyond the arc despite the fact that 4 of their 5 opponents rank in the top 20 nationally in 3-pointers made per game.

Just for a little perspective on that, Tennessee ranks No. 1 nationally with an opposing 3-point percentage of 26.5%.

It’s not lucky if you’re good. San Diego State is much more the latter than the former.

It wasn’t long ago that it was fair to wonder about the perceived ceiling of any Mountain West team. After all, the conference had never even produced an Elite 8 team. The Aztecs are 40 minutes away from more history.

It’s something that Tennessee, for one reason or another, has never been able to say. It’s still fair to wonder if Barnes’ team will ever get over the hump and get to the levels of 2022-23 San Diego State. That doubt creeped back in when FAU showed Tennessee that beating Duke wasn’t necessarily a “turn the corner” moment for a long overdue deep March run.

There’s another piece of history that San Diego State can make that would perhaps be notable for a team like Tennessee. In the KenPom era, which dates to 2002, each national champ ranked in the top 40 in adjusted offensive efficiency and in the top 25 in adjusted defensive efficiency. Of course, the Aztecs are a lowly 68th nationally in offensive efficiency, which ranks slightly behind the Vols at No. 64.

At this point, that’s the last piece of history that Dutcher and Co. are worried about. The blueprint to stun UConn will be similar to the one that worked throughout the NCAA Tournament. That is, weather the storm, bounce back and deliver the haymaker. The Aztecs have more than a puncher’s chance to win 1 more fight.

Take note, Southeastern San Diego State.