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Steve Fisher |
Steve Fisher has guided the Aztec basketball program to unparalleled heights. In eight seasons, he has taken a program that regularly missed out on the conference postseason tournament, to one which has become one of the best programs on the West Coast and has the Aztecs knocking on the door of the elite teams in the country.
The best news for SDSU?fans is that Fisher signed a new five-year contract prior to the 2006-07 campaign that will keep the national championship coach in San Diego for the foreseeable future.
When Fisher arrived on the scene in March of 1999, he found a basketball program that wasn't good enough to be called average. The Aztecs had suffered through 13 losing seasons in 14 years. Members of the school's last NCAA team were in the early stages of middle age. The expectations were set. The Aztecs were expected to lose. The year before Fisher's arrival on campus, San Diego State won just four games.
Now those days are a distant memory. Fisher guided SDSU to the 2002 NCAA?Tournament, the postseason NIT?in 2003, the 2006 NCAA?Tournament and the 2007 NIT last season. In addition, the Aztecs may have their most exciting, most balanced and most experienced team entering the 2007-08 season with nine current Aztecs having been on winning teams that have produced 20 or more victories and advanced to the postseason. Of the nine, seven have been to the NCAA?Tournament and eight have won at least one postseason game.
The ingredients for a successful basketball program seemed to have arrived at San Diego State at approximately the same time Fisher did.
Cox Arena is one of the glaring athletic upgrades on the west side of campus, and its opening signified the new-placed emphasis on basketball in the Aztec athletic department. The program moved from the aging San Diego Sports Arena on the west side of the city to an on-campus home located just steps away from fraternities and sororities.
After the arrival of Cox Arena, one important ingredient was lacking.
On March 26, 1999, San Diego State announced its arrival on the basketball scene in a news conference to introduce its new coach, Steve Fisher. Fresh from a stint with the Sacramento Kings and with three appearances in the Final Four and a national championship in his pocket, he rolled up his sleeves and went to work. And work was needed. It looked to be a daunting challenge and yet the man with one of the highest winning percentages in NCAA Tournament history had no reservations.
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Beth Burns |
The winningest coach in SDSU women's basketball history, Beth Burns recently finished her third season of her second stint on Montezuma Mesa.
This past year, Burns led the Aztecs to their most successful season since 1996-97 and within an eyelash of the NCAA tournament. The sixth seed in the Mountain West Conference tournament, SDSU defeated third-seeded Wyoming (66-54) and second-seeded TCU (82-80) before falling to fourth-seeded New Mexico, 62-59, in the championship game.
San Diego State went 18-13 overall and 7-9 in MWC play to finish in a tie for fifth with Brigham Young. The Aztecs' seven league wins and fifth-place showing is their best-ever in the history of the MWC. Burns helped SDSU lead the league in assists per game (15.71), steals per game (12.61) and turnover margin (+5.81), and rank second with 4.35 blocks per game.
Burns coached three players to all-conference selections, the program's most in MWC history, as sophomore Jene Morris earned second-team accolades, while freshmen Allison Duffy and Paris Johnson each received honorable mention honors.
Burns has also helped the program find success off the court. This past spring, seven players were honored at the department's annual scholar-athlete awards banquet, which recognizes student-athletes with at least a 3.0 cumulative or 3.2 semester GPA.
The previous season, Burns led the Aztecs to their most wins since 2000-01, finishing as the 11th-most improved team in NCAA Division I and recording the biggest turnaround in back-to-back seasons in Mountain West Conference history. Burns helped point guard Quenese Davis lead the league and rank first nationally among freshmen in assists per game, while center Desiree Johnson was first in the MWC in blocked shots per game for the second year in a row.
Burns has also helped the program find success in both the classroom and on the recruiting trail. In the spring of 2007, 10 players were recognized at the department's annual scholar-athlete awards banquet, which honors student-athletes with at least a 3.0 cumulative or 3.2 semester GPA. Among the 10 were Shanna Demus, who received the school's Academic Initiative Medal for her persistent commitment toward meeting her academic goals, and Kate Eveland, who became a member of the elite Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
On the recruiting trail, Burns and her staff have signed each of the last three San Diego Union-Tribune section players of the year, including two-time winner, freshman Paris Johnson.
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