Steve Fisher scuttles talk of retirement by agreeing to contract extension
When San Diego State sent out a release late Tuesday night announcing Steve Fisher would hold a press conference to address the future of the program the following day, it understandably led to some anxiety among Aztecs fans.
They wondered if Fisher might announce he intends to retire at the end of the season considering he will turn 70 in March and is in the final year of a four-year contract.
The trepidation turned out to be baseless, however, because Fisher isn't ready to step away from basketball yet. San Diego State called the press conference to announce a contract extension for Fisher that ESPN is reporting will span the next three years.
Though the extension reaffirms that Fisher is at least considering coaching beyond this season, in reality it probably doesn't change a whole lot. Fisher surely will still evaluate whether he wants to keep coaching every spring as he has the past few years, and San Diego State will undoubtedly have him back as long as he wants.
The one advantage to the extension is that it prevents opposing coaches from pointing to Fisher's contract status and telling prospective recruits that he'll retire before they ever make it to campus. San Diego State had already safe-guarded against that to an extent by naming assistant Brian Dutcher as the program's head coach in waiting.
Fisher's eventual retirement is a scary thought for San Diego State simply because of what the program was like before he arrived in 1999 The Aztecs had never won an NCAA tournament game, had endured 13 losing seasons in 14 years and played to crowds of no more than a couple thousand each game.
The first couple years Fisher was at San Diego State, he'd stuff his pockets with free tickets on game days, try to hand them out on campus and still have trouble finding takers. Now deafening sellout crowds are the norm at 12,000-seat Viejas Arena, as are marquee wins and NCAA tournament bids. The Aztecs have won 20 or more games nine straight seasons, have reached the NCAA tournament five straight years and have won or shared three of the last four Mountain West titles.
All that's left for Fisher to accomplish at San Diego State is the school's first Final Four, a goal the Aztecs continue to inch closer to achieving. It remains to be seen if he can do it before he retires, but it appears there is a good chance he has more than one year to try.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
