March 6, 2006
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Men's Basketball
Weekly Press Conference Quotes
March 6, 2006
Aztec Athletics Center
Head Coach Steve Fisher
On Brandon Heath receiving MWC Player of the Year honors:
"I told them that with team success comes individual recognition, and that's a fact. We had three players - Abukar, Slaughter and Heath - all get individual accolades because we won the league; because we have a good basketball team; because they did things that contributed to a winning basketball team. I couldn't be happier for Brandon. He's probably as committed a basketball player as I ever had the privilege to coach."
I'm happy that our team went 13-3 in league play and that we won an undisputed conference championship. And as much as (the players) appreciate the individual awards, I'm sure they feel the same way. If you had said they could have either-or, they'd take 13-3 and cutting down the nets after (last Wednesday's) Wyoming game."
On SDSU's chances of making the NCAA Tournament:
"We're like a lot of people; I think we've got a resume that warrants being in. But for every Steve Fisher and San Diego State, there's probably 10 others that have that same feeling and not everyone will get a bid. The best thing anyone can do right now is win, and then win again and win again. And that's our goal. We're going to go to Denver to get ready for the winner of the Colorado State-TCU game and then be prepared and play well there, and then hopefully get ready for the next game and then one more game. We are going in not full of ourselves, but proud of what we have done yet knowing what we have to do."
On the importance of winning the MWC Tournament to secure an NCAA bid:
"It's important that we go and play. And the more you win, the more you build on that resume that you have going in. And I think that's significant. If you're playing on TV on Thursday and then again on Friday and Saturday, they have more opportunities to watch you. If you're out that first day, it isn't as much fun and there'll be a little more sweat to endure on Sunday. And we don't want that. We want to go in with the feeling that we're the best team in the league. We proved it for 16 games and now we have to prove it all over again for three (more) games."
On playing with momentum heading into the conference tournament:
"We didn't have to worry at all about making sure we were ready to play for Wyoming. We had to make sure we were ready to execute, because sometimes when you get too excited, you can do things a little too quickly, too fast. I heard (Wyoming head coach) Steve McClain today on the conference call and he said they've played everybody close with the exception of (last Wednesday's) San Diego State game. He said they ran into a buzz saw here. You witnessed it; it was a phenomenal atmosphere and our kids rode that crest. Those kinds of wins happen more on your home court than they do on the road. But it does make us feel good that we've won three in a row. We can reflect back on that eight-game winning streak too, but we felt good not only about the fact that we won, but the way that we played to win was fulfilling."
On the keys to the success down the stretch in conference play:
"What we have done for major stretches of the last few games is that we've guarded very effectively, we've guarded hard. And when you do that, you create opportunities offensively. And we've done a little better job with our defense for longer stretches and that's going to be critical. That will be critical to our success as we move forward. We've got the ability to score points in bunches from a lot of different spots on the floor. So if we can make you miss or force turnovers, we've got chances to get on those 13-0 runs like we've been able to do. All good teams can do that and it's usually created by playing good defense and being able to rebound the ball defensively and run a little bit."
On what the team's state of mind heading into conference tournament:
"There's a fine line between being a little bit nervous and being a little bit scared. You have to be a little nervous, you have to be a little bit on edge. But then you have to settle in and play and not play afraid to make a mistake or worry that if you don't win, something bad is going to happen. I think our kids have been really good at being able to do the right things the right way and I'm confident we will continue to do that."
"We're going to have to play well no matter who it's against. This is a league--and maybe not just our league--but when you get to this stage, everyone is coming in saying they just need to win three games. We will meet a team that will be playing inspired basketball no matter who it is, because they will have won that first game and we need to make sure that we're doing the same. I know we'll be ready to play. We have to be sure that we don't worry about how teams in other conference tournaments are doing and how they affect us. It means nothing. We have to take care of our own stuff and that's all that matters. Our kids have done a good job of realizing that. That's why we've been able to, for instance, move from a loss at BYU and play very well in The Pit (at New Mexico) and win that game two days later. We lost at home to Utah and then we went to Las Vegas and beat a good UNLV team that was a half-game behind us in Vegas convincingly. I think we'll play well. I know we'll play hard. Hopefully, we'll be making shots."
SDSU Men's Basketball
Player Quotes
March 6, 2006
Junior guard Brandon Heath
On being named MWC Player of the Year:
"It feels good. When you're winning, there are a lot of accolades that come with that. I couldn't have done it without my teammates. I want to thank Coach Fisher for taking a chance on me coming to San Diego State in the first place. This is an award that easily could have gone to Marcus Slaughter or Mohamed Abukar, because they work just as hard. If I had a vote, I would have definitely voted for Marcus. It feels good, but we still have games to play and we still have to win games. The individual accolades are great, but this is a team sport and we want to move on from here. I was surprised; I knew it could have gone either way."
On staying focused in the postseason:
"We still have that mindset because it's the postseason now. Everybody knows if you lose you go home and I think as a team we have to step our game up that much more. Nobody wants to go home and it's a little bit different being the No. 1 seed versus where we were last year, but at the same time, we're not thinking like that. We're thinking, go in there and take care of our business, step our game up another level and take it one game at a time."
Junior forward Marcus Slaughter
On winning the regular season championship:
"Phase one is over for our season. It's great to come out as champions. We had a great first part of the season. We didn't do so well in non-conference, but we've done great in conference. Everything is taking care of itself and we're winning. It's exciting and it feels great."
On Heath's award and Abukar's performance this season:
"Brandon definitely deserves this. He works hard, people can see that. I'm proud of him. We came in freshman year together. We didn't have any wins freshmen year. Sophomore year, at the end of the year, we were sad. We got this and that, but we didn't win; we didn't go anywhere. Now it feels much better that we worked for two years, worked hard, we got accolades and we won. I'm really glad we've got Mo; he's really helped us out. We've always been missing a third man and he's the man. I'd like to congratulate Brandon for his award and Mohamed for what he's done this year."
On staying focused in the postseason:
"We have to take care of a lot of business. We have three games to play, we're trying to win the conference tournament and get two rings instead of one. We don't want the committee to decide where we go; we want to win these three games. We know if we can win these three games and win the conference tournament, we get that automatic bid. We know that our seeding could be much better as far as coming in as 12, we might go down to a six or seven and then we might play an 11, that's a greater chance for us. We're not satisfied at all with just winning the conference. It was one of our goals; it's the first goal we had and we got that done. Now our second goal is to win the conference tournament. If we get that done, our next goal is to win games in the NCAA tournament. We're not satisfied at all, but we're excited with what we can do and we're going to work hard to get it done."
Junior forward Mohamed Abukar
On staying focused:
"Well it's the same mindset that we played these last couple games of the season with. We know that we can't afford to slip up, so we go in there with business on our minds and we know we can't afford any mishaps. As long as we go in there with the right focus and get done what we need to get done, we'll be fine. We know what's riding on this. I think we'll be fine, we're in good shape, we're a deep team, we have a lot of talent on this team and we can go deep in our bench. A lot of teams can't say that. I definitely think we're playing our best basketball right now. We're coming together and our Wyoming game was probably our best game of the season. We can ride that way into the conference tournament, hopefully build on it."
On being named to the MWC second team:
"I didn't think about it. I really didn't think about anything like first team or second team, or any of that stuff. I just knew these guys would be workhorses on the team; I just wanted to come in and fill in the gaps. With guys like these, my job is really easy. Brandon and Marcus both could have been player of the year. When you have guys like that on your team, it makes your job really easy and fun."
On SDSU's first opponent in the conference tournament:
"We're not taking Colorado State or TCU lightly at all. We had a tough game against TCU and we had two tough games with Colorado State. We're going into practice this week focused and going into the tournament, we know both those teams are good teams."