Brian Dutcher opens up on San Diego State's culture

During media availability for San Diego State head coach Brian Dutcher ahead of the 2023 Final Four, one reporter remembered that when Dutcher first took the job, he had said he wanted to get old and stay old. Given that this thoroughly experienced Aztecs is succeeding on the back of that motto, the reporter asked how Coach Dutcher made it happen — and in the face of a changing college hoops landscape that’s made transferring or leaving school early much easier to do.

Dutcher says most of his current senior leaders began their careers as freshman on successful Aztec teams of the past.

“I mean, our culture is set by our four-year guys and five-year guys, guys that come in as a freshman,” said Dutcher. “We have guys that invest a lot. And they spend their four and five years in our program. But then we also take transfers. So in the early transfer years, when they had to sit a year, that would automatically make you older because now they’ve sat a full year and they’re getting their fifth year.”

Through all the changes and the opening of the transfer portal and of NIL gateways, somehow, San Diego State has kept this trusty group of dudes with them.

“Now that the culture has changed a little bit with the portal and instant eligibility, we found a way to maintain our age and our experience level. And that’s not to say if you’re a really good freshman you can’t play for us. Nathan Mensah is a four-year starter. Matt Mitchell, we had him. Four-year starters. We get four-year starters, but to be a freshman and play at our place, you have to be very good.”

Those longstanding keepers of the guard aren’t the stars of the team, even as fifth-year seniors. Some of them aren’t even starters. Mensah and Keshad Johnson are the starting front-court, but fellow seniors Adam Seiko and Aguek Arop come off the pine. That foursome needs a nickname like the rat pack or something to memorialize this tough, consistent group of son-of-a-guns that served as the backbone for the program’s first Final Four run.

All four dudes started and will finish their careers at San Diego State. None of them ever averaged 10 points a game and several of them were never full-time starters. Yet they all played contributing roles on the 2020 team that was on its way to a No. 1 seed before COVID cancellation. And this year, on the redemption run for that lost tournament, the four grass roots seniors all play between 16-22 minutes a night and are the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth leading scorers on the team.

No college hoops team has an end of the bench, a stern, quite as tough and battled tested as SDSU, and that’s a sincere compliment. If you believe that experience ultimately wins in March, then these Aztecs are your kinda tribe. Get old, stay old.