San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher reacts to missing NCAA Tournament

Instead of preparing for a first-round game in the NCAA Tournament, coach Brian Dutcher of the San Diego State Aztecs has been holding exit interviews with his players and beginning preparation for the move into the new-look Pac-12.

Dutcher has had a few days to ponder the Aztecs missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six seasons. They were on the bubble for several weeks, and the bubble finally burst on Selection Sunday when their resume was such that they were in the First Four Out.

“Any other year, this resume was enough,” Dutcher said Tuesday. “We finished alone in second place and made it to the conference championship game, which you would think would be enough to get us in. The Mountain West was undervalued this year, and if you look at the metrics, they were pretty good. Saint Mary’s had a wonderful year, as always, and Santa Clara had a good year. Saint Louis had a really good year, and Miami of Ohio went undefeated and then had to balance the metrics of it. For the non-power five schools, the margin of error is small. We put a really good resume together, but when there are only four bids for the rest of the country, it makes it harder.”

Here are the highlights of Dutcher’s news conference.

Dutcher on what Miles Byrd might do

“I think Miles will have an interesting decision to make. You know, it's no different than Lamont or Keshad. He's going to graduate from San Diego State and financially does he want to be a pro next year at another college? Is the money that drastically different? And yes, it is. At some of these places, the money's drastically different. So, I think he'll have an interesting decision financially, whether it's in another college or whether he thinks he has a chance to get into the NBA this year. So, I think he of all of them will have the most interesting decision uh from a San Diego State perspective because he is a graduate like a lot of these guys do. So it'll be an interesting choice for Miles to make and I will be supportive over whatever one he decides to make.”

Dutcher on the team’s defense

“Yeah, our defense was inconsistent. I think this is the second year in a row our rebounding probably hurt us more than anything. And but you know, I see

that every day. I've got Aguek Arop out there practicing. He's on the staff. Dakari Allen’s helping us. And when I watch him practice, those two get every rebound. Then it's hard to say when we get to a game, I'm surprised. But those guys are elite rebounders. And so I have to recruit a rebounder. I have to get someone that can go get the ball or these other guys have to become drastically better at it. But I think our initial defense was pretty good. It was all the second chance opportunities.If we secure a rebound then our defensive numbers are going to be good. And at the end of the day, I think our defense was still ranked in the top 20 nationally for our numbers. So that's pretty good. But we could have been better.”

Dutcher on Magoon Gwath’s status

“It was interesting with Magoon, because you would sit there and watch during the year, whether it was coming back from the knee and then the hip, and wonder if he would ever get back. Then, he put a big conference tournament together. He played three pretty good games in three days. You're encouraged to think, if he can stay on this path and stay healthy, he's going to have an opportunity to be special. I will talk to Magoon. I haven't talked to him yet, but he has to grow his game also. He has to stay healthy, he has to continue to put his work in, and he'll have a chance to reach his potential. That's all you ever want, is to reach your potential, but you have to be healthy to do that.”

Dutcher on his approach to the transfer portal

“I'm going to find out who's going to be back for my team first. The portal doesn't officially open until after the Final Four. If you just look online, there are kids going in the portal every day on social media. There are agents that are behind the scenes, reaching out all over the country. We know what we need for next year. I want guys who want to be back. I don't want to talk anybody into coming back. If you want to come back, here's what you have to do to become a better player. If you don't want to come back, I'm going to hug you and wish you well, and know that there are great opportunities for everybody out there. There's nothing personal about it. I love the kids I have in my program. I told them that yesterday, when I had my final team meeting.”

“I've met with three kids already today, and we'll meet with six more and try to get a gauge as to where they're at right now. We want to find out what their intentions are for the future, and how I can help them, whether it's with us or if it's somewhere else. That's the reality of basketball now, we all know that, and so I'm embracing it. I will put a team together next year that Aztec fans will be proud of. There'll be familiar faces, and there'll be new faces, and we will be competitive at the highest level.”

Dutcher on fans’ high expectations

“I love the expectations. I want the fans' expectations to be high and fill the arena, thinking we’re going to win every time we step on the floor. As a coach, you always remember the games you lost; you don’t put as much thought into the close wins like BJ Davis hitting a miracle three to beat Boise. You think back to Grand Canyon with the blocked shot and the foul is called, and New Mexico with the out-of-bounds play where we could have had the ball down by one. It was almost identical to when we played New Mexico in the conference tournament, and BJ hit a big shot. The margin for error is smaller, but we want high expectations. We have high expectations of ourselves. I told them in the team meeting yesterday, ‘If you don’t think this is a program that can continue to fight and play for a national championship game, then you don’t need to be in this locker room.’ We have high expectations, and we’ll do everything in our power to meet those expectations.”