After the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, there’s a good bet that Eric Musselman and Brian Dutcher will have some highlights in this year’s “One Shining Moment” montage.
Dutcher’s San Diego State Aztecs advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2014 with their win over Furman on Saturday afternoon and a few hours later Musselman ripped off his shirt after beating top-seeded Kansas.
Eric Musselman TOOK HIS SHIRT OFF 🤣
Coach was HYPED after upsetting No. 1 Kansas pic.twitter.com/biB5m1Z4uS
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 18, 2023
Musselman’s energy may have drawn a chuckle from most college basketball fans, but it also may have made Gopher fans shed tears knowing that he or Dutcher could have done the same thing at Minnesota.
The Gophers have just two tournament appearances since Tubby Smith was fired in 2013 and replaced by Richard Pitino, who was subsequently replaced by Ben Johnson.
Pitino had guided Florida International to an 18-14 record in his lone season as a head coach (2012-13) but after three seasons, the Gophers had gone from a 25-13 record in 2013-14 to an 8-23 record in 2015-16. Pitino eventually turned it around, leading the Gophers to a fifth seed (and a first-round exit) in the NCAA tournament during the 2016-17 season.
That led to a contract extension for Pitino, but Minnesota stumbled to a 15-17 record in 2017-18, which coincided with Musselman thriving at Nevada.
Nevada won just nine games during the 2014-15 season but compiled a 24-14 record in the first season (2015-16) under Musselman. In 2016-17, Musselman led the Wolfpack to its first NCAA tournament appearance in a decade. The next season he took Nevada to the Sweet 16 to firmly cement himself on the national radar of up-and-coming coaches.
With a $1 million buyout in his contract, it would have made sense to tab the son of former Timberwolves head coach Bill Musselman the coach in Minnesota, but Pitino was fresh off a contract extension signed in 2017.
The Gophers stuck with Pitino, who guided Minnesota back to the NCAA tournament in 2018-19 and earned another two-year extension only to go 29-31 over the next two seasons before being fired after the 2020-21 season.
Meanwhile, Musselman led the Wolfpack back to the tournament and ranked as high as fifth in the AP poll before taking the head coaching job at Arkansas a few months later.
The Razorbacks went 18-16 in the final year of Mike Anderson’s tenure but after leading Arkansas to 20 wins in his first season, Musselman led Arkansas to a 25-7 record in Year 2 along with a top-10 ranking in the final AP poll and a berth in the NCAA tournament in 2020-21.
With the Minnesota job open at the time, the Gophers had the chance to hire Musselman by paying a $5 million buyout, but according to Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press, the athletic department was projected to lose $40 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic and still owed $42 million on its Athletes Village project.
Even if there were financial restraints, Musselman wasn’t the only option the Gophers missed out on.
Head coach Brian Dutcher believes the Aztecs can be even better … pic.twitter.com/EsWweatDWm
— Paul Garrison (@PadreDeCuatro) March 19, 2023
A long-time assistant under Steve Fischer, Dutcher was named the Aztecs coach in waiting in 2011 and took over after Fischer’s retirement in 2017. Dutcher led the Aztecs to 20 wins in each of his first two seasons and had them on track for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with a 30-2 record in his third season before the tournament was canceled due to the pandemic.
A 23-5 record and another trip to the NCAA tournament followed and Dutcher’s name came up in the Gophers’ coaching search after it was discovered that the buyout in his contract was $1 million for Minnesota and $6.9 million for any other school.
The son of former Gophers head coach Jim Dutcher, Brian had the bloodlines and the financial foundation that would have made sense, but Minnesota decided to go in a different direction, signing Johnson to a five-year, $9.75 million contract that made him the lowest-paid coach in the Big Ten.
In Johnson’s first two years, the Gophers have lost 39 of 61 games, including a last place finish in the Big Ten this season (9-22 overall).
An optimist can point to Johnson’s recruiting as a sign of growth as he landed several top Minnesota prospects including Pharell Payne, Braeden Carrington and Joshua Ola-Joseph, as well as incoming four-star guard Cameron Christie and 2024 prospect Isaac Asuma, but he’s lost just as much talent with 14 players transferring out of the program in the first two seasons.
With five-star recruit Dennis Evans asking for his release from the program before landing with NIL powerhouse Louisville, Johnson’s start with his alma mater has been shaky.
Musselman has gone 40-22 with an appearance in the Elite Eight and this year’s appearance in the Sweet 16 while Dutcher has gone 52-15 with two tournament appearances. Neither coach needed much time to get their programs going and it doesn’t appear that either will be slowing down anytime soon.
This doesn’t necessarily spell doom for the Gophers, but with Musselman and Dutcher succeeding in this year’s tournament, it’s an example of what might’ve been if either had been named head coach at Minnesota.
