Entering the 2025-26 season
Brian Dutcher enters his ninth season as San Diego State head men’s basketball coach, is coming two Sweet 16 appearances in the last three seasons and a run to the program’s first national championship game appearance in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. He is building on the previous eight years in which he led the Aztecs to seven title games in the Mountain West tournament, its conference-record 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th & 16th Mountain West crowns, a bid to the NCAA tournament in six of the seven years in which a champion was crowned and an average of 24.75 wins per season. He is the only coach in the 104-year history of San Diego State men’s basketball to win at least 20 games in each of his first eight seasons. His 198 victories in eight seasons (198-68) are the most for any Division I head coach whose first year guiding his current program was 2017-18 and the accompanying win percentage, 74.4 percent, is the highest for any head basketball coach in San Diego State history.
Dutcher has been recognized twice, following the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, with Mountain West Coach of the Year honors and was the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division I District 17 Coach of the Year in both those years as well. In addition, he earned USA Today National Coach of the Year and United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) District IX Coach of the Year distinction following the 2019-20 campaign and was one of five finalists for the 2020 Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year Award.
His teams have faced top 25 ranked opponents on 27 occasions and posted a 16-11 record, which includes wins over No. 1 Alabama, No. 6 Houston, Gonzaga (twice), UCLA and Arizona State as well as Nevada (four times) and Colorado State (twice). From the start of the 2018-19 season to its demise after the 2023-24 campaign, his Aztecs were 8-3 against Pac-12 opponents and 11-6 in multi-team events. Since the start of the 2017-18 season, SDSU has the eighth best home win percentage in the nation (88.6 percent), and in the last six years, San Diego State has posted a 90.1-win percentage (82-9) in Viejas Arena, the seventh best in the nation.
The team’s success on the court is reflected in the honors his players have earned. In 2020, Malachi Flynn was a consensus All-American, the third Aztec to earn that honor. The following season Matt Mitchell was recognized by the Associated Press with the All-American moniker and 2024 Jaedon LeDee was named the Karl Malone Award winner for the best power forward in the nation as well as being named an All-American by multiple organizations.
San Diego State put a player on the USBWA’s All-District IX first team in 2020 (Flynn) and 2021 (Mitchell). The NABC has bestowed its All-District 17 honors nine times to an Aztec in the last eight years. In 2019, Jalen McDaniels earned first-team designation. Flynn and Yanni Wetzell were first-team and Mitchell second team in 2020. In 2021, Mitchell and Jordan Schakel earned first team and second team honors, respectively. In 2022, Matt Bradley was a second team, in 2023, LeDee was a first-team designee and in 2025 Miles Byrd was tapped as a second-team performer.
Within the Mountain West, Flynn was named the 2020 Mountain West Male Athlete of the Year, Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and a member of the All-Defensive Team. In the same season, KJ Feagin was named to the all-defensive team and one year prior, Jeremy Hemsley was included on the league’s all-defensive team. In 2021, Mitchell earned Mountain West Player of the Year, first team All-Mountain West and inclusion on the all-defensive team along with Nathan Mensah. In 2022, Mensah was the Defensive Player of the Year and a member of the all-defensive team. Bradley was the Newcomer of the Year. Chad Baker-Mazara was named the Sixth Man of the Year and Lamont Butler garnered all-defensive team honors. The 2023 campaign saw Mensah again named the Defensive Player of the Year, a third-team performer, and a member of the all-Defensive Team, while Bradley earned first-team honors and Lamont Butler was a third team and All-Defensive Team designee. In 2024, Butler was the Defensive Player of the Year, a member of the All-Defensive Team and an honorable mention performer, while Jaedon LeDee was tabbed a first-team honoree. Last season, Magoon Gwath was the league’s Freshman of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, an honorable mention performer and a member of the all-defensive team. Byrd and Nick Boyd were second-team honorees with Byrd also earning all-defensive team designation.
His players have earned 23 All-Mountain West designations and 29 freshman or players of the week honors. Three Aztecs, Trey Kell in 2018, Mitchell in 2021 and Bradley in 2023, were named Mountain West tournament MVP among 13 SDSU players who have been included on the league’s all-tournament team. In his eight seasons, his charges have garnered 30 league all-academic distinctions, a pair of Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar awards, and Flynn was named to the 2020 NABC Honors Court.
The 2022-23 season saw SDSU fulfill a promise coach Dutcher, and Hall of Fame coach Steve Fisher, made the day they stepped on campus prior to the 1999-00 season…that the program’s goal was to compete for national championships. The Aztecs finished with a 32-7 record, played Connecticut for the NCAA championship in Houston’s NRG Stadium in front of more than 72,000 spectators and finished the season as the national runner-up. The team ranked No. 2 in the final USA Today Coaches poll, the highest the program has ever achieved.
SDSU’s 32 victories are the second most in a season in San Diego State history, trailing only the 34 wins in 2010-11. In conference play, SDSU was 15-3 and secured both the regular-season and tournament titles to earn a No. 5 seed, its third consecutive season with a single-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament. Five of the team’s seven losses were by nine points or less, with three of its losses coming against top 25 opposition and in each of its seven losses its opponent was receiving votes in the national polls. Senior guard Darrion Trammell was named the South Regional Most Outstanding Player with Lamont Butler also included on the South Regional All-Tournament Team. Butler, who hit the biggest shot in SDSU history, the game winner as time expired against Florida Atlantic in the Final Four to send the Aztecs to the national championship game, earned a spot on the 2023 NCAA All-Tournament Team.
The 2021-22 campaign featured a 23-9 record and SDSU’s second straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament, garnering a No. 8 seed. Six of its nine losses were by six points or less and after Dec. 8, 2021, four of the team’s six defeats were by three points or less. Twice during that stretch, the Aztecs defeated nationally ranked Colorado State.
In 2020-21, he guided San Diego State to the Mountain West regular-season and tournament crowns and earned a No. 6-seed in the NCAA tournament. The Aztecs went 23-5 and finished the regular season ranked No. 7 in field goal percentage defense (.387), No. 8 in scoring defense (60.6), No. 12 in scoring margin (+13.5), No. 14 in total steals (233), and No. 16 in turnover margin (+3.9) nationally. Among the Mountain West teams, San Diego State led the league in turnovers forced (15.15), steals per game (8.19), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.25:1), three-point field goal percentage (.381), field goal percentage defense, scoring defense, scoring margin, turnover margin and total steals. The team posted a 14-game win streak, which is the fourth longest in school history and is the third of at least nine games under Dutcher.
The 2019-20 squad ripped off a program-record 26-straight wins to open the season and peaked, for eight weeks, at a No. 4 ranking in both national polls, before finishing the regular season at No. 6. The Aztecs went 30-2, including 17-1 in Mountain West play.
In program history, his team’s 30 wins in 2019-20 are the fourth most in a season and its two defeats are the fewest. SDSU’s 17 wins in conference play are the most in program and Mountain West history, and its one loss is the fewest in the Aztecs’ Division I era and equals the fewest since 1926-27, when it moved from junior college competition to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). San Diego State opened the 2019-20 league slate with a 15-game winning streak, which set a new Mountain West record.
The 2018-19 season saw the Aztecs return to the Mountain West championship game after twice defeating nationally ranked Nevada, including a 65-56 victory over the Wolf Pack in the semifinal of the conference tournament. The team posted a 21-13 record, the 13th consecutive season with at least 19 victories. After the season concluded, sophomore Jalen McDaniels was selected in the second round of the NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets.
In 2017-18, Dutcher’s first season at the helm of the program, the Aztecs won six consecutive games to end the regular season and captured the program’s 11th crown, the Mountain West tournament title, and returned to the NCAA tournament. Dutcher was the only first-year head coach to guide his team to the 2018 NCAA tourney and one of six that won at least 20 games. SDSU finished the campaign with a 22-11 record, with the 22 wins representing the most by a first-year Aztec men’s basketball coach and the second-most among first-year coaches that season.
Over the course of his 26 years at San Diego State, Dutcher has helped the Aztecs reach the postseason 19 times, including 14 trips to the NCAA tournament, win a conference-best 16 Mountain West titles and record 19 seasons of at least 20 victories.
Since 2008-09, SDSU has had four NCAA Sweet 16 (2011, 2014, 2023 & 2024) and NIT semifinal (2009, 2016) appearances, won at least 25 games nine times and captured 16 MW championships (nine regular season, seven tournament).
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. His first year in Ann Arbor was 1989 and resulted in a national title for Michigan as he assisted then-interim head coach Fisher.
The Bloomington, Minn., native led UM’s recruiting efforts in 1990-91 when the Wolverines inked Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson, Jimmy King, Jalen Rose, and Chris Webber. The “Fab Five” is considered perhaps the best recruiting class in NCAA history. Dutcher helped lead that group to nearly 100 wins, two berths in the NCAA championship game and a regional final over a four-year period. He was also on the Michigan staff for an NIT championship (1997).
Dutcher’s recruiting prowess was cemented when Michigan had the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class in 1993-94 and in 1994-95, with a group that included Maurice Taylor and Jerod Ward. The accomplishment marked the first time that a university had the nation’s top class in consecutive years, according to recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons.
Dutcher was born Oct. 30, 1959, in Alpena, Mich. He attended Jefferson High School in Bloomington, Minn., and earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Minnesota in 1982. While an undergraduate, he worked for his father, then-Gopher head coach Jim Dutcher. He then spent one season in the prep ranks at Apple Valley (Minn.) High School before becoming a graduate assistant at Illinois, where he earned his master’s degree in physical education and athletic administration. While in Champaign, Dutcher helped Lou Henson lead the Illini to a Big Ten championship, two appearances in the Sweet 16 and one regional final.
Dutcher’s first full-time coaching job came at South Dakota State, where he spent three seasons helping turn around the Division II program before departing in 1988 for Michigan.
Dutcher and his wife, Jan, have two daughters, Erin and Liza and have three granddaughters.
Dutcher Head Coaching Year-By-Year| Season | Overall W-L | Pct. | MW W-L | Pct. | Postseason | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | 22-11 | .667 | 11-7 | .611 | NCAA (0-1) | MW tournament champion; Only first-year head coach in NCAA tournament |
| 2018-19 | 21-13 | .617 | 11-7 | .611 | MW tournament runner-up; Only team to defeat nationally-ranked Nevada twice during the season | |
| 2019-20 | 30-2 | .938 | 17-1 | .944 | canceled | Ranked No. 6 in final AP poll; Best regular-season record in nation; USA Today National Coach of the Year |
| 2020-21 | 23-5 | .821 | 14-3 | .824 | NCAA (0-1) | MW regular season & tournament champion; MW & NABC District 17 Coach of the Year |
| 2021-22 | 23-9 | .719 | 13-4 | .765 | NCAA (0-1) | MW tournament runner-up |
| 2022-23 | 32-7 | .821 | 15-3 | .833 | NCAA (5-1) | MW regular season & tournament champions; NCAA South Regional Champions; national runner-up |
| 2023-24 | 26-11 | .703 | 11-7 | .611 | NCAA (2-1) | MW tournament runner-up; NCAA Sweet 16 appearance |
| 2024-25 | 21-10 | .667 | 14-6 | .700 | NCAA (0-1) | NCAA First Four appearance |
| 8 seasons | 198-68 | .744 | 106-38 | .736 | 6 NCAA | 3 MW regular season titles; 3 MW tournament titles; 6 MW tournament championship game appearances; 6 NCAA tournament appearances; 2 Sweet 16 appearances; NCAA South Regional Champions; national runner-up |