Feb. 9, 2006
SAN DIEGO - Aztec Basketball News Conference
Cox Arena at Aztec Bowl
Feb. 9, 2006
San Diego State Head Coach Steve Fisher
On this year's team compared to the 2001-02 team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament:
"I would say that group was vocal in terms of expressing their true feelings and the group we have now I do believe is every bit as confident, yet not feeling a need to share it with the world. I don't know how much of that is inspired by me but, probably not a lot. As we are all saying, we still have a lot of games to play. This is about where we started, maybe a game before that team, to catch fire. (It happened) a couple games into, maybe one game into the second half of the turn (of conference play). Then we really got good and crescendo at the end of the season. I'm hopeful that we can continue doing what we are doing now with this team. That was a good team that played then. That was a good team that felt like they could win and we had weapons who could score. As we all know (Al) Faux and (Randy) Holcomb in particular made big time plays for us when we had to have them.
"What we have now in my opinion is the ability to score. (We probably have) more options to score and I do think we are better perimeter shooters as a group than we were then, in fact I know we are. We are a better perimeter shooting team. Al Faux could light it up any place, any where, but we weren't quite as consistent from the perimeter after that. They backed off Richie Williams, Air Force did, and dared him to shoot and he didn't make a shot in the first half. To his credit he wasn't afraid to take that next open shot that he had and wound up with 11 second-half points for us."
On the crowd at the Air Force game:
"We had (a crowd), (similar to) what I have seen in years gone by at almost every other conference facility. I remember three or four years ago we opened conference play at BYU and they had 19,000-20,000. You can go right down the line to The Pit (in Albuquerque) and Vegas. What we had last night was as good as it gets and I said that before. The numbers may not match what I said about BYU, but we had a tremendous crowd and they let people, especially the Air Force people, know that they were there and who they were cheering for."
On consistently having a big crowd:
"I think if we win, that kind of atmosphere will continue to be there. This one was maybe built up leading into the game a little bit more. However, with the game we have against Utah on Saturday, if you say the flagship team of the MWC is Utah - head and shoulders above everybody else based on what they've done since we've had a conference. Even though their record right now doesn't indicate that they are the Utah of the last couple years, I believe they've won three in a row now and four out of five, and they are good and playing well. Hopefully our fans will want to help to continue to bring an added surge for us and they did that on Wednesday. We're hopeful with the 12 o'clock start - we haven't had a game that early - that we can get a good crowd and have them here, excited and ready to go."
On maintaining a high level of play:
"We must continue to concentrate on the job at hand. We aren't going to do much today in practice, but what we do must be good. Even if it is all film work, it has to be with their undivided attention. It's like an instructor giving answers to the final exam or the midterm exam and you have to take notes. You have to take mental notes and know what's expected and be able to deliver it. To be honest with you, we have had stretches where we haven't played good basketball and we still found ways to win. We didn't guard as well at Wyoming or Colorado State as we did last night, but we outscored them. We need to continue to get better at every facet of what we do."
On Utah:
"They were 8-for-16 from three-point range against BYU. (Luke) Nevill has moved into the starting lineup. They started (Chris) Jackson against us and Nevill is all of seven-feet tall and is becoming a much better basketball player. They gave us trouble with their guards - Bryant hurt us off penetration, off ball screens, and shot it in. They missed some open threes against us and we have to do a better job of how we guard them. They did a nice job of throwing it inside, reacting off our double-dribble drive, either off ball screens or otherwise, and those things are issues. They did a pretty good job of trying to run clock and make us guard, not unlike what we saw with Air Force, so we may see some more of that. We have to be patient. We have to be patient with how we guard."
San Diego State Forward Mohamed Abukar
On the crowd:
"The crowd last night was huge. It was definitely our sixth man out there. When you have an atmosphere like that, so many people screaming and yelling for us, it does help you play better. I want to thank the fans for coming out and encourage them to come out on Saturday and help us do it again.
"I think the way it's gone here with the fans, they definitely are starting to come out more with (the team's) success. The more we win, the more we do well, the more fans come. If we keep playing the way we have been, I expect that more and more fans will keep coming."
On gelling with the team quicker than expected:
"It's going well. Our team is winning and we are winning in a way that is confident but there is still room to get better and improve. Fitting in with these guys has been easy. When you play with great players, it's easier. If you are playing with less talented players it probably would be a bit harder, but the fact that I'm playing with great players makes it easy."
San Diego State Guard Brandon Heath
On the team:
"I think we're very confident right now, individually and collectively. We know what we can do. We know if we play together it will be hard for teams to beat us. If we come out and play defense the way we did last night and play together, we will be a hard team to beat regardless of where we're at or who we're playing.
"We're really close on and off the court. (The fact that) we hang out off the floor (shows) on the floor also. We're just close. We're gelling right now, everyone knows their role and everyone is playing their role to a tee right now.
"We're confident, but not cocky. We're just taking it one game at a time and being humble. We know anybody can beat anyone on any given night. That's why we're taking it one game at a time."
On the Utah game:
"This game coming up on Saturday is going to be tough. No game in this conference is easy. We just have to take care of ourselves and go out there and play the way we know we can."