Everything Brian Dutcher Said After SDSU’s 77-66 Win Over Utah Valley

SDSU HC Brian Dutcher speaking to the media post game after the Aztecs defeated Utah Valley Wednesday night, December 3, 2025.

There goes part of our 59 points off the bench today. Scored 77 and 59 off the bench. Three double digit scores off the bench: Pharaoh, Tae, and BJ. So, Bird got two IVs before the game today. Didn’t practice for two days. Was sick. So he tried to come in and gut it out, play hard. Heide obviously went down, got undercut, fell on his back, so we couldn’t use him. So that’s where our depth paid off for us. You know, we had the depth to endure injuries, endure illness, and still find a way to come out with a win. We fought. I mean, we held a team to 66 points. How about that? So, that’s pretty good. And we put in a game plan. We changed our ball screen coverage for this game. And for three days, we worked on it. We did a good job executing. 

I think our defense set the tone for their offense. They weren’t running smooth at a lot of the things they did. That was a credit how we defended them. And then we made a couple late game adjustments, and we were able to follow those too. So, we’re making progress, but I told them, “We’re not going to practice any different whether we win or lose. Practice is practice, and we have to get better.” And I’m not that guy. I tell them, “Am I any different after a loss than I am after a win?” No, I just come steady every day, and we have a steady program because we just work to get better. There’s no highs and lows. Although we’re disappointed when we lose, we’re able to put it behind us quickly and move on to the next game because, you don’t want to sit there, like Tae said, and dwell on Troy. 

We all know Troy was—if we beat Troy and then we lose two in Vegas, we’re like, “Oh, wow. Okay, well, Michigan beat everyone by 40. We beat Oregon, and then we were ahead against Baylor in the second half, competitive game, and everything’s fine.” But everybody, the Troy loss just magnifies everything. So it puts more pressure to win games, and that’s a good thing. At some point in the season, you’re going to feel pressure. So we were feeling it a little bit early, you know, trying to get our team better, and it—whether the outcome of these games changed or not, we have to get better, and we know that, and I thought we made a step in the right direction today.

On the talented freshman Tae Simmons: 

Yeah, we started in the second half. He started two freshmen in the second half within a veteran team. So that’s how valued those guys are. And Tae started the second half because of the way he rebounded in the first half. You know, he made a lot of really big plays, but like freshmen, he broke down on a couple defensive assignments late in the second half. But with that being said, he’s guarding their best player, Hulk, who is the playmaker, drives it, makes plays for everyone. And so that’s a challenge when you put a freshman on their best player, in my opinion. And I thought he did a good job responding for the most part. So I’m pleased with the fact that we let them cut it to three and we didn’t give in or wilt. We found a way to play competitive basketball and build the lead back up in that last two minutes.

On Tae Simmons competing for a starting position similar to how Pharaoh Compton and Miles Heide going back & forth:

Yeah, it all depends. Like right now, it’s a struggle for Goon because Goon’s trying to play himself back into shape. You know, anybody that’s watched Magoon play over the last two years knows that he’s not what he was a year ago because it’s just taking time to get himself into game shape. So, at times we’ll rotate Goon into that center spot too and play JO and Tae at the power forward as Goon works his way back into shape. So, we have enough depth of the rotation, and we’re playing Goon, I think today, maybe three or four minute stretches, you know, to try to get him. And coming out of Vegas, he got sick two days and didn’t practice. He had a bad ankle. So, that all slows down the recovery. You know, you lose a couple pounds, you lose a step conditioning–wise, and he’s on the fight to get back. And I told him that when he came back, that as ready as you think in your mind you are, it’s going to take a while physically to get back to where you want to get. So just know that. Know I believe in what you’re doing, and we will get you there over time. And he’ll get there, but he’s not there yet. And so, our bench is critically important.

On the team’s resiliency, able to battle back: 

Yeah, really good. You know, when you lose a couple games, are they going to give in? Are they going to fight through and get a win? You know, and they fought through and got a win. And how about Coach Dutcher? Two-and-0 on the challenges today, huh. So I won two today. So that’s unbelievable. I’m yelling at the guys behind the bench, “What’s the replay look like?” They—finally I gave in, just said, okay, we’ll challenge it anyway. So it’s—basketball is hard. I mean, every win is so important, and losses can happen anywhere to anybody. So winning games is hard. So we got to enjoy it when we win one, and we’re going to enjoy winning.

On liking the in-game challenge system:

It’s still replay. You saw what I did. I tried to throw a sub in to get more time to see if they saw anything. Then I put another sub in trying to—I don’t even know if I wanted subs in, but I’m trying to delay the start of the game so I can get the managers or the guys to look on the pad to see if they can see what really happened. And eventually, I never got a response, and they’re—I’ll challenge it anyway at this point. I think there was three or four minutes to go. 

On players being vocal about challenging a play: 

Yeah, every player always wants to challenge everything, you know. And you know how it is. You watch these replays, and the ball changes direction three times, so who ever really knows who hit it last? No one’s going to think they did, but you’d like a replay. And even the charge was tough. They had to look at seven different angles because they couldn’t find one real clear. But I think if they looked enough angles, they found Taj took that charge, and that was hard. So these replays can go either way. You know that.

On knowing wether to challenge in this game:

I tried to ask, see if we had a view of it on the replay. So I think they had enough of one where we decided we were going to do it. And I looked up at the scoreboard and kind of saw it and thought it was close enough I would challenge it. 

On momentum of winning both challenges in this game: 

Yeah, we made timely plays. We made important plays, and Pharaoh made a bunch of them. You know, if he makes two dunks, he’s got 16 points. I mean, how often does he miss a dunk? They just wouldn’t go in tonight. But he stuck with it and kept playing and kept battling through. So that’s what it is. You know, every night we have enough players, someone steps up. You know, Reese struggled at the start of the game. He got some looks that didn’t go in, but I thought down the stretch, he really attacked strong to the basket. With the game on the line, he didn’t settle for jump shots. He got it, caught it on the dribble, and went right to the rim and finished it and maybe got fouled, you know. So I thought his aggressiveness down the stretch was important to the victory.

On BJ Davis’ standout play so far and coming off the bench with 18 points: 

Yeah. Well, I think anybody watching the Aztecs play would say maybe the five best players aren’t starting. BJ’s obviously been one of our best players, but the spark he provides off the bench—who else is going to do that? I mean, he’s been dynamic off the bench. He changes the rhythm of the game when he comes in, you know? So sometimes that’s what it is. You know, I try to tell BJ every day how much I value him, and I don’t want him to be sad he’s not starting when he’s playing so well, but what he’s providing us off the bench is immeasurably important. I think he knows that.

On wether he forsaw BJ Davis’ hot start to the season: 

Yeah, he’s had games like that last year where he’s put up big numbers. He just didn’t do it consistently. And today, you know, he got going, and I think he felt like we should have been running a few more plays for him in the second half or in the end of the first half. And I just told him, BJ, guess what? The other team knows you’re playing good too, right now. They’re putting extra attention on you. So keep playing. Find opportunities within what we do and be aggressive. And that’s what he did. He was dynamic off ball screens in the second half, getting downhill for us.

On what he has seen from Freshman Elzie Harrington running the offense: 

Yeah, Elzie does a good job, but he’s a freshman. He’s learning every time, and he’s playing the hardest position, playing point guard, you know. So he walks the line like all good point guards: when is it a good time to shoot and when is it a good time to get my teammates involved? And no coach can tell you that. That’s a feel that a player has to have. Like, when is it a good time where I can just move the ball knowing it’ll come back to me a play later and I can get a basket—a timely basket. So any point guard walks the line, and no coach can tell a point guard, a truly good one, how to play. That’s instinctive. And I think his instincts are pretty good, and they’ll grow even better as he plays at this level.

On Senior transfer Sean Newman Jr. after seven games? 

He’s like anything else. He’s played through his frustration. He’s come out on the other side, and he’s competing at a high level. I mean, this is a guy that started every game and played every minute at his last school, and he’s here coming off the bench, and his minutes were limited. And he found a way—through faith and through belief in himself—to play through the hard times and play himself into an important role now. And that’s what it is. Everybody goes through those times. You have to believe in yourself. You have to believe the coaches are—the better you play, the more opportunities you’ll have. And he’s played his way through that by competing at a high level and playing himself into minutes, not being given minutes. So he’s done a good job of coming out the other side of a slow start.

On noticing the plus-minus during the game:

I look at halftime. I’ll look at plus-minus in the first half, you know, and take a peek at it amongst other things. So, you know, numbers are going to—some of them are going to tell you whatever you want to make them tell you. You know, sometimes you watch your eyes and see maybe the guy’s minus, but maybe he’s playing with three other guys that aren’t playing well at all, and he’s holding up his end—but he’s in with a bad group at that particular game. So sometimes that can be skewed by if other guys aren’t playing well with you. So I kind of look at all that.

On a supposed offensive goaltending in the first half: 

I asked them if I could challenge it, and they said no. If it was called goaltending or if it was called something, then I could have challenged it. Because there was no call on it, they couldn’t challenge it. That’s what they told me. I would have challenged it if I was told I could challenge it, because he grabbed the rim. It was—the ball was going in. So not only did I not get to challenge it, they went back and looked at it and gave him three. They did go back and look at it and gave him an extra point. So that was—that was a double loss for Coach Dutcher. So I don’t—I don’t know.

On Heide taking a heavy fall in the first half and not returning:

Yeah, I was concerned about Miles. That’s a hard fall. He fell really hard, and so I didn’t want to put him back in because you know how backs are; they probably stiffen up where if I put him back in, it’d probably take a while to get that back loose again. So he’ll get to the doctors, he’ll get his treatment, and we’ll ease him back in. You know, he’ll be sore for a day or two. There’s no question. But Miles is a tough kid. You know, he rarely misses anything. So he’ll find his way back onto the floor, I’m sure.

On struggling defensively and making improvements:

It’s not where it’s driven. Everybody drives the ball. We have to make them drive it where we want him to drive it—where the help is, you know. So today, with our game plan, we didn’t want it down the baseline. And when it got down the baseline, we had some trouble. So we tried to send it all middle, where the help was, because we knew there was help in the middle. So when we got beat on the game plan, it’s because we didn’t direct the ball where we wanted it directed. So that happens. So we have to continue to give them game plans we think will work, and then they have to find a way to try to execute them against teams that want to go certain places too. So they did. They’re a good team.

On forcing everything to the middle defensively in the past and this groups struggles with that:

No, it’s sometimes like if they start real high and go down the baseline, we’re pressuring. It’s not on the wing and send it middle. They’re pressuring the ball too much, and the guy drives down the slot to the baseline. That’s just pressuring without good purpose. Like, pressure—but don’t let them go by you all the way from the top all the way to the baseline. Sometimes that’s just learning. That’s what UCLA did to us in the first game. And it happened a couple times today where we were pressuring, but we didn’t direct with our pressure. So it’s all learning lessons. So I thought we had a great—we followed our game plan really good. And then they started setting a step–up screen to go down the baseline. And I told them in timeout, when they set that, we have to switch it. Just switch it. And they got a basket on it. And then the second time they did it, we switched it, and BJ peeled off and boxed out the big, and it went great. So they were able to make an adjustment to what I told them in a timeout. And that’s always good to see—where they didn’t act confused when it happened again. They knew just what I wanted to do. So that’s a step in the right direction.