Aztec Coach Brian Dutcher

[JackJD]

San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher was an assistant coach at the real SDSU under Jackrabbit head coach Jim Thorson for three seasons (1985-86; 1986-87 and 1987-88). The Jacks improved dramatically in those three years: In the 85-86 season, Thorson's first after taking the reins from Gene Zulk,* the Jacks were 7-21. In Thorson's second year, 1986-87, the Jacks improved to 16-12, In the 1987-88 season, the Jacks finished 21-9 with a loss in the D-II regional finals. Thorson was the head coach of the Jacks through the 1992-93 season.

Many will remember Dutcher's dad, Jim Dutcher, had some good seasons as head coach of the Minnesota Gophers from 1975 - 1986. His best year was 1981-82 when he led the Gophers to the Big 10 Championship -- the last "official" Big 10 title for the Gopher men **-- and an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance. Jim Dutcher was the Big10 Coach of the Year in 1982.

Brian Dutcher's first full-time job was in Brookings under Coach Thorson. After Brian Dutcher graduated from the U of Minnesota in 1982, he coached one year at Apple Valley, MN and then served as a grad assistant under Jim Henson at Illinois. He came to Brookings after completing his graduate degree at Illinois.


*Zulk's 1984-85 campaign ended in a loss at the D-II title game, Jacksonville 74, SDSU 73, capping a 26-7 season. [Some interesting trivia about that game....]

**Coach Clem Haskins led the Gophers to the Big10 title in 1997 but that title was stripped away in NCAA sanctions for various infractions including an academic-cheating scandal involving members of the Gopher basketball team.

[LetsGoRabbits]

Yes Coach Zulk left the cupboard a little bit bare after the championship game appearance.

I know Coach Thorson very well. in all my years of coaching, i see him in the top two coaches i have ever known, related to the ability to TEACH the game of basketball and the skills that are needed for the game. Ironically he was let go from his sdsu contract basically for lacking in the area of public relations and then his former assistant Scott Nagy eventually, ironically, replaced him (after a two year waiting period between Nagy the assistant and Nagy the HC. the fairly unpopular Soderberg was HC between Thorson and Nagy) and became the all time winningest coach in program history despite having an approach to media and public relations that was very similar to Coach Thorson

the time with Dutcher as assistant was dominated by the perimeter trio of Kyle Adams, Craig Jenkins, and Randy Suarez and the first half of Cullen Ober career (in case you forgot or did not know Ober was 7'1 and his daughter, Clarissa, played for the Jacks WBB and graduated with Kerri Young. most of you probably did not know, but i am sure you want to know, that Cullen was the goal keeper for my championship winning intramural coed water polo team his 6'3 wife to be also played for that team. LOTS of fun and awesome memories)

I did not know that Dutcher was a grad assistant at Illinois. more irony, Nagy was also grad assistant at Illinois, of course his dad was the long time assistant. more irony both of their fathers were associated with a scandal

Dutcher's wife Jan was the boss of my wife to be. cannot remember the position or department but she did work in the HPER center

Dutcher left brookings to be the Assistant at U of Michigan, for then HC Bill Frieder. at the end of Dutcher first year in Ann Arbor Frieder accepted an offer to coach at ASU the following year and AD Bo Shembechler let him go before the ncaa tourney. Steve Fisher was named interim HC and they went on to win the 89 championship behind a dominant tournament from Glenn Rice with help from Rumeal Robinson and some other highly regarded younger players

in the final 4, Michigan first played and beat a historically talented Illinois team with future NBA players Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill, Kenny Battle and other very talented players. who was the grad assistant for Illinois??..... Scott Nagy

Fisher was given the HC job and Dutcher remained his assistant, eventually following him to the other sdsu and replacing him as HC after Fisher retired. Dutcher is given a great deal of credit for recruiting the fab 5. the way i have heard it, he basically lived on the doorstep of Juwan Howard until Howard committed to the wolverines. the committment by Howard was generally regarded as the domino that lead to the other dominos falling into place

[73alum]

Don’t know where else to put this but I just happened to think…did any announcer or play-by-play mention South Dakota State instead of San Diego State in any of the games ‘SDSU’ played in the tournament?? It’s really poor preparation to not get your teams straight no matter who is playing. I think even I, being an old codger…could do better then that!!!