Fisher:''I still think we were better than Connecticut when they won the national championship,''

[nelsonmuntz]

San Diego wasn't even the best team we played in that regional. Arizona was a far better team than the Aztecs.

One place where Fisher (and many SDSU fans) get lost in the debate is that Jeremy Lamb in March was a far superior player than the November version. It could be argued (if you are being generous to SDSU) that it was a tossup as to who had the best player on the court that evening; UConn with Kemba or SDSU with Leonard (again, being geneous to SDSU as in reality it wasn't a tossup). Once you got past those two, the talent and depth tilted in UConn's favor. Yes, it was closer than I would have liked until the final few minutes and they deserve some praise for that but considering the home court advantage along with our extreme youth (outside of Kemba), if they were the better team the outcome would have been far different.

Now you are just wrong. Arizona was not FAR BETTER than the Aztecs. Arizona had almost got knocked out in the first round that year by a mediocre Memphis squad. Arizona had lost to every ranked team they played going into the tournament, including getting drilled by BYU earlier in the year. They lost 4 games in a weak Pac 12 and didn't even win the conference tournament. SDSU lost 3 games all year that year, 2 to BYU (before Davies was suspended) and 1 to UConn.

Kemba's flop was really instrumental, and Leonard was draining shots to keep it close until the very end. Arizona was hot in the tournament, but they were hardly FAR BETTER than the Aztecs.

 

[Kemba Time]

We had Kemba Walker, they did not

 

[tzznandrew]

I have no real problem with Fisher's comment. Many coaches and teams think it each March.

But it is what it is ...single elimination ends in one NC ... which makes winning it so hard.

FWIW....Arizona is the one team we beat that year (Kentucky the next one) that I am not sure how we pulled it out and am glad it was not a seven game series... not SD State.

We beat Kentucky twice that year. I don't lose sleep about that one like I thinking about that last hoisted 3 against Arizona.

 

[auror]

''I still think we were better than Connecticut when they won the national championship,'' Fisher said Wednesday.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Waylon, did SDSU have a better season leading into the tournament than Arizona? Yes. The same could be said for Louisville, Duke, Pitt and another handful of teams in comparison to us in 2011. That doesn't make them better teams.

Yes, Zona had a tight one with Memphis (a reasonably talented team). IIRC, SDSU had a very tight game with a Temple squad that couldn't score.

 

[tzznandrew]

http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310780021

vs.

http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310770012

 

[UCweCONN]

And Fisher's FAB 5 team was better than UNC but a little thing called an unauthorized timeout ended that......Wouldn't that be the coach's responsibility? Opponents 2, Fisher 0.

 

[G0UCONN]

We beat Kentucky twice that year. I don't lose sleep about that one like I thinking about that last hoisted 3 against Arizona.

Good point about that last three by Zona....looked good, thought for sure it was in. Yelled "no!!!" I am afraid to watch a rerun for fear it may go in next time...

 

[partial]

Meh sounds a bit like sour grapes(prunes?) by an old guy. The metric of the tournament is single elimination. If finding the 'best' team was the purpose of the tournament we might as well put all the analytics guys in a room let them come up with the winner instead of playing the games.

 

[BUHusky]

#yawn

#scoreboard

#banners

 

[Scoe]

Well he can think that if he wants to but the reality is they weren't.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Waylon, did SDSU have a better season leading into the tournament than Arizona? Yes. The same could be said for Louisville, Duke, Pitt and another handful of teams in comparison to us in 2011. That doesn't make them better teams.

Yes, Zona had a tight one with Memphis (a reasonably talented team). IIRC, SDSU had a very tight game with a Temple squad that couldn't score.

Actually, that year I wanted nothing to do with Pitt or Ohio State. I thought those were the two best teams in the country that year, and I didn't like UConn's chances against either. Pitt puked themselves, and Kentucky took out Ohio State. After those two, I thought UConn was very close with the next 12-14 teams. I would have put Arizona on the very edge of that group that year. I did not fear Duke at all. It was a typically overrated Duke team, and I was not surprised that someone else took them out.

20 years from now I will still be amazed that BYU actually suspended Davies that season. BYU was a Final Four caliber team and then they toss their second best player off the team for having sex.

 

[lavuuk153]

I've got no problem with him thinking that, but that's the awesomeness/curse of a single game elimination tournament.

 

[formerlurker]

Coach Steve Fisher has never watched the tape of the Aztecs' loss to Connecticut as a No. 2 seed in the 2011 regional semifinals at Honda Center. Fourth-seeded SDSU (31-4) is back in the regional for the first time since then.

''I still think we were better than Connecticut when they won the national championship,'' Fisher said Wednesday.

Jerk.

Steve Fisher can't remember what decade this is, let alone recall how badly UConn kicked his ass in 2011.

(He's a brilliant coach and mentor in real life though)

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Waiting to hear him say his team is better than Arizona this year.

 

[August_West]

And Fisher's FAB 5 team was better than UNC but a little thing called an unauthorized timeout ended that.Wouldn't that be the coach's responsibility? Opponents 2, Fisher 0.

Correction: Opponents 3, Fisher 0.

It looks like Stevie's team has trouble holding leads in the last 8 minutes of NCAA games.

What a Putz.

 

[UCDaveD]

Yo Steve, probably should have worried more about Arizona instead of running your mouth about UConn. Suck it, crab.

 

[mauconnfan]

Steve might have good teams in these 3 losses……..maybe, maybe not!!

But what we do now know Mr Fisher, is your poor players on these teams were out coached every time!

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Didn’t Stanford women’s coach say the same thing when UConn beat them in the semifinals back in 1994/5?

 

[PacificStorm]

I felt bad for SDSU losing a winnable game in the Sweet 16 again last night. Had he said before the game that Uconn was simply the better team in that particualr night, he could have reversed the karma in his favor but he didn't. Now he is chanting alone in his basement but it is too late for that.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Uconn was definitely the better team in 1994. Stuff happens.

 

[Kembacity]

Good point about that last three by Zona....looked good, thought for sure it was in. Yelled "no!!!" I am afraid to watch a rerun for fear it may go in next time...

I will remember the end of that game forever I think. Had watched all of the other elimination games in that season with my core group of two other insane die-hards, and we were all separated that night so I had no other psychos to share in my stress and excitement. When the horn sounded, I ran around the apartment screaming FINAL FOUR over and over, and I'm not the least bit embarrassed by that

 

[BankShot]

I was stuck in a sports bar, but sitting down at a table. i was the only UCONN fan at the bar, and remember going nuts and having 100 faces looking at my display of satisfaction

 

[Durks07]

Well Steve, Vegas thought UConn was a better team than yours, opening the line at UConn -1, as a de facto road team.

http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/...k-connecticut-arizona-florida-butler-matchups

If your suggesting that you were outcoached in the comments, then well, you would know what its like failing to achieve with superior talent right?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

We are throwing a lot of stones at Fisher when we have been in some glass houses. 1994, 1996, 2006, 2008 and 2012 come to mind. The only programs who have never lost to an inferior opponent in the NCAA Tournament are programs like Rutgers that suck so bad they have never gone. If a program has been to the dance more than a handful of times, it has probably lost to someone it shouldn't have lost to.