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Show BASKETBALL PREVIEW SPECIAL, Oct. 17, 2 0 0 7 Page 16 Morrill continued from page 13 ors as he was named honorable mention. Carroll was also named to the WAC's all-tournament team, along with teammate Chaz Spicer. Overall, Morrill has coached 10 first-team all-league players at Utah State who have won the award a total of 14 times. Morrill has also taken full advantage of the home court at USU, the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. In Morrill's nine years, USU is an amazing 125-12 (.912) at home, which includes a 68-8 (.895) record in league play. As for Morrill, he has won 20 or more games on 12 different occasions during his career, and he has won at least 17 games 18 times. Overall, Morrill ranks 23rd in the nation among active coaches and 96th all-time with his 431 career wins, while his career winning percentage of 66.9 percent ranks 28th among active coaches and 100th all-time. He is also one of 27 active coaches with 400 career wins at the Division 1 level and one of just 13 active coaches to notch at least 12 20-win seasons. His current streak of eight straight 20-win seasons ranks ninth among active coaches and is tied for the 13th-longest streak ever at the Division 1 level. Morrill has also been named Coach of the Year (2000 BWC, 2002 BWC) twice in his eight years at USU, along with winning the Big Sky award while the head coach at Montana in 1991. Academics and community service have been Stew Morrill and his staff closely observe game action. Trevor Neilson photo Jaycee Carroll has improved under the tutelage of Stew M o r r i l l . . Patrick Oden photo of top priority to Morrill and his staff as all of the team members are involved with USU's CHAMPS/Life Skills Program within the community. In his first nine years, Morrill has graduated better than 80 percent of his players, and over the past five years, Utah State has had 10 academic allconference honorees. Morrill, who was born in Provo, Utah and attended Provo High School, owns a career record of 431-213 in 21 years of collegiate coaching, including a 213-75 record at Utah State in nine years, a 121-86 record in seven years at Colorado State (1992-98) and a 97-52 mark in five campaigns at Montana (198791). There are several reasons that I was attracted to Utah State," Morrill said when he was hired. "The first was being a Utah native so that it is a homecoming of sorts for me. My mom, brother and sister all live within an hour and a half of Logan. *1 am very familiar with the tradition of Utah State basketball and can name the greats as well as any alumni could,'Morrill added. 'It is a good basketball situation and the premier job in the Big West Conference. My family will love the quality of the community of Logan. It is a great place to live and that is very important to me and my family. It just made sense to us." The 55-year old ranks second on the CSU victory list and second in winning percentage. He guided the Rams to back-to-back 20-win seasons the last two years in Fort Collins, with identical 20-9 marks. During the 1997-98 season, CSU made its second trip to the NIT in the last three years. Morrill guided CSU to two of its six all-time 20-win seasons and won at least 17 games five times in his seven years. In fact, Morrill-led CSU teams own three of the top seven winning seasons in school history. During his tenure at Colorado State, he coached three first-team all-WAC selections, one second-team pick and six honorable mention choices. Three of his players were named to the WAC all-toumament team. After his collegiate playing career, which included being named an Ail-American at nearby Ricks (Idaho) Junior College and a two-time all-Big Sky selection at Gonzaga, Morrill played professionally in Europe. His coaching career began as an assistant at Gonzaga from 1975-78 and then to Montana where he was an assistant from 1979-86 working for Mike Montgomery, who spent 17 years as the head coach at Stanford. Montgomery worked under Jim Brandenburg and Jud Heathcote, who retired after a successful career, which included a national championship at Michigan State. Morrill took over the Montana program in 1987 before moving to Colorado State in 1992. He is known for his deep-rooted values, consistency, hard work, dedication, honesty, integrity and concern for the welfare of his student-athletes. Morrill earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Gonzaga in 1974. He was born July 25,1952 in Provo, Utah. He and his wife Vicki have four children; sons Jesse (29) and Allan (27) and daughters Nicole (24) and Tiffany (21). |