Nov. 7, 2007
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State Game Notes | Liberty Game Notes | SDSU Broadcast Flip Card
Liberty (0-0/0-0 Big South) vs. San Diego State (0-0/0-0 MWC)
Television
None.
Radio
Friday: KLSD AM 1360 with Ted Leitner
Saturday: KLSD AM 1360 with Chris Ello
Sunday: AM 600 KOGO with Ted Leitner
San Diego State Opens 2007-08 Season at World Vision Classic With Match-Up vs. Liberty  
Coming off its second consecutive postseason appearance and its fourth in the last six years, San Diego State opens its 87th season of basketball Friday against Liberty at the World Vision Classic in Fresno, Calif.
Game time at the Save Mart Center is set for 5:30 p.m. PT and can be heard on KLSD-AM 1360. There is no television coverage for the contest.
For the second straight season, SDSU will open its slate with three games in three days. Last year at the Shamrock Invitational in Moraga, Calif., the Aztecs went 3-0, but only won by a combined seven points.
This year's field should provide a bigger test for San Diego State as all three teams are Division I institutions. In 2006-07, the Aztecs posted a victory over Division II powerhouse Seattle Pacific in the final game of the event.
The game marks the fourth time during ninth-year head coach Steve Fisher's tenure that SDSU is opening away from home. In 2001, the Aztecs faced Northern Iowa at the Ford Red Raider Classic in Lubbock, Texas, and came away with a 71-57 victory. In 2005, San Diego State participated at the BP Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks, Alaska, and defeated Alaska Fairbanks, 67-55. Last season marked the only time SDSU did not post a double-digit win when it used a half-court shot by Brandon Heath as time expired to emerge with the 87-84 decision over Murray State at the Shamrock Invite.  
The Aztecs, picked to finish in a tie for fourth place with New Mexico in the Mountain West Conference preseason media and coaches poll, are led by junior Lorrenzo Wade.
Wade is coming off a sophomore season in which he earned all-conference accolades after he finished the season with averages of 10.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.2 blocks. He enters his junior year tabbed as an all-conference player by multiple preseason publications and is one of the conference's returning leaders in rebounding, steals, blocked shots and minutes played. In SDSU's lone exhibition game vs. Point Loma Nazarene, Wade posted a double-double with team highs of 16 points and 13 rebounds. He was also 5-for-10 from the floor.
Meanwhile, Liberty is coached by a familiar face in first-year coach Ritchie McKay. McKay is no stranger to the Aztecs as he spent the previous five seasons at the helm of fellow MWC member, New Mexico.
The Flames come into the 2007-08 opener after finishing last season with a 14-17 overall record. Like the Aztecs, Liberty was victorious in its only exhibition game, defeating Barton, 77-75, in Lynchburg, Va.