DUTCHER WILL STAY AT SDSU
Aztecs coach was asked to meet with Minnesota officials, but requested delay and they hired someone else
• Aztecs men’s basketball coach Brian Dutcher will remain at the university after being considered for Minnesota job.
Home, it turns out, is where you are.
Brian Dutcher is staying as San Diego State’s basketball coach after a crazy three days that culminated Monday afternoon with Minnesota hiring Xavier assistant Ben Johnson. In between were several calls from Minnesota plus meetings with SDSU President Adela de la Torre and Athletic Director John David Wicker.
“This is the longest I’ve been any place in my entire life, 22 years,” Dutcher said Monday night. “Both my girls are San Diego State graduates. They’re both here in town. We have friends that are like family here. We love San Diego.
“This is home.” Dutcher was considered Minnesota’s top target after it fired Richard Pitino last week, and for obvious reasons. He attended the school, where his father, Jim, coached from 1975 to 1985 and won its last Big Ten men’s basketball title that was not later vacated. His sisters also are Minnesota alums, as is his wife. Most of their family still lives in the area. They vacation there annually.
Another reason: Dutcher’s SDSU contract, signed last year, contains a unique buyout clause: $6.9 million for everyone else, $1 million for his alma mater.
Minnesota Athletic Director Mark Coyle, multiple sources told the Union-Tribune, contacted
Dutcher several times before and after SDSU’s NCAA Tournament loss against Syracuse on Friday night to arrange an interview, ideally as soon as Saturday night — just hours after the team returned to San Diego. Dutcher asked to wait a few days, presumably so he could speak with de la Torre and Wicker first.
Coyle didn’t want to wait that long and hired Johnson, who played at Minnesota and was a popular assistant on Pitino’s staff before leaving for Xavier in 2018. The original plan, sources said, was to finalize a hire on Wednesday, but word leaked out Monday afternoon and Minnesota made it official a few hours later.
Minnesota also was under pressure to hire a person of color. A recent story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune noted that, since Coyle became athletic director in 2016, he has hired 11 head coaches across a variety of sports and all are White. Minnesota also was the only Big Ten school without a person of color as president, athletic director or head coach.
“There’s always some thought that things could happen,” Wicker said when asked if he worried Dutcher might leave. “It’s the pull of home, you have great memories, his dad coached there. But I was also confident that we’re a really good program. We fund our program well every year. We compete for a conference title every year. We
have the chance to go to the NCAA Tournament and make a run every year.”
Dutcher just completed his fourth year as SDSU’s head coach, following his promotion when Steve Fisher retired in 2017. The Aztecs are 96-31 in those four seasons, including 53-7 in the last two. They have won back-to-back Mountain West titles and reached the NCAA Tournament two times, and it would have been three had last year’s tournament not been canceled.
Specifics of a restructured contract were not discussed Monday, but they are expected to be in the coming weeks. Wicker said he’ll commit additional financial resources to the men’s basketball program, then sit down with Dutcher to determine how best to allocate them.
Dutcher has five seasons left on a six-year contract that averages $1.3 million, best in the Mountain West. But the contract is backloaded, paying him $930,000 in 2020-21 amid universitywide budget cuts from the pandemic and rising to $1.5 million in 2025-26.
Wicker knew the buyout
clause was in Dutcher’s contract but dismissed any idea it could be triggered when Minnesota was 10-2 in January and ranked 16th nationally. Then the Gophers lost 13 of 17 to close the season, and talk of Dutcher replacing Pitino began to grow.
“I went over immediately and sat down with Dutch,” Wicker said. “I told him how much we wanted to keep him as head coach and to remind him about the great things with San Diego State. He knows that. He built the program with (Steve) Fisher and others. He understands the program we have here. It was reminding him, ‘We want you here and we want
to do the things we need to continue growing this basketball program.’ ”
De la Torre had a similar discussion with him Monday morning.
“The great thing about Adela,” Wicker said, “is that she recognizes the importance and value of athletics to the overall institution — the ‘front porch’ aspect, the donor opportunities, the exposure from playing on CBS against Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament, even if the outcome wasn’t what we hoped for. She wants to support us as best she can. She’s very engaged in athletics.”
The quick resolution allows Dutcher and his staff to
dive into shaping next season’s roster, which likely must replace at least two (Matt Mitchell and Jordan Schakel) and possibly three or four starters. Dutcher said his staff is already evaluating players in the transfer portal and actively recruiting some.
“I’m grateful that they gave me this opportunity to take over the program that I was able to help Coach Fisher build,” Dutcher said. “Now it’s time to continue that success and still shoot for the ultimate goal of taking San Diego State to a national championship.”