Dutcher steps down as basketball assistant

Brian Dutcher, an assistant coach of the Michigan basketball team, resigned yesterday.

"I spent ten years here (at Michigan), and it's just time to leave," he said. "It's time to get on with something new and to let (the team) get on with something new. I want to try to be a head coach."

Dutcher says he is considering head coaching offers. Although he couldn't comment on any specific others, he said, "It's just a matter of where I want to be."

Dutcher

Dutcher has been considering leaving Michigan for "a long time," and said that the opportunities that came along to him earlier just didn't feel right.

Sunday, Dutcher called Michigan guard Travis Conlan, with whom he's grown close, and "said he was 'just sitting here deciding what I am going to do,'" Conlan said.

Yesterday, Dutcher called Conlan to tell him he had resigned.

Dutcher was disappointed when he was passed up for the head coaching job at Michigan just seven months ago, when current coach Brian Ellerbe was hired.

"My No.1 wish was that I would have been the head coach," Dutcher said. "Obviously, if I had gotten the job, I wouldn't be leaving. But my No. 2 wish was that Brian get the job."

There was speculation that Dutcher didn't get the job because of his close ties and friendship with former coach Steve Fisher - something that Conlan said still haunts Dutcher in the eyes of the athletic department and alumni. Fisher was fired on Oct. 11, 1997 in the wake of an in-depth NCAA investigation into the Michigan basketball program. The investigation found just three minor violations.

"The report was not the driving factor. I took the report, and I set the report aside on the table," Michigan Athletic Director Tom Goss said that day.

But Goss named Ellerbe, who had been an assistant for just a few months, the interim coach instead of Dutcher, who had been with the program for close to a decade.

Conlan said that Dutcher's confidence was probably affected when Ellerbe was promoted ahead of him.

"He didn't have the same Brian Dutcher attitude" this past season, Conlan said.

Conlan praised the efforts of Dutcher and the other coaches for their handling of what could have been a sticky situation throughout the season.

"They just did it for us," Conlan said.

Despite reports otherwise, Dutcher said his relationship with Ellerbe was excellent.

"I brought Brian here," Dutcher said. "I was instrumental in his hiring as an assistant last year. We were getting along great. I enjoyed every moment of working with Brian."

The Wolverines went 233-96 during Dutcher's tenure, including one NCAA title, two second-place national finishes, an NIT title and a Big Ten Tournament title.

05-05-98