Top 10 2008: Utes' Sugar Bowl run is year's top local sports story

That's because while he loves hustle and hard work, he doesn't love being honored or hullabaloo about himself. And the latter happened way too much for his liking this past fall when the media, the Jazz organization and fans had a heyday with the anniversary of his two-decade tenure and the millennium milestone in wins as Utah's bench boss.

In case you still need to send him a belated congratulations card, here are the two dates that mattered most for the longest-tenured coach in U.S. pro sports:

Nov. 7, 2008: Jazz beat Oklahoma City Thunder 104-97 to give Sloan his 1,000th win as the franchise's head coach — a feat no other NBA coach had ever accomplished.

To paraphrase Sloan's response: "(Grumble.) $#%#*!. I don't care. (Grumble.) It's about the players, not me. (Grumble.)"

Dec. 9, 2008: Jazz game — which happened to be a thrilling come-from-behind win at Minnesota — comes 20 years to the date after Sloan replaced Frank Layden as head coach of the Jazz in '88.

To paraphrase Sloan's response: "(Grumble.) $#%#*!. I don't care. (Grumble.) It's about the players, not me. (Grumble.)"

7. Arena football: Season goes down in a Blaze

The coffers half-full news is that the Utah Blaze can't repeat their 0-9 start to the '08 season next year. The coffers half-empty news is that the Blaze and the rest of the Arena Football League will go oh-fer the entire season next year.

The nationwide economic recession resulted in a leaguewide operation secession of the '09 season by AFL owners, including Blaze owners/auto dealers John and Robert Garff. And that, despite the league's players agreeing to cut their salary caps from $2 million to $1.4 million per team.

At least that nine-game losing streak isn't the Blaze's last memory. Utah bounced back from that rough start and actually made its firstr trip to the postseason.

The Blaze can only hope it wasn't their last visit — or shot.

8. Utah State football: Guy's out, Gary's in

Eight children might've been enough, but eight wins in four years was not enough for Brent Guy to keep his job as Utah State's football coach. He was Donald Trumped by the Aggies in November. His players then gave him a nice parting gift by crushing New Mexico State 47-2 in the unofficial "Which Aggies Are The Worst Bowl."

Hand it to Guy, though. He did have the Aggies improving every year. They were well on their way to a 12-0 season in 2018 after going from 1-11 in 2006, to 2-10 in '07, to 3-9 this past year.

It'll be up to Gary Andersen, Utah's defensive coordinator, to try to keep that level of improvement up.

9a. BYU basketball: Cougar cagers conquer MWC (but postseason spoils fun)

In 2007, Dave Rose coached his team to a Top 25 ranking, an incredible homecourt advantage, a regular-season Mountain West title before losing in the Las Vegas Invitational/conference tournament and then (surprise) losing again in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Cougars did some lathering, rinsing and repeating with all of the aforementioned in '08, too — with Texas A&M delivering the March Sadness blow this time.

As a sign that they'd truly made it as a basketball program, BYU even lost an underclassmen to the NBA draft when Trent Plaisted decided to go pro. The Cougars almost lost another player to the D-League draft, but Lee Cummard decided to stay for his senior year after exploring his draftability.

Cummard has done nothing but improve his potential NBA draftability with a stellar fall, helping lead BYU to a 10-1 start.

9b. Jazz basketball: Utah conquers Northwest Division (but Lakers spoil fun)