The opening few minutes of Friday night’s NCAA Tournament game previewed the physical brawl between Alabama and San Diego State. On Alabama’s second possession, Brandon Miller missed a 3-pointer. Noah Clowney grabbed an offensive rebound, but the Tide missed the ensuing layup. The sequence repeated itself twice in the ensuing 20 seconds with four Alabama misses on one trip down the floor.

When SDSU finally regained the ball, it also missed thrice and nabbed three boards. Eventually, Aztecs senior forward Keshad Johnson finished a layup for his team’s first bucket. It was a gritty moment for the fifth-seeded underdogs. And it wouldn’t be the last.

As Alabama set a school record for the most wins in a single season, it adopted a “blue-collar mentality.” A roster brimming with NBA talent and a potential top-3 pick defined itself by its defense, a willingness to dive on the floor for a loose ball and take charges. Assistant coaches tallied each player’s “blue-collar points,” an amalgamation of deflections, rebounds, blocks and other effort-type plays, and gift a construction worker’s hat branded with the signature ‘A’ on the side to whoever had the most.

Yet, while SDSU didn’t have a catchy name for this style, coach Brian Dutcher preached many of the same principles. And when the two similar schemes met in the KFC Yum! Center, Alabama found an opponent whose depth and toughness bested them for most of its 71-64 season-ending loss in the South region semifinals.

“We knew that’s what they were gonna bring and we had to match it. Well, not that we had to match it. That’s what we hang our hat on so,” Quinerly said, catching himself postgame. “Just credit these guys. I feel like the effort was there. They just played the better game today.”

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The Aztecs were a standout defensive squad that often featured an inefficient offense. But it paired four second-half 3-pointers with eight total blocks and 17 offensive rebounds — compared to two, five and 20 for Alabama — to the first Elite 8 in program history.

In the opening half, San Diego State forced 14 turnovers and grabbed 10 offensive boards. It pressed from the start, forcing Alabama’s guards to protect the ball near mid-court. Aguek Arop fouled out and Matt Bradley and Lamont Butler picked up four fouls apiece, but all nine Aztecs who subbed in recorded at least 14 minutes. Meanwhile, Miller, the Tide’s star freshman, finished with nine points on 3-for-19 shooting and a questionable no-call in the first half tricked Alabama coaches into thinking he had committed his third foul.

“First half they kinda delivered the blow first, hitting us first,” freshman Jaden Bradley said. “Switching, crashing the offensive glass. Second half we came out first four minutes kind of strong then stuff started falling apart.”

The rebounding battle would end in Alabama’s favor (52 to 48), but SDSU’s all-or-nothing approach on the glass prevented the Tide from scoring a single point in transition. As freshman Nick Pringle pointed out, the Aztec that crashed the boards wasn’t the one that grabbed the rebound. Instead, the first body there tipped the ball out to a fellow black jersey.

Alabama and San Diego State mirrored each other at times in the second half. Each side had a multi-minute scoreless stretch in the first half. Noah Gurley smacked a shot out of bounds and Keshad Johnson pinned Nimari Burnett’s layup attempt off the backboard.

It was the game SDSU wanted and it earned the respect of a few Tide players in the postgame locker room. Charles Bediako gave his props to Nathan Mensah, who scored just two points but had two key rebounds to prevent a late flurry from Alabama.

“The issue is not having a deep bench,” Dutcher said. “The issue is everybody buys into a deep bench. They’re not crying when they come out. I mean, we took the starting five out three or four minutes into the second half, even before the first TV time-out. And some programs that would be a disaster. You would have to sit there and massage egos to get them ready to play when they got back in. This team is not wired that way.”

San Diego State had held its last three opponents to season-lows in points. Alabama scored 64, its fewest since its last loss at Texas A&M on March 4.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].