Nov. 19, 2003
San Diego State Men's Basketball
Weekly Media Day
November 19, 2003
Head Coach Steve Fisher
Fisher on the upcoming season:
We are anxious, and maybe a little bit over anxious, as we get ready for our first game Friday against Long Beach. I think we have taken a half a step back in terms of execution the last few days and that troubles me a little bit. We have been pretty good as a team with our practices, everything from effort, to energy form, technique and execution, so that makes me expect more. I do like our team. We have a lot of ways offensively to hurt people and I think that will show as it has shown in our exhibition season, and it will continue to show throughout the whole season. The issues of concern as most people can see is that we are not very big, so you worry how will we defend in the post and how will we rebound? Those are areas of concern that depending on who we play than maybe another team. Turnovers are always a concern whether you are little, big, fast or slow. We were better last week, 23 turnovers in game one down to 13 in game two, and we need to keep it in that range. We will try to run more this year, so that will probably mean is that we will have a couple more turnovers, but hopefully it will not be in the twenties. We have three starters: Walton, Sanders, and Stokes. We will fight for the other two spots right now. I am not sure who will fit into those other two spots as we move into Friday's game and that is not all bad either. It is nice when you have legitimate competition for starting spots, no matter what you say, gives an extra hop in your practice step, especially 20 practices into the season. I am excited about our team. When we finish the Troy State game a week from Sunday, I'll probably be able to talk a little bit more intelligently about our team. We will play five games in a nine days so we will know a little bit more about our team.
Fisher on what the backcourt will look like:
We are searching for a back up point guard. Wesley Stokes will be a very, very good point guard, but who do you go to when you need somebody else. That is where we are right now. At the moment it would be Brandon Heath as our back up point guard. But as you have seen, we will play a lot of basketball with Stokes and Heath together. That might even allow, in the flow of a game, Wesley to run and Brandon just to bring it up without even telling them that. Right, now Brandon is our back up point guard.
Fisher on whether Stokes is making Heath a better player:
We are going to be a better defensive team this year than we were last year. We guard better and are more athletic, so we create more problems with ourselves in practice. We don't allow point to wing passes, and there is probably more fouling going on now than there is in games, so it is harder in practices to do things. I also like the fact that Wesley will tell him what he did or didn't do no matter what team he is on as they are practicing.
Fisher on Travis Hanour:
Travis Hanour is our greatest concern. I feel badly for Travis. He had patella tendon surgery and did everything diligently to get back on the floor. He was in the weight room and got bigger and stronger. The knees were feeling OK but now he has come up with a back problem, which we are concerned about. The initial prognosis that it was just a bruise to the soft muscle tissue, and time and rest will make it OK, but that has not happened. He had an MRI and we are concerned about Travis.
Fisher on the talent level of this year's team:
We've have got talented players. We've got one returning starter, but we have Stokes who started a Missouri, Walton who started some as a sophomore, and Tommy who started a little bit. I am going to remain extremely positive, yet guarded in terms of what I say until I watch us a little bit. How will we be when someone else elbows us and shoves us? We will have to rebound the ball better than you saw today in practice and that is an issue that will be there all season. It also means that our guards will have to rebound the ball. We have got to have Wesley (Stokes), Tommy (Johnson), and Brandon (Heath), and (John) Sharper be able to get long rebounds, be able to box somebody out and rebound the basketball.
Fisher on who the scorer will be for this year's team:
If I had to say who was going to score more points than anybody else I would probably say Stokes and I don't know if that is good or bad. Wesley likes to have the ball and he will make good decisions. Hopefully, he won't get frustrated and we go three possessions without shooting it and him saying, "Well, no matter what I am going to find a shot." We could legitimately have five people average in double figures, and nobody average over 13 or 14. We have that kind of team. We are a very good free throw shooting team. I have beat them up a little bit the past few days where everything they do is bad, so I think they have become a little frustrated with me but that is not all bad either. They are going to have frustration as we go on. We should be a team that shoots high in the high 70 percent range from the free throw line. That is what I am going to expect. If we do that it will win some games, if we can find a way to get to the free throw line.
Fisher on what he thinks of the program after five years at the helm:
We are proud of what we have done, but nobody cares about what you have done, but rather what are you doing right now. I think that is good. We have stepped up expectations from you, ourselves, the community, our students, and I think that is healthy. We have to be realistic with who we are. If we don't play well, we can't beat anybody. If we play well, we have a chance to beat anybody. But we can't play C- basketball and expect to beat anybody. We have to play well and that is what good teams do. If you have a good team, you will have a measure of consistency. You may not be shooting it particularly well, but other things will be there every night, which are your technique, defense, and ability to rebound the ball and not turn it over. I am proud of what we have done. We averaged 7,172 fans last season, that still means we have about 5,000 empty seats. We would like to make this a hard ticket. We would like to say that we are going to push our way to 10,000 fans and push our way to 20 wins. We are still a team in the making, a program in the making. But I see progression and a program that is starting to make shape.
Fisher on the freshman class:
I like both of our freshmen that will play. We are going to redshirt Shawn Weinstein who is a walk-on freshman. Slaughter and Heath are both extremely talented, will be in our rotation of eight, and will be fighting for lots of minutes. I like both of them. They are going to be, without bragging, premier players not only for us but for this league before they finish.
Fisher on the Maui Invitational:
The Maui Invitational has a lot of residual benefits. You sell it for a year saying, "Hey, we are going to play in the Maui Classic, the most highly regarded preseason tournament there is." And you get to play three games that count for one on your preseason schedule. Our first game will for sure be nationally televised and if you win that one they will all be nationally televised. What it does is give you three games in three days against good competition, starting with a very good Ohio State team. We are going there expecting to win. Probably most people will say Ohio State has a better team and I don't know if they do or not. I do believe we will have an opportunity to win against anybody we will play over in Maui. And if you get lucky and play well and all of a sudden win three games, then you are going to get a little more national recognition. I remember when Ball State went and beat UCLA and a lot of people starting talking about them that weren't talking about them before. We are of the opinion that this is a wonderful opportunity for us and for our program and for us to sell the future of the program.
Fisher on what the rest of the rotation will look like:
(Chris) Manker is a possibility. (John) Sharper is a possibility. Trimaine Davis is a possibility. Almost anybody you have seen on the practice floor could be put into that lineup and not have it be a big surprise to us.
Fisher on Chris Walton
Chris really maximized his redshirt season. I worried about him because he was hurt quite a bit and wasn't on the practice floor as much as I would have liked to have seen. Yet, he is so much better today than he was in November of 2001. He has made a ton of improvements. His basketball skills are better. He is shooting the basketball with confidence from the perimeter. He is a lot stronger and he will be a tremendous important part of this team. The three guys I mentioned, Stokes, Walton and Sanders, I would not be at all surprised if they averaged over 30 minutes a game for us and played with a great degree of success and confidence. I really, really like the improvements (Chris) has made from his sophomore year to right now.
Fisher on Wesley Stokes:
Some of us like to practice more than others. I think Wesley at times tolerates drill work and when you let him play a little bit you see what I hope you will see all of the time. I don't like that but that is reality. Wesley needs to become a better 5-0 player, when you are working on your sets against no defense, as well as in 5-on-5. He is extremely intelligent. He may be as smart of a player as I have coached. He needs to have those smarts all of the time and not allow frustration to get in the way of the intelligence that he has. He is a very good player. He is a winner. He has been that way since Long Beach Poly and I expect him to be that way for us. He is one of those guys, kind of like Randy Holcombe was and Tony Bland, in that they don't think anybody they play against is as good as they are. And I think that can be good if it is channeled and dealt with the right way.
Freshman guard Brandon Heath:
Heath on if having to compete for a starting job is a good thing:
It is a good thing. It is good for me to come in here and have to earn everything I am getting. It is good because it makes everybody on our team compete because everybody wants to start. It makes you work a little bit harder.
Heath on why he chose SDSU over some more high profile schools:
I stayed loyal to the program like they stayed loyal to me. You all know my story, I didn't qualify off the bat and when I didn't qualify a lot of big schools ran away from me but San Diego State stayed loyal so I stayed loyal to them. Also, I like coach Fisher. He can teach me a lot and try and get me to the next level.
Senior center Aerick Sanders
Sanders on taking over the center position:
I got a lot stronger and probably put on about five pounds. I have been in the weight room all summer and throughout the preseason. I am ready to go in there and bang down low with the big guys with Chris and the other guys on my team. I have been skinny all my life and been playing in the post, so it really doesn't make a difference. If I have to guard the point guard or the center, I'll do whatever we have to do to win.
Sanders on this year's team:
Right now it is kind of an inexperience team, but I think we have about five to seven legitimate guys who can score in double figures night in and now out. You can't double team some of our guys like teams have done in the past. You have to stop various people in different areas. We are a little bit different team than we were in the past because we're much more versatile on offense and on defense.
Sanders on the different things he is doing to prepare for the center position:
In practice I am focusing on how to beat people with a quick attack. Play the game more with my head, because I am going to be playing against guys that are going to try and out muscle me. With the point guards we have this year, I can get easier shots because there will be more penetration. In practice I am trying to take some of the things that Mike (Mackell) used to do that I can do with my body, but most of the time it is just playing with my head, and how can I beat my guy to the spot and how can I get myself into position to score quick.
Sanders on the improvement of the team over the last four years:
We are a lot more athletic. From a recruiting aspect, we have a lot more household names, on the west coast and nationally. We all know what it takes to win. We all played in the championship games and we played against number one teams in the country. The guys who come from high school that have played in state championships. It is all about having that winning attitude. Coach, knows what it takes to win big, which he has done in the past and has done here. The biggest thing is that we have a legitimate chance to play against anyone on the country.