Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)
As soon as former Colorado assistant Rodney Billups finalized the deal that made him the new head coach at the University of Denver, Buffaloes coach Tad Boyle had a plan.
That plan meant scripting a new chapter in a coaching relationship that dates back more than 20 years.
In 1994, Boyle finished a three-year run at Longmont High School to take his first collegiate job as an assistant at Oregon. At the time Bill Grier, an Oregon alum, was about to start his third season as an assistant at Gonzaga, where he eventually would help lead the Bulldogs to national prominence.