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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2007

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by San Diego State university head coach Steve Fisher and student-athletes Mohamed Abukar and Brandon Heath.
Coach, if you want to begin with some opening remarks on the game.
COACH FISHER: Obviously it's not the way we wanted to play in the Mountain West Conference tournament. I think credit goes to Colorado State. They made plays, they got second-chance opportunities, and they found a way to win.
We are very disappointed we're not going to be playing tomorrow, but this is what life's all about. We've played better, obviously, but sometimes your opponent causes you to play the way you play.
But it's disappointing. Any time you lose, and lose in a fashion that we did tonight, it's disappointing.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Brandon, could you speak to the disappointment that you guys feel given the aspirations that you did have coming into this tournament.
BRANDON HEATH: Like coach said, any time you lose you're disappointed. We came out here and lost, so we're very disappointed.
But we got to give Colorado State credit. They came out, played well, rebounded the ball real well. They did what it take to get a win.

Q. Mo, you took a four-point lead in the second half, made a run. What allowed them to weather that storm, take control of the game again?
MOHAMED ABUKAR: You know, we didn't make key stops when we needed to. We didn't make good decisions down the stretch. We beat ourselves. It was disappointing. But we didn't make the type of decisions that we needed to down the stretch. We didn't get stops when we needed to. We lost the game 'cause of it.

Q. Brandon, has it really sunk in yet what kind of post-season ramifications this has? The chance of getting back to the NCAA tournament is probably gone at this point.
BRANDON HEATH: No, hasn't sunk in too much yet. It will probably sink in more on Selection Sunday maybe if our name don't get called. But I haven't gave too much thought about it.
THE MODERATOR: We'll let you two guys go. Thanks for coming up.
Questions now for Coach Fisher.

Q. Make your case for the NCAA tournament, for a bid.
COACH FISHER: I'm not going to.

Q. They really out rebounded you. When you had Smith and Creason pick up their fourth fouls, how did they stay in with those two guys having the foul trouble?
COACH FISHER: Well, they took both of them out for a while. We talked about, You have to make them guard you. You have to go to the basket. You have to throw the ball inside. Then you have to make good decisions when you throw it in.
Even when you throw it in it doesn't mean you're going to be able to get a shot or a foul on a guy. We weren't able to do what you needed to do, which is attack inside and then be able to make a decision to kick it to somebody if it's a double-team, don't be quite so anxious to shoot the ball.
You have to be able to make some good decisions, make some plays. We struggled to do that way too often tonight.

Q. For the most part, Smith was contained because of the foul trouble. How much did it hurt that Creason was able to pick it up?
COACH FISHER: Creason this year hasn't hurt us, but in the past he has. You have two legitimate seven-footers that play well together, high-post, low-post action. He got into the sweet spot. He got down into that low black where at times he just had to turn and ram it to the rim. He did that. He did that too many times and he did it effectively.

Q. As hard as this is for everybody on your team, do you think it's going to be especially tough on Brandon, being this was kind of his last chance to get back to the tournament?
COACH FISHER: I think it's disappointing to every member of the team. When you have two seniors, Brandon and Mohamed, that are not going to have another opportunity, that adds to the disappointment.
And yet there are a lot of teams in America that are going to suffer similar fates that thought they were good enough, maybe were good enough, but couldn't quite win that next game or another game or a game or two to get in.
So initially it will be disappointment. After the fact, you reflect back on a brilliant career, especially with Brandon.

Q. Did you feel at all that you played a little tight in the first half, or was that just the way it went?
COACH FISHER: No, I don't think we played tight. I didn't think that we guarded quite aggressive enough, which led to some opportunities. That being said, you look at the athleticism that Lewis and Denson and Tyler, Smith especially have. They're hard guards. They're guys, they get a crease action they make you play, and they did that tonight.
They made some shots, too. It wasn't all put-backs and layups. When they had that 4- or 5-point lead they came back up -- it may have been Smith, it may have been Denson -- that made a long jump shot for them to keep them where they needed to be as opposed to giving us a chance to maybe get them to have to worry a little bit.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, coach.
COACH FISHER: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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