NC State is enjoying the moment but trying to stay focused on the task at hand.
"You’ve got to shut the TV off and focus on the first game," [Alex] Johnson said. "I’m sure San Diego State’s watching ESPN, saying, ‘They’re not going to beat us.’"
San Diego State, meanwhile has expressed concerns over NC State's frontcourt players, and the Aztecs believe they know what NC State's game plan will be come Friday afternoon.
"This is a pound-it-inside team," SDSU associate head coach Brian Dutcher said. "If you’re asking what they’re going to do, they’re going to pound it in on us."
Added 6-foot-7 senior Tim Shelton, the lone Aztecs "big" man who starts: "If I was a coach going up against us and I had their players, I’d obviously want to throw the ball inside."
That's just what we wanted you to think! Now watch us fire up 20 three-pointers. Shock and awe.
"They’ve got three big guys who are not just tall, but they’re big and strong and good," Fisher said. "I worry a little bit about that."
You've got size, and you've got players on the team that are big and strong, and you've got good players. That's a triple play.
That's very kind of you, Coach Fisher. Those terms are all relative of course--sometimes very relative, right DeShawn?--but more or less accurate. And we hope that they can live up to this tremendous billing, and that they might do so in the paint where they can really make a difference, rather than doing so, say, 15 feet from the basket.
It's going to be interesting for sure. Now that I've started to dig into this SDSU team (preview coming Wednesday night or Thursday morning), the Aztecs' issues inside have become more apparent. But they have done a good job with defensive rebounding all year, and that could be a difference-maker for them.
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