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| Not much of a shortage of these kinds of trophies at USU... |
"If Kent State went man-to-man, Grim went to work in the paint. If the Golden Flashes went zone, Medlin shot them out of it. Whatever defense they played, Reed flew around and wreaked havoc."
This is the same Tony Jones who was saying not much more than a month ago that Kent State might be USU's toughest home test this season and probably the most likely team to hand USU a loss in the Gossner's tournament. And all of that hype was totally valid after the way Kent State started the year. Opening with a win on the road at West Virginia and coming into this week with their only loss being to a top-50 RPI Cleveland State team, KSU was looking like a team to be feared.
By the end of the tournament, Kent State was completely unraveled at the hands of USU. Reports are that their locker room scene after the game was pure chaos, and their coach's quotes about his plans to never return to face the wrath of The Spectrum again back that all up. Kent State's coach also gave some credit to the Aggies, saying, "Utah State is very, very good."
Maybe it's too soon to say "I told you so," but I did kind of tell you so... I'm not quite ready to crown their ass, but this team has seemed to have a complete turnaround of its season ever since halftime of the Wichita State game. Doesn't seem to far off from what we saw from football this year.
Everybody has stepped up though, enough so to the point that USU completely manhandled a team that many thought could potentially hand the Aggies a blowout loss. Are they perfect? No. There's still plenty to work on, but things have take an incredible swing upward in the past two weeks.
How much they've swung upwards is what we'll find out on New Years' Eve against Mississippi State. That will be a great final tune-up before WAC play starts, and the WAC wastes no time in dishing out some challenges at USU with Nevada coming to town right before school starts, then sending the Aggies on the road to face the bad Aggies in Las Cruces.
Regardless, things have gotten really interesting in the WAC with Utah State looking like contenders yet again right before the conference season gets underway.
Notes and stuff:
- Any time you have three guys combine to score 61 points on 24-of-30 shooting and combine for 24 rebounds, you'll probably find yourself winning a game or two. That's how things went tonight for Morgan Grim, Kyisean Reed and Preston Medlin. That trio was out of this world tonight, especially Reed. If you saw the game, you're probably still picking up pieces of the mind you had blown by the plays Reed was making. It was pure entertainment. Medlin was great yet again, taking over the game for a bit in the first half when he scored eight points in 65 seconds. Grim showed again that he's feeling healthy and like his early-season self, racking a double-double for the second game in-a-row. Epic performance by that trio.
- Kyisean Reed really deserves his own mention though. After hitting 13 points FIVE times, he finally got over that hump with his first basket of the second half and kept on going. Really struggling to think of a game where one player provided more highlights that Reed did Thursday.
- Off the bench, both E.J. Farris and Ben Clifford have looked like solid guys to turn to in the past few games. Neither of them are at a point where they'll be go-to guys yet, but if teams give them room, they can make things happen. And with the likes of Medlin, Grim, Reed, Danny Berger and Brockeith Pane on the roster, opposing defenses will have their hands full, leaving Farris and Clifford to get theirs.
- Speaking Brockeith Pane, I was a little bit hard on him a few games ago. Not that it was undeserved by any means, and it still infuriates me to see him waste a perfectly good possession by tossing up a 3-pointer, he's put together a pair of solid games the last two nights. I'll take eight points, eight assists and five rebounds from him with only one turnover every night out and be stoked on it. To me, he's shown a solid change in mentality the past few games of having a lot more trust in his teammates rather than trying to be the guy to carry everyone. His assist totals reflect that. Here's to hoping that's all not a fluke and that he keeps finding his way.
- 17 assists and only three turnovers from Pane, Medlin and Berger. If that doesn't get Stew Morrill giddy, nothing can.
- As for Kent State's coach, that dude was a train wreck for basically the entire second half Thursday. And sure, I was by no means nice to him while making sure I had no remaining pent-up heckling rage during a holiday visit to Section F, but man he was bent the hell out of shape after that game, despite all of us busting out in "Hakuna Matata" to him... Some people just don't appreciate the little things.
- Opposing teams are now shooting 39.1 percent from the field against USU this year. The only USU team in the past decade to hold teams to worse was last year's team with 38.3 percent. Stay tuned on that one.
Player of the Game: Kyisean Reed
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