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By Liz Alper
Photo courtesy goaztecs.com
February 24, 2017 (San Diego) - After a tough loss on Wednesday night to Fresno State, the Aztecs men's basketball team heads to Colorado State for a Saturday night matchup. Coach Steve Fisher sat down with the media this morning.
“We’ve got an interesting game tomorrow, a very important game for both teams for a little different reasons," Fisher opened with. "Colorado State, as everyone knows, is fighting for their first‐ever Mountain West Conference regular‐season championship."
He was asked about what he's frustrated with. "We’ve not been consistent. Our play has been inconsistent at times in the course of a game. The disappointing thing obviously has been the results. We could have won that (Wednesday night's) game. You make one more play in that 10-0 run and take a lead, what might have happened? So those are the things that are disappointing. My task and my job is to help and sometimes you get caught up in how you help and then later on, you say, 'Did I do the right thing? Did I say what I said in a tone that might have hurt rather than helped in the spur of the moment?' I told our kids that, too. I said, 'I'm trying to do what I'm asking you to do: evaluate yourself. How can you help us be better?'"
Does Fisher think he's getting through to his players? "I think I'm getting through every day. They look and give me their eyes and they nod and they understand. I'm getting through, but we haven't been able to, on a long-term, consistent basis, do it long enough, together enough, to win more games. You can't allow frustration to take over your body and mind. It'll paralyze you with fear or the inability to think or whatever it might be."
A major problem for the Aztecs the last time they faced Colorado State was senior guard Gian Clavell. Fisher was asked what the game plan was to guard him. "We have to do something different if he gets on a roll. We can't sit back and say, 'Boy, he's hot, let's hope he cools off.' We have to do something different. What that something different will be, we'll see. He's a very talented player. He's a very emotional player. He's the emotional leader of the team. We'll work a little bit prior to the game on different options and see where it takes us."
The Aztecs face Colorado State in Fort Collins on Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
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