Poor Steve Fisher...

by **Turtleneck** Wed 6 Jan 2016 - 15:01

I guess the NCAA case against SDSU, although dropped, has hurt the program. I just feel so bad for the guy.

Did unproven allegations hurt SDSU recruiting? The Aztecs face no sanctions from the NCAA, but they might have already been penalized in recruiting
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/jan/05/sdsu-basketball-steve-fisher-ncaa-recruiting/

SDSU announced Tuesday that the NCAA case was closed and it faced no sanctions. Or at least not official, tangible sanctions. Sometimes the most crippling penalty for a program is the mere whiff of NCAA involvement, even if it amounts to a seven-paragraph news release four months later quoting the director of enforcement that “the allegations were not substantiated (and) it does not appear there is need for further inquiry.”

The story, arguably, could not have dropped at a worse time. College basketball recruiting is at its most intense in September, when elite prospects are taking their campus visits and making oral commitments ahead of the November window for signing a national letter of intent.

“You sit there and say, how will this impact recruiting?” Fisher said. “Because if you don’t recruit, you don’t win … I was concerned it could linger, because sometimes it can linger forever.”

So did it impact recruiting?

Fisher and associate head coach Brian Dutcher both say yes, it did. How much, though, is hard to quantify, short of injecting truth serum into 17-year-old kids.