ROGER REID was as subtle as a whoopee cushion, and more than once he needed a Jaws of Life to pry his foot from his mouth. But in seven-plus seasons at Brigham Young, Reid averaged 21 victories and led the Cougars to five NCAA Tournament appearances, three Western Athletic Conference titles and two WAC tournament championships....

The real reason Reid got canned had to do with plunging attendance at the vast Marriott Center (capacity 23,000).

Even though BYU kept reporting 17,000-plus ticket sales to the NCAA, the actual crowd count was considerably less. For the consolation game of the school's recent Cougar Classic, the BYU-Houston matchup drew only 3,418 fans. Earlier in the season, actual home crowd counts were in the 7,000-9,000 range. The situation was so bad that, for the first time in years, BYU began ticket giveaways and goofy sales promotions.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1996-12-26/sports/9612250289_1_lavin-harrick-vaughn



Dear The Captain,

Roger Reid has the best winning percentage EVER at BYU for men's basketball coaches who have coached a minimum of 80 games. He recruited the best high school player in the country at the time when he got Sean Bradley. He won three WAC championships and had three 2nd or 3rd place finishes in the seven full years he coached the team. Two of those seven years the Cougars were undefeated at the Marriott Center. He coached several All-Americans. Unfortunately I couldn't find any specific numbers on this one, but I constantly remembered seeing the Marriott Center filled to capacity under Roger Reid. And finally, he did not coach the team to a 1-25 record in 1996/1997; rather, the team was 1-6 (give or take a game) when he was fired. Here's my question: After seeing all these facts, do you still believe Roger Reid was "the absolute worst coach in the history of BYU"? Because I think almost the opposite is true; Reid appears to have been one of the BEST coaches BYU ever had.

- Liningson

Source: http://www.byucougars.com/basketball_m/ (and then click on "History")

A: You are right, and every year he won he did it with Ladel Anderson's recruits. The first year of 100% his own recruits he didn't even make the NIT. He was 15-13 that year. Most people who followed the story closely agree that Shawn Bradley left for the pros not because of the salary cap but because of his relationship to Reid. (Granted I think Shawn probably wasn't the most mature guy in the world.) His sons were great players, but he refused to recruit above them. Due to the prominence of the basketball program at the time he surely could have recruited better players than his sons.

The worst thing in his legacy was the fact he left the program in shambles. Not just a bad year, but four years before Cleveland had the program back on track. The problem was his inability to continue recruiting. At the end of the Anderson days and even at the beginning of the Reid days you could never get tickets at game time.
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https://theboard.byu.edu/questions/3762/