SDSU players interviewed in USD bribery case

The San Diego State basketball program probably wanted to distance itself from the University of San Diego sports bribery scandal, but that hasn't been the case.

The San Diego Union Tribune reported Wednesday that several SDSU players were interviewed by FBI on April 11 for what the university said was "due to having a social acquaintanceship with one or more of the defendants."

But sources told the newspaper that while SDSU was not the focus of the investigation, the players had been interviewed because they had been contacted by one of the 10 people indicted in the case. However, the nature of that contact is unknown.

"San Diego State student-athletes fully cooperated with FBI agents," the SDSU official statement read. "Since that time, San Diego State athletic department officials have been in continuous communication with the FBI and have been told that there is no plan for additional interviews with the student-athletes ...

"At no time during this process were any of the San Diego State student-athletes the focus of the investigation or accused of any wrongdoing."

It's good for San Diego State that they are not being linked to a scandal, but bad that the school's name is even being mentioned in the same breath as a scandal especially after the year the basketball program had.

San Diego State had what many believe is its best season in the 90 years of the program. The Aztecs earned their first national ranking, ascending to as high as No. 4, made their first Sweet 16 appearance, lost just three games all year, and gave the fans of San Diego a collegiate basketball experience they'd never had before.

"This will be a team that 10, 20 years from now when we're bringing teams in, they'll talk about San Diego State of 2010 and '11 with a lot of positive pride," Fisher said after the team's Sweet 16 loss to Connecticut. "They upped the bar for the program and they know that we've got a program and proud of the fact that they have had a huge, huge role in taking it to unprecedented heights for San Diego and San Diego State."

Even though San Diego State officials say they are still in contact with the FBI, the school is probably hoping this will all blow over and that any connection to USD -- no matter how incidental -- won't taint the accomplishments that have put SDSU on the map as a legitimate national program.

Despite losing some major players to the NBA draft, San Diego State is a program on the upswing and it would be unfortunate to slow that progress after just one year.

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