Every so often, you hear something encouraging about the state of University of San Diego basketball, but rarely from outside of town, and now the preseason judgment has been passed -- media covering the West Coast Conference picked the Toreros men to finish last this upcoming season and the women to be sixth out of eight teams.
None of the men were picked for the All-WCC team. Only junior point guard Dominique Connors was selected for the women.
Clearly, no one is expecting much to happen at Jenny Craig Pavilion this season, and for good reason. Coach Bill Grier's men are undergoing a roster makeover after losing four senior starters and sending F Rob Jones packing, losing F Clinton Houston and seeing G Patrick McCollum transfer. This team of freshmen, redshirt freshmen and sophomores will have to play at Stanford, at New Mexico, and at North Carolina State a week after a tournament in Hawaii that includes some elite competition.
This is a big year for Grier, however. The follow-up to the NCAA Tournament upset of UConn has not been impressive, to say the least, and even though the record will not be fabulous in 2010-11, it would be nice to see if he has laid a foundation for the future with his new players. If not, his seat could grow warm.
Coach Cindy Fisher's women return four seniors, including the two leading scorers in Connors and Sam Child, and their best three-point shooter, F Morgan Woodrow. The schedule seems manageable, with the highlight being a tournament appearance by Texas.
BTW, I found it interesting that none of this stuff made the newspaper, which all of a sudden can't find enough room for all the San Diego State articles lately, even placing one on A-1 this week. Maybe that's because of what follows below.
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Thursday could be a huge day for the men's team at San Diego State, which has never been ranked in the AP Top 25 in its history -- with good reason. That could change when the preseason rankings come out because Coach Steve Fisher returns all five starters and considerable depth from a 25-win team that came within a hair of defeating Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The hangup could be the early part of the schedule, which sees the Aztecs play five games away from home out of the gate, including a match at Gonzaga. For good reason, it could be that voters want to see how they really do out of the gate.
(and an update, the Aztecs were indeed ranked 25th)
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I was thrilled to learn that three prominent SDSU alumni sent a letter to the BYU president demanding a thorough investigation into Replaygate, the video reversal that wasn't from the Aztecs' 24-21 loss to the Cougars -- and asking for a forfeit if malfeasance is found.
They accused BYU of stonewalling, but the Mountain West Conference is also trying to sweep this thing under the rug. State fans can't allow this to happen. That the MWC is treating SDSU like a second-class citizen is inexcusable.
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