If I'm not mistaken, one of the reasons speculated regarding why we weren't able to hire a coach with more national cachet was that coaches did not want to follow in the footsteps of a USU legend like Stew Morrill. The silver lining of the trajectory shown by TD's team is that we won't have this problem looking for the next coach. If anything, it will be seen as a great opportunity for a young, up and coming coach to prove himself. Good facilities, good support historically, etc.

I was not happy about the Duryea hire but gave him the benefit of the doubt. It is becoming apparent that this team is not only not progressing but regressing. I'm starting to worry that we're going to lose some of the recruits that we're all so high on. I don't know that anyone saw this disaster coming. Sorry to be a downer but this season, for both football and basketball, has been disgusting.

Let's all agree Stew was a very good coach. But I do not put him in the "legend" category. In fact. His recruiting was no more than just ok.

bullshot wrote:Let's all agree Stew was a very good coach. But I do not put him in the "legend" category. In fact. His recruiting was no more than just ok.

Stew absolutely was a USU legend

The silver lining ...We'll get first pick in next year's draft?

bullshot wrote:Let's all agree Stew was a very good coach. But I do not put him in the "legend" category. In fact. His recruiting was no more than just ok.

That was Stew's magic though, taking mediocre recruits and turning them into a very good team. He could develop players much better than most coaches. Many of our best players over Stew's tenure were not highly recruited and many of them their only offer was from USU, players like Tai Wesley, Jaycee Carroll, Jared Qualye, Nate Harris, David Collette, Spencer Nelson, Mark Brown, Jayson Williams etc.

isrred wrote:

bullshot wrote:Let's all agree Stew was a very good coach. But I do not put him in the "legend" category. In fact. His recruiting was no more than just ok.

Stew absolutely was a USU legend

Jerry Sloan sure seemed to think pretty highly of him: "That guy up there must be the best coach in America. Every kid he sends us knows how to play."

For the record, I'm cheering for Tim. I hope he is the best coach to ever coach at USU. Just completely underwhelmed by the level of basketball I've seen so far this season.

Stew is THE greatest coach in USU history.

This article about on of Rahe's assistants has some good insight on Duryea. Worth the read.

http://www.standard.net/Weber-State/201 ... coach.html

I think to be a good coach w/ mediocre players, you need to be VERY strict and disciplined. This is where I wonder about Duryea. Is he is trying to be too much of a players coach? Personally I would like to see him more animated and vocal w/ his players. Don't know anything about how he runs practices, just what I perceive from watching games and hearing interviews. I will grant him a year to try and figure out how to be an effective coach, hopefully he can turn this thing around and learn how to get the most out of his players. Obviously he needs to change his approach, whatever that is.

Here's the deal. Many wanted Stew to get better athletes and then loosen up the reigns and let 'em go. Now we are seeing that in Duryea and we want him to reign them back in. Which way is it? Duryea's brand of ball would work with UNLV or SDSU because they have superior athletes. We do not so it doesn't. Like it or not we have no shot because we have zero post presence. Evans would rather launch threes, Jones doesn't give much, and Moore is Charmin soft anywhere inside the arc.

dyedblue wrote:Here's the deal. Many wanted Stew to get better athletes and then loosen up the reigns and let 'em go. Now we are seeing that in Duryea and we want him to reign them back in. Which way is it? Duryea's brand of ball would work with UNLV or SDSU because they have superior athletes. We do not so it doesn't. Like it or not we have no shot because we have zero post presence. Evans would rather launch threes, Jones doesn't give much, and Moore is Charmin soft anywhere inside the arc.

Actually even with UNLV and SDSU type of athletes that brand of no-set offense plays rarely work. UNLV has constantly unperformed, and if not for SDSU's defense and rebounding, they would lose also. Offense requires some structure -- freelance offense only works consistently if you have better players than the other team.