Episode 106: Brian Dutcher, Defensive Excellence

Episode 106: Brian Dutcher, Defensive Excellence

Guest: Brian Dutcher, San Diego State Men's Basketball Assistant Coach

Brian Dutcher, a long-time San Diego State men's basketball assistant coach, is entering his third season as head coach after two years in which he led the Aztecs to back-to-back Mountain West title games, their conference-high 11th Mountain West title and back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2015.

Dutcher, who took over the helm of the program following Steve Fisher's retirement announcement on April 11, 2017, was on The Mesa for all of Fisher's 18 seasons. He held the title of associate head coach/head coach in waiting for six years and is the program's 15th head coach.

Over the course of his 20 years at San Diego State, Dutcher has helped the Aztecs reach the postseason 14 times, including nine trips to the NCAA tournament, win a conference-best 11 Mountain West titles and record 14 seasons of at least 20 victories.

Dutcher arrived at San Diego State shortly after Fisher was hired on March 26, 1999. In his first year in "America's Finest City," the Aztecs won only five games, but improved upon their win total from the season before. After that, San Diego State posted a 14-14 record in 2000-01, before winning the 2002 MW Championship, earning an NCAA tournament bid and finishing with a 21-12 record. The 2002-03 campaign saw SDSU receive an NIT invitation, which culminated in the program's first Division I postseason victory.

Before Dutcher arrived at San Diego State, he served as assistant coach and later associate head coach at Michigan under Fisher. He spent 10 seasons on the Wolverine staff, establishing himself as one of the nation's top assistant coaches. His first year in Ann Arbor was 1989 and resulted in a national title for Michigan as he assisted then-interim head coach Fisher on the bench.

Breakdown

1:00 - Transitioning to the Head Coaching Job

3:00 - Building Strong Defense on the team

4:30 - Factors to Defensive Outperformance

7:30 - Closeouts

9:00 - Modify Gap Help

10:00 - Scout and Defense

11:30 - Stopping the Ball and One-on-One Matchups

13:30 - Lost their Rim Protector

15:00 - Improvements of Offense to go on the Defense

17:00 - Spacing Concepts he's using

18:00 - Defining Shot Selection