Feb. 23, 2009
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Weekly News Conference
Aztec Athletics Center
San Diego State Head Coach Steve Fisher
On the loss to New Mexico on Saturday:
"We got handled and handled good by a terrific New Mexico team, who probably would have beaten anybody in America on Saturday. They had 16,500 (fans) strong and the crowd helped the team and the team helped the crowd. They were outstanding. They did to us what they've done to several people, including our next opponent BYU. They handled BYU the way they did us."
On the game against BYU on Tuesday:
"We practiced Sunday, showed 10 minutes of New Mexico do's and don'ts and moved into probably as important of a game as we've played all season and that's tomorrow against a very, very good BYU team that either leads the nation in field goal percentage in terms of league play, over 50 percent from the field, or they're second. They're a very, very good offensive team in particular, but they're a very good team. We are happy that we're at home and we're hopeful that we can have a crowd that we can inspire that will also help inspire us. I think it'll be a great game."
On Billy White's injury status:
"Billy White (had a) MRI Sunday and does not have ligament damage. He has some significant swelling in the back of his knee. He's definitely out for Tuesday and unlike Richie (Williams), this is not going to be a miracle back in the line up two days later. We're hopeful that he will respond to the aggressive therapy that we're going to have for him and that he'll be back sooner rather than later. It will be a wait and see in terms of what it means after the game on Tuesday. Whether he's able to do anything or travel with us to TCU I don't know."
On the long-term impact of the loss to New Mexico:
"If you allow it to have residual affects and carry over, it may be a sin. I used to be an altar boy; it may be a sin to lose at New Mexico, but it's a venial sin, not a mortal sin. A mortal sin comes in if you feel sorry for yourself and you play in a fashion that you don't give yourself a chance to win your next game out. They're good, they're really good. They may be playing better than anyone right now and at home they have the ability, when they make a couple of shots, to do what they did to us. With 2:28 left to go in the half, we're two points behind and they go layup, layup, layup, three to close on a nine to nothing 9-0 run and we were never in the game in the second half. They did exactly the same thing to BYU several weeks ago. The final (margin) was 18, but they're 25 or 30 ahead in the second half and they won by 18. I would much rather lose at the buzzer, but sometimes that has more affect on you than losing by 30. We need to win, obviously. The winner of our game tomorrow is in the hunt for the conference championship, I genuinely believe that. The loser will be playing for a seed in the tournament."
On if there is any scenario where San Diego State wouldn't have to win the last four games to tie for the MWC title:
"We've got four losses. Utah has two; four games to go. Could Utah lose four games in a row? Stranger things have happened. Will they? Very, very doubtful. I would say yes. If we want to have a chance to tie for the conference title we will need to win four in a row. I would say that's a fair statement and probably one that will prove to be sure."
On if there's a concern with the team's personnel:
"The concern is the obvious, starting with Billy White, who has started every game, playing big minutes and not being able to play. It takes your longest, maybe best athlete, who is the front of your press, who is able to harass and still run people down and it makes somebody else who is not quite as athletic doing that and it gives you one fewer guy at that spot. That's a big concern that we've got. Tim Shelton has had the unfortunate situation to be limited in practice because of his knee problem. It means maybe more minutes for Tim that you would have spread otherwise maybe someplace else. We have experimented with going smaller, so that's an option that we could use. You go from a pretty good nine-man rotation to now an eight-man rotation and everybody's asked to maybe play a little different role. We did that; Shelton didn't play at all against (UNLV) and we found a way to go to (UNLV) and get ourselves a victory. I know that we will play hard. I have seen BYU make really, really hard shots on people who guarded hard and played well. We've got to hope that we can guard them hard and not give them run-outs. They really run; they run on every turnover, but they run on makes so we've got to limit their fast-break opportunities. We've got to make it hard for them to get easy looks. We know the game plan; carrying it out is the issue. BYU really, really runs, home and away."
San Diego State Senior Forward Lorrenzo Wade
On how Billy White's absence will affect the team:
"Billy is the most athletic guy we have on our team. He creates so much havoc on the defensive end, especially with the way he blocks shots. He's pretty intimidating in the paint. We've got enough guys though; I think they'll be able to pick up where Billy left off. Hopefully he's not out for too long. I think Tim Shelton, Mehdi (Cheriet) and (Ryan) Amo (Amoroso) will have to step up in order for us to play well."
San Diego State Senior Guard Richie Williams
On whether or not he thinks San Diego State has any other choice but to win the last four games:
"Pretty much. We went into New Mexico playing to win and expecting to win and we didn't. It was a hard loss to swallow, but we have to move on. We have BYU tomorrow who's a very good team. That's all we can think about right now; what's in front of us, which is BYU."