Brian Dutcher is more CEO than shift manager at San Diego State basketball practices, acting as a quality control supervisor, quietly patrolling the sidelines, sometimes circling the floor, sometimes sitting, letting his assistants run drills and teach skills, chiming in for emphasis.
But something clicked earlier in the week, something changed.
Maybe it was after watching film of the first intrasquad scrimmage.
Maybe it was seeing five of his projected rotation pieces sidelined by various injuries.
Maybe it was looking at the preseason projections of a respected computer metric and seeing the Aztecs, after reaching the championship game and Sweet 16 in the past two years, at No. 77.
Maybe it was seeing one publication forecast them to finish sixth in the Mountain West and another seventh.
Maybe it was looking at the calendar and realizing the opener is less than a month away, and a closed-door scrimmage against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion less than two weeks away.
Dutcher was active and animated.
And vocal … more vocal than he has been at practice in years, maybe ever. There was an edge to his tone, an urgency.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff to do,” Dutcher said as he enters his eighth season as SDSU’s head coach and 26th with the program. “I mean, it’s a lot a new guys, so we knew it was going to be a longer process. There’s just a lot more to do. We’re trying to concentrate on every detail, and that’s hard to do with all these new guys.
“But it has to be done if we’re going to be any good.”
Longtime assistant Dave Velasquez encapsulated the sentiment in the huddle after a particularly — how shall we put it? — inconsistent practice: “Guys, the season’s coming.”
It’s an unusual and uncomfortable position for Dutcher and his staff, replacing all five starters from the Sweet 16 loss last March against eventual champion Connecticut, trying to integrate three key transfers who have all been hurt and missed practice, going from a rotation of all juniors and seniors two years ago to one that likely will include five freshmen or sophomores.
Ramping up the anxiety meter even more: the schedule.
It includes four experienced, talented opponents in the opening month, back-to-back-to-back-to-back, that will be ranked in the preseason Associated Press top 25 or receive serious consideration. And that doesn’t include the Oct. 20 scrimmage against UCLA, also expected to be ranked.
Gonzaga, which has been as high as No. 3 in some preseason polls, comes to Viejas Arena on Nov. 18. That’s immediately followed by the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas against Creighton, Oregon and Texas A&M.
“That’s my biggest concern,” Dutcher said. “I know we’ve got a good team. We have good talent that cares about the right things and practices the right way. But how soon are we a good team with all those individuals remains to be seen.
“I always say we get better as the year goes on, but we have to be good in November this year, if possible, because of the schedule we play. We’re not playing a nonconference schedule where we can just stack up wins and then get to the conference and see what we are. We have to be ready for those early November opportunities, and that’s a hard thing to do.”
Here are four things on a growing to-do list between now and then:
1. The injury list
Nick Boyd finally was cleared for practice after nearly three months in a protective boot on his left foot.
Then Reese Waters, his likely backcourt mate in the starting lineup, was limited to the exercycle with a foot issue.
That’s how it has been since summer workouts began in July.
All but one or two of the 12 scholarship players have missed anywhere from days to weeks with different maladies — USD transfer Wayne McKinney III with his hamstring, Middle Tennessee transfer Jared Coleman-Jones with his shoulder, freshman Pharaoh Compton with his hip, sophomore Miles Heide with his knee, sophomore Miles Byrd with his back.
Much of it is precautionary, knowing the season doesn’t start until November and then stretches through March. And saving legs now can reap benefits in the dog days of the season.
The issue is that, unlike recent years, this isn’t a roster full of veteran returnees who have played together and been through the college basketball wars.
It’s new, and new needs time to marinate.
“It will just mean it’s a longer process,” Dutcher said. “When you’ve got everybody, the process is obviously quicker and smoother. When you don’t have everybody out here, you know that when you eventually get them all out there you have a chance to have a good team, but you have to be accepting that it might take longer to get to that team you want to be. There’s no rushing the process when guys are hurt.
“You can say: I think we’re going to be this. But until they’re out there together, you’re not going to know.”
The good news is the Aztecs are trending in the positive direction. McKinney, Coleman-Jones and Heide all participated in Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage after sitting out last week’s. Boyd is inching closer to full clearance for live action. Dutcher is hoping to have Waters back soon, too.
That should give them about two weeks with the full roster before the Nov. 6 opener against UC San Diego.
The leaders
Boyd sat on one of the benches during Saturday’s scrimmage. Or, more accurately, stood.
He had his teammates standing, too. Had them chanting, ‘Dee-fense, dee-fense,” when the other team had the ball.
When one of his teammates stopped cheering, he nudged him.
Boyd practiced only a couple times with his new team in July before injuring his foot and being condemned to the sideline. But the protective boot was on his foot, not his mouth. He’s remained a vocal presence — arguably the most vocal presence — in practice, cheering from the sides, clapping, coaching, cajoling.
“It’s who I am as a person, on and off the court,” Boyd said. “I feel like I’m a great connector when it comes to people. Especially in this NIL era (with lots of roster turnover), it’s sometimes hard for teams to connect. If you can’t connect, nine times out of 10 you won’t win a lot of games.
“I definitely had one agenda coming into this offseason, which was getting the trust of my teammates. That was the most important thing: just do little things and let them know I really want to win and I’m about the right things, especially coming from a different program.”
McKinney has been vocal as well. So has Byrd, in his third year with the program.
It was something lacking from last season’s team, which had plenty of lead-by-example types but no true vocal leaders.
“They’ve done a good job, huddling up after every drill, talking to one another, trying to motivate one another,” Dutcher said. “We’ve always said this for a million years: There are two kinds of teams, player-driven and coach-driven. Player-driven teams are always better. I think they’ve done a good job of investing not only physically but vocally this year. That’s usually a good sign.”
Talk and trust can be two different things, though. The latter takes time, which makes the next few weeks crucial to establishing it.
The rotation
Dutcher typically chooses a starting lineup and sticks with it. He’s got to choose one first, though, and now he’s got three weeks to figure it out.
The backcourt appears more set, with Boyd, Waters and Byrd being the most logical trio if healthy. But that still leaves versatile 6-foot-6 freshman Taj DeGourville (who had 14 points in Saturday’s scrimmage), McKinney (who had 13), sophomore BJ Davis and Brown grad transfer Kimo Ferrari to battle for rotation minutes.
The frontcourt is less certain and could go several ways, given its depth, size and versatility. There is so much depth, in fact, that 7-foot freshman Thokbor Majak is expected to redshirt.
That still leaves five bigs, all 6-8 or taller: Gwath, Coleman-Jones, Heide, Compton and junior Demarshay Johnson Jr.
The 3-point shooting ability of the 7-foot Gwath, 6-10 Coleman-Jones and 6-10 Heide allows them to flex to a 4, which gives Dutcher even more lineup options.
The Aztecs have had to replace four starters in the Dutcher/Steve Fisher era, most recently in 2011-12. They’ve never had to replace all five.
“That’s the beauty of college athletics: You turn rosters over,” Dutcher said. “I don’t like turning them over as quickly as we are now with the transfer portal. But you don’t have a franchise player you keep for seven, eight, nine years. You’re flipping rosters.”
The offense
Last season it was simple: Get the ball to Jaedon LeDee, then get out of the way.
The sixth-year senior averaged 21.4 points, took 21.7 percent of their shots and was the Karl Malone Award winner as the nation’s top power forward.
He’s gone, along with 79.3 percent of last season’s points, 76.5 percent of the rebounds, 83.2 percent of the assists and just under 75 percent of the minutes.
Dutcher is not a system guy who fits players into a pre-ordained structure, instead annually adjusting his offense to his personnel. The last few seasons, they’ve had ball-dominant scorers in LeDee and, before him, Matt Bradley. This year, it’s more democratic.
The idea is to borrow concepts from programs like Alabama and UConn plus some European pro clubs that feature more ball and player movement, using both sides of the floor to get all five players involved.
“You win a national championship, people are going to look at what you’re doing,” Dutcher said of UConn, which ran a dizzying array of sets that involved constant screens and cuts. “But obviously, the fine line is they’ve got really good players, too – two or three first-round draft picks. They could maybe run any offense in the country and still be good.
“This (Aztecs) team seems to move better and move the ball better, so maybe it will be less attacking one-on-one and more player and ball movement.”
They looked better at it in their second intrasquad scrimmage than their first, improving from a combined 63 to 68 points in the 20-minute segment with officials despite not having maybe their two most potent scorers in Boyd and Waters.
The opening possession was a high/low action from Heide to Gwath for a lob dunk. The other squad countered with a corner 3 by McKinney. Gwath made a 3 to tie it in the final minute: DeGourville responded with a deep 3 to win it. In all, nine different players scored and five had multiple baskets.
The new offensive system, though, requires reads and reactions that require time to master — something that is in increasingly short supply as the calendar ticks toward the season.
“We’re making strides in the right direction, but we’ve still got to keep going,” Dutcher told his players afterward. “Every day is a grind.”
Originally Published:
