When the Aztecs basketball team was ranked for the first time when the preseason poll came out, coach Steve Fisher told his players to wait until Dec. 9 to see how good they really were.
He told them to put it in their locker and look at it again on Dec. 9, the day after a pivotal game at Cal. Well, it's Dec.9 and the Aztecs are off to the best start in their 90-year school history.
The Aztecs surpassed their 1984-85 and 2006-07 teams that opened the season with eight straight wins and gave Fisher his best start in 20 full seasons as a head coach.
San Diego State wore down the Golden Bears (5-3) with their athleticism in the second half to win a road game against a Pac-10 school for the first time since December 1982 at Oregon. They had lost 20 straight road games to Pac-10 teams and hadn't beaten any team on the road from one of the six big conferences since knocking off Northwestern in December 1996.
It also allows Aztecs fans to dream a little. All that stands between this team and a 15-0 record (and almost certain Top 10 ranking) are five lower-level Division I opponents and Div. III Occidental.
“We’re a good team,” Fisher said. “To come in here and win the way we did lets a lot of people know that. It continues to create validity of who we are.”
The Aztecs did what they have in several games this season, which is lulling teams into a false sense of security in the first half, playing their bench liberally, missing open shots, muffing dunks, losing the handle on rebounds, getting in foul trouble, blowing leads.
The Aztecs shot five air balls and led by two points in the first half, then SDSU shot 17-of-24, a preposterous 70.8 percent, in the second half and went on to win by 20. That’s what happens when your bench goes 10, even 11, deep. Opposing team’s starters play heavy minutes to stay close and get tired, that's when the Aztecs pounce.
Even the official scorekeeper couldn’t keep up. The stat sheet initially said the final score was 79-57, when it really was 77-57 and gave Kawhi Leonard 22 points instead of 20.
Congratulations SDSU Aztecs for the great win...
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