What San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher and the players said after beating Oregon

Aztecs dominated the Ducks a night after losing by 40 to No. 7 Michigan

Nov 25, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Oregon Ducks forward Dezdrick Lindsay (4) drives the ball past San Diego State Aztecs forward Magoon Gwath (0) and guard Reese Dixon-Waters (39). | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The San Diego State Aztecs followed coach Brian Dutcher’s instructions to the letter and rebounded from an overwhelming loss to No. 7 Michigan by beating Oregon 97-80 in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. 

“Just real proud of our ability to bounce back after a tough loss to a really good Michigan team,” Dutcher said. “To come out and play with such passion and confidence, that's the two things I put on the board. Play with passion because you can't do anything great unless you do it with passion, and play with confidence, because I know we're a good team.”

“We shot the ball unbelievably today. These two guys up here, Reese (Dixon-Waters) and BJ (Davis), made hard shots, made timely shots, and I don't know the last time — I can't believe we shot 67% from the field in a long, long time, if ever in my head coaching tenure here.”

SDSU (3-2) will play Baylor at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. 

Here are the highlights of Dutcher and the players’ news conference:

Dutcher on how his team rebounded from losing by 40 to Michigan

“So, yeah, we got hammered. I like the way the team responded. It's like we're making shots. I mean, when I say we had some of those same looks against Michigan, it's a different defensive game plan, but Reese had some good looks against Michigan. Some of the looks he had today were good too, but they were made. He made hard shots. He's a hard shot maker. So when he's making it and then BJ makes them and LZ (Elzie Harrington) comes in and he's making them and (Miles) Heide is 4 for 4, and you just — you are playing a game like this, the rim looks the size of the ocean. Everything you throw up there you think is going in.”

Dixon-Waters on scoring 22 points after going 1 for 7 against Michigan

“I think a lot of it's just my confidence. Obviously we have a game plan for different defenses we play against, but for a scorer, for somebody like me, my confidence is everything. Today — or yesterday obviously I didn't have that great of a game offensively, but I just had to bounce back and not even think about it today and just play as if that game yesterday didn't happen.”

Dutcher on whether Magoon Gwath is on a minutes limit

“He's not on a restriction right now. It's just getting his game shape back and timing. You know, it's not going to come right away. Early in the second half I think it was at the 17-minute mark we took him out because you ask him, you look fatigued already. He said, yeah, I could use one right now. We have to watch him closely and make sure we don't wear him out up and down the floor where he fatigues and all of a sudden he gets a couple of fouls because we've left him in too long. As the season goes on, he'll play himself into game shape, but you only get there by playing games. He's on the right path, but he's still getting fatigued early in the games.”

Dutcher on snapping a two-game losing streak

“Yeah, I mean, any coach here that's sitting here is going, ‘I don't want to be one of the teams that goes 0-3,’ because they're going to be a really good basketball team here that's going to go 0-3. You get the first win, and now we'll try to go 2-1, like we were last year in the event. It gives us an opportunity, and as much as it feels good to win, I told them last night, when we walk out of this arena, we're not going to talk about Michigan and we're not going to think about Michigan, we're not going to discuss it again. It's over.”

Davis on scoring 22 points off the bench

“I mean, if that's what's required for winning, then yeah. I kind of try not to be so solely focused on offensively — offensive production. I pride myself on defense and that being why I'm out there to play defense rather than score the ball.”