LOGAN, Utah — Tim Duryea was preparing for basketball season, about to begin his head coaching career at Utah State when his phone rang.
It was then-UNLV coach Dave Rice letting Duryea know he was about to lose one of his best players in forward David Collette. Duryea was shocked, but sure enough, Collette — who enrolled at Utah last week — had one foot out the door in what became a contentious transfer.
Just like that, Duryea faced a crisis before the first tip-off.
"It did affect how we play," Duryea said. "It did affect how some of the kids on our team played because of the fact that we played offense through him, and so everybody played off of him in some respect.