Jan. 10, 2012
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery 1 | Photo Gallery 2
SDSU-Chicago State Postgame Quotes in PDF Format
San Diego State Head Coach Steve Fisher
(from the postgame radio interview)
On the game:
"I'll give you a sneak peak behind the curtain of what I said to the team in the locker room. I said, `You have been as consistent a team as I have coached in 40-plus years. You have earned a 14-2 record and I have always looked at the glass as being half full. So if I'm looking at the glass being half full, I would say you deserve a mulligan.' And I said, `Chase (Tapley), do you know what a mulligan is?' And James said, `He doesn't play golf, but it's a do over.' And I said, `It's a do over. We were bad tonight and on top of us, Chicago State was good.' They were four points behind Air Force at halftime. With four minutes to go, they were six points behind (Air Force), they had a chance to win the game. That was their last game. They came in excited to be here. They played pretty good basketball. If they play and shoot like that, they'll go home and win a game or two as they move forward. That's what I hope happens for them. I said also, if I'm realistic, we played bad. It's a lethal combination usually when another team plays good and you play poorly. We were part of the reason that they played good, but they were part of the reason they played good. We did not handle it well. We did not handle frustration, whether it was from missing shots, a call you thought should have gone the other way, whatever it might have been.
"We did not do a good enough job. I said it starts with me. I'm sitting in the locker room telling (the team), you should be 14-2. I planted the seed that things would happen just because of the name on your jersey and it doesn't happen that way. So the first guy to fall under the sword is me, but I said then you have to be honest with yourself and say you have to handle it better, you have to handle it differently. And I know you will because this has been a locker room that has been fun to go into. You're a great character group and I know you know that. So I didn't rant and rave after the game, I took a long time, but I didn't rant and rave. It wasn't one of those screaming and yelling rants and that sort of thing."
On Chase Tapley responding to a larger role:
"He really is (responding). It's the nature of the game where you earn stripes and he's gone from Private First Class to Lieutenant Colonel now. He's gotten some responsibility and he knows it. He's not afraid to take a shot. He can shoot the ball. He knows how to play and those are combinations for you that win also."
(from the postgame press conference)
Opening statement:
"I got loud in the huddles at times and I got animated, but not after the game. I said, if I'm honest with myself, what I've told you all season long, you've been a delight to be in the locker room with, you're a great group of guys, you have been as consistent, if you look at your full body of work over 16 games, as anybody in the United States of America. I always view the glass half-filled, and if I'm talking to you in that way, you deserve a mulligan. I said to Chase (Tapley), `Do you know what a mulligan is?' And he said, `No.' And James (Rahon ) said that he doesn't play golf; it means a do over. I said, `Yes, you deserve a do over, but if you're honest with yourself, you created some of what happened tonight.'
"We allowed Chicago State to believe that they were going to win the game, and they played well; they made some shots. They were four points behind Air Force, and we talked about this before, they were down four at halftime at Air Force. I believe that they were down six or seven points late in the game and got beat by 12. They came in feeling not like an 0-15 team, but feeling like `if we play the best we've played, we play that way a little better, we could win.' They played that way and we did not react the right way.
"We got a nice, comfortable, early lead that looked like it was going to be like last time and the time before, and it wasn't. We didn't handle ourselves well. We did a poor job of how we managed our own emotions - we got frustrated; we got mad at one another; we got mad at ourselves; we got mad at the officials; you did everything but roll your back and play better. I told them three games ago, `You should be 14-2 going into league play, that's a great testament to you,' so I so I did all the things that allow this to happen. So if you fall on the sword, I should be the first guy to fall on the sword, I told them that. But, you know that we didn't do what championship teams do, you've done that before. I told them that a year ago, after we won, and had the most significant victory we'd had in a long time at Gonzaga, we jumped on a plane, went to Oxford, Ohio, and I think we were 24 points behind Wisconsin-Green Bay. We played awful, complaining about everything, just like we did tonight; and we found a way to win. The bottom line is, you have to win, but you have to be honest with yourself, if you really want to win, you have to take ownership in how you manage everything. I'm proud of our team; I'm not proud of how we played tonight."
On Chase Tapley's play in the long-scoring run:
"Chase is a guy that's got some added responsibility: he's got to score for us. He's also got to guard. He kept saying `I could go more.' Chase can score the ball. He always has and always will. He takes shots and knows that they're going in. You love that kind of attitude. We've got have Chase playing and playing well. He was 10-for-17 and he had two more that could have gone in."
On playing Tim Shelton and Xavier Thames:
"I talked to Tim and we said `Let's try to get you eight to nine minutes in the first half and see how you feel, and if you want to get in the second, let's look for that.' And to be honest with you, I was hoping that I could shut him down at halftime and wouldn't have to ask him. He played 21 minutes, probably played more than I thought he would have, but at halftime I said `How do you feel?' and he said, `I want to win the game. When you want me, put me in.'
"Xavier, I shouldn't have played X as many minutes as I did, but, my hope for X was kind of the same thing: anywhere from 16 to 20 minutes. He played 26 but in lesser chunks, I didn't want to play him for as long of stretches as he did. I kept asking (athletic trainer) Tom (Abdenour) what he thinks and he said `He's fine, he's fine,' and finally Tom said `Take him out, he's winded. He needs to come out.' I think this was good for X, this had no negative impact on X; and hopefully, for Tim it won't. Time is someone we've got to be able to manage all season; we're better when Tim in, he had three charges tonight."
San Diego State junior guard Chase Tapley
On his second half:
"Coach Fisher told me that I needed to step up. It was a tie game and we needed to come out with a lot of energy. Jamaal (Franklin) really got everybody pumped up and we had to come out and play hard. It worked out."
On being down seven points with 18:28 left in the second half:
"(It was) a little frustration. Just a little down but we can't dwell on the last play. You have to move on to the next play and that's what we did. It was frustrating but thank God for our teammates and our coaches for helping us out."
San Diego State senior forward Tim Shelton
On Chicago State's record this season:
"Before the game I tried to tell the guys to treat them like they were 15-0. Better teams have played worse than we have today. Last year's team went out to Ohio and we were down 23 at halftime. You know what happened with that team. I'm not knocking this team today. Chicago State played well and we didn't play to our capabilities."
On being back in the game:
"I sat down with Coach (Fisher) and said I want to go back in and get some type of game time. I didn't play very well, I had two turnovers but it was good to get that time in before Saturday (against UNLV)."
On his knees:
"They are doing well. I had that break period to rest and now its league time."
On UNLV:
"It's going to be about intensity and it's going to be nice to be playing at home. They are a good team; they are ranked for a reason. They have beaten some tough opponents and they are experienced so it's going to be a good game."
Chicago State Head Coach Tracy Dildy
Opening statement:
"One of our assistants came into practice last week and mentioned `believe', and that is what we have been talking about the last three days is `believe'. He came in and said this is a top-20 program and we have nothing to lose, and as we get closer to conference (play) we just want to play with confidence and energy. And over the last three games we have played like that. Up at Air Force (on Jan. 6) we had a chance, so we will get better and that is what our schedule was designed to do, get us better and prepare us for conference."
On SDSU's timeout at 39-32 mark:
"Coach Fisher is a great coach and I knew it would only be so long until they got us out of our zone. What they did was they stopped settling for jump shots and started driving the ball and that really hurt the zone. They stopped settling for the three ball, which is what we wanted them to do, and just started driving it to the hoop and it was tough which got our guys into foul trouble."
On coaching against his old team:
"This place is always going to have a special place in my heart and to come back almost made me a little emotional. The people here are just great, and to have my former coach come into practice and say `Hi,' it has just been great. We got a chance to do a lot of things, do a lot of reminiscing, go to a lot of places that I went to as a student. Like I said, it was emotional."