You know things are bad when … the football team outscores the basketball team.

You really know things are bad when … the football team does it by nine points.

How bad, San Diego State’s basketball team will find out Monday night at Viejas Arena against an East Carolina squad that, by all accounts, is better than the one from Little Rock that beat the Aztecs 49-43 on Saturday afternoon. (A few hours later, SDSU 's football team beat UNLV 52-14.)

The SDSU assistant coaches say Steve Fisher is at his best after his team is at its worst, calmly finding a bucket and bailing instead of frantically grabbing a life vest and jumping overboard. The statistics echo that: The Aztecs have gone 86 games since back-to-back losses and won 21 straight following a loss – the longest active streak in the nation.

Still, … Little Rock?

“People have been around me enough,” Fisher said after practice Sunday, “to know I’m not knee-jerk and a loss at home is not going to have me change everything that we’re doing, from offense to defense to the lineup. BUT … we have to play better, individually and collectively.

“I’ve evaluated the film. My m.o. has been to get a (starting) lineup you like and stay with it, get them better. And that’s what I want to do. But for the game on Monday, we’ll make some changes.”

What those changes might be remains unknown. Bench the seniors? Bench the youngsters? Insert more scoring? Insert more defense? Insert more energy?

None of the above? All of the above?

They need something, though.

The Aztecs (2-2) rarely suffer what is known in college basketball vernacular as a “bad loss,” particularly at Viejas Arena. It had been eight seasons since they lost at home to a team as unfancied as Little Rock (formerly Arkansas-Little Rock), which finished last season with an RPI of 277th out of 351 Division I schools. Statistically SDSU’s worst home loss since dropping a 62-56 decision to Northern Colorado in January 2008 was last season against Boise State, with a 40 RPI.

The loss also ended a 15-game nonconference home win streak, and a 27-game nonconference home win streak against teams not in the Associated Press Top 25.

East Carolina at SDSU Site/time: Viejas Arena/7 p.m. Monday On the air: ESPN3 Internet; 1090-AM Records: East Carolina is 2-1, SDSU is 2-2 Series: This is their first meeting. Pirates outlook: They trailed 8-1 at No. 15 Cal then basically played the Bears even, losing 70-62 in what was a three-point game in the second half. In other words: They’re better than Little Rock. They are similar in how they play, though: good perimeter shooters, a lot of zone defense, slow tempo. Coach Jeff Lebo (remember him from his North Carolina playing days?) returns starters B.J. Tyson and Caleb White, but 6-10 Marshall Guilmette retired due in incessant injuries. Michael Zangari, a 6-9 senior, led them in scoring against Cal with 17. The wins are against Charlotte and Grambling State. Aztecs outlook: Like Little Rock, this is a “non-bracketed” game in the Las Vegas Invitational, so it has no bearing on whether SDSU will face No. 15 Cal in the marquee bracket on Thanksgiving night. The Aztecs are physically healthy but their psyches are bruised after the shocking loss to Little Rock in which 16 of their 58 possessions resulted in turnovers. About the only thing they didn’t lose was their streak of 147 straight wins when leading with five minutes to go (Little Rock was up two). SDSU’s last game against a member of the American Athletic Conference was an overtime loss at Cincinnati last season. --MARK ZEIGLER

“You can’t panic,” said Skylar Spencer, who, like fellow seniors Winston Shepard and Angelo Chol, went scoreless Saturday. “One thing Coach always preaches to us is don’t let one bad game lead to another bad game. So we can’t focus on our L. The beauty of our schedule is that we’re playing so many games, so we just have to move forward and focus on that.”

Beauty, or maybe beast. Practice is what this team needs right now and a luxury it doesn’t have. A football team gets a week after a loss. The Aztecs got 90 minutes Sunday afternoon in the Jeff Jacobs JAM Center, unable to practice in Viejas Arena because of a cheerleading event.

There’s East Carolina on Monday, No. 15 Cal on Thanksgiving night, Richmond or West Virginia on Friday, at Long Beach State the following Tuesday. Barely enough time to slap on a few Band-Aids when you might need a tourniquet.

The Aztecs rank 305th in the nation in scoring (65.2 points), 260th in field-goal percentage (.410), 268th in 3-point shooting percentage (.297), 261st in assists, 215th in steals, 303rd in turnovers. According to kenpom.com, SDSU is coughing it up on 22.4 percent of its own possessions (301st in the nation) and forcing turnovers on just 12.5 percent of its opponents’ (338th).

The question, then, becomes: Was Saturday merely a bad game by a good team? Or is this team just not that good right now?

College basketball does not always possess transitive properties, but the rest of SDSU’s results, increasingly, frighteningly, are beginning to support the latter supposition.

The Aztecs were handled in a closed-door scrimmage by UCLA, which then lost its season-opener at home against Monmouth.

They beat Illinois State in a tight game, only for the Redbirds to need a buzzer-beater against Morehead State and trail by 19 at the half, also at home, against South Dakota State.

The close loss at No. 16 Utah ? Four days later, the Utes were blown out 90-66 by unranked Miami on a neutral floor.

The 10-point win against NAIA San Diego Christian? Three days later, the Hawks were down 27 at Div. II Cal State San Marcos.

“Anytime you have a loss the way we had a loss,” Fisher said, “it creates concern for everybody, myself included. That being said, I’ve done this a long time. I believe that we’ve got good enough players to be successful. Now we need to help them, and they need to help themselves. They need to take ownership in what they’re doing. They can’t feel sorry for themselves. They can’t make excuses. They have to listen. They have to want to get better.

“And then collectively, they have to do that.”