NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP - FINAL FOUR: SAN DIEGO STATE VS UCONN

April 2, 2023

Brian Dutcher

Lamont Butler

Matt Bradley

NRG Stadium

San Diego State Aztecs

Finals Pregame Media Conference

COACH DUTCHER: Just over the top excited to be playing for the national championship. Like most of the teams in the tournament, everybody puts in hard work, but sometimes you just hit your rhythm. You find a way to win games.

That's what we've done. And we're proud of our group, proud to represent San Diego State on the biggest stage Monday night in the national championship game.

Q. When you came to San Diego State, and Steve came along, how much work needed to be done?

COACH DUTCHER: You know, we opened up Viejas Arena, brand-new arena, that was a huge difference maker. They were playing at Peterson Gym or the downtown sports arena. To have an on-campus arena, we could draw to that, it was something we could convince recruits to come to. The city of San Diego State, our university are great, but they had no facility.

And now we had a facility, and then thanks to -- I'll bring his name up -- John Moores, helped build us our athletic administration building, Tony Gwynn Stadium, put the seed money into San Diego State. He saw something there, he wanted to help, and he helped us with facilities. Once you have facilities to draw to, you have a chance.

Q. You lost some guards from either graduation or transfers since the start of last season. You found a way through the portal to sort of replenish and bolster the roster. I'm curious with that asset you have this year that wasn't there in past years, how did you go about saying this is what we have, this is what we need and these are the right guys we need to fit what we need?

COACH DUTCHER: We knew we had a lot of pieces coming back. We lost Trey Pulliam, our point guard. We knew we wanted to add another point guard. Went to the portal, found Darrion Trammell at Seattle U, California kid. He had a really good year at Seattle U, both scoring-wise, leading their team defensively.

And so two weeks ago, after we lost in the first round, we got on a plane, flew in there. The first one to see him. Took the whole coaching staff, convinced him that San Diego State was a great place to continue his career. We got him, and players make the difference, not coaches. So we added another really good player to a good team coming back. And he was a huge difference maker for us this year.

Q. When we spoke to all of your players in the preseason, they all spoke about being here at this moment. It's easy to say that in the summer, in October. Why did your team have the belief that this was possible?

COACH DUTCHER: I said it before, I thought the addition of Jaedon LeDee was going to be a huge difference maker for us. We knew Darrion was going to be a good new piece, but Jaedon, having watched him practice for a full year.

Then we had a close scrimmage against UCLA. And I think they got ahead maybe like 20-some points on us in the first half. We ended up tying it at halftime, like 44 to 45, and you're like, wow, we've got a really good team. And then it was back and forth in the second half. And they beat us maybe in a one-possession game.

And so at that point, you know, even that early, you're thinking, wow, we might have something really good here. It took Jaedon a little while to get his feet underneath him. He was trying so hard to have success he was almost pressing his game.

You look at the difference he made last night. He was the guy we went to for two baskets down the stretch. And so the addition of he and Darrion, we knew with what we had coming back gave us a chance to be really good.

Q. I know you've spoken a lot about how you felt like this was possible from the moment you stepped on campus, but was there a point in this rebuilding process over these last, what, 24 years that you felt like things were really turning and that you had gotten the level you needed to be to be competing for championships?

COACH DUTCHER: I mean, this is up for debate. Sometimes your best teams -- obviously this is going to go down as the greatest team in San Diego State history. But there are other teams that were equal to this, if not maybe better in some areas.

The Kawhi Leonard team with Billy White and Malcolm Thomas, D.J. Gay, Chase Tapley, Jamaal Franklin, that was an incredible team. We lost to UConn and Kemba Walker in the Sweet 16. That team was capable to win it all. I talked about the Xavier Thames team with J.J. O'Brien, Skylar Spencer, Dwayne Polee, Josh Davis, that was an elite team that lost in the Sweet 16.

Sometimes you just have to have the right matchups, be playing your best basketball, get a break here or there. So we've had other teams I felt were capable over our career to make a run at a Final Four.

Q. Was there a moment during the transition from Coach Fisher to you where you felt you put your stamp on the program?

COACH DUTCHER: I mean, that first year, I mean, we struggled as a team, but we did what all San Diego State teams seem to do. We got better as the year went on. We won the conference tournament.

So I felt really good about that in my first year that we were able to hang a banner. And then when you replace a guy whose name is on the court, you know you better win. You better win right away, especially if you have no head coaching on your résumé.

So as much as I felt good about who I am and how I do things, you have to win in this business to survive. And so year six, we've hung six championship banners, and now we made a Final Four. And so sometimes it's not how you feel you do things, it's how the people that hire you and look at you feel you do things.

So I had to have success. And I recruited the kind of players that are very good, and I had a coaching staff that's out of this world good. And so I surrounded myself with good players and good coaches, and good things have happened for me and the Aztec basketball program.

Q. No matter what happens, Tuesday morning the core of this group will be gone, and in a special run like this, people want to hold onto a sunset like this, but how will you remember these guys specifically and how will that feel come Tuesday?

COACH DUTCHER: First, I'm recruiting too right now. I'm on the phone recruiting. I'm not just saying it. If we have back what we think we're going to have back, I told them summer guards I think next year's team will be better. If we make it to a Final Four or have the kind of success we've had, we have a program now. I don't think we're a one-hit wonder. We're going to be good every year.

I'll remember these guys because they were my original group. A coach always remembers his first team. Adam Seiko spent six years with me. Matt Mitchell and Jordan Schakel, who were gone, spent that first year, they came with me. And then you've got Nathan Mensah, Aguek Arop, they're five-year guys with me on my six years. So they're my first real team. They made it through the program. And they've been successful at every level.

When I got hired all those years ago with Coach Fisher, Rick Bay, our athletic director, he just said, you know, you've got to have good students, and then you've got to have good citizens, and then have you to have a good team. If you're lacking in any of those areas, you can't feel good about it. If you're winning games with kids that don't graduate and bad kids, no one is going to feel good about that. But if you have kids with good grades and graduate and good citizens and you don't win, no one will like that either.

So we have put together a program where we have all those things. We have really good kids that are really good citizens and are really good basketball players. And that's how you build a program.

Q. How did growing up as the son of a coach mold you and kind of shape you into the coach and person you are today?

COACH DUTCHER: You're surrounded by it, like Danny is. He's got a father that's a legendary coach, and you just grow up around the game. You see how losing hurts. It's funny, Richard, our sports information director, always asks me, Do you want a book after the end of the game? The running play-by-play? And I said no, Richard, I can go back and watch the tape, and I kind of saw what was going on.

And I remember my dad, they didn't have tape back then. You couldn't watch the game right away. So we would open that book and go here, They're on a 6-0 run and this happened and this happened. And it's a whole different era. But it's coaching.

But I always say my dad's era of coaches, they were way better coaches than we were because they didn't have all this film and they didn't have all this stuff. We know every play every team is going to run we play.

You go and scout one game and play a team you'd have no film on them, you'd have no way to know what they were doing, and you had to make real game-time adjustments. What was that? What did they just run? You'd have to recognize it.

Right now, to me, game coaching is so much easier than those guys that had to do it way back when and had to recognize what was going on during the course of a game.

Q. Along the lines of your father, you've talked about your patience and waiting until you got your head coaching job and you had some chances earlier. As a veteran coach, what was he advising you through those years? Was he telling you, you need to take a job because that's what coaches do? And secondly, I know you mentioned last night he was under the weather. Is he going to be here tomorrow?

COACH DUTCHER: Yeah, he's supposed to be here for tomorrow's game. He tried to get in yesterday, but he got -- it's hard to believe, I think they got 11 inches of snow in Minneapolis. So he couldn't get out. So hopefully he'll get out on Monday and be here for the game.

Q. How was he advising you when you were an assistant, an assistant coach is supposed to be looking for that next job or head coaching job, and you chose not to?

COACH DUTCHER: This is a hard business. And so I knew I didn't want to sell insurance at some point in my life. And I knew I better take a really good job when I got my first job. So I've enjoyed everywhere I've been.

The beauty of working for Coach Fisher, I hope my coaches feel the same way, you have to be a good delegator, let them work so they feel contributing. When I worked for Coach, I feel a lot of the success we had was based on what I was doing on the floor and recruiting. So I always felt I brought value to the program. I wasn't just sitting there watching Coach work his magic for all those years. I felt I was contributing to something that was really good.

And to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and San Diego, I mean, what incredible towns to live in, raise a family in. And I didn't want -- I didn't want to move my kids every two, three, four years. I didn't want a military existence where I'm chasing jobs and sometimes you worry about your next job instead of enjoying the job you have. I always enjoyed the job I had.

Q. Looking to tomorrow, how do you match up to the UConn team? Can you give us insight in which spots you can beat them in?

COACH DUTCHER: Obviously we have to control them in transition. They're as good a 3-point shooting team in transition that we've played all year. And the 3-point shot, like I said yesterday, it's such a weapon. We have to take way transition 3s. We have to do a good job in the low post on Sanogo. He's strong and tough.

And Hawkins is an NBA guard. So have to make sure we concentrate on him. And it's just a lot of things. A lot of things that we'll try to get done in 48 hours to be ready for our opportunity tomorrow.

Q. This might be a better question five years from now, but from your perspective as a coach in the game, a fan of the game for decades, where do you rank Lamont Butler's shot last night in the history of the NCAA Tournament?

COACH DUTCHER: If it was to win the title, it might be the greatest ever. What an incredible shot. It put us in the championship game. But at the end of the day people are going to talk about who won the national championship. People in San Diego will always remember Lamont's shot. But if we win a title, then they're really going to remember that shot.

So it all depends on what happens tomorrow night, how it will be remembered through history.

Q. I know there's been a lot of games since then, but what do you remember about 2011 Sweet 16?

COACH DUTCHER: 2011 Sweet 16. I remember Kawhi Leonard got the only technical foul of his career. That was not fun. I remember Jamaal Franklin bumped into Kemba as he walked off the floor and Kemba fell down and Jamaal Franklin got a technical foul. Hopefully we don't get any technical fouls tomorrow. I'd like to keep our guys on the floor and not give them anything for free.

Q. You have quite a bit of experience this season and in the tournament and just one-possession games, close games. UConn has struggled in close contests. What advantage does it give your team, the fact you've had so much success when the game's on the wire?

COACH DUTCHER: They haven't had to worry about close games so far. So I hope we can give them one, and we'll see what they do in a close game. They've been fantastic. They've run through the field. And so it's a great challenge.

But I've said this multiple times: Our opponent is ourselves. And that's almost John Wooden. It's like be at your best when your best is required. And that's what we're going to try to do. We're going to try to play our best basketball. If they beat us at our best, then we're going to congratulate them and shake their hands. But if we play at our best, we'll have a chance to win the game.

Q. You talked about watching tape. I wonder how you reflect on the second half of last night's game, down 14, how you came back. And again talk more about that game-winning shot and that last play. Was it a design play? Was it a one-on-one move?

COACH DUTCHER: We come back because we played hard on defense and we don't give in. You never see -- I shouldn't say never. You rarely see us frustrated on the floor, no matter how the game's going.

I always say the easiest thing to say as a coach, hardest thing to do, is say next play, just play the next play. I always tell the guy your biggest enemy is frustration, both individually and as a team. Don't be frustrated. Because if you're frustrated, you're not going to be able to play. Just keep playing. Just keep having a next-play mentality, and we'll have a chance to play ourselves into this game.

That's what happened. And Lamont Butler, you know, I've taken timeouts and I haven't taken timeouts out. But with the time and score, I just figured if we got the ball back with seven seconds, it was enough time to attack up the floor on a broken floor situation, you know, where the defense wasn't set.

Dusty May is a really good coach. If he had a chance to set his defense, it might have been harder to score. Even though the shot he took was hard, I thought being in broken floor with that amount of time was our best option.

Q. Do you have to convince your players at all that you can win this game? They're beating teams by an average of 20.6 a game in the tournament. The narrative is that this is just an eventuality that they're going to win. Do you have to convince your guys you have a shot?

COACH DUTCHER: No, because of the message we've been delivering all year. Our number one opponent is ourselves. So as good as Connecticut is, and we respect the heck out of them -- we will study and we will respect them -- but our standard of play is what our goal is. Play to our standard of play. And if they beat us at our highest standard, then they deserve to win. But we have to play up to our standard.

Q. There aren't a lot of centers anymore in the game like Sanogo who are a true low post threat. And Kalkbrenner is maybe a different body type, you face him. What are some of the things that stick out to you about him?

COACH DUTCHER: I love college basketball because the center still is valued. And the pro basketball game, used to be if you were a great center, you'd be in the NBA. Now they don't value the true center. They want a guy that can step out and shoot 3s and drive it and be a playmaker from the high post. And their metrics say does no good to throw the ball inside.

And I think college basketball has got it right. I think to throw that ball inside to create issues in that low post is winning basketball. So they have a capability of doing that, and so do we. We duck two posts in most of the time. We're not afraid to play two low posts and duck in. And what that does, if you miss a shot, you've got two guys in rebounding areas. You're not running in from the 3-point line to get a rebound. You have guys around the basket, if you miss a shot, you have a chance to be right there and get it. We found our best style of play this year is having guys ducking in, playing two guys down there.

Q. A lot of Steve Fisher talk from your past. You've always been gracious about giving credit to the coaches you've coached with. I want to go back to Lou Henson. Can you talk about how you got that job but also what you learned in that brief time with Lou Henson way back when?

COACH DUTCHER: Lou Henson was a head coach at University of Illinois. My dad was head coach at Minnesota. They used to speak at each other's summer camps. I would pick Lou up when I was in college and drive him to Northfield, Minnesota, or wherever the camp was, and I got to know Lou.

When I graduated college and I was looking for a grad assistant position, Lou Henson hired me. It showed the quality of character he had that he's hiring the son of a rival of Big Ten school's coach's son. He didn't worry about it. He didn't care about that.

I learned so much from Lou Henson. He was just a master psychologist. He knew how to manage his team. Never uttered a curse word in the two years I worked for him. And that's amazing. He was just a class individual. Got his name on two floors, New Mexico and the University of Illinois.

What a great first coach to work for. What a great mentor he was to me. And still think of Mary and obviously saddened over Lou's passing.

Q. Fish said during the course of the end of his career he spoke repeatedly on your behalf to ensure that you were going to stay the coach in waiting and be hired. What did that faith from him mean to you, and knowing that kind of your patience as a long-time assistant would eventually be rewarded?

COACH DUTCHER: Well, it made it easier for me not to jump after a good year. Not wondering, well, if coach retires after a bad year, they may not hire me for the job. Once they named me coach in waiting, then we both had the comfort to know that no matter what kind of year he wanted to finish on, I was going to be the next head coach.

And so I didn't have to be out worried about, well, geez, if we have a down year or two, I'm not going to be the head coach. He didn't have the pressure on him to make sure he left on the top. So Coach left when he wanted to. And he came in one day and told us all, I'm retiring, and you guys are taking over. It wasn't like I knew for a month. He decided and told us all the next day. It was holy smokes, now the work begins.

Q. You mentioned the Fab Five the other day, about it's a different time obviously with young players versus transfer portal. I'm curious what kind of connections you may still have with any of those guys but also what kind of memories or lessons do you remember from those Final Four runs when there was such a spectacle around them that maybe something that still sticks with you today?

COACH DUTCHER: Just I hear from all of them. I've heard from all of them. I heard from all of them yesterday after the win. So just, like I said, when you're a coach and you do it the right way, then they're family from then on. And they're family to me.

I just remember, you know, all the energy they brought around the game. Love 'em or hate 'em, they brought energy. And it was an amazing time to be around them and to watch their growth.

Like I said, to see what they've done professionally after basketball. That's everything. Isn't that the end goal, when the ball stops bouncing, you're doing something that's productive with your life? And that probably brings me the greatest joy to see Juwan coaching at Michigan. Obviously Jalen, ESPN. Chris had a great TV gig, and Jimmy and Ray, they've all made something beyond basketball. That's the goal of any coach is to make sure when the ball stops bouncing, you're successful. And they've all done that.

Q. Wanted to ask you about one of your assistants, JayDee Luster. You talked about on-court coaching and the recruit process, from his experience of coaching at University of Pacific, grad assistant at Arizona, how would you say his experience as a player and as a coach has been able to help him sort of relate to the guys and help you guys make this championship run?

COACH DUTCHER: Obviously JayDee Luster was player at Hoover High School in San Diego. We didn't recruit him. Started at New Mexico State, went to Wyoming. He beat us at Wyoming. Ran by the bench and yelled at us, "You should have recruited me." I told him, "You're lucky I hired you, JayDee, all that crap you talked."

But that shows the value he brought to the floor. He hit two threes on us in that game in Laramie. We ducked under a ball screen, he made it, and we ducked a second time, he made it again.

Obviously we value JayDee if I let him talk all that crap to me and still hired him.

Q. You got Lamont sitting right next to you now, but I was wondering if you could talk about the profile of him as a recruit. Obviously had offers from several other Pac-12 schools and yet still chose San Diego State. Why is he maybe the type of player that is key to building a program at San Diego State?

COACH DUTCHER: I just think it speaks to how long we've been good. I've got a picture of Lamont and I that I showed him when he visited. He was probably barely below my shoulders, that's how young he was when I first met Lamont. He had come to a game. I didn't even realize it until I looked at the picture.

He grew up knowing about San Diego State basketball. We didn't just show up at the last minute. And it's long relationships that make kids comfortable and want to come to your school, that they feel they know you, known you a long time. We knew Lamont a long time, knew what kind of person he was. A playmaker. He had that toughness about him. And we were so happy when he chose the Aztecs.

Q. Lamont, roughly 18 hours after hitting the biggest shot in Aztec basketball, you're walking back into this arena this morning. How does it feel? How has it hit you?

LAMONT BUTLER: It still feels amazing. Still unbelievable that we're in this position. But our focus is on winning the national championship. So I mean, we celebrated last night, but we're back focused, and we're going to get it done.

Q. Coach, you've said that view San Diego State as a high major program, consistently won conference championships, and maybe doesn't necessarily command the same national respect as a UCLA or Gonzaga or power conference team, how do you think this tournament run may change that national perception?

COACH DUTCHER: That's it. We have a national perception now. I think everybody out west has always known we've been good. But now that we're playing on the biggest stage, and we're winning on the biggest stage, I think a lot like when Gonzaga made that step, they did it on a national stage. And that's how they gained their respect. And hopefully this national stage will give us national respect. That's what I think it will do.

Q. While I'm sure you guys have spent the last 15, 16 hours watching tape, going over things and trying to get some sleep, in San Diego, it's been pure insanity. So I'm wondering if you guys have been able to see some of the videos of people, whether it be Petco, Viejas, or chasing cars downtown, and anything you'd like to say to them after watching said videos?

MATT BRADLEY: I'm aware of everything going on back in San Diego. Lamont just showed me a video before we came on stage of the students crowding College Avenue and right next to Epic Wings, and I think somebody tore down a sign and stuff like that.

So we love all that. The Padres are supporting us, the whole city, everybody, businesses, people, families. We love it all. We're just really thankful to have them.

LAMONT BUTLER: It's an awesome feeling to see that the whole city has our back no matter what happens. And we're going to keep doing it for them. We love them. We need their support and we're going to keep going.

COACH DUTCHER: As much as we're doing it for San Diego State University, we're doing it for San Diego, the city. They've embraced us. Like I said, we're the second pro team of San Diego. Padres baseball team, and San Diego State basketball is the second pro sport in San Diego. We're grateful for all the support we get from the city and so happy to represent it.

Q. Matt, you've been consistent since you came to San Diego State that you came to win. And with the one-time transfer rule and everybody being able to switch schools a little bit easier, what was it that you recognized -- you were a great player at Cal -- that you recognized in this program that you could be on this stage and you chose to be an Aztec?

MATT BRADLEY: In the recruiting process, they were really open with me and honest about, hey, Matt, we understand what you did at Cal, but here there's a culture you have to fit into. First off, defense. Second off, winning. And there's certain things I had to adjust in my game and also keep it within my game to adapt to that culture.

And with that one-time transfer rule, you don't have that chance to redshirt and get through those growing pains, and you kind of just have to hit the ground running once you get here. It was a long summer. There are a lot of stories I could tell about what I went through that summer just adapting to the culture. It made me such a better person and a player going through that stuff.

So I love the one-time transfer rule. It allows you to grow in a short amount of time that you probably have to do in a year in regular in terms of redshirting. I'm really glad I made that move.

Q. Lamont, you guys have been really successful in close games this year. I think you're 10-1 games decided by five points or less. You've had two huge shots. Why do you think you guys are so successful in close games?

LAMONT BUTLER: It's something we work on at practice. We do scenarios, one-minute, 30-second scenarios against our scout team, who is really good. Just kind of prepares us for these moments.

We had some struggles earlier in the season in close games. It's a credit to the coaches putting us in these scenarios before the game even starts.

Q. Lamont, you guys are again underdogs, seven and a half points, according to Vegas. How does that make you and the team feel to again just be in this underdog role?

LAMONT BUTLER: I thought we've been the underdogs this whole tournament. That's the mentality that went into it, the mentality that went into it every game. We're going to keep that mentality and keep on proving people wrong.

Q. What are your thoughts on UConn overall, how you guys match up with them, that type of thing?

MATT BRADLEY: UConn's a really good team. We've been seeing what they've been doing throughout the tournament. The wins they've been having are really impressive. But I think we match up with them really well. They're really physical. They're a big team. And we know we've just got to stick to our game plan. We're our own biggest competitors. If we just play our own game, I think we should come out with the win.

Credit to UConn, they're a really good team. We're definitely going to have to do some scouting and preparation for them but do what we've been doing to get to the championship game.

LAMONT BUTLER: Like Matt said, a real physical team. They can get it going on the outside. They have great shooters out there. On the inside, they have some big dudes down there. It's going to be a really good game. I feel we can do some things to slow them down. They're really good in transition and things like that. But like Matt said, we've got to focus on ourselves and we'll be prepared for them.

Q. A lot has been said about the Mountain West through these last two years. Bowing out in the first round. I know you've talked about this, but can you talk about the conference's strength and what this run kind of defines this conference?

COACH DUTCHER: This conference is hard. It's toughened us up to go to places we have to play, in Laramie and Logan and Albuquerque and Vegas, go down the list. Colorado State, play at altitude. Tough travel league. Nothing easy to get to. And I think we had an 8-2 road record this year. We've been battle-tested on the road. And I think it served us well playing in this tournament.