What San Diego State men's basketball coach Brian Dutcher said ahead of Players Era Festival

Aztecs face No. 7 Michigan on Monday night in Las Vegas

San Diego State head coach Brian Dutcher. | Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

San Diego State’s men’s basketball team goes from an emotional, double-overtime loss to Troy to facing No. 7 Michigan on Monday night and Oregon on Tuesday night in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas starting on Monday night. 

The Aztecs’ third opponent will be determined by the results of the first two games. 

San Diego State hoops will forever be linked to Michigan. Steve Fisher was promoted to Michigan’s interim coach just before the 1989 NCAA Tournament after Bill Frieder announced he was taking the Arizona State job. With Dutcher at his side, Fisher led the Wolverines to the national title and had the interim tag removed. 

Dutcher helped recruit the Fab Five, who took Michigan to the national championship games in 1992 and 1993 before losing. Those appearances were later vacated because Chris Webber accepted money from prominent booster Ed Martin.

Fisher was fired just before the 1997-98 season due to his involvement in the Martin scandal. 

Fisher was hired at San Diego State prior to the 1999-2000 season and brought Dutcher with him. They transformed a perennial loser into a perennial NCAA Tournament team that often was ranked in The Associated Press Top 25. Dutcher was named “head coach in waiting” in 2011 and took over when Fisher retired after the 2016-17 season.

The Aztecs and Wolverines have met just once before. Michigan won 72-58 at Ann Arbor on Dec. 4, 2021, when Fab Five member Juwan Howard was the Wolverines’ head coach. 

Michigan head coach Dusty May, left, talks to Oakland head coach Greg Kampe before tipoff at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor on Monday, November 3, 2025. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“We’re getting ready for a nationally ranked Michigan team, obviously with some meaning for me,” Dutcher said Friday. “I spent a lot of time there as an assistant coach and am excited for an opportunity to have a chance to play the Wolverines again. Obviously, we took a trip there a couple years ago, played them at their place, and came out on the losing end. So, looking for an opportunity to play a really good team on a neutral floor and see if we're up for the task.”

Here are the highlights of Dutcher’s news conference:

Dutcher expounding on his memories of Michigan

“I went back in large part because Jawan Howard was coaching and I recruited him there to Michigan and now he's moved on back as an assistant in the NBA and that's coaching. If you're going to be in coaching, you're going to work at a lot of different places. So, Michigan was a stop along the way. I had a lot of fun, a lot of success. Won a national championship, played for two other national championships. And so of fond memories of Ann Arbor and Michigan. But right now, they're all memories. This is getting ready to try to beat them in a competitive basketball environment which will be a real challenge, but one I think we're up for.”

Dutcher on the importance of doing well in Vegas

“Regardless of what happened against Troy, this is an opportunity for us to play ranked teams that we normally have a tough time getting to play us. So, we're grateful for the event, the opportunity to play Michigan and Oregon, and then hopefully another really good team metrically where we can make up some ground in the preseason. That's why we play these games. Opportunity to win games against really good teams.”

Dutcher on the team needing to be more physical

“Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, we're going against a bigger, stronger team, so we're going to have to be physical to compete in the game. But you know, Troy, some of the stats, we outrebounded them by 10. But there were some things physicality-wise where we should have been fronting the post. That's what we do when we switch a guard in the post. That didn't happen three times. And so there's some things that we know we're supposed to do and failed to do. And so I think that got their attention. You know, losing is not fatal unless you don't learn from it. So there are some things we learned about ourselves that we need to do to make sure moving forward that we don't have a repeat performance where we lose games because we don't do what we're supposed to do.”

Dutcher on Magoon Gwath playing 48 minutes in his season debut

“I think he's doing good. I think it's just getting back into game shape. Like I said, the knee feels good. The knee didn't give him any problems at all. It's just the fatigue and now only playing one game since last February. And so, I think he showed some fatigue. Yeah, he made plays and he put some points and rebounds up, but I don't think he's anywhere near what he needs to be as a player or will be as the season goes on.”