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Duryea takes the reins

“Tim Duryea is a class act,” said eight-year assistant basketball coach Tarvish Felton. “You couldn’t have found a better guy or a guy that loved Utah State more than Tim Duryea.”

Duryea will be taking over the USU basketball program after the retirement of 17-year head coach Stew Morrill last season.

“It’s been really easy,” said sophomore forward David Collette. “Stew really prepared us for that transition. He told us midseason so we would have plenty of time to get ready. I think he did a good job of passing it off. Coach Duryea deserves it and we knew him so it was easy.”

With 14 years of assistant coaching experience at USU under his belt, Duryea had been the longest-tenured assistant coach in program history before taking over in April of 2015 and becoming the 18th head coach for the Aggies.

“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” Felton said. “The program has never been broke. We have the sixth best winning percentage in the last 15 years. Coach Duryea deserved an opportunity.”

While at Utah State, Duryea has been part of an Aggie program that has averaged over 23 wins per season. The team has also advanced to the NCAA Tournament six times and won five conference championships in the Big West and Western Athletic Conferences and an additional four conference tournament titles.

While many Aggie fans were hoping for an out-of-the-program hire to change the look of USU basketball, Duryea has already brought a lot of change to USU.

“He’s been totally different as a head coach than as an assistant,” said junior wing Jalen Moore. “He wanted to change some things and that’s what he’s done. A lot of us are happy with what he’s done.”

He’s held the first open practice in at least 15 years, hosted a Primetime Madness showcase and encouraged fan involvement.

“We want the fans to be involved this year,” said junior guard Julion Pearre. “We want them to get to know us a little more. We’re doing different things so we can interact with them because they are a big part of us.”

Along with the changes to publicity and open doors, Duryea has implemented changes to the gameplay in the offensive and defensive schemes of the team.

“He changed a lot,” Moore said.”We don’t have the flip cards we used and we’re picking up the intensity on defense. We’re looking to deny more instead of just being in an open stance. We’re trying to speed up the game a little bit — have a more free-flowing offense and more intensity on defense.”

During his first seven seasons at USU, Duryea coached the Aggie defense, which ranked top 10 nationally in points allowed in 2002, 2003 and 2005.

“Intensity in defense is a big part of this year,” Pearre said. “Defense, defense defense. We’re trying to create a house of bricks where we are all one and nobody scores on us. The biggest difference is the defensive aspect.”

Sophomore forward Elston Jones said the biggest difference though comes on the offensive side of the ball.

“Most of the offense is the same, the team is the same,” Jones said. “The only thing that’s been different is we have more freedom on offense. Coach has faith in us that we can provide offense without having to set up a play.”

In the last seven years, Duryea has led the USU offense. The 2014-2015 season saw Utah State lead the Mountain West and rank No. 14 nationally in 3-point shooting at just over 39 percent. In 2013-2014, Utah State was ranked second in the nation, at over 40 percent from 3-point range.

“We’re trying to play with a little more tempo because of the shot clock,” Duryea said. “We want to play with a little more flow on offense.”

During the 2009-10 season, Utah State ranked third nationally in 3-point field goal percentage shooting over 41 percent. The Aggies were ninth in overall shooting just under 49 percent and No. 10 in free-throw shooting with more than 75 percent. USU was the only team in the nation to rank among the top 10 in all three shooting categories.

During the 2008-09 season, USU finished the year as the nation’s best shooting team at nearly 50 percent. Felton said the team will retain the good qualities while working to add to the offense.

“You’ll see a lot more open and more flow offensively. For the longest time you would see us walk up the floor and call a set play. You’ll see guys playing with a lot more freedom. We are going to try and play faster,” Felton said. “The standard of execution won’t change. The discipline with which we run our program won’t change. We are going to be Utah State, blue-collared and hardworking. We’re going to be fun to watch— not that we weren’t fun to watch before, but a different fun to watch.”

Expectations are high for Duryea in his first season as Utah State’s head coach. Last year, the Aggies were picked to finish next-to-last in the Mountain West. This year, Utah State returns all five starters from last season and has been picked to finish third in the MW.

“The team chemistry is already there,” Moore said. “We know what the coach expects. We know kind of how he wants to play. When he got hired, we were happy for him … We all liked the hire and it will show when we play our first game.”

Jones agreed with Moore that Duryea was the right man for the job.

“I was very excited,” Jones said. “I feel like he’s going to be a good fit for us. We already have a relationship with everyone on the team and the coaching staff. It just keeps it going.”

— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor