May 16, 2001

MIKE SULLIVAN
Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO - The focus this week will be on baseball as San Diego State hosts the Mountain West Conference tournament, which begins today at Tony Gwynn Stadium.

Depending on how the Aztecs fare this week, the focus will soon shift to the future of long-time baseball coach Jim Dietz. There's speculation the Aztecs must win the title and advance to the NCAA Tournament to ensure that Dietz returns to the field next season.

Naturally, Dietz, who has won 1,185 games in 29 seasons at SDSU, prefers the spotlight stay way from him.

Dietz, who granted a 45-minute interview earlier this week, will talk and talk about every aspect of his team. But ask him whether he feels the Aztecs must make the NCAA field for him to keep his job and his words are few.

``I don't know,'' Dietz said. ``I couldn't comment on that because I really don't know. I have no idea.''

The man who will ultimately decide Dietz's future is playing his cards close to the vest.

SDSU athletic director Rick Bay maintains he hasn't decided whether the team's performance this week will affect Dietz's future.

``I haven't talked to Jim about it recently,'' Bay said. ``I'm going to wait until the season is over.''

Dietz almost wasn't invited back for this season. He was given a one-year contract extension last June that contained several performance goals.

The goals included winning 40 games and a Top 25 ranking, neither of which were met.

Bay, though, has consistently stated ---- and he reiterated it Monday ---- that not meeting those goals doesn't necessarily mean Dietz won't be invited back.

``I plan to take the package as a whole and at the end of the year make a determination,'' Bay said. ``I haven't talked to Jim recently, either, so I don't know how he's feeling.''

Dietz is feeling frustrated, but it has nothing to with his future. The Aztecs (31-24), who play Nevada-Las Vegas at 7 in tonight's first round, have suffered through an injury-riddled season and Dietz feels the Aztecs had the talent to win several more games.

Among the players to miss either part or all of this season include catcher Ben Rosenthal, first baseman Rielly Embrey (Poway High), second baseman Carlo Cota, shortstop Taber Lee, outfielders Anthony Gwynn (Poway), Andy Litteral, Sean Pierce and Chad Redfern and pitchers Chris Dunwell, Erick Eigenhuis, Rob Harrand and Don Tolen (Orange Glen).

``I don't know what I did wrong to the baseball gods, but I've done something wrong because I've never been through anything like this,'' Dietz said. ``I don't think many schools in the country have had this many serious injuries. None of them were preventable.''

Bay acknowledges that the Aztecs have had more than their share of misfortune.

``I think given a lot of the injuries he's had this year, you can see why it was difficult to sustain across the season everything we wanted to do,'' Bay said.

The Aztecs, who last made the NCAA Tournament in 1991, won the MWC Tournament last season but the first-year league didn't have an automatic bid. The MWC has one this year.

``Last year at this time, we were injury-free and we were peaking,'' Dietz said. ``Right now, we're not peaking and we're not injury-free. From years and years coaching, it just scares the crud out of me because I know that's very, very important on putting together a streak.

``We just need a miracle. Every guy's going to have to play at a higher level.''

The Aztecs players have tried to keep their minds off Dietz's status as the tournament approaches.

``He told us early in the year that this would probably be happening to him,'' Lee said. ``Right off the bat, he said 'I don't want you guys to play this season for me, I want you guys to play it for the Aztecs. Don't feel like if we lose a game it's going to cost my job.'

``We want that conference tournament and we want a bid. If we win, we win and we'll see what happens to him. If we lose, we lose and we'll see what happens to him.''

Gwynn, the freshman center fielder, had a similar viewpoint.

``All we're doing out there is trying to win games,'' Gwynn said. ``We have to concentrate on winning games first and we'll let that stuff fall into place. We're just trying to win games.''