Put Morrill down for another 500

SALT LAKE CITY – In case there are still doubts, let's go over this one more time: Stew Morrill is not going anywhere.

He's as permanent as Old Main.

Short term or long, Utah State University is his final coaching stop. He made that clear five years ago, maybe even 10. He and the school are linked like Procter and Gamble. If anyone else calls, Morrill won't be answering. He has his dream job. So what if it's at the edge of the wild frontier? (Come to think of it, Big Stew does slightly resemble a bear.)

Morrill is a rarity in today's basketball coaching world. Most coaches take one job with the next in mind. Log a few good seasons and you're on to a bigger program and paycheck. It's generally considered wise to claim you haven't been pursuing other jobs but that you owe it to yourself and your family to check things out. When a lucrative offer arrives, you say you agonized. The hardest part, you insist, is leaving the kids, but it's a once-in-lifetime deal.

Then you get out of town before the booster club attacks.

But that's not Morrill's plan.

He's a lifer.

"Being at Utah State sticks out in my mind because it is almost unique, because everybody has bought into the system, bought into the program," says Morrill, who logged his 500th career coaching win recently at Idaho. "You don't always get that at different universities. So that's part of the reason I've stayed where I'm at, is because it fits for me, and it's where I'm going to finish and they know that, and they've known that for a while. So it's a positive thing to know that's where I'm going to finish my career."

But wait. Is he supposed to be saying that?

Rule No. 14 in the Coaches' Handbook of Misdirection: Never say never.

Morrill reached his milestone win on Jan. 23, then rolled to No. 501 with a home victory against San Jose State last Saturday.

"I worry more about the one coming up than the 500 we won," he says.

In his 12 seasons in Logan, he has not only built the highest winning percentage in school history (.744), and made the most postseason appearances (10), but has also coached there longer than anyone but E. Lowell Romney. Morrill is only eight wins behind Romney for the most career victories but has done it in 11 years, compared to 22 for Romney.