It’s been a welcome sight at San Diego State basketball practice: Nick Boyd wearing two sneakers.
The 6-foot-3 transfer from Florida Atlantic has been wearing one plus a protective boot for the past two months after injuring his left foot shortly after summer workouts began in July. The full nature of his injury has not been fully disclosed.
It’s been slow going, and it will remain so. Boyd, who broke his other foot as a sophomore at FAU and missed the entire season, is expected to undergo another scan this week before being cleared for aggressive rehab. Coach Brian Dutcher said he doesn’t expect him to be available for live drills for a couple weeks.
He also admitted it’s unlikely Boyd would play in the Oct. 20 closed-door scrimmage at UCLA.
“Even if he was healthy that week,” Dutcher said, “to throw him out there in a game right away probably wouldn’t be fair to anybody, especially him.”
A more likely debut is the Oct. 30 exhibition at Viejas Arena against Division II Cal State San Marcos. The season opener comes a week later against UC San Diego.
“The first thing was getting him out of the boot,” Dutcher said. “Now it’s trying to build strength back in the leg. Yeah, I’d love to have him out here and I want to get him out here, but I want to make sure he’s healthy because I have to get him through the year.
“We’re being pretty cautious.”
Recruiting update
SDSU has hosted campus visits from four high school prospects over the past few weeks. One, 6-7 Tae Simmons, committed to SDSU in July. Chris Nwuli and Josiah Sanders are still taking visits elsewhere. And Isaac Carr is off the board after committing to Wake Forest.
“I loved the culture there, the people and the coaching staff,” Carr, a 6-4 guard from Portland, told 247Sports.com. “I knew it was a great fit. … They believe in me that I can play as a freshman.”
A month ago, the 6-7 Nwuli listed SDSU among six finalists with UCLA, USC, TCU, Utah and Louisville. In recent weeks, Rutgers has jumped into the mix and hosted Nwuli on a visit over the weekend.
The 6-4 Sanders scheduled five visits: Colorado, SDSU, Northwestern, Stanford and Tennessee on Oct. 11.
Both players are expected to announce decisions in mid-October.
Running game
Dutcher gathered his players on the baseline at the end of a practice last week and mentioned that a few of them had been late to class.
“And I don’t play that game,” he said.
They proceeded to run for the next several minutes as punishment.
“It’s something you do as a coach,” Dutcher said. “You catch a couple guys late to class and make the whole team run. I just tell them, ‘It’s hard to be a student and an athlete and get treatment and lift weights and do all that. This is a big commitment. I know it’s not easy, but it’s what you’ve chosen.’ I’m responsible for their academics, making sure that doesn’t slip. They wouldn’t be late for practice, so I don’t want them late to class.”
The coach speaks
Dutcher recently held his first news conference since last season. Some highlights:
On scheduling USD and UCSD in one-off home “buy” games: “I thought it made sense to play those games in Viejas. We haven’t wanted to play home-and-home with USD for a while. I just thought it was too risky to go into their building. You know how dangerous they can be at home in a crosstown game. Even last year against UCSD, we needed a buzzer-beater, tip-in to win. We don’t get that game, maybe we don’t end up as a 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament and make it to a Sweet 16.”
On the unexpected transfer by forward Elijah Saunders to Virginia: “I don’t think anything surprises you in the era of the transfer portal. But I loved Elijah and loved everything about him, loved him as a kid, loved him as a player. … You wish him well at Virginia. You don’t begrudge a guy. Everybody makes choices, we all make choices career-wise.”
On continued conference reshuffling: “The model is the model now, and it will be this way for a couple years, but I think sanity will rein us all back in. … I think the next big thing, for me, is that football just goes on its own, a giant football conglomerate with whomever they want. And then (basketball and other sports) will settle in and play regionally. I think that’s the smartest thing for all of us. Now, when that happens and if that happens remains to be seen.”
ALS walk
The basketball team will participate in the Walk to Defeat ALS on Sunday, Oct. 6, at 10 a.m. It’s part of the MESA Foundation’s charitable events that players support in exchange for NIL payments.
ALS is a personal cause for the Aztecs, afflicting assistant coach Mark Fisher, and the Mission Bay’s De Anza Cove has become an annual event for the team. Last year’s walk raised more than $500,000.
For more information, call (760) 518-8580.