Player Profiles: Chase Tapley - San Diego State
This season, College Chalktalk will be highlighting players from around the nation in both BCS and non-BCS conferences who are under the national radar and deserving of ink. As we continue with the series we travel west to spotlight a marquee player from the Mountain West.
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Doug Potter, Contributor
San Diego State is off to an impressive 9-2 start with notable wins over No. 21 Arizona and No. 23 California, largely due to their junior guard from Sacramento, CA., Chase Tapley. As the kids would say, “Dude is straight ballin’ right now.” In fact, Tapley is setting career highs all across the board. Take a look at his stats from his sophomore to his junior season. If he can continue on his torrid pace, he be in the mix for Mountain West POY.
Other than his PPG total (8.6 in 2010-2011 to 17.7 in 2011-2012), the stat that jumps out is his three-point FG%. His ability to shoot the three this season has made him virtually impossible to guard. Shooting nearly six treys per game and still up over 50% is unquestionably a recipe for success. He’s contributing on the defensive end as well. Tapley is hitting the glass (4.4 boards per game) and disrupting passing lanes to the tune of 2.5 steals per game.
Some would say his “coming out party” was December 4th as the Aztecs faced their fourth ranked opponent (Cal) of the young season, and Tapley responded. The guard dropped 25 points on 10-17 shooting, grabbed five rebounds, had three steals, and made two clutch free throws in the final seconds as SDSU beat the Golden Bears 64-63. He followed that up with a solid 23-point performance last Wednesday at San Diego (a 74-62 Aztec victory).
Taking a look at the Aztecs schedule, it has been an early season grind as Steve Fisher's club has faced four ranked teams and two solid clubs in Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara. From that standpoint, a 9-2 start is pretty remarkable. Looking ahead, UNLV (twice) and an improved Wyoming club are among only a few teams that figure to scare the Aztecs. While many wrote SDSU off this season, after the loss of Kawhi “man-hands” Leonard to the NBA, that doesn’t appear to be the case -- thanks in large part to the emergence of Chase Tapley.
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