Fresno State ends its basketball season with 20th loss. Will it end Hutson’s run as coach?
Fresno State came to the Mountain West Conference men’s basketball tournament needing to win games, with the job status of coach Justin Hutson in jeopardy.
The Bulldogs didn’t, in typical fashion.
Athletics director Terry Tumey said after a 67-65 loss to Colorado State on Wednesday in the first round of the tournament that he would meet with university president Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval back in Fresno. But that next step, one way or the other, will come soon and if a decision has not already been made the Bulldogs’ latest loss could not have helped given the rinse and repeat feel to it.
Fresno State, which finished 11-20 and with 20 or more losses for the first time since 2011-12, erased a 12-point deficit and had a 65-62 lead and possession of the basketball with 1:46 remaining. But the Bulldogs mangled their final three possessions and Colorado State, which advanced to the quarterfinal round and a matchup against No. 1-seed San Diego State, had what Fresno State has lacked much of the year.
That would be a consistent and confident presence at the offensive end in point guard Isaiah Stevens, who converted a three-point play on a drive to the basket to tie the score with 56 seconds remaining and then hit the winning basket after the Bulldogs whiffed at their end of the floor.
Hutson was trying to get to a 2-3 zone, but the Bulldogs stayed in man with point guard Isaiah Hill on Stevens. The Rams guard got into the paint, got a shot up and over Eduardo Andre and the Rams (15-17) had the lead.
“No excuses, man,” said Hutson, who is 80-73 after five seasons at Fresno State. “We had chances to win at the end of the game. In those situations it’s easy to point fingers. But there’s none of that in our locker room, from coaches to players, from players to coaches. We’re all in this together and we all hurt together.
“It’s disappointing. We were talking about how we’re going to come back and we made that comeback. We had a lead, and we had a three-possession game and nothing went right for us in those possessions.”
Hutson summed it up well, after a seventh loss this season by five points or fewer.
“We just didn’t quite find a way to win it at the end,” he said. “We found more of a way to lose it than to win it.”
Fresno State could have many of its key pieces back next season with some players taking advantage of COVID seasons. Hill and Jemarl Baker are a good place to start, as is Andre, the center who ended the season with a double-double, going for 20 points and 10 rebounds with two assists and two steals.
Little, from the start of the season, went to plan and injuries played a significant part. Scholarship players missed more than 100 total games due to injuries.
“This was a keep-fighting season,” Hutson said. “Injuries from the jump. Keep fighting. Losing close games. Keep fighting. Couple big wins. Keep fighting. Couple more injuries. Keep fighting. So this was the same message all year long. It’s not what happens to us, it’s how we’re going to react to it and we keep fighting. I told our team. That’s what we were. You saw it right there, with us coming back at the end of the game. But you can also be fair to say we haven’t learned how to win at the end of games, and we work on that quite a bit.”
Hutson, who has one year remaining on his contract and would be paid $33,333.33 a month through the end of the deal in April 2024 if Fresno State moves on, made it clear where he stands on his job status.
“I hope they give us another year,” he said. “If they give us another year, we’ll be pretty good.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 4:50 PM.