Duryea earns head-coaching position
Longtime Aggie assistant coach Tim Duryea now holds the keys to Utah State basketball’s future, as his promotion to head coach was made official Monday.
“I am looking forward to putting my own footprint on this program,” Duryea said. “I think that is something that Coach Morrill would encourage. I’ve heard him talk about other assistants that he’s had that have gone on and have done different things and see them play. I think he takes pride in going out and taking what you’ve learned but also doing your own thing and establishing yourself in college basketball.”
Duryea has patrolled the sidelines of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum alongside former head coach Stew Morrill for the past 14 seasons, longer than any assistant coach in the program’s 110-year history.
After conducting a thorough national search, Utah State Vice President and Director of Athletics Scott Barnes explained what set Duryea apart from the other candidates.
“What were we looking for? First and foremost, I wanted a partner,” Barnes said. “Somebody that shared my vision for what our men’s basketball program could be. We certainly have that somebody who understands the unique attributes and how to position this program to win a Mountain West championship, to participate in and win NCAA Tournament games.”
Duryea now leads a program that earned four-straight WAC championships before moving to the competitive Mountain West. USU ended its second season in the conference with a two-point loss to eventual tournament-champion Wyoming, all while playing with a revamped roster.
With all five starters returning and a new coach at the helm, expectations for the coming season are already rising.
“I wish the season started tomorrow,” Duryea said. “We’ve learned so much the last two years about the Mountain West and about the things you have to do to be competitive in this league. We were changing things as we went from the first year to the second year and from the beginning of the season to the end of the season.”
One theme of the new hire is aiming to compete at the next level, a prospect a few Aggie players are already voicing.
“It’s good for the team, knowing what we have coming in, and he’s excited to be the coach,” said sophomore wing Jalen Moore. “We are all ready to keep getting better and going up.”
Freshman forward David Collette echoed Moore’s optimism.
“It is a good decision, and he deserves the job,” Collette said. “He’s going to make some necessary changes that will help us grow even further as a team.”
Growth, getting better, going up — those are words Aggie fans like hearing. While successful at the conference level, Utah State remains winless in the NCAA tournament over its past six appearances dating back to 2003.
Duryea already knows a thing or two about shattering expectations.
“We tied for fourth after being picked 10th,” Duryea said, addressing the Mountain West’s preseason media poll. “I think our guys feel we left a few games out there that could have meant a league championship or contending for a league championship in the last couple of weeks. I hope that drives us through the summer and through the offseason as much as it is driving me now to improve internally and make next year a very exciting year.”
And it isn’t just big talk — the new coach has a plan for the Aggies’ upcoming season, and it hinges on making one of USU’s strengths even more formidable.
“As a team, our defense was about third in the league, which wasn’t bad,” Duryea said. “We felt we had to do some things, at times, to put a Band-Aid on things like avoiding foul trouble, maybe hiding a guy in some situations. We need to get past that. We have to be better individual defenders, and we have to rebound the ball better than we did this year. We made great strides from the beginning of the year to the end, but we need to go a lot further.”
Duryea also explained his plans for the Aggies offense, which he’s been in charge of for the past seven seasons.
“I would like to push the pace a little bit and stay on the track where we are,” Duryea said. “We are a really good 3-point shooting team and led the league in 3-point shooting and in offensive-field goal percentage because our guys play together and took really good shots. We have a lot of really unselfish players on our team. I think we can even expand on that format offensively.”
— logantjones@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @logantj