Pope turning it around

Mark Ziegler: Another papal sighting

"For the second straight time, Malik Pope was on the floor in crunch time of a close game. More importantly, he wasn’t just taking up space.

Pope swatted Duncan on the final possession up three, then rotated over and thrust his 6-10 frame at James Webb III on his attempt at a game-tying, buzzer-beating 3. Pope also scored SDSU’s only points over the final 5½ minutes, catching a pass from Trey Kell in traffic and then somehow elevating through a tangle of bodies to dunk emphatically. There was an emotion, an intensity, a fire in the dunk that seemed to exhale a season’s worth of frustrations.

A day earlier Winston Shepard, like Pope a five-star prep prospect who struggled at times to live up to the hype, said this about his sophomore teammate:

“In the history of San Diego State, I believe I’m the only person who knows what Malik is going through. Since day one, anytime anyone has asked me, what have I said: ‘Malik is a pro, he’s going to be all right. Malik is a beast.’ Sometimes when a lot of people expect a lot from you, you know, it weighs on you. I understand the weight that’s on his shoulders. I try to give him encouraging words every day...”