BOISE, Idaho — As second-year coach Tim Miles digs frantically, trying to get Colorado State out of its massive hole, the coach who preceded CSU heading into the abyss is heading into the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time.
Remember Stew Morrill, Ram fans? He remembers you. Still loves you, in fact. But he also remembers that day 11 years ago when he up and left CSU for Utah State.
“There were a lot of people going, ‘What is he doing?’ ” Morrill said Thursday with a laugh.
Morrill laughs a lot these days. He has laughed a lot the past 11 years. He has quietly built Utah State into one of the most successful programs in the country. The 30-4, 11th-seeded team he takes into today’s 10:30 a.m. game against sixth-seeded Marquette (24-9) is his 10th consecutive season with at least 23 wins.
His 252-77 record his last 10 years is fourth best in the nation. He left CSU after the last two 20-victory seasons the school has had. However, his measly postseason resume at CSU consisted of only two first-round NIT losses.
“I’d been at CSU for seven years, and it was getting pretty difficult,” Morrill said. “They weren’t sure I could coach, and there were a lot of things like that that I’ve long since gotten over.”
But as former CSU football coach Sonny Lubick told him as he left, “You’re leaving on your own conditions.”
Since then, Miles is CSU’s third coach, and the Rams have played one NCAA Tournament game. This season’s 9-22 team had an average attendance of 4,858, about 2,000 fewer than in Morrill’s last season.
“I’m able to look back and say, you know, we were 65-61 in conference,” Morrill said. “At Colorado State, as has been shown, that isn’t bad.”
Still, he left a 20-win CSU team in a good Western Athletic Conference for Logan, Utah, in a bad Big West Conference. If you think that’s a move up, then your view is crooked. Then again, it was a move up for Morrill.
Raised in Provo, his family was in Utah, and Utah State’s tradition had more appeal for him than CSU. This is Utah State’s 18th NCAA Tournament trip.
Morrill knows why. Look at his roster. Four starters are Utah kids. In fact, with postseason play blossoming to 128 teams, or seemingly any school with a hoop in a fraternity driveway, none of Colorado’s five teams are among those 128. Three Utah schools, meanwhile, made the NCAA Tournament. When Morrill went to Provo High in the early 1970s, Brigham Young, Utah and Utah State were all in the top 25.
“Because there is a gym in every church, basketball is huge in the state of Utah,” Morrill said. “And I knew that going in. My son, who coaches at Fort Collins High, he’s an assistant coach and high school counselor. He came to our team camp a few years ago. He said, ‘Dad, this is good basketball.’ ”
So is what they’re playing at Utah State. Morrill employs a disciplined offense that’s shooting at a nation-leading 50 percent clip and scoring 72.9 points a game. Morrill has taken a 6-foot-9 former high school dropout named Gary Wilkinson and turned him into the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year.
The Aggies’ lone win over an NCAA Tournament team was over Utah on Dec. 22, but if you polled office pools around the country, the biggest first-round upset special would probably be Utah State over Marquette.
“I’ve never met a guy with such a drive to win,” Wilkinson said. “From the beginning of practice in October until now, he has never let up. Even when we were on our 19-game winning streak, he was the same coach when we suffered our first loss. He has a passion to win that won’t quit.
“That’s what has drove this team.”
Oddly, Morrill is not really one of them. He was raised Mormon but no longer practices. He went to a Catholic school, Gonzaga, and married a Catholic girl. However, his brother is a Mormon bishop and his sister is a devout Mormon. Seven Aggies have gone on Mormon missions. None ever questioned his off-court commitment to them during recruiting.
“Occasionally, a rival school might point that out,” Morrill said. “I’m pretty blunt. My comeback is that, ‘I’m your basketball coach. I’m not your bishop.’ ”
Yes, faith is big in Utah. Faith in Morrill is almost as big at Utah State.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
