BRIAN DUTCHER

San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher wants players to think defense before offense, and the approach is working.

Darrion Trammell converted a go-ahead free throw after he was fouled on a floater with 1.2 seconds left, and San Diego State muscled its way into its first Final Four, grinding out a 57-56 victory over Creighton in the South Region final.

March has gone from madness to unprecedented.

Darrion Trammell and San Diego State used a dominant defensive performance to knock top overall seed Alabama out of the NCAA Tournament, bottling up All-America freshman Brandon Miller in a 71-64 victory in the Sweet 16.

Brian Dutcher will always be known as the guy who spent all those years at Steve Fisher's side, winning the NCAA title at Michigan in 1989 and recruiting the Fab Five before helping to build San Diego State into a West Coast power. Dutcher has added to it with his first two March Madness wins in his six seasons as head coach and hopes there's more to come for SDSU. Awaiting the Aztecs is a Sweet 16 matchup with overall No. 1 seed Alabama in Louisville in the South Region on Friday, with the No. 5 seed Aztecs looking for their first-ever trip to the Elite Eight.

Princeton forward Tosan Evbuomwan spent three college seasons fighting through one disappointment after another.

San Diego State had little trouble ending the run of March Madness darling Furman, getting 16 points from Micah Parrish to pace a balanced scoring attack and pulling away for a 75-52 win on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Holy Cross found out Sunday it would face second-seeded Maryland in the women’s NCAA Tournament.

(AP Photo/AJ Mast)INDIANAPOLIS – The decades-old zone defense of Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim claimed another frustrated victim Friday night. Marek Dolezaj added 11 points as Syracuse (17-9) advanced to play third-seeded West Virginia, an 84-67 winner over No. It gets harder to drive.”“Buddy Buckets” nearly outscored San Diego State by himself. Schakel finally got a 3-pointer to go right out of halftime, giving the few San Diego State fans in the crowd a long-awaited reason to cheer. San Diego State hoped to make a deep run after its loaded 30-2 team last season missed out on a chance to play in the tournament.

4 San Diego State improved to 20-0 to match Kawhi Leonard's 2010-11 team for the best start in school history. Flynn scored 18 points and Wetzell dominated inside with 14 points for San Diego State, which opened with a suffocating defense to beat Wyoming 72-55 Tuesday night. The Aztecs (20-0, 9-0 Mountain West) remained the nation's only unbeaten team. San Diego State: The Aztecs remain without center Nathan Mensah, who missed his seventh straight game with a respiratory ailment. San Diego State is at UNLV on Sunday.

San Diego State forward Yanni Wetzell (5) slaps hands with guard Malachi Flynn (22) after scoring during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Nevada, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020, in San Diego. They prided themselves on the defensive end and it often just translated to the offense.”This SDSU team prides itself on defense, too. Because Wetzell and fellow grad transfer KJ Feagin have seen clips of Leonard’s team, they were asked how a theoretical matchup between that team and the current team would go. “So that’s kind of a fun little motivator, to catch a team in Aztecs history that’s been so good. We’ll have our challenges tomorrow.”Dutcher raves about the maturity and experience Wetzell, Feagin and junior transfer Malachi Flynn have brought to the Aztecs.

San Diego State's Yanni Wetzell drives past Fresno State's Nate Grimes during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Fresno, Calif., Tuesday Jan. 14, 2020. 7 San Diego State Aztecs have “The Map” of the United States all to themselves. “When Auburn went down, we started getting the pictures of ‘The Map.’ San Diego State was the entire map, so it was pretty cool.”San Diego State fans have been enamored with the “The Map” on social media as their team has gotten off to the second-hottest start in school history. Since late December, San Diego State and Auburn split the map. “We cover the moon and Mercury and Mars and Jupiter, San Diego State on all of them.

(AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)FRESNO, CA – San Diego State won’t make any scoring highlight reels with games like their one against Fresno State, yet the Aztecs might make it deep into the NCAA Tournament. 7 the Aztecs relied on a suffocating defense to shut down Fresno State 64-55 on Tuesday night. San Diego State (18-0, 7-0 Mountain West Conference) remains one of two unbeaten teams in Division 1, along with Auburn. “I was leaving the hotel (earlier) and saw Clemson beat Duke on the road,” Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said. The victory gave San Diego State the series sweep and extended its conference lead to two games over New Mexico and UNLV.

FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2019 file photo, San Diego State guard KJ Feagin during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against San Diego Christian in San Diego. San Diego State basketball is the hottest ticket in town again. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)SAN DIEGO, CA – San Diego State basketball is back to being the hottest ticket in town. “For San Diego, we are the pro basketball team, San Diego State. “They were a Sweet 16 team, and people talk about Sweet 16, but we’re trying to go further than that.