San Diego State takes on Duke for the right to go to the Sweet 16 on Sunday (2:40 p.m. ET, CBS) and a win against the Blue Devils would give the Aztecs their second straight Sweet 16 appearance and could be the biggest win in school history.
"It would do a lot," J.J. O'Brien said at Saturday's press conference. "Probably the most behind or close to the win at Kansas, just program building wins that tell a lot about what kind of teams we have, especially in the tournament to make it to the Sweet 16, that would be huge. ... It's a big opportunity, man. They've got a great history, and to get a win would mean a lot to our program."
San Diego State is not afraid or intimated by Duke as this Aztecs team played Arizona this year, and each of the past three seasons, and last year they played at Kansas. This team is familiar with playing big time opponents and the recruiting has been getting much better under Fisher, and winning also helps.
"I think we're more now on the upswing of getting more highly touted recruits with the freshman class that we had but we don't compare with five as far as like they do right now," O'Brien said. "I mean, when we tossed the basketball up, your starts don't really matter.
"I mean they're proven great players, they're No. 1 seed but in the game we've just got to worry about playing basketball. So it is a similar situation, but we just want to win and move onto the next round. Five stars and McDonald's All-Americans aren't really something we need to worry about. We just need to worry about them as great players and do what we do as great players."
A lot was made during the press conference about how Steve Fisher played Duke in the national title game when was at Michigan with the Fab Five, and also how playing at Duke in 2001 with San Diego State helped the Aztecs profile despite a loss.
"We don't take bye games and that was a situation where the longer I held out, the more money they offered us to go," Fisher said. "I tried like the Dickens to get Mike to give me a home and home and couldn't get that done, but we robbed a bank to go there and we played well.
"We played well. We had Randy Holcomb on that club and wound up going to the NCAA Tournament ourselves that year and it was a great experience for us, for our kids, for the program, a nationally televised game that was helpful in starting the growth of the program."