In this era of huge roster turnover and bonanza power conference payrolls, it is nearly impossible for a mid-major program to build retention. Somehow, that is what San Diego State has done — again.
The Aztecs fielded one of their youngest teams in years last season and it showed. The team finished 21-10 (14-6 Mountain West) and was blitzed 95-68 by North Carolina in the First Four. Given the current environment, where power conference teams have near bottomless budgets to procure talent, coach Brian Dutcher braced himself. When the season ended, however, just one rotational player transferred out. Two starters graduated, but the rest of the top guys are all returning. That includes 6-foot-7 sophomore guard Miles Byrd, who on Wednesday withdrew his name from the NBA Draft and will be San Diego State’s top returning scorer next season.
How did coach Dutcher do it? “I want to say it’s culture because I’ve been here 25 years, but as soon as you start talking about your culture, in a year from now eight guys leave and everyone says, what happened to the culture?” Dutcher told Hoops HQ. “But to have retention at 80 percent or higher is unheard of. I mean, there are teams that lost their entire roster. I think it’s a combination of culture and good fortune that we have a good group of guys. And that gets back to recruiting.”
Byrd’s decision to return is a huge boost to the program’s hopes of improving its fortunes during its final season in the Mountain West before moving on to the Pac-12 in 2026-27. The dynamic wing from Stockton, Calif., was the team’s second-leading scorer (12.3 points per game) and passer (2.7 assists) as a freshman but only shot 30.1 percent from three-point range. Byrd had been on the radars of NBA scouts all season. His decision to remain in the draft right up until the deadline indicates just how close he was to getting a first-round guarantee.
“I thought it’d be fifty-fifty whether we’d have Bird back,” Dutcher said. “Obviously we’re overjoyed. That being said, I told him, you can’t come back and be the player you were. You have to make the next step. We have to get some weight on you. You have to become more efficient. And I think he’s ready to do that because he’s a hard worker and a really good kid.”
San Diego State’s lone transfer was leading scorer and starting point guard Nick Boyd, who took his 13.4 point scoring and 3.9 assists per game to Wisconsin. To replace him and the graduating players, Dutcher tapped into the portal himself. He signed 6-foot-1 senior guard Sean Newman, Jr., whose 7.9 assists-per-game average for Louisiana Tech was third in the nation last season while averaging 9.9 points, and San Jose State shooting guard Latrell Davis, a 6-foot-3 junior who averaged 11.1 ppg and shot 38.3 percent from beyond the three-point arc.
The Aztecs also added former Wyoming and DePaul forward Jeremiah Oden (7.5 points per game on 42.6 percent shooting in four seasons) and inked a pair of Top 100 freshmen in guard Elzie Harrington and forward Tae Simmons.
And with big man Magoon Gwath, the Mountain West freshman and defensive player of the year who averaged 8.5 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.6 blocks, returning after flirting with both the NBA and the portal — “He had some Zooms with people,” Dutcher acknowledged — along with guard Reese Waters (9.6 ppg on 40.1 percent shooting in 2023-24) and forward Pharoah Compton (5.4 points, 2.4 rebounds per game), the Aztecs will once again have a fully loaded roster.
Waters’ return is especially notable after he missed all of last season due to a stress fracture in his right foot. He began the season as a preseason all-conference selection. Gwath is also recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee after he hyperextended it in February. “Magoon’s on a little slower track,” Dutcher said, “but he’ll be ready at the start of the season.”
It should be an interesting last go-round in the Mountain West, which SDSU helped found in 1999, the same year Dutcher came to Montezuma Mesa with Steve Fisher and led the team to an 0-14 conference record. Since then, SDSU has established itself as arguably the best non-power conference basketball program outside of Gonzaga. Those two will anchor the reimagined Pac-12. “Any conference that has Gonzaga and San Diego State is a good place to start … it’s the best basketball on the West Coast,” Dutcher said.
The Aztecs were an also-ran in the West before Dutcher arrived as Fisher’s top assistant in 1999. They had only appeared in three NCAA Tournaments in their history and did not win a March Madness game until 2011. Fourteen of their 17 all-time tournament appearances have come with Dutcher in town and the Aztecs are a combined 7-3 in their last three Big Dances.
So how long has the 65-year-old Dutcher, whose own resume includes stops at Illinois, South Dakota State and, perhaps most famously, Michigan, where he initially joined Fisher as an assistant in 1988, been at this whole coaching thing? Long enough that today’s players and fans sometimes have to be gently reminded he had more than a hand in assembling the transcendent Fab Five of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson, for Michigan back in 1991, let alone landed Kawhi Leonard at San Diego State in 2009.
“I’ve survived a full fashion trend,” Dutcher laughed. “When I got to Michigan, the shorts were small and tight. Then I helped with the baggy shorts and that look. Now, they’re small and tight again.”
Dutcher, though, has proven he has staying power. Because while continuity is the exception in college hoops in general, it is the norm for him and the Aztecs. “It’s about the culture of the program,” he said. “Try 25 years here. That’s culture.”
