2001-02 Men's Basketball Schedule in PDF Format
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SDSU Schedule Notes in PDF Format
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July 18, 2001
SAN DIEGO - Six contests against NCAA tournament teams from last season and the possibility of three non-conference games against coaches who have won a national championship highlight the 2001-02 San Diego State basketball schedule, announced by head coach Steve Fisher on Wednesday.
Possibly the most challenging schedule in school history, the Aztecs' Division I opponents combined for a 198-163 record (54.8 percent) last season and San Diego State will play a minimum of 12 games against teams that played in the NCAA or NIT tournaments. Included among San Diego State's 15 regular-season home games will be contests with five teams that advanced to postseason play last year and will feature games against three state schools.
"Commensurate with the upgrade in our talent, we have upgraded the quality of our non-conference schedule," San Diego State head coach Steve Fisher said. "Marquee games include non-conference contests against NCAA tournament participants Fresno State and Cal State Northridge in Cox Arena, along with a network-televised game at Duke. Now our goal is to play this type of schedule and win."
Highlighting the challenging non-conference schedule is the Aztecs' first game with the reigning national champion in 26 years. San Diego State will play its first regular-season network televised game when the Aztecs travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium to battle Duke on Saturday, Dec. 29. The game will be the feature contest aired by ABC and will include coverage in a majority of the country.
"This is a game that will not only pay dividends now, but also down the road," Fisher said. "Things don't happen overnight. But I think you can look where we were in April of '99 and where we are in July of '01 and see progress."
Fisher, who has guided teams to victories over the Blue Devils each of the last two times he has faced Duke, will lead the Aztecs against the defending national champions for the first time since San Diego State played UCLA on Dec. 15, 1975, after the Bruins won the national title in March of that same year.
The Aztecs will open the season by traveling to Lubbock, Texas, for the Red Raider Classic on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 16-17. San Diego State will play Northern Iowa in the opening game of the tournament, and could face three-time national championship coach Bobby Knight and his Red Raiders on the second day. Fisher is 5-4 in his last nine coaching match-ups with the Hall of Fame coach.
"Opening in a tournament in which Coach Knight is making his return will get a lot of national attention," Fisher said. "Hopefully, we will have an opportunity to play his team."
San Diego State will open the home portion of its regular-season schedule on Wednesday, Nov. 21, against Norfolk State, a team which finished third in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference last season. The Aztecs are 2-0 in home openers and 4-0 in Nov. home games under Fisher.
The Aztecs travel to Las Cruces, N.M., to play New Mexico State before returning home to face intra-city rival UC San Diego on Tuesday, November 27.
San Diego State plays the first of four December games against teams that qualified for the NCAA tournament last season when the Aztecs play host to Cal State Northridge on Saturday, Dec. 1. It is the first meeting for these state rivals since 1994. The Matadores won the Big Sky Conference last season with a 22-10 record, including a win at UCLA.
The Aztecs travel across town to play San Diego on Wednesday, Dec. 5, before returning home to face Jerry Tarkanian and Fresno State on Saturday, Dec. 8. The Bulldogs, an NCAA tournament team last season, defeated the Aztecs, 70-62 last December in Fresno.
Following a trip to Hawaii for a game against the Rainbows on Dec. 15, the Aztecs return home to face Houston on Monday, Dec. 17 and Eastern Washington on Sunday, Dec. 23. The Eagles finished with a 17-11 record and a second- place finish in the Big Sky Conference while the contest against the Cougars will reunite Fisher with Ray McCallum.
Following the 1992-93 season, McCallum was hired as assistant coach at Michigan by Fisher. But prior to the start of the 1993-94 campaign, McCallum was hired as the head coach at his alma mater, Ball State.
San Diego State will end a busy month with three games in five days. After facing Duke in Durham, N.C., the Aztecs return to the Mesa to face Columbia on Monday, Dec. 31 and Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne on Wednesday, Jan. 2.
The Aztecs close out their non-conference campaign with their second trip to the Lone Star State, this time playing Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday, Jan. 8.
Highlighting the Mountain West Conference schedule will be San Diego State's first ESPN Big Monday appearance in two years when the Aztecs play host to Wyoming at Cox Arena on Jan. 21.
San Diego State finished the 2000-01 season at 14-14, marking just the second .500 or better record for the Aztecs in the last 16 seasons. In Fisher's second season at San Diego State, the Aztecs were the eighth most improved team in the country according to the Sagarin Ratings, and enjoyed a 73.3 percent attendance increase over the 1999-2000 campaign. San Diego State returns eight of its top nine scorers for the 2001-02 season.
The 2001-02 recruiting class has been referred to as one of the top 25 nationally by ESPN.com analyst Andy Katz and has been called the best in the conference and a top-25 class nationally by Chris Monter of Collegebasketballnews.com.
In addition to transfers Tony Bland (G, 6-4, 192, Jr., Los Angeles, Calif.) from Syracuse and Brandon Smith (F, 6-7, 198, Sr., Amarillo, Texas) from Michigan who are eligible this season, Fisher has also signed Trimaine Davis (F, 6-8, 215, Fr., Bay Point, Calif., Pittsburg High), Tommie Johnson (G, 6-4, 190, Fr., Los Angeles, Crenshaw High) and Mike Mackell (C, 6-9, 225, Jr., Washington D.C., Porterville (Calif.) College) this spring. The spring class has been referred to as a top-20 recruiting class by Andy Katz.
Despite the fact that practice for the men's basketball team does not begin for nearly three months, San Diego State has already surpassed last season's total sales for season tickets to the general public.
Through Monday, San Diego State had sold 2,452 season tickets to Aztec donors, fans and alumni, as compared to a total of 1,765 all of last season. That is an increase of 38.9 percent over the same category last season. Tickets are currently on sale and may be purchased through the San Diego State ticket office at (619) 283-SDSU (7378).