Dec. 17, 2002
Complete Game Notes vs. Houston (Sat., Dec. 21) in PDF Format
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San Diego State (4-3) at Houston (2-4)
Saturday, December 21, 2002
1:00 p.m. CST (announced)
Hofheinz Pavilion (8,500)
Houston, Texas
Tip Time: Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. CST
Television: None.
Radio: XTRA-690 AM. Jim Stone (play-by-play), Dave Marcus (producer).
SDSU Coach Steve Fisher: Fisher (Illinois State '67) is in his fourth season at San Diego State with a record of 44-52. Now in his 12th full season as a head coach, he has amassed a 228-134 mark. Fisher led Michigan to the 1989 national championship and made three trips to the national championship game in his eight full seasons in Ann Arbor. The 1991-92 national coach of the year, he led the Aztecs to a 21-12 mark last year en route to the NCAA Tournament. Fisher has helped the Aztecs increase their win total in each of his first three seasons (from 4-to-5-to-14-to-21).
Houston Coach Ray McCallum: McCallum (Ball State, '83) is in his third season as the head coach of the Cougars. McCallum has guided Houston to a 29-39 record and his Cougar squad last season advanced to the Postseason NIT. He owns a 155-115 record in his 10th season as a head coach.
The Series: San Diego State won the only previous meeting between the teams, a 78-66 decision on Jan. 29, 2002 at Cox Arena. Tony Bland scored a career-high 33 points in the contest, connecting on 12-of-19 attempts from the floor. His 33-point effort was the highest scoring output by an Aztec player in the Steve Fisher era. San Diego State led 17-2 just five minutes into the game and led wire-to-wire in picking up the victory.
The Connection: Steve Fisher hired Ray McCallum as an assistant coach on his Michigan staff in 1993. McCallum left the Michigan staff prior to the start of the 1993-94 season to take the head coaching position at Ball State. Fisher and McCallum's clubs have met three times with Fisher's squad having the upper hand in all three meetings by margins of 28, 24 and 12 points.
Aztecs Travel to Bayou City, Looking to Extend Overall and Road Win Streaks
San Diego State (4-3), winners of four of its last five games, plays its only road game in a 31-day period when the Aztecs travel to "The Bayou City" to battle Conference USA's Houston (2-4) on Saturday.
Game time is set for 1 p.m. CST (11 a.m. PST) and the game can be heard along the West coast on XTRA-AM 690 (San Diego). The game will not be televised.
Saturday night, the Aztecs defeated two-time defending Western Athletic Conference champion Hawai'i, 60-49, at Cox Arena. Senior guard Tony Bland scored 19 points on the strength of 6-of-8 shooting from the field and senior center Mike Mackell added 15 points and eight rebounds. But it was a total team effort on defense that limited the Rainbow Warriors to 34.0 percent field goal shooting and forced 21 turnovers in holding Hawai'i to just 17 field goals and 49 points.
Like Hawai'i, which entered the game with SDSU with 19 days between regular-season games, Houston enters the San Diego State game with a long layoff. The Cougars will have had 11 days in between games when the teams meet Saturday night. Houston had a two-game winning streak snapped in a 68-59 loss at Southwest Texas on Dec. 9.
Saturday will mark just the second time the two teams have met on the hardwood, with the Aztecs claiming a 78-66 victory on Jan. 29, 2002 at Cox Arena. Tony Bland scored a career-high and an SDSU Fisher-era best 33 points in the contest. The Aztecs built a 17-2 lead five minutes into the game and led wire-to-wire in securing the win.
San Diego State, which started semester finals last Saturday, will conclude finals this Saturday. However, all of the members of the Aztec basketball team will complete semester exams before leaving for Houston on Saturday.
The team will return to San Diego on Saturday night and will open a five-game homestand with 2002 NCAA tournament participant Florida Atlantic on Saturday, Dec. 28 at Cox Arena.
Streaks, Storylines and Sidebars * - Steve Fisher hired Ray McCallum as an assistant coach on his Michigan staff in 1993. McCallum left the Michigan staff prior to the start of the 1993-94 season to take the head coaching position at Ball State. Fisher and McCallum's clubs have met four times with Fisher's squad winning three of the four encounters by margins of 28, 24 and 12 points. Fisher coached teams are 7-1 against current members of Conference USA.
* - Senior guard Tony Bland is just nine points shy of 1,000 for his career. He is averaging 16.6 points per game this season, second on the team. Bland, a transfer who spent his first two collegiate seasons at Syracuse, has registered 635 career points with San Diego State and would need to average 17.4 points over the Aztecs' definite 21 remaining games (20 regular season contests plus one MWC Tournament game) to reach 1,000 points in a SDSU uniform.
* - At 4-3, San Diego State has equalled its best record after seven games in the last six seasons (dating back to a 5-2 start by the 1996-97 squad). A win would keep the Aztecs on the pace, equaling the best start in the last six seasons.
* - Another indication of the remarkable turnaround of the Aztec program under Steve Fisher can be seen in San Diego State's road record. Since the beginning of last season, SDSU has recorded an 11-10 record in neutral/road games. That is the same number of victories as the Aztecs had recorded in their previous 63 road/neutral games when SDSU posted an 11-52 record. Since the beginning of last season the Aztecs have won at Hawai'i, Wyoming, New Mexico, UNLV and Colorado State.
* - The 11-10 road/neutral record is the best record 21-game mark in such games since the Aztecs went 11-10 from Nov. 29, 1984 to Dec. 12, 1985. An Aztec victory, improving the road/neutral record to 12-10, would represent the best 22-game mark of the Division I era (beginning with the 1970-71 season).
* - Earlier this month when San Diego State won at Long Beach State, the Aztecs claimed their second road victory on the season on the earliest date in a campaign in 31 years. Now SDSU looks to claim its third consecutive road victory for the first time since winning three straight road contests from Jan. 5-Feb. 4, 1998. That year the Aztecs won at Air Force (84-81), at Rice (62-59) and at Hawai'i (76-67).