George Kliavkoff likely saw how San Diego State fans reacted to Final Four win
The San Diego State Aztecs came back from a 14-point second-half deficit against Florida Atlantic to win the first of two Final Four national semifinals on Saturday in Houston. It wasn’t easy, but this team refused to go away once again.
The Aztecs, down by one point in the final 10 seconds with one timeout, did not call their timeout. They gave the ball to Lamont Butler, who hit the game-winning shot and made the biggest basket in the history of the program to send the Aztecs to the national title game on Monday against Connecticut.
The San Diego Padres also had a game on Saturday evening at Petco Park. The game was scheduled to begin at 5:40 p.m. local time, which figured to be just after the end of the SDSU Final Four game, which started at 3:09.
As it turned out, the first pitch of the Padre game and the end of the Aztec game were very close to each other. The San Diego State victory occurred just before the start of the Padres’ game versus the Colorado Rockies. The introductions for Colorado’s starting lineup were unfolding precisely when the Final Four game ended and San Diego State reached its first NCAA Tournament national championship game.
It was a wild scene at Petco Park in San Diego. The Padres made sure to show the last play on one of their video screens in the ballpark while the other screen displayed the Rockies’ batting order. The reactions and celebrations from the stadium show just what San Diego is about: a community backing its sports teams.
Scene from Petco Park when the #Aztecs WON pic.twitter.com/2ypszqkrAs
— Annie Heilbrunn (@annieheilbrunn) April 2, 2023
With Pac-12 expansion at the forefront of conversations and San Diego State being a realistic option for the conference, this helps a ton. The community backs the Aztecs and has supported the Aztecs for a long time, especially since Steve Fisher’s arrival and the resurgence of the basketball program nearly two decades ago.
If you’re siting in the Pac-12 office and you see this, it’s hard to ignore. It should definitely help San Diego State’s case in getting into the Pac-12 as an expansion candidate. Let’s see what happens.
