The Padres asked us to find a consistent backup man. Steve did a nice job for us on Aztecs basketball, he's well known in San Diego, so he was a very logical and very good choice.

Next season, we start our high school game-of-the-week package, and Steve will be our man. Plus, he'll work as a reporter when he's not doing play-by-play.

We want to start talking (soon) and make sure we let them know we want them. They've let us know they're very interested in talking.

Our fervent hope is they get this done in time for us to carry the Mountain West and San Diego State. (Cox executives) are well aware of the impact of San Diego State and the local market. We know it's important, we want it and we're doing our best to get it done.

I've said this many, many times: I don't need to be validated, not in basketball, ... I've won three championships. I was on the all-defensive team (nine times).

Sometimes scoring can be a bad indicator with the way you are playing. In the game of basketball, teams make runs and you hit shots in bunches. Though we got down early, in our system we were executing it pretty well. We were just hoping they weren't going to be keep hitting the shots they were.