Are you a San Diego St fan today?
As most already know, the head coach at San Diego St, Brian Dutcher, is a former assistant at Michigan.
He's done well as Head Coach. He has a great winning percentage:
He's been Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year twice since taking over in 2017.
Are you a San Diego St fan today?
Also, depending on how things go next season, maybe Warde Manuel already has an easy choice to make.
But still, I'm hoping for a turn around in Michigan Basketball next season. Juwan Howard appears to be switching the team over to focusing on the guards, à la the Golden St Warriors. So let's hope for the best.
Fuck next year, hire this guy next Tuesday!!!
If only.
No.
EDIT: Football team has a rape allegation pending against it. https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/san-diego-news/search-warrants-unsealed-in-rape-case-involving-former-sdsu-football-players
Athletic Dept has a Title IX suit filed against it. https://sportslitigationalert.com/title-ix-lawsuit-continues-between-san-diego-state-university-and-its-former-and-current-female-athletes/
So, no, I am not a SDSU fan today.
So you are against the sdsu basketball team for something that has nothing to do with them? Sound logic.
Why not be against FAU for trying a monster dunk up ten against a 16 seed with time expiring.
The Title IX suit has to do with the whole AD. But hmm, is dunking worse than unconstitutional sex discrimination? Hard to say, says UMichWolverines.
🤔
That's some real mental gymnastics going on right there.
How your mind works, is a mystery. Good Luck.
Damn right. Helps I live in San Diego, know a lot of alumni and Michigans connections.
locally, it’s great to see the community rally together for the Aztecs.
Grew up in San Diego when the football team was ok and the basketball team was below average. It always felt like they were the 3rd college team in the county behind UCLA and USC. It's truly nice to see SDSU get their own limelight and I'm happy to hear the community is rallying behind them.
Brian Dutcher was a constant presence at Steve Fisher basketball camp in the early 90s. I mostly remember Fisher occasionally wandering around, but Dutcher and Jay Smith ran the camp. Whenever Jay Smith blew his whistle everyone had to stop and get into triple threat position.
(I recognize this has nothing to do with your quesiton)
I was at those camps.
I still get frustrated when teams inbound into corners and I get even more frustrated when a kid catches the ball in a trap and immediately puts the ball over his head and leans back.
Get your ass in a triple threat and attack the pressure, dammit! Pivot. Reverse pivot. I learned that shit in 5th grade.
You do realize when trapped in a corner in an inbound 2/3rds of your triple threat evaporates?
Except when trapped in a corner two of the three options from the “triple threat” are gone and you would really only be able to dribble since you are not passing through someone’s torso. The leaning back is ridiculous they should be in an athletic stance with a strong base so they can pass over the top if they have size or move the ball to the best available position.
All of that to essentially say keeping the ball high is not inherently bad particularly when you have size. As long as you keep the ball moving and not allowing a tie up.
Rooting for SDSU - for Coach Dutcher and Coach Fisher!
I'm a San Diego State fan today AND no reflection on anyone else. For instance, I'm not rooting against FAU.
Hoke and Dutcher getting things done at SDSU.
Yes, I’ll cheer the Aztecs on - but, have no horse in the race.
Saw somewhere that SDSU has the highest combined (football and basketball) winning percentage in the country since 2010. Pretty damn solid.
Sure. He was an important part of this program and probably deserved a shot at the head job at some point. I wouldn't blame him for Ed Martin being around the program. That was Fisher's call. I'm happy that he finally did get a head job and he's done very well with it.
Definitely rooting for SDSU! Not only is Dutcher a great coach and a former Wolverine, he’s also from the same small town as me (Alpena, MI). Go Aztecs!
Go, Wildcats!
Yup. Go Aztecs.
But as for him ever coming back here: he's almost 64 years old and has been at SDSU for 25 years. I doubt he'd be interested in coming back. And even if he was, it would be a stopgap solution at best, and perhaps an awkward move for him to spend just a few years at a place and then retire after having spent the bulk of his career somewhere else.
If he were going to leave SDSU, it would have been for the Minnesota job a couple of years ago when they fired Richard Pitino. His ties to Minny are even deeper than his ties to Michigan, and the buyout in his SDSU contract had a special carve-out for the Minny job. But he turned it down. At SDSU, he's already a legend and can go out on his own terms whenever he wants, whereas at Michigan, he would be taking on a high-pressure rebuild in the twilight of his career. I wouldn't go anywhere if I was him.
There ya go, one of those weird MGoBloggers veering from the mad rush to instead suggest we consider facts and details.
Doncha understand the rules?
Here's the brief version: rabble rabble grumble grumble no you are!
Sure. I'm also sort of rooting for FAU because that's always a cool story when a smaller-name program gets this far. I do get a sense that whomever wins the Miami-UConn game is going to win the title but it would be cool if either of these mid-major programs win a title over another P5/6 program getting a title.
Imagine Miami vs. FAU.
Florida's head would explode. "What?! There's something other than football to consider?"
Love the Michigan connection and think he'd be a great option if Howard doesn't work out (and, I'll admit, it isn't looking so good right now for him though I want it to) but I am not an SDSU fan today. I'm actually rooting for UConn since Connecticut is part of the New York Tri-state Area. Like St. Peter's last year! (Note that this rooting interest doesn't extend to Rutger.) Also, I'd love it if we hired the Hurley who coaches UConn (if Juwan doesn't work out, but I hope he does!). That UConn offense reminds me of the Beilein teams with the rapid passing and off-ball action.
I like Juwan Howard and I hope he rights the ship.
And I also like Dan Hurley. Based on his success at Rhode Island, I had him in mind as a candidate to replace Beilein eventually. However, he took the UConn job after the 2018 season.
But I think people are prisoners of the moment. Examples:
This is UConn's 3rd NCAAT appearance with Dan Hurley as HC. In the first 2, UConn lost in the Round of 64.Hurley hit on some transfer portal guys this past offseason and that elevated the team.
However, this UConn team played a 13, a 5, an 8, and a 3 to reach the Final Four. (In other words, it's kinda like our 2018 run where we avoided a 1 seed until the NC Game.) And UConn is now the highest seeded team in the Final Four at 4 with the others being 5, 5, and 9.
Similarly, Brian Dutcher's SDSU has reached the NCAAT 4 times. In the previous 3 appearances, SDSU lost in the round of 64. SDSU finally broke through this year and went on a deep run.
In the case of UConn, the program cratered under Ollie, so those appearances, regardless of the result, followed years of .500 records and not making the tournament at all. Despite the success, UConn isn't a brand that can pull talent without the right coach.
What do you think of Mitch Henderson of Princeton?
Both of my parents went there so I'm usually rooting for them when they don't play Michigan
Yes. I'm in though have had less interest in this years tourney than since I started watching a long time ago.
It's my hometown. I'm always a San Diego St fan. Michigan is my school, but San Diego St always has a place in my heart. As a Dodgers fan, I don't even hate the Padres like the rest of Dodger Nation does since it's my hometown.
I was about to upvote you but a San Diego guy rooting for the Dodgers?!
Ah, what the heck, you're entitled to be wrong about one thing in your life. So, yeah, upvote.
I'll upvote you anyway. My first game at 6 months was a Padres game, but I moved to the Philippines when I was still young enough to not have a team I was a die hard fan of and then I started watching tape delay games in the Philippines of the Dodgers in 88 and I was hooked.
How are his sets?
Brian Dutcher is a great coach and I will be rooting for him for sure. But the talk about him picking up stakes in San Diego and moving to the Big Ten seems pretty improbable. First of all, he is 63, and his style of program likely takes 8 years to develop because it is all about seasoning, culture and leadership. So that probably puts him well into retirement by the time his system gets up and running somewhere else, if his system could even survive the early turbulence big program fans would have to endure.
Unless he were to completely change his post modern approach to the college game, which seems risky, I am not so sure this would make sense for a lot of programs.
He probably loves San Diego anyways. He is absolutely going to be sitting in the cat bird seat out west for the next few years.
He's not going to be our next coach, but I'm not sure where you get the eight-year thing from. In the only head coaching job he's had, he's won 76.5% of his games.
He was Fisher’s assistant for over a decade at San Diego before becoming HC. So he didn’t start from scratch.
maybe it can go faster. I just went with two full 4 year cycles to maximize upper classmen development.
I don't think you can compare the college game now to what it was when Fisher took over SDSU. The portal and NIL have changed the game drastically.
I agree. But it changed to San Diego States advantage in many regards.
Yes, been rooting for SDSU for a long time now because of the Michigan connection.
As for your commentary on Warde/Juwan, it seems odd to turn this into a discussion of hiring a guy after next year who probably wouldn't be a realistic candidate anyway.
No. Go Owls.
Yes! My son is a freshman at SDSU.
UM won the natty my freshman year at U-M.
Do I hear Fate knocking?
Yes. Happy for Dutch and Fisher and he built.
Their success was not a fluke.
Absolutely, I'll be right in the action in downtown SD today for the games. Should be a blast.
Yes.
Who doesn't want to hear "Michigan" mentioned multiple times during the National Championship game?
Have been a Aztec fan since Fisher got the job
Coach Dutcher is great for SDSU; Juwan Howard is not leaving Michigan.