Can Aggie-ball work elsewhere?

Chris Murray has a post up about the whys and hows and factors of Utah State's basketball success. Go here for that feature.

Stew Morrill's uber-success in Logan can be deconstructed in many ways. What piques PTW's interest is the sometimes expressed idea/thought that other coaches should replicate Morrill's system/style.

That's a subject also definitely worth exploring.

There are any number of successful systems/styles -- just look at the last ten or so Big Dance winners. The key is matching up who can be successfully recruited to Program A and how those talents can be most opportunely integrated into a team.

There aren't many guarantees in life but here's one: Morrill-ball would be quite different if he had access to eight or nine athletic thoroughbreds possessing solid basketball skills. He lacks that availability so instead he has implemented a method of playing that he can recruit to and this has resulted in a prosperous combination. (it's going off on a bit of a tangent but maybe this is also another version of the old chicken and egg debate -- recruiting or style -- which came first?)

Blue chip AA's will never get off the plane, bus or out of the car in Logan -- that's a given. This sometimes will take place at BYU, pretty rarely in Utah.

There are also kids who won't choose to come to Utah (the state) to play college basketball for a multitude of sociological reasons.

With Utah State in particular, the system of play actually also eliminates a segment of prospects: those not 'smart' enough to comprehend the style and those unwilling to learn and/or play in such a style.

Knowing/accepting all of the above, Morrill has married a system/style to the talent/intelligence/maturity level of recruit he can typically land...and the rest is history as we know it.

But it's not so simple as a coach -- even if he so desired -- stating that 'I am going to replicate Morrill-ball' and then doing so elsewhere in the country.

Just how would such play out in other programs, say even in the Western Athletic Conference?

Nobody really knows the answer but Utah State is typically landing older and usually more mature recruits because of the LDS mission requirement. We wouldn't go so far as say it's men versus boys on the various WAC rosters but there are some physical and emotional differences that cannot be dismissed or discounted.

Can other WAC schools land such LDS players? Maybe more importantly, can they land solid recruits over the BYUs, the Utahs and the Utah States or would it be a matter of settling for lesser LDS talents?

Plus, with the uber-emphasis on getting up and down the floor as the desired program playing style for 99.9% of prep and JUCO basketball recruits, would a much more disciplined style be a benefit or a hindrance in recruiting for non-LDS players? We have to go with the latter.

It also helps recruiting when a coach can point to winning records and entries into the Big Dance. Such sometimes will win the heart and mind of a recruit even if the playing style isn't the desired one. But it's awfully hard to sell a .500-type program if such is utilizing a highly-designed/programmed offensive attack or going to install one.

Anyway, these are some thoughts.