FORT COLLINS — Colorado State’s conference losing streak is approaching the interminable. Brigham Young was able to name the score Saturday, and UNLV might do the same tonight at Moby Arena.
The fallout from having a new coach continues to haunt the Rams as coach Tim Miles’ second conference season heats up. Typically, coaching changes are followed by player turnover. New coaches keep the best and toss the rest.
But in the high-turnover Mountain West Conference, which has replaced two-thirds of its coaches the past two seasons, Colorado State is the only team without a player who was on the 2006-07 roster.
“Sounds like an expansion team to me,” Miles said this week after hearing that statistic for the first time. “We’re not rebuilding. We’re starting a new infrastructure.”
CSU, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico fired coaches in the spring of 2007, while Air Force had a smooth transition when Jeff Bzdelik moved to Colorado. TCU fired its coach last spring, and new coach Jim Christian is 2-0 out of the MWC gate. Miles has lost 18 consecutive regular-season league contests. The Rams’ last conference win in the regular season was under Dale Layer on Feb. 24, 2006, against Wyoming.
“Every program, every second-year guy has had to change some things, and some more than others,” Wyoming second-year coach Heath Schroyer said this week during the MWC teleconference.
Current conference scoring leaders — Wyoming’s Brandon Ewing (19.1 points per game) and Utah’s Luke Nevill (17.9) — were recruited by their previous coaches. New Mexico’s top four scorers are holdovers, although Steve Alford brought in seven freshmen this season.
Utah second-year coach Jim Boylen also balanced housecleaning with molding old players into a new system.
“We’re all looking to build programs,” Boylen said. “Programs are built with good players who understand what you want. My job is to use the things they do well and make them better at things they maybe didn’t do as well.”
Many of the schools took a hit on their player retention NCAA rankings. Wyoming and CSU had extensive attrition even before the coaching changes. Schroyer said seeing Ewing graduate in May “is maybe the greatest accomplishment we can have as a program.”
Everything that could go wrong did when Miles arrived. Jason Smith’s early departure to the NBA wasn’t unexpected.Then-freshman Xavier Kilby left Miles no choice but to boot him after an incident involving a gun, shortly after Miles was hired.
Three guards with remaining eligibility transferred and another quit basketball. The fall 2006 junior-college signees were released from their scholarships, including Oklahoma reserve Omar Leary.
Lone returning senior starter Stu Creason missed most of the 2008 MWC slate with a foot injury. The last man with eligibility left this season, Ronnie Aguilar, was suspended last fall.
Miles won’t look back with any regrets on the turnover.
“I can’t make guys want to be here,” he said.
Natalie Meisler: 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
