As Aztecs men's basketball coach Brian Dutcher plunged a fork into an omelet at a local restaurant, he was asked to chew on his five years running the program he waited so long to steer.
This first Division I head coaching gig for Dutcher, 62, has begun to show whiskers. Though he shared in the enormous attention as an assistant during Michigan's 1989 national title run and wow-worthy recruitment of the "Fab Five," the sidelines spotlight is fully and inarguably his now.
Viewing his time at San Diego State through one lens: Dutcher is the winningest coach and first to pile up 20 victories in each of the first five seasons in the 101-year history of the program.
Another lens: Despite the COVID-19 pandemic slamming the brakes on a 30-2 team with sky-high potential in 2020, he's still hunting his first NCAA Tournament win.
Transitioning from a legend like program-architect Steve Fisher, who sat just to Dutcher's right on the bench from that 1989 tournament until the spring of 2017, a stretch that touched the terms of five U.S. presidents, defies courtside geography.
"The greatest six inches in the history of the world," said Dutcher, with a chuckle. "It's like six miles. It dawns on you, 'OK, I'm replacing a guy who has his name on the floor.' "
No amount of advance warning that the San Diego State job would be his — seven years in his case, since he was named "coach in waiting" — completely prepares someone for that six-inch address change.
There are staff decisions. In-game approaches. Recruiting likes. Philosophy pivots.
There's …
"The pregame talk," Dutcher said. "You're trying to sense the mood of the room. Do I need to amp them up? Do I need to calm them down? When you know you have to give a speech, you sit there and think, what am I going to say? that's thoughtful and meaningful? I probably put more thought into that than the (first) game.
"Once the games are being played, I felt like I could coach at the pace of the game."
Dutcher initially leaned on principles from famed UCLA coach John Wooden's pyramid of success. Even if the age gap means some players are not familiar with the exceptional person behind those lessons, Dutcher reasoned "they stand the test of time."
Weighing the mental strategies behind the words caused Dutcher to smile at memories of Fisher quoting from "Mayberry R.F.D." or "Leave It to Beaver" in his day.
"Coach would talk about 'Cool Hand Luke' and it's like, c'mon," Dutcher laughed. "I'm sure my assistants laugh at my references. When I started as an assistant, I could talk to players about their music. Then I got older and talked to them like a father. Now I'm basically the age of their grandfather.
"My delivery has changed. I can't talk to them about music and try to be the hip coach at 62."
Dutcher's music?
"I still like the Beatles, the Stones, Simon and Garfunkel," Dutcher rattled off.
"Now, it's the Lumineers. I was a Springsteen guy. It's all the different eras you were raised in. But I like some of the rap they listen to now."
Toughest loss, moment
No men's basketball coach on Montezuma Mesa has won at a higher clip than Dutcher (74.8 percent). It's true, though, that the pre-Fisher program lacked consistent success and Dutcher's singular predecessor absorbed early L's doing the heavy lifting to build from rock-bottom up.
It's also true that Dutcher owns the highest win percentage against top-25 opponents, at 60 percent.
"If we weren't winning," the pragmatic Dutcher said, "I wouldn't be sitting here."
Coaches, of course, stew about the sunken-stomach losses more than the victories. Stir in freshness and wounds sting, still.
"Right now, the toughest loss is Creighton in the tournament last season," Dutcher said of the 72-69 overtime loss in Fort Worth, Texas. "We had a chance to advance in the NCAA Tournament. That's what we play for, that tournament."
Dutcher stands 0-3 in three trips, including a 67-65 defeat at the hands of Houston in 2018 and Syracuse's 78-62 rout in 2021.
"We've had some incredibly close games in the tournament," Dutcher said. "Creighton. Houston that first year. But that's the NCAA Tournament. It's a one-and-done situation. Just imagine what the NBA would be if it was one and done."
Something felt particularly cruel, however, about 2020 and the team that won 30 of 32 games before the NCAA rug was pulled.
Gifted scoring guard Malachi Flynn buoyed a trio of additions, including Yanni Wetzell and KJ Feagin, who were sandwiched around Matt Mitchell and Jordan Schakel. The team won at BYU, boat-raced Creighton and Iowa at the Las Vegas Invitational and came within a UNLV upset at Viejas Arena from running the Mountain West's regular-season table.
What if?
"You think you can (win a national title), but you never know," Dutcher said. "We had a great team. Look what Flynn has been doing in the summer league. He put up (73) one game. He had (52) in another game.
"But it's tough that they lost the last game that team playing on that Sam Merrill, step-back 3 (in the final of the MW tournament against Utah State). I told the guys, 'Don't sit on this too long. We played all this year to go (the NCAA Tournament). This is what we've been playing for.
"Then they never got to go."
Optimism reigns
Dutcher knows the NCAA Tournament wins will come. He struggles to conceal how excited he is about the upcoming team. The Aztecs generally excel when guided by veterans.
Scorer Matt Bradley, center Nathan Mensah and gritty forward Aguek Arop return as fifth-year players. Keshad Johnson enters year four and Lamont Butler hits lap No. 3.
"We're excited," Dutcher said. "You know what you're starting with. We've got a lot of returning players who are very good."
The addition of TCU transfer Jaedon LeDee has the potential to elevate the level of winning. The forward with a pair of seasons remaining has created his own behind-gym-doors lore as a relentless, physically imposing rebounder and dunker.
Dutcher smiled, rather than risk feeding the hype machine.
As always, the former coach-in-waiting remains a patient guy.
"I wasn't going to take a bad job," Dutcher said of his wait to shape the Aztecs. "I know how hard it is to survive in coaching until retirement. Some guys, they always think they're going to be the one to rebuild a bad program. The nature of it now is, you go somewhere, they give you three years. You don't even get your first recruiting class to their last year.
"You have be smart as to what jobs you take. When they named me coach in waiting, I knew I was going to take over a really good program."
Five years in, Dutcher has ensured it remains just that.
