Brian Dutcher opens up, explains how this San Diego State team will be remembered

On Monday night, San Diego State will play for a national championship. It’s a feat that nobody really thought was possible with the program never advancing past the Sweet Sixteen before this tournament run. It’s a run under head coach Brian Dutcher that could change the course of the program.

Dutcher opened up about that possibility and spoke about how this year’s team will be remembered.

“First, I’m recruiting too right now,” Brian Dutcher said. “I’m on the phone recruiting. I’m not just saying it. If we have back what we think we’re going to have back, I told them summer guards I think next year’s team will be better. If we make it to a Final Four or have the kind of success we’ve had, we have a program now. I don’t think we’re a one-hit wonder. We’re going to be good every year.”

While Dutcher does expect to be able to build on this Final Four run, he also emphasized that this team will stick with him into the future.

“I’ll remember these guys because they were my original group. A coach always remembers his first team. Adam Seiko spent six years with me. Matt Mitchell and Jordan Schakel, who were gone, spent that first year, they came with me. And then you’ve got Nathan Mensah, Aguek Arop, they’re five-year guys with me on my six years. So they’re my first real team. They made it through the program. And they’ve been successful at every level,” Dutcher said.

“When I got hired all those years ago with Coach Fisher, Rick Bay, our athletic director, he just said, you know, you’ve got to have good students, and then you’ve got to have good citizens, and then have you to have a good team. If you’re lacking in any of those areas, you can’t feel good about it. If you’re winning games with kids that don’t graduate and bad kids, no one is going to feel good about that. But if you have kids with good grades and graduate and good citizens and you don’t win, no one will like that either.”

Brian Dutcher and San Diego State will play Dan Hurley and UConn for the national championship on Monday night. No matter the result, Dutcher knows that San Diego State is in a good place.

“So we have put together a program where we have all those things. We have really good kids that are really good citizens and are really good basketball players. And that’s how you build a program.”

Brian Dutcher on the change in national perception

San Diego State, being a mid-major school, doesn’t get the same credit as a Power Five school. Still, the Aztecs don’t get the same credit that a school like Gonzaga typically does. However, Brian Dutcher says that perception is changing.

“That’s it. We have a national perception now. I think everybody out west has always known we’ve been good,” Dutcher said.

“But now that we’re playing on the biggest stage, and we’re winning on the biggest stage, I think a lot like when Gonzaga made that step, they did it on a national stage. And that’s how they gained their respect. And hopefully this national stage will give us national respect. That’s what I think it will do.”