Brian Dutcher reveals the biggest factor for turnaround since taking over at San Diego State

San Diego State did the improbable, taking their NCAA Tournament run all the way to the national championship game, their first appearance in school history. But the road wasn’t always easy for the Aztecs, which started in 2017 when Brian Dutcher was promoted as San Diego State’s new head basketball coach after over 15 seasons as the associate head coach.

“You know, we opened up Viejas Arena, brand-new arena, that was a huge difference maker. They were playing at Peterson Gym or the downtown sports arena. To have an on-campus arena, we could draw to that, it was something we could convince recruits to come to. The city of San Diego State, our university are great, but they had no facility,” Dutcher explained. “And now we had a facility, and then thanks to — I’ll bring his name up — John Moores, helped build us our athletic administration building, Tony Gwynn Stadium, put the seed money into San Diego State. He saw something there, he wanted to help, and he helped us with facilities. Once you have facilities to draw to, you have a chance.”

Facility upgrades helped the Aztecs hit the ground running in terms of recruiting and play on the floor, as they went 22-11 in Dutcher’s first season as head coach and made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Aztecs under Dutcher made three appearances in the tournament, which all ended in first-round eliminations until this season.

Dutcher has been a part of San Diego State’s program since 1999 and has felt that a national championship run was possible from the moment he stepped on campus. But ahead of the tournament, he was asked for a specific moment when he felt that this type of turnaround was possible.

“I mean, this is up for debate,” Dutcher said. “Sometimes your best teams — obviously this is going to go down as the greatest team in San Diego State history. But there are other teams that were equal to this, if not maybe better in some areas. The Kawhi Leonard team with Billy White and Malcolm Thomas, D.J. Gay, Chase Tapley, Jamaal Franklin, that was an incredible team. We lost to UConn and Kemba Walker in the Sweet 16. That team was capable to win it all.”

San Diego State’s 2010 and 2013 teams both made it to the Sweet 16 but were defeated. And while those squads may have been loaded with talent and consisted of some of the Aztecs all-time greats, they did not make it as far as this year’s team.

“I talked about the Xavier Thames team with J.J. O’Brien, Skylar Spencer, Dwayne Polee, Josh Davis, that was an elite team that lost in the Sweet 16. Sometimes you just have to have the right matchups, be playing your best basketball, get a break here or there. So we’ve had other teams I felt were capable over our career to make a run at a Final Four,” Dutcher said.

The Aztecs will take on UConn in the 2023 National Championship game Monday at 9:20 p.m. ET airing on CBS.