Our story begins with one of the more fascinating historical facts in the history of college basketball coaching: One of the 12 men to guide at least four different schools to the NCAA tournament once coached at Utah State.
Larry Eustachy, currently the (very successful) head coach at Colorado State, has led the Rams to the Big Dance. He also took Southern Mississippi to the Big Show. He led Iowa State to the tourney as well, but before all that, he led Utah State to Bracketville in 1998, in his fifth season on the job.
As soon as Eustachy broke through in Logan, Utah, he sought greener pastures and grabbed the Iowa State job. He very nearly made the Final Four with the Cyclones but then sabotaged his career as a high-major coach with an infamous and well-publicized incident of severe public intoxication (and the kissing of young co-eds which flowed from it). Eustachy is an excellent coach, and to his great credit, he has rebuilt his career, learning to tame the demons of alcoholism. Yet, when he leaves the profession, he’ll be appreciated largely for his talents.
The man who succeeded Eustachy at Utah State will be appreciated for his basketball acumen and his track record of achievement, but he’ll also be appreciated for something more.
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Bo Schembechler told his football players at Michigan, “Those who stay will be champions.”
When Larry Eustachy left Utah State, he wasn’t cutting against the grain or doing something rare in the coaching profession. He was doing what comes naturally to these restless and often nomadic figures who are always searching for the next gig, the next fresh start, the next challenge.
Stew Morrill is not most coaches.
Morrill didn’t need to validate himself by looking for “the next big thing.” He didn’t need to scratch the power-conference itch at a high-major program. Morrill was content to be Utah State’s coach for each of the past 17 seasons. Thursday, in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West tournament, Utah State suffered a two-point loss to Wyoming. With the Aggies declining to play in the pay-for-play CBI, Morrill’s career came to an end.
Morrill’s on-court achievements were and are — and will remain — significant at Utah State. He made eight NCAA tournaments in his 17 seasons, the most NCAA appearances in the history of the program. Morrill and Ladell Andersen are clearly the two best coaches the Aggies have ever had. Morrill won six conference tournaments at Utah State and managed to elevate the program to the point that it was able to get an at-large berth in two NCAA tournaments: 2006 and 2010.
While the Aggies were able to make their way to the Big Dance almost every other season under Morrill, it’s not as though they backdoored their way into the NCAAs the way some teams do (as a fourth or fifth seed). Utah State won seven regular-season conference championships as well — the team was the top seed in the WAC tournament from 2008 through 2011.
Morrill built something, and he largely sustained it. The program declined somewhat in these past four seasons, but the Aggies hardly embarrassed themselves in the Mountain West. Having played in three conferences during Morrill’s tenure (the Big West, WAC, and now the MWC), the Aggies are not the class of their current league, but they have certainly been competitive. Finishing fifth in a 10-team conference and almost beating fourth-seeded Wyoming in a tournament quarterfinal will not excite anyone, but programs such as New Mexico and UNLV fell below Utah State this season.
One could reasonably contend that while Utah State didn’t reach the highest of ceilings under Morrill — that’s what the previously-mentioned Ladell Andersen did in the late 1960s and early early ’70s in Logan — its floor is quite elevated. The program’s standard of quality is higher than it’s been at any point since the Andersen era. Hyperbole? Hardly — it’s not even much of a debate if you comb through the historical record.
Yet, as much as Morrill achieved on the court, we’re brought back to the reality of what most coaches do… and how this man followed a different path.
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Morrill was content to coach in the Rocky Mountain region, preceding his tenure at Utah State with coaching stops at Montana and Colorado State. Morrill’s best season in terms of NCAA tournament success came in 2001, when Utah State won its only Big Dance game of the Morrill era (over Ohio State in a 12-5 upset). Maybe one could chalk this up to the difference between youth and middle age, but the fact remains that Morrill didn’t seek greener pastures. He was content to stay where he was and maximize his career in that corner of the college basketball world.
Others can tell the story of Stew Morrill the man in a better and much fuller way. Those who covered him closely over the past few decades can offer a richer account of how he went about his business. Yet, in the wake of the loss to Wyoming, one could catch a glimpse of Morrill as a down-to-earth person in a profession which so easily distorts perspectives of what’s normal, natural and healthy.
This is obviously not a coach who was in this line of work to settle scores, humiliate opponents, or rub his colleagues the wrong way:
MWC coaches bought Stew Morrill a 1st class cruise trip for he and his wife. Morrill: "I must have been too easy to beat."
— Geoff Grammer (@GeoffGrammer) March 13, 2015
A little humility and a sense of humor go a long way in any field of competitive endeavor. Stew Morrill’s self-awareness kept him grounded in terms of his outlook on the coaching business and the riches that existed for him in the present tense at Utah State, riches that were more than enough for his career.
Morrill has been cheered by the devoted Utah State fan base for the past 17 years. Today, his career now over, Morrill moves into retirement with a commodity far more precious than the echoes of those cheers (as much as a coach might relish them). Fidelity to Utah State across three conferences, displayed with grace and good humor, has bestowed upon Morrill the lasting appreciation of a community that’s grateful not just for what he achieved, but how he achieved it.
Stew Morrill the coach authored a gleaming success story at Utah State. Stew Morrill the man is held in just as high regard as the coach. That’s a legacy well worth celebrating as a notable college basketball career comes to a close.
