By Mohamed Bafakih (@Moe_Fresco):
It’s all within close range and not from way downtown.
If you’re coming to San Jose State for basketball, consider it to be the best opportunity among all the sports here.
Basketball courts are all over the place. From the Event Center to the Spartan Complex to Yoshihiro Uchida Hall, to even one in a basement known as the “hackbox” within the Event Center.
This is a luxury for gym rats, as dorms are only a short walk away.
“I have to take just 10 steps and I’m there at the gym,” redshirt freshman forward Keith Fisher III told Inside the Spartans following his commitment to SJSU in 2015. “They have like three gyms around campus so I’ll always have an opportunity to get better. That really caught my eye.”
That’s probably why I also don’t see basketball players on scooters or bikes like other student-athletes because everything is a short walk away for them.
Coaches offices are also on campus, making it easy to reach them when needed.
The Event Center has a newer and more intimate feel than many college arenas, and if only those seats could get filled up then the basketball programs would be in business.
Basketball is right after football when it comes to popularity in college athletics according to Statista — an online statistics portal. The fact that students are able to attend games for free on campus shouldn’t be like trying to sell a recruit to a school.
The atmosphere is probably the last selling point for SJSU’s basketball recruiting coordinators, which could either be a good thing or bad thing depending on the recruit.
Beyond that, however, is also being close to downtown and in a promising market.
The last Spartan basketball player to play in the NBA or WNBA was Lamisha Augustine, who was drafted by the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs in 2006.
Chances are, you’re here for four years to develop as a student first then as an athlete. The desire to play professionally is conceivable overseas, but scouts don’t keep tabs on SJSU like other schools.
