Dec. 9, 2006
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SAN DIEGO - San Diego State Head Coach Steve Fisher
On the atmosphere:
"I told our team before they took the floor that this was by far the finest atmosphere that we had in Cox Arena since I've been here. I said, `Be proud of that, be determined and compete hard.'"
On the game:
"I'm not happy. I'm disappointed with the loss, but I'm far from discouraged with this team. We're a good team, and we will continue to grow as a team. We've got to get better--there's no question about that--and we will. We didn't make shots. That was very apparent. Part of that was us, part of that was them."
On Arizona:
"They're good. They're long; they're athletic. They fly at you, a good shot sometimes turns into a hurried shot."
On senior guard Brandon Heath:
"Brandon is and will continue to be a guy who can go on a streak and be a streak-scorer. He took 18 shots. He's going to take more shots than most of the guys on our team. With the exception of a couple, I think they were good shots. Brandon and Mohamed (Abukar) are capable of making and have made hard shots. But for the most part, the looks we got were good."
San Diego State Guard Brandon Heath
On the game:
"We're all disappointed, but at the same time, we know we shot the ball poorly tonight. Even shooting the ball poorly like that, late in the game, we were within nine and had the ball were capable of cutting the lead to seven. It's disappointing, we're definitely going to grow from it and get better. I feel our team is a lot better than how way we played tonight. The score doesn't make up how these two teams competed tonight. We'll go back and watch film and grow from it."
On the looks he received during the game:
"I was very satisfied with the looks we got. Those looks we got were great looks and I'll take those looks again. I feel nine times out of 10, if I get those looks again, I will knock them down as well as my teammates. The ball just didn't fall for us tonight. Like coach said, we're a good team and we'll grow from it, come back and start a new winning streak on Tuesday."
On Arizona:
"They're athletic, they're long. Like coach said, good shots turn into contested shots with their athletic ability and things like that. They're a good team. With the exception of their loss at Virginia, if they don't lose that game, they're probably the No. 1 team in the country. They're a good team, period."
San Diego State Forward Mohamed Abukar
On his performance:
"I don't feel like I was trying to do too much with the looks I was getting. They're the looks I always get; the shots I usually always take. They just weren't falling down. The moral of the story tonight was that we didn't make shots. You can't win games if you don't make shots. It's something that we'll work on. We'll get back to practice and get a lot of shots up and continue to shoot the ball well because that's what we do. It's part of basketball to miss shots and tonight our team missed shots. It's unfortunate, but that's the way the cookie crumbles."
Arizona Head Coach Lute Olson
On the SLAM:
"This was really a first class event. The committee really worked hard and made sure every little detail was taken care of. I thought it was great to see the crowd. It looked like the San Diego State students were really into it. It is a great facility and a first class city. It is unbelievable what has been done with (the SLAM) in three years and I'm sure it is going to continue to be a great success."
On his team:
"I'm really pleased for how we played. Defensively, we made it difficult for San Diego State to get a lot of good looks. We got a lot of help when drives did take place. Guys responded really well to getting the ball stopped. I thought offensively once we really started moving, everybody got involved and we were able to break the defense down with some good drives. We have a lot of guys that can take the ball to the basket and that is what we wanted to do. We are not as good of a team when it gets down to catch and shoot jump shots. We are much better off when we make the defense move and utilize our ability to get to the basket."
On defending San Diego State:
"They are an outstanding three-point shooting team. I think going into the game they were either third or fourth in the country. The thing that we tried to tell our guys is that it is third or fourth in the country against teams other than our team and that we felt we could get more pressure on the shooters than a lot of people can because of our size and our because of our length, really. They did have some open looks but it wasn't the guys that we are the most concerned about in terms of getting those open looks."
On sophomore forward Marcus Williams:
"There are going to be nights that some guys have that touch and other nights where they don't. I think when you look at Marcus' numbers, the thing that really stands out is 16 rebounds. We know he can score and it has just been a matter of him getting to that comfort level that he needs to have for the shots. He took only two three-point shots. The rest of them were shots where he broke the defense down, took the ball to the basket, took it off the drive and pulled up to hit some jump shots. I thought he did a good job of getting the ball to people and really played well... It is just a matter of getting the ball to the open man and let that guy have his opportunities."
On junior guard Jawann McClellan:
"I thought defensively he had a great game, great pressure on shooters. He also came up with seven rebounds. I think when the ball is in his hand people move well too because they know he is an excellent passer. He is going to get the ball to people if they move."
Arizona Guard Jawann McClellan
On the game:
"We knew coming into this whole week this was going to be a great week of basketball. We knew we had three tough games. We knew this was going to be a key game. They have been talking about it all year long. I think this game has been sold out since they announced it. They have a great guard in Brandon Heath and they have a lot of good players. They feel like that the gap was closed between us and them and they feel like they had great players to match up with our great players. We knew it was going to be a tough game coming in especially being on the road. Like coach said we have been watching a lot of film on them for the past week and a half. We just came out and we were successful. A lot of people think they were just missing shots but we just didn't let the right shooter shoot those shots and we just fought hard."
Arizona Forward Marcus Williams
On keeping Brandon Heath and the Aztecs contained:
"We watched a lot of tape and to be honest there wasn't really one (thing). He can go left, he can go right, he can shoot the pull-up three off of the dribble. There wasn't anything you really wanted to key on. Just try to get your hand up and try to make him make hard shots. Make sure there were no defensive slip ups to give him wide open shots so he can get in a groove early and get his confidence up. That was the biggest focus. We also focused on Abukar. He was their second leading scorer and Wade was their third. We really do a lot of homework on the other team so we can be prepared and not come out not knowing what we are in to."