Meet the New Coaches

Last year there was an unprecedented amount of turnover for MWC coaches, and here is the breakdown on each coach and their new team.

Air Force The Falcons get new coach Jeff Reynolds after replacing Jeff Bzdelik who left for Colorado this past year. Reynolds had been the Falcons top assistant for the past two years. This will be Reynold's third head coaching staff after previously being the head coach at Wingate College from 1997-2000 where he went 61-27 and was coach of the year in the 1998-1999 season and then he was a head coach for one season at North Carolina Wesleyan back in 1986-1987 where he coached them to a 21-7 record. Reynolds should keep the same system in place after being the top assistant the past 2 years, but this year will be a tough year for Reynolds.

Colorado State The Rams new coach is Tim Miles who migrated from North Dakota State where he helped their progress to the Division I transition. Miles provided some good wins there defeating Marquette and Wisconsin. So, Miles knows how to win and doing it at Colorado State should be a bit easier to get talent in Fort Collins. Miles has also been a head coach at Southwest Minnesota State University and Mayville State University.

New Mexico The highest profile name coach to land in the MWC this off season is former Iowa head coach Steve Alford. Alford's coaching resume is quite impressive with 308-183 (63%) career record in 16 seasons as a collegiate head coach. His teams qualified for postseason play 11 times, produced 13 winning seasons and reached 20 wins on eight occasions. Every place Alford had been at he has produced winners and New Mexico has a history of good teams and a difficult place to play. So, it is only a matter of time before New Mexico will ascend to the upper part of the conference and national recognition.

Utah Jim Boylen is the only new hire for the conference where this is his first head coaching job. Boylen does come from Michigan State where he was an assistant under Tom Izzo for the past 3 seasons. Boylen's start in basketball is very different from others becasue he began his career as a Houston Rockets Video Coordinator from 1992-1994 and then was put on the bench under Rudy Tomjanovich where he was an assistant for 9 years. During that time he worked with big man Hakeem Olajuwon and that should come in great assistance as the Utes have a potential great big man in Luke Nevill.

Wyoming The new Cowboy head coach is Heath Schroyer who returns to Wyoming since he was there during their NCAA tournament season in 2001-2002. Heath's only head coaching job came at Portland State where he helped build the team in only 3 seasons to a winning record his last year there. Heath has also been an assistant at Fresno State, Wyoming, and BYU. Heath is a great defensive coach and should help the Cowboys get back to the top of the conference soon.