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| NCAA: got Mack Game |
His beef:
SPOKANE, Wash. -- San Diego State needed overtime to beat New Mexico State on Thursday night and then, afterward, Aztecs' Coach Steve Fisher asked for extra time to gets some things off his chest.
Fisher criticized the NCAA for sending the loser, in this case New Mexico State, home directly after an exciting game that ended around 10:30 p.m. in Spokane.
"It's disgraceful," Fisher said at his postgame news conference.
2014 NCAA tournament bracket
Knowing the losing team could have been his team, Fisher said he called the NCAA on Friday to ask if his players could spend the night in Spokane and fly home Friday. Fisher said he was told the NCAA couldn't find any charter planes.
Fisher said that was the wrong answer.
"With the billions of dollars that we have here for them not to find a way to accommodate these kids, the student athletes, you can't tell me they couldn't find charter planes," Fisher said.
After a bitter, hard-fought defeat, New Mexico State had to fly straight back to Las Cruces, N.M.
Fisher said an NCAA administrator should have to fly back with the losing team.
"See what it's like to get home at 5 in the morning," Fisher said. "It shouldn't happen."
As noted by Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune, Fisher has had his issues with the NCAA and travel. Last year, after a bitter loss to No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast in the NCAA tournament, the San Diego State squad had to make a grueling trip home from Philadelphia.
The plane got diverted by weather and had to refuel in San Antonio. The all-night trip took 10 hours and the team didn't get back to San Diego until sunrise. source
"It's disgraceful," Fisher said at his postgame news conference.
2014 NCAA tournament bracket
Knowing the losing team could have been his team, Fisher said he called the NCAA on Friday to ask if his players could spend the night in Spokane and fly home Friday. Fisher said he was told the NCAA couldn't find any charter planes.
Fisher said that was the wrong answer.
"With the billions of dollars that we have here for them not to find a way to accommodate these kids, the student athletes, you can't tell me they couldn't find charter planes," Fisher said.
After a bitter, hard-fought defeat, New Mexico State had to fly straight back to Las Cruces, N.M.
Fisher said an NCAA administrator should have to fly back with the losing team.
"See what it's like to get home at 5 in the morning," Fisher said. "It shouldn't happen."
As noted by Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune, Fisher has had his issues with the NCAA and travel. Last year, after a bitter loss to No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast in the NCAA tournament, the San Diego State squad had to make a grueling trip home from Philadelphia.
The plane got diverted by weather and had to refuel in San Antonio. The all-night trip took 10 hours and the team didn't get back to San Diego until sunrise. source
Amen, as I expressed last year, I am not Mad for March Madness.
I find it appalling that players can be suspended from college eligibility for the following violations being treated to a dinner (I stayed hungry in college), selling their allotted tickets, marketing their jerseys and autographs: Meanwhile, the TV stations, coaches, referees, Universities, sponsors, sports news channels, hotels, arenas, etc. make buckets over buckets of money off the student-athlete's labor.
These kids, at the very least, deserve to receive a stipend, incidental per diem and dignified travel accommodations. The prevailing system, as Jay Z may say, is nothing less than "Big Pimpin"
Speaking about Big Pimpin, here's my Throw Back video of the week:
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