From growing pains to growing up; 75-62, good guys win.

I am Medlin... Hear me roar!!!

This is why you never quit on your Aggies! As if the 2011 football hadn't already taught a stern lesson to any and all people willing to give up on a team, the basketball team had a nice little reminder for all the doubters on Saturday night as well.

As if losing Brady Jardine wasn't tough enough (and it showed on Tuesday), subtract Kyisean Reed from the picture for a bit while you're at it. That puts the team down two super-athletic forwards, one of whom is the most experienced player on the roster.

So with a tough loss to a sub-par team in its pocket from Tuesday and the injury bug seemingly nipping at the team's heels, it seemed like Preston Medlin took a good look around Holt Arena and basically said, "Screw you guys," to everyone and everything not wearing Aggie blue. Medlin promptly played his best game in an Aggie uniform, working as the backbone to a stellar team effort to essentially control the entire game and dominate the 2nd half.

With the inside game severely shorthanded, Medlin and his new P.I.C. from behind the 3 (Adam Thoseby) basically grabbed the USU offense by the horns, combining to hit 7-of-12 shots from behind the arc and scoring 25 of the team's 32 points. And things didn't slow down in the second half for them either, as the two of them, along with Brockeith Pane, shot a perfect 6-for-6 from 3-point land.

Speaking of Pane, if he was hoping for me to get off his @$$ after being critical of a few of his last games, mission accomplished my good man! Tonight was arguably Pane's best game so far this season, most notably with his nine assists. Six of those came in the first half, and it seems like Pane has realized that his driving ability can be very well used for drawing in defenders from outside, only to make for a prime opportunity to kick the ball to a teammate left open from deep. Either way, it was a hell of a game for Pane.

And I'll also be damned if Ben Clifford didn't grow up right before our eyes tonight! I've been a fan of his since the beginning, and it seemed like tonight a lot more of his game, outside of the solid rebounding he's already shown, reared its head. Not bad for a guy getting thrust into a starting role because each of the guys ahead of him got hurt. But his game and skill-set look like a near-ideal fit for Stew's system, and if he can develop into a solid depth guy as the year goes on and the team gets Jardine and Reed back, they'll be a very good spot.

For Bruneel/Thornton starting lineup carousel, neither of them really did themselves any favors tonight, but that's the kind of thing that comes with inexperience. We've seen what they're capable of, and tonight there were plenty of other guys stepping up to make major impacts, so their off nights did not hurt the team at all. Hopefully all the guys can get these bad games out of their systems while still winning games.

The defense wasn't bad, but could still improve. For all the inexperience, only allowing 62 points on the road is something you have to take and be happy about. Oh, and Morgan Grim... That's another thing to be happy about. Glad to see his teammate took some of that load off of his back tonight.

At the end of the day, Medlin showed the superstar potential that I think he has, Pane showed just how beneficial balance of being a scorer and distributor really is and Thoseby seems to be breaking out of his shell very quickly. The team has three more games before having to hit the road to Wichita State, a game that is going to really put all this growth to the test. Hopefully the injuries will have gotten better by then and the Aggies could maybe pull off a shocker (ya, double meaning implied).

Player of the Game: Preston Medlin