Stew is the man behind the magic
Tenth out of 11.
That’s what the genius media voters thought Utah State basketball had going for it this year. A second-to-last finish in the Mountain West with a roster unrecognizable even to the most faithful of fans.
At first glance, it seems tough to blame anyone for thinking it would be a rebuilding year for the Aggies. After an exodus of seniors and transfers, USU’s roster consisted of a pair of junior guards with a combined average of four points per game, a sixth-year eligible senior and a freaky athletic afro-sporting freshman.
But then, there was also the man at the helm. The guy whose four straight titles in the WAC were, for some reason, not considered worthy credentials in the big bad Mountain West.
The coach who has authored the magic that’s so often graced the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum for the past 17 years. The leader who demands a commitment to team basketball, team defense and team accountability. The floor-general whose name will one day permanently reside on the court on which his teams did battle.
Stew Morrill teams do not finish second-to-last.
Morrill and his batch of young transfers were given every excuse to suck this year but didn’t take a single one. Instead, Morrill graciously acknowledged his team’s apparent disadvantage at the start of the season by explaining “With the inexperience of our team, it is understood why we are picked at the bottom of the Mountain West Conference.”
Then, in classic Stew Morrill aw-shucks fashion, he just went about his business grabbing road wins in Boise and New Mexico, toppling first-place Wyoming — then with a healthy Larry Nance Jr. — all while protecting the house he’s made his home for nearly two decades.
Utah State is 247-31 at home under head coach Stew Morrill, including a 121-20 home record in conference games. That’s 100 games over .500 even if Morrill doesn’t manage to win his final regular-season game against CSU on Saturday — which the basketball gods will almost certainly grant him.
Furthermore, Morrill is one of eight active coaches in this basketball-loving country of ours to notch 400 games in the win column. Even non-sports fans see 400 wins and know that number is borderline absurd.
The same media Morrill not-so-secretly dislikes will make sure his legacy will be well-covered as his final week as the Aggies’ head coach quickly approaches. First in the Spectrum against his old team, then in Vegas at the MW championship tournament, Morrill will conclude a career that can only be described as prolific.
How fitting it is that in his final farewell from college basketball, Morrill has surprised sports fans with something he’s known all along — all expectations, though “understood” at the start of the season, have not only been exceeded, but shattered in thrilling fashion.
— Logan Jones is a junior majoring in journalism. He is also a Blazer fan and therefore part of one of the five most-tortured fan bases in all of sports. Contact him at logantjones@aggiemail.usu.edu or on Twitter @logantj.