The San Diego State Aztecs survived a March Madness opening round scare against the College of Charleston to advance to the second round. But they had no problem dispatching Furman in the second round to the tune of 75-52. Furman had upset No. 4 seed Virginia in the first round but their Cinderella story ended here. San Diego State is the only Mountain West team left in the NCAA Tournament after Boise State, Nevada and Utah State all lost. After the game, Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher spoke about his team's dominating defense being the key to the win via SB Nation's Mid-Major Madness.
San Diego State held Furman scoreless from the field for 10:57 in the first half.
Brian Dutcher speaks about how they built onto a 15-0 run. pic.twitter.com/uzEgDEtvMN
— Mid-Major Madness (@mid_madness) March 18, 2023
“Obviously we get two or three stops in a row then we can score a basket, we're going to build on most leads,” Dutcher said. “So I thought our defense was really good. We have the ability to play a center like he's a guard. Our bigs have good feet, our power forwards have good feet. We just felt playing Furman we were going against five guards. These guys are all really skilled and talented and that even though you're a center, you're guarding a guard tonight. I thought our defense set everything up for us.”
Brian Dutcher has been with San Diego State since 1999. He spent 18 years as an assistant coach under former head coach Steve Fisher. Dutcher succeeded Fisher as head coach when Fisher retired following the 2016-17 season. Dutcher has won three Mountain West Tournament Championships as head coach and has amassed a record of 148-46. He has San Diego State poised to make a deep March Madness run.
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