Boise State assistant Tim Duryea spent 17 years at Utah State, so a return to The Spectrum is always a welcomed trip these days.
This one will be even more special.
Duryea, who spent 14 years as an assistant coach to Stew Morrill, will be in the building the same night the court is named for his former boss – one of the winningest coaches in college basketball history.
Utah State plans to name the court for Morrill during a ceremony at halftime of the 8 p.m. tip off against Boise State on FOX Sports 1.
“I’m thrilled for coach Morrill,” Duryea told Bronco Nation News. “I wanted the court to be named after him so badly…and I was very thankful when I heard a couple months ago it was going to happen. I was thrilled for him and it just brought back so many memories of our time together – 14 years and we had a tremendous run and so many great experiences and a lot of memories came flooding back when I heard the news.
“That along with a couple of our championship teams are going to be honored on Saturday so there’s going to be a lot of people in the building that I’m familiar with and that I know. That will always be a special place to me.”
Duryea was an assistant coach at Utah State under Morrill from 2001 to 2015, including the final seven years as associate head coach. During his 14 years as an assistant the Aggies made six trips to the NCAA Tournament and won five regular season conference championships.
Morrill retired in 2015 and Duryea was hired to replace. He spent three seasons as the head coach of the Aggies before being fired in 2018 and joining Boise State’s staff as an assistant.
“I think in coaching when you are fortunate to spend 17 years at one place, that’s pretty rare happening especially now a days,” Duryea said. “It just doesn’t happen anymore. My family grew up there, I raised my kids there – Utah State will always be a special place in that way.”
Duryea said the ceremony will likely take place at half time, meaning he’ll be back in the locker room with the Broncos. But he’ll have time to visit with Morrill and many of his former players and colleagues both before and after the game.
Duryea has worked for several accomplished coaches over his 35 years as a coach including Leon Rice at Boise State, Morrill at Utah State, Boyd Grant at Colorado State and Tim Jankovich at North Texas.
Morrill is Utah State’s all-time winningest coach with 402 wins and is the second-longest tenured coach in program history. He led Utah State to seven conference championships, 14 consecutive 20-win seasons and 13 straight postseason appearances while finishing as one of the top 50-winningest coaches in college basketball history.
“I’ve worked for some tremendous coaches – I’ve been very, very lucky,” Duryea said. “Stew is at the top of that list. He’s regarded X’s and O’s wise as as good of a coach as has ever coached the game. The game is a little different now but he was a phenomenal guy in terms of preparation, organization and you learned so many things coaching for him.
“He made you do everything. We all recruited. We all scouted. We all did scheduling. We all worked camps in the summer. He was really a good guy to work for in terms of developing you as an assistant coach.”
During an interview this week with Bronco Nation News, Utah State coach Danny Sprinkle went out of his way to bring up Duryea ahead of Saturday’s matchup.
“He spent a lot of years here at Utah Sate as an assistant to coach Morrill and helped build the program to where anywhere you go when you say Utah State they think basketball now – and it’s because of the work he put in,” Sprinkle said. “Then he was the head coach and did a tremendous job and I want to make sure I give credit where credit is due because he’s one of the best human beings in our business.
“I know he’s at Boise right now and I know we’re rivals, but he still means a lot to me and I know to the Utah State men’s basketball program and I’m glad that he’s going to be in the arena in the Spectrum the night they honor Stew because he’s a big part of that.”
The game itself is a big one with both Boise State and Utah State tied for first place in the Mountain West standings. The Aggies came to Boise two weeks ago and won in overtime and the Broncos need to win Saturday to avoid losing the head-to-head tiebreaker in the event the two teams finished tied at the end of the regular season.
Boise State would seemingly be in the driver’s seat for the regular season title with a win Saturday given the next six games are winnable ahead of a season-ending road trip to San Diego State.
And with a sellout crowd on hand to honor their legendary coach, the atmosphere likely will be as good as any the Broncos have played in this season.
“It’s a huge game for both teams,” Duryea said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us. The Spectrum will be a 10-plus out of 10. There won’t be a seat available. It will be very emotional on their side. But as a visitor that’s the challenge you look forward to, similar to going to The Pit when we went to New Mexico a few weeks ago.
“There’s big challenges on the road in this league but it’s going to be as big of a challenge as anywhere in the country for a visiting team that night and you have to look at that as fun and that’s the way our guys will take it.”
The city of Logan and Utah State mean a lot to Duryea and his family, some of which will be on hand Saturday night. But when the ball is tipped he’ll be rooting for one team – the Broncos.
“It was a great place to coach, a great place to raise my family and great to work for coach Morrill,” Duryea said. “And I’ll get to see coach Morrill before or after, but when the game starts, the game starts and it’s all business and go Broncos.”
