Brian Dutcher

But the reason that Gladden makes this list is because of another transfer, Nick Anderson.

Transfer from Rice, who was far and away the best transfer portal addition for Coach Brian Dutcher in San Diego State.

Guy had 15 points per game in the American last year.

But Nick Anderson suffered a season-ending knee injury a few months ago and really kind of threw SDSU into the lurch.

That's part of the reason that you see those struggles.

So that's going to be a challenge.

Now, the flip side of that is that Brian Dutcher and San Diego State have really succeeded.

with guards in the past.

four or five times over the last couple of years wazoo obviously both of them were in the wcc as affiliate members uh so gonzaga got comfortable playing both of them playing at beasley coliseum uh and uh in corvallis at gill coliseum and then of course hosting them at home they're used to it's a new coaching staff for oregon state so that'll be different in a very new roster but again at least they're familiar with the program and familiar with what is the absolute furnace That is Gil Coliseum in Corvallis, of course, familiar with David Riley and Wazoo from the last couple of years as well.

Gonzaga is also familiar with Brian Dutcher in San Diego State, having played the Aztecs at V.A. House Arena, having hosted the Aztecs, having played against Dutcher's specific style and coaching and the types of personnel that they bring in.

So those are three programs that I feel Gonzaga is comfortable with.

Doesn't mean it's going to be easy.

And I think if you, it's not very common these days, other than probably Gonzaga, uh, I don't know that there's any other staff where people have been at a school for that long.

And I think you can see, though, like, you know, so Brian Dutcher was Steve Visser's first hire, and they worked together at Michigan.

And so, you know, he was so much a big part of what Steve did for so long.

But also Dave Velasquez, who's likely to be, I think, the next head coach there.

And those guys have been together for so long.

Like they, they, they finish each other's sentences.

They know what everyone's thinking and, It also allows someone like Brian Dutcher to not have to do everything.

Right.

And one of the things that the Dutch and the Aztecs have always done well is not only developing talent over two, three, four years down in San Diego, but also identifying talent.

Brian Dutcher has never been a coach that's bringing in a bunch of high four-star, top 30, top 40 guys.

Even before the advent of NIL and the fact that money was really permeating the sport, even before that, they weren't getting those players.

Even when they were consistently winning the Mountain West, consistently making solid runs in March, they still weren't really recruiting at that level because they found ways to identify kids that fit their system.

tough kids, often very raw, raw athletic kids who are better on defense than offense, super athletic type guys.

They found those players who were getting under-recruited by power conference programs and went out and targeted them early, developed them over the course of two to three years and watched them explode into incredibly talented players by the time they're juniors or seniors.

That is still the M.O. for Brian Dutcher and San Diego State.

That's still what they're trying to do.