Aztecs Are Bullish About Dow : College basketball: OK, so he’s not so hot in a cow pasture. The 7-foot-1 center has had a big impact on the court for San Diego State.

SAN DIEGO —  It was late at night. They were out in the middle of some field, shrouded in darkness and surrounded by mystery.

There was mooing.

Six months later, 7-foot-1 Marty Dow would be playing center for the San Diego State University basketball team. On this night last year, though, he was on an outing. A few friends had dragged him out to the pastures for a night of cow-tipping.

“I just stood there and watched,” Dow said. “I was too scared. They had done it before.”

His friends spied a sleeping cow. They snuck up on it and pushed. Tip, thud, chuckle. The cow hit the ground, mooed and got back up.

“They always told me they went cow-tipping,” Dow said. “I never believed them.”

An easy grin crossed Dow’s face. He shifted in his chair.

Ah, memories.

When you’re a basketball player, you play basketball. You go wherever you can find a team, wherever there is a position open. And when you get there, sometimes you find yourself doing zany things with the locals.

The bouncing ball has taken Dow from high school in Aurora, Colo., to the University of Cincinnati, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M; and, finally, to SDSU. Dow has been a pleasant surprise for the Aztecs this season, stepping into the starting lineup immediately and improving each week. He has started all 19 games, averaging 12.1 points and six rebounds.

The interesting thing about those numbers is that they are more impressive than his statistics last season at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M.; There, for the national community college champions, he scored 8.3 points a game and also averaged six rebounds. He didn’t start. It was a guard-oriented offense, and Dow had to be content watching shorter guys toss up rainbows from the outside. The Norsemen went 36-4.

When the season ended, Dow went cow-tipping. What else was there to do? Shoot, there were about 15,000 people in Miami, Okla. And there were only about 1,500 students at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M.;

“It was different,” Dow said. “The school had its own farm. You’re an athlete, or you’re an aggie. That was pretty much it.”

He made some friends. They saw a few movies at the local theater; the movies had been released three or four months earlier, but they were only a buck.

Dow and his friends also played a lot of cards.

When you’re a basketball player, you go where you can find a team.

His first college stop was Cincinnati, but there were problems between Dow and Tony Yates, then the team’s coach.

“I didn’t think I was really getting along with the coach very well,” is all Dow will say on the matter.

He got some garbage time during his freshman season there and then was red-shirted during his sophomore season. He left midway through his second year, after calling an old friend of the family: Jim Brandenburg.

Dow’s high school teams had attended some of Brandenburg’s basketball camps when Brandenburg was the coach at Wyoming. Brandenburg, in fact, recruited Dow but lost out when Cincinnati made a late push before the fall early-signing date during Dow’s senior season.

So when things didn’t work out at Cincinnati, Dow called Brandenburg, who by this time had accepted the coaching job at SDSU.

“He said he didn’t have any scholarships left and that it would be pretty expensive to pay my own way,” Dow said. “He said he would see what he could do about helping me find a junior college for a year.”

So Dow packed his bags and took off for Northeastern Oklahoma A&M.; A year later, faced with the loss of center Mitch McMullen, Brandenburg had a position and a scholarship, and Dow moved again. When you’re 7-1 with a good work ethic and a pair of nice, soft hands to shoot the basketball, you can generally find a place to play.

Although his height is one of his attributes, it was about as welcome as an outbreak of measles when it first snuck up on him. He started summer vacation at the end of his freshman year in high school at 6-feet. By the time he stepped through the front door to return for his sophomore year, he was 6-7.

“It used to bother me a lot,” he said. “I had a real problem with it in high school. They made fun of me, and I was real gangly. I couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time.

“Now, I love it. I wouldn’t change anything.”

Dow, a junior, has surprised quite a few people this season. He has outplayed Villanova’s 7-3 center Tom Greis twice, and he out-rebounded New Mexico’s 7-2 Luc Longley last week.

The first game against Greis was the Aztecs’ season-opener in the Maui Classic, and that was the real shocker. Dow had 15 points and six rebounds. Greis had 14 and three.

“He kicked Greis’ rear end,” Brandenburg said. “From there, I thought, ‘Maybe this kid is a gamer.’ He works hard in practice, but he takes it to another level in games.”

The second game against Villanova was for the championship of the annual SDSU holiday tournament and broadcast nationally on ESPN. It was the first time Dow’s father, an Episcopalian minister, and mother were able to watch him on television. Dow had 11 points and five rebounds, and Greis had five and six.

Last week against New Mexico, Dow out-rebounded Longley, 11-7, but Longley had 22 points and Dow had 13.

Since Western Athletic Conference play started Jan. 4, Dow has led the Aztecs in scoring (15 points a game) and rebounding (6.3). He is shooting 64% from the field in WAC games (52.5% overall), which is good for third in the conference. He has scored in double figures in each of the past five games.

“He has played a lot of good minutes for us in the last 10 or 12 games,” Brandenburg said. “I think he’s more confident. I’ve been very pleased with his progress. I think he’s getting better all the time.”

Dow said he would like to improve his defense. That will come with hard work and, maybe, a little more weight. Right now, he is a reed-thin 240 pounds. He hasn’t lifted many weights since a back injury in September, but he has promised himself to start as soon as the season has finished.

“He needs to put on some solid muscle this summer and fall,” Brandenburg said. “I can see where he could be a nice force in this conference next year.”