SDSU Extends Brandenburg’s Contract
Jim Brandenburg has agreed to terms for a one-year extension of his contract as San Diego State men’s basketball coach, athletic director Fred Miller said Monday.
The year will be added to the two remaining on his original five-year contract, carrying the contract through the 1992-93 basketball season. The base salary is $67,000, but radio and television shows and basketball camps increase the value to more than $100,000 per year.
“I felt good about things all along,” Brandenburg said. “I’m pleased they show confidence in me and my ability at this point in time.”
The extension comes at a time when the Aztecs (13-17, 4-12 in the Western Athletic Conference) are going through their most difficult stretch of the season and one of their most trying times in several seasons. They have lost eight of nine games and eight WAC games in a row. Overall, they have lost six in a row--the longest losing streak of Brandenburg’s 14-year Division I career and the most for SDSU since a school-record 17 in 1986-87 under former coach Smokey Gaines.
The Aztecs have been playing with just nine players since center Marty Dow, their second-leading scorer, was lost for the season with a foot injury before a Feb. 10 victory over U.S. International University. Brandenburg is redshirting three players this season and freshman guard Ray Barefield is sitting out a year because of Proposition 48.
“Obviously, the injury factor has hurt us this year,” Miller said. “We think we’ve got the right guy, and we want to make sure not only he knows it, but the whole world knows that we’re comfortable as well.”
Miller said the extension was first broached several weeks ago at a lunch attended by Miller, Brandenburg and SDSU President Thomas Day.
“The president likes what Jim Brandenburg does, and so do I,” Miller said. “Obviously, we had some restructuring to do, and it takes time to restructure a basketball program. But we’re long-haul people.”
Said Brandenburg: “I feel better about the direction this program is going than ever before. It’s taken us three years to get to ground even. We think that over the next two or three years people will see a tremendous improvement not necessarily just in wins and losses, but in every phase of the game--academics, graduation rates and competitiveness.”
Brandenburg said he will sign the contract when the paperwork is finished in the next couple of weeks.
Brandenburg, 53, came to SDSU in March, 1987, after nine years at the University of Wyoming. The Cowboys won three WAC championships and appeared in three NCAA tournaments under Brandenburg. He has compiled a 252-164 record in 14 seasons as a Division I head coach and, entering this week’s WAC tournament at the University of Texas-El Paso, he is 37-51 at SDSU.
Aztec Notes
Shawn Jamison, a 6-8 junior forward who averaged 17 points and seven rebounds a game during the regular season, was named honorable mention on the all-Western Athletic Conference basketball team. He also made the WAC all-newcomer team.