Aztecs at the Dance 2023 - Playing for the National Championship

[Fouts2herbert]

I moved to Nashville about a year and half ago and I have been wearing my SDSU shirts the past few weeks. I have had about a half dozen people come up to me and congratulate me on the team. One guy said "You should be proud to wear that shirt after what you guys did to Alabama". Life is good!

So many people I’ve talked to were rooting against Alabama this year…I mean, everybody wants to win but sheeesh…the two kids that delivered the murder weapon to a crime scene didn’t have to answer for their actions and were not only absolved of everything but they were allowed to continue to represent the university and remain starters on the team! Even Charles Barkley said on CBS when the tournament started that Alabama had brought a very dark cloud to the proceedings…

A lot of people were hoping that Virginia was going to put them out of the tourney, but the fact that my Aztecs did it makes it one of the sweetest moments in San Diego sports history, what a time to be the first Aztec team to beat #1 seed and they weren’t just a #1, they were the #1 overall seed!

[21&500]

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[Fouts2herbert]

I went back and watched every FAU win in this tournament memphis, fdu, tennesse, and kansas state, I had already seen their games against tennesse and memphis, I was justified in being concerned about them…they remind me of the Aztecs in several important ways, they’re even more homegrown than the aztecs, these are not mercenaries, they are loyal to their coach and to their school…also in their toughness and their resilience, they’ve been down double digits several times in this tournament but like the Aztecs they just go about their work and respond to adversity…

on the surface they seem like a small team, but they really aren’t…their 7’1” center controls the paint on defense and has offensive ability on offense, their four guards aren’t small either, they all can jump out of the gym especially martin who looks like he’s got a 40 plus inch vertical, these guys are strong and super fast and not intimidated by bigger opponents because they’re used to playing against them all year…

as to how they physically compare to us, they have a size and skill advantage in the post, they play tenacious unrelenting, untiring defense, sound familiar? But overall they have better team speed than we do and their players are streaky shooters but overall I think they are a better shooting team than us as well…they already beat a team very similar to the Aztecs in tennesse! These guys are mentally and physically tough, they out work teams and overall I feel that they play with more confidence and swagger than our Aztecs do, these kids are 100% in tune with their coach…

The owls are able to play any style, they can run with running teams or they can settle down and play half court offense or defense…people will read this and think I’m picking FAU to win but all I’m doing is interpreting what I’ve seen from watching those games, I believe we’ll prevail but this is going to be a dogfight! Anyone looking past FAU has not really paid attention to them…



A friend of mine texted me last night that In Aztec mythology owls were associated with dark magic and are symbols of impending death, LOL! Luckily for me I don’t believe in hocus pocus like that because in this area we have an owl or perhaps multiple owls that regularly perch on our fence at night, we have a couple of small dogs and my wife and I have been buzzed a few times already when we take them out to poop at night…

[Fouts2herbert]

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Write something…

[Wrbanwal]

Write something…

The entire Friar roster and team is Ofer

LFGAZTECS!!!

[dmac_bolt]

There’s an Aztec BB group on FB. Half that crowd called for Dutch to be fired all year. The other half bitch about the play of college kids like they’re their dad from Texas. SMH. There’s about 20% of us that just support the kids regardless and pull for them, feel bad for them when they lose. They’re fucking grown-kid students for gods sake.

(yeah, i know half + half + 20% is 120% - you get the idea, just a lot more bitches than fans over there lol)

There’s a Aztec FB group too - talk about bitches, they are worse than the BB crowd, Some guy called Ted Williams is worse than Smokey. here’s a fun fact for those that don’t know - the last “good” Aztec QB Ryan Lindley, drafted in late rounds and kicked around NFL as a backup for awhile, was named their OC this season. He kicked it mostly with Az and Indy but was briefly on the Chargers practice squad in 2014 but got resigned by Az in Sept due to QB injuries there. Strong arm, didnt have the accuracy needed for NFL.

LFG AZTECS!

[powderblueboy]

I went back and watched every FAU win in this tournament memphis, fdu, tennesse, and kansas state, I had already seen their games against tennesse and memphis, I was justified in being concerned about them…they remind me of the Aztecs in several important ways, they’re even more homegrown than the aztecs, these are not mercenaries, they are loyal to their coach and to their school…also in their toughness and their resilience, they’ve been down double digits several times in this tournament but like the Aztecs they just go about their work and respond to adversity…

on the surface they seem like a small team, but they really aren’t…their 7’1” center controls the paint on defense and has offensive ability on offense, their four guards aren’t small either, they all can jump out of the gym especially martin who looks like he’s got a 40 plus inch vertical, these guys are strong and super fast and not intimidated by bigger opponents because they’re used to playing against them all year…

as to how they physically compare to us, they have a size and skill advantage in the post, they play tenacious unrelenting, untiring defense, sound familiar? But overall they have better team speed than we do and their players are streaky shooters but overall I think they are a better shooting team than us as well…they already beat a team very similar to the Aztecs in tennesse! These guys are mentally and physically tough, they out work teams and overall I feel that they play with more confidence and swagger than our Aztecs do, these kids are 100% in tune with their coach…

The owls are able to play any style, they can run with running teams or they can settle down and play half court offense or defense…people will read this and think I’m picking FAU to win but all I’m doing is interpreting what I’ve seen from watching those games, I believe we’ll prevail but this is going to be a dogfight! Anyone looking past FAU has not really paid attention to them…



A friend of mine texted me last night that In Aztec mythology owls were associated with dark magic and are symbols of impending death, LOL! Luckily for me I don’t believe in hocus pocus like that because in this area we have an owl or perhaps multiple owls that regularly perch on our fence at night, we have a couple of small dogs and my wife and I have been buzzed a few times already when we take them out to poop at night…

I don't doubt they are a good team.

A few positives in the gloom.

1. Despite how battle tested and resilient the plucky Owls are, they are a young team ..... eventually, that is going to catch up to them.

2, They beat an okay Memphis team on a last second shot that Mensah would have rejected. Memphis players kept on letting the Owls take uncontested threes near the end.

3. Farley Dickinson went 21 and 16. They lost to Merrimack in their conference finals (how did they get in?). Let that sink in: they lost to Merrimack in what should have been a must win game.
They beat a one man team in Purdue - so what?

4. Tennessee's D is a tough interior D; unlike the Aztecs, it is not particularly good at taking away the perimeter (the FAU center scored 3 points).
The perimeter is FAU's meat and butter. Tennessee still held them to 65 points.

And BTW, Tennessee won 7 games & lost 8 in February & March: they barely beat the U of Louisiana & then beat an over rated Duke team.


5. Kansas State was a nice win.
Kansas State was up by 9 and then ran out of gas.
Kansas State won a high scoring overtime win against a physical Michigan state team two days earlier.

6. None of those teams are Alabama or Creighton (I saw Creighton ranked #8 in an early 2023-24 basketball poll). The University of Charleston was as good as most of FAU's tournament competition.


6. You think the Owls can play up to the physicality of the Aztecs? It ain't going to happen. I remember listening to the son of the San Jose State head coach talking on the radio about how shocked he was by the size of the Aztec back court when they walked past him, and then he saw the Aztec front court. He said "Dad, those guys are grown men!" Everyone says the Aztecs players are grown men. You think the thin reed freshman/sophmore snot nosed Owl players are knotted up to bang against the Aztecs? Really, they can play that style?

7. Well, that's the style they'll have to play. Aztecs size and experience will set the tempo: they just need to put up 60 points.

8. Agree. Owls are adorable.

[powderblueboy]

There’s an Aztec BB group on FB. Half that crowd called for Dutch to be fired all year. The other half bitch about the play of college kids like they’re their dad from Texas. SMH. There’s about 20% of us that just support the kids regardless and pull for them, feel bad for them when they lose. They’re fucking grown-kid students for gods sake.

(yeah, i know half + half + 20% is 120% - you get the idea, just a lot more bitches than fans over there lol)

There’s a Aztec FB group too - talk about bitches, they are worse than the BB crowd, Some guy called Ted Williams is worse than Smokey. here’s a fun fact for those that don’t know - the last “good” Aztec QB Ryan Lindley, drafted in late rounds and kicked around NFL as a backup for awhile, was named their OC this season. He kicked it mostly with Az and Indy but was briefly on the Chargers practice squad in 2014 but got resigned by Az in Sept due to QB injuries there. Strong arm, didnt have the accuracy needed for NFL.

LFG AZTECS!

Most of us remember when getting to the NIT tournament was a novelty....much less the NCAA tournament.

Dutcher could get another head coaching position elsewhere right now, that pays more money, with the snap of a finger.
I don't think he would do it.

The covid Aztec team was set to win games in the tournament.

[dmac_bolt]

Most of us remember when getting to the NIT tournament was a novelty....much less the NCAA tournament.

Dutcher could get another head coaching position elsewhere right now, that pays more money, with the snap of a finger.
I don't think he would do it.

The covid Aztec team was set to win games in the tournament.

Agree he could get a lot of jobs that pundits think are “better”. He won’t - he doesn’t think they are better jobs, he think’s he’s got the best job in the world. he’s all about SDSU family, it exudes every time he talks, a point if immense personal pride in what he was able to build with Coach Fisher and is carrying on. Minnesota made a run at him, he said nah. I do remember when NIT was special. he’s a .765 winning coach, even better stat than Fisher who was around .670.

As Pac12 dither and delay, some are asking if this might prompt B12 to revisit them. Neither conference has a SoCal school, thats a huge market and while SDSU doesn’t come close to dominating the market, there is no other university that could even challenge SDSU in the region. B12 would enable SDSU to build regional relevance. I’d love to see B12, Pac12 looks more than a little shaky long term

[powderblueboy]

Where do I sign up to be a roadie.

What exactly are roadies?

The popular impression is that they move musical equipment between cities for popular rock acts for peanuts,
sleep on some manager's couch,
partake in the free flowing distribution of drugs in that culture,
and their primary goal is to sleep with some groupie trying to use them as access to the musicians.

How close am I? Family men? Women? Teamsters?

[PR#1]

Go Aztecs !!!

[dmac_bolt]

What exactly are roadies?

The popular impression is that they move musical equipment between cities for popular rock acts for peanuts,
sleep on some manager's couch,
partake in the free flowing distribution of drugs in that culture,
and their primary goal is to sleep with some groupie trying to use them as access to the musicians.

How close am I? Family men? Women? Teamsters?

they are professional equipment experts. They do everything for the instruments - the grunt work of pulling gear out of the bus and setting it up, and tearing it down after the show. But they do a lot more - pre-sound checks, they tune the stringed instruments, change strings, switch out bad cables, repair amps, they fix any problems and are just off stage to rush on to the rescue if there is any equipment problem or failure. Guitar techs will also prep guitars on side of stage and hand them to the guitarist for quick switches during the show. Guitarists often have different tuning for select songs, or just want a different guitar-specific vibe/tone on certain songs. There’s guitar techs, drum techs, keyboard techs, etc. good ones are knowledgeable and specialized, they sometimes know the gear better than the musician. And … yeah, they travel and party with the band, they will watch if the band points at particular fans in the audience they’d like to meet and go down and get them backstage . they may engage in an occasional amorous interlude with fans that want to be at the band parties.

but there is a separate local (or sometimes traveling) stage crew that does all the stage riggin, sound system, lighting etc. Stage crews are usually a separate company and not close with the band. There will be a few on stage either running monitor mix from side stage or just on standby in case a speaker goes out, but they don’t touch the band’s instruments. Thats the roadies … now referred to as “(instrument name) techs” to class them up a bit.

in small local bands its just a couple of your friends that you taught how your rig is set up and struck. The venue will have an installed sound system, stage - they will just have their sound guy come in to run the front of house mix - we upgraded them to sound “engineers” though they do not have degrees - they are more often fellow local musicians who fell into running sound for the local venues. We know all the local sound engineers, they know all of us, we’re friends but we rarely party.