Another ugly one, but Aggies win again

There's that old saying that says, "You've gotta slay a few dragons before you can finally rescue the princess." Put plainly, it's referring to hooking up with girls you wouldn't brag to anyone about before eventually finding that one gem to settle down with.

That's how I'm hoping things are going for this Aggie basketball team right now. They just keep knocking out these ugly victories, but eventually things are going to get a whole lot prettier.

In their defense, last year the team was losing a handful of these ugly games. To be 10-1, even if you haven't really tackled any titans, is still a very good record to be sitting on. Much like my feeling was prior to the Gossner's tournament, this team still looks like a group of very talented basketball players who have yet to really come together as a cohesive unit.

They've shown flashes, and I don't think I was alone in hoping that the win against Southern Illinois would be a sign of better things to come. That very well could be the case still and they just had another struggle on the road. Again though, 3-0 on the road now. That's something to be happy about, especially since one of those was against a Santa Clara team who hung around against the No. 1 team in the country over at Cameron Indoor on Saturday morning.

Bair decides to hang up the gym shoes...

Things just got a little bit more complicated for this year's USU basketball team with another player stepping away from the program. Freshman wing Quincy Bair has left the team according to numerous reports Wednesday night.

While not wanting to comment specifically on reasons, Bair at least told Kyle Goon that it had nothing to do with the team. Another report from a credible source stated that Bair has simply lost the passion for playing basketball. If that's indeed the case, tough to really fault the dude for not wanting to go through the rigors of practicing and playing when you're not enjoying it.

Speculation is that Bair won't be transferring to play elsewhere, but feels content with calling it a career in competitive basketball. It's a situation not too unlike running back recruit Tavarreon Dickerson from last year's football signing class. He was a highly-touted running back who decided to walk away from football because he had lost his passion to play.

THIN ON THE WINGS
Bair's departure, along with the injury to Danny Berger and previous departure of Riley Bradshaw gives USU a somewhat stressful situation in the back court for the rest of this season. Marcel Davis and Tenale Roland will hold down the point guard position, but it leaves only the trio of Preston Medlin, Spencer Butterfield and Marvin Jean to hold down the wings.

In other words, foul trouble could seriously complicate things for the team in some games. If either one of Kyisean Reed or Ben Clifford could make ample contributions at the small forward spot in an emergency situation, things will be fine. Still, it's more of a headache than any coach would want.

TOO MUCH OF A PATTERN...
It's been pointed out before that every year, at least one freshman on the roster calls it quits. It's seen the departure of a handful of a guys who turned out to be good players, and more recently guys with the potential to be very good. The circumstances are often unknown, and it's usually safe to assume that much more goes into these decisions than the masses will ever know...

Still, the pattern is officially a tiny bit disturbing at this point.

Maile staying on as part of Wells' staff

Matt Wells has officially begun assembling his coaching staff, starting with the retention of defensive line coach Frank Maile.

Maile has been on the staff for four years now, working the past two seasons as the team's defensive line coach. From the looks of thigns, he'll stay in that role, giving the team much needed continuity on the defensive side of the ball. One has got to think that Maile has learned quite a bit from the likes of Gary Andersen and Dave Aranda over the last few seasons, making him a valuable asset to keep on staff.

And that's without even mentioning that two of his players earned all-WAC honors this year with Al Lapuaho landing on the first team and freshman Jordan Nielsen on the second team. Connor Williams was an honorable mention selection as well.

Maile also has some experience in the areas of strength and conditioning, which could be some welcomed continuity should Evan Simon indeed be leaving the Aggies.

While one position is filled, there are plenty more spots to sort out moving forward. A lot of that will likely have to do with which of USU's assistants from this past season are indeed headed elsewhere and which can be retained. Rumors have been flying around indicating all sorts of different things, so it's probably safer just to let things play out.

Stay tuned to this moving forward.

Marvin Jean answering the call

Marvin Jean never saw more than 10 minutes in a game through the first five contests this season. Spencer Butterfield was the ace off the bench early on in the year while Preston Medlin and Danny Berger held down starting roles.

Jean hadn't played poorly by any means. He hit on 3-of-8 total attempts from the field in the first five games. But he only racked up two total rebounds and two assists, leaving at least a little to still be desired.

When Berger went down, it was inevitable that Jean would see his minutes increase, and with that, the pressure would be on for him to really perform.

And perform he has!

In four games since Berger's injury (is that even the right thing to call it?), Jean has scored eight points three different times. He's also made solid contributions in rebounds and assists during his increase in minutes, which has been 18 or more in each of the last four games.

Aggies ride strong second half to beat UC Davis

Thursday the Aggies had a big lead to start the second half and saw their opponent slowly chip away to make it a game.

Friday was the opposite. UC Davis went into halftime leading 40-39, but in the second half, Utah State took back the lead and slowly widened it as time rolled on.

It was still an ugly game for the most part, but I dare say it was at least a little bit better looking than Thursday's affair. The key to Friday's win was Preston Medlin stepping up as the offensive weapon we all know he is, breaking the 20-point barrier for the first time this season. Maybe more importantly, he looked like he had that assassin's mentality once again.

It's funny how a slump can weigh down on you, no matter how capable of playing better you know yourself to be. But once that slump is broken, everything feels comfortable all over again. That's what it looked like after Medlin really got things going offensively in the first half. It seemed like he knew that if he forced the action on UC Davis, that points would end up on the board.

Sure enough, he went off for 23 of them on 9-17 shooting, while also tying for the team-lead in assists with four. And with Jarred Shaw having his first down game of the season, it was perfect timing for Medlin to step up with a big game like that.

Not a ton else to say about this game outside of its ugliness, Medlin's big night, and maybe mention that in that second half the team looked for flashes like they were starting to mesh some more. We saw a lot of that against Western Oregon, but the chemistry seems to be taking its time this season.

The assistant coaching carousel spins on...

With the hiring of Matt Wells now official, the next big questions involve who he will pick to round out his coaching staff.

If continuity is an option, I think you take that and roll with it. And apparently, there could be a little bit more continuity than we initially though with Wisconsin apparently wanting to keep some of their current assistants on staff, potentially closing the door in Madison for a few guys who Gary Andersen wanted to take with him. This details that all a bit: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/68309/wisconsin-could-keep-some-assistants

Among the positions possibly being retained at Wisconsin are defensive coordinator, defensive line coach, strength coach, and offensive line coach.

For Utah State, that would leave Dave Aranda, Frank Maile, Evan Simon, and T.J. Woods as potentials to remain on staff. While Aranda could still very likely move on to some other job, keeping him would be a godsend to next year's season. Maile and Woods have both been great as well over the past two seasons and would be very valuable retentions to the coaching staff. As for Simon, we've seen the entire team get a whole hell of a lot bigger and stronger with him here. I say give the man a raise and reason to stay!

Sloppy sloppy sloppy, but Aggies hold on

The optimist in me says, "This is what's nice about the Gossner's Tournament. Get some quality experience at home against teams you should beat even on a crappy night."

The pessimist says, "This team is still struggling way worse than they should, and doubts are starting to arise."

I can't help but think back to last year when we opened the Gossner's against UT-Arlington, only beating them by four. By the last game of the tournament, we beat the piss out of a very good Kent State team.

And that was last year's team, who I doubt many people will try to argue had more talent on its roster than this year's squad. Throw in some actual size down low, some more talent and experience on the wings, and a pair of point guards who are both not too shabby, and there's probably reason to stay optimistic.

Matt Wells to be the Aggies' next head coach

Multiple sources have indicated that all the speculation is true about Matt Wells stepping in as the next head coach of Utah State football.
After just two years with USU, Wells has apparently made enough of an impression on the administration to work his way into this position, even being called by some people as a younger version of Gary Andersen.

If that truly is the case, then USU should be in a great position moving forward, especially since Wells is a guy who is Aggie-bred and could hopefully assemble a quality staff of guys also very familiar with the school and the program.

Regardless, this gives the Utah State program some crucial continuity moving forward. Wells has been a huge part of the success of the past two seasons, has done a tremendous job both as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, and apparently has some serious ties to many recruits in various areas. Plus, as it's been stated before, Gary Andersen didn't start really winning lots of football games until Matt Wells was on staff at USU. Prior to Wells, Andersen's coaching record was 8-16. With Wells on staff, USU had a record of 18-8.

Doubtful that they're THAT directly related, but there's at least something to it. Not to mention, Wells helped develop both Adam Kennedy and Chuckie Keeton into stud quarterbacks in his and their first years at Utah State.

The coming days will be filled with rumors and speculation about assistant coaches, recruiting commitments, which will be kind of fun to see. And hopefully it can inject some excitement into people about the program moving forward and put some of the hurt of the last couple days to rest.

It's also worth noting again that as far as Utah State becoming the next Boise State is concerned, we're just following the script. Boise State lost Dan Hawkins after the 2005 season and hired offensive coordinator Chris Peterson. Things only ended up getting better for them.

How things shake down for the Aggies... We'll see. The uncertainty of outcomes is part of what makes going to games so much fun. So if Wells is able to come right out and keep the show rolling next season, this program's momentum just might grow too powerful to stop!

Welcome to the big job Matt Wells. Let's keep this show rolling!!!

Waving goodbye to greatness...

The optimism was so high, so recently. The thought of Andersen, Wells and Aranda all staying for another season was nothing short of a thrill, and almost seemed too good to be true.

Turns out it was...

For a fan base that seemed to pretty well grasp the idea that our time with a coach as great as Gary Andersen would be very limited, it was interesting to see the reactions Tuesday night as news broke.

Heartbreak is a funny thing, and people all deal with it in their own ways, and I think that very much showed in the wake of the news that the man who helped turn Utah State football from a perennial doormat to a top 20 program, was accepting potentially a once-in-a-lifetime offer.

I won't hide the fact that I disagree with those who are trying to tear down everything about Andersen. A lot of the things said about him upset me quite a bit. This is a guy who devoted everything he had to this program for the last four years, raising Utah State football to national prominence. Remembering where we back in 2006 and 2007 when this program lost 16 consecutive games, and comparing that to the thrills of 2011 and 2012, I'm filled with nothing but joy that we got to have Gary Andersen here to do what he's done.

Going back on the announcement from a few weeks back that he would be staying is hurtful. I get it. We had our hopes high, and Tuesday they were brought crashing down. The way it all happened is a huge disappointment, and it is no doubt a bruise on his legacy.

But people had expected all along that Andersen would soon be on to bigger opportunities than what Utah State could afford him. Regardless of the circumstances, it was going to be hard to swallow.

I might not be the majority in this line of thinking by any means, but I think it's times like these where we can make the most positive of impressions on the program we want so badly to see succeed. These are the times where outpourings of gratitude could potentially leave an impression on any future coaches to truly believe we have something special in the works at Utah State. Throwing a guy under the bus after leading USU to its best season ever only harbors negativity, and the less of that we have, the better.

THE NEXT BOISE STATE
This has been a continual talking point about the future hopes for the Utah State football program. It's something that obviously won't come easy, as it's really only been done by one program. You could throw Utah and TCU into that mix too, but BSU is the benchmark there for doing it in such a small market.

For those who thought Utah State's hopes of becoming the next Boise State went out the window with Andersen leaving, you're forgetting one very crucial aspect of the Boise State story... Dan Hawkins.

Dan Hawkins was the head coach that Boise State lost to a big name school after the 2005 season, leaving them wondering if their rise to prominence had come to an end. The school hired Offensive Coordinator Chris Peterson as its head football coach to replace Hawkins, won the Fiesta Bowl, and have been a national power ever since.

If being the next Boise State is what Aggie fans want, then Andersen's departure is just part of the process.

While a head coaching search might not be resolved right away, it's worth noting that Gary Andersen's head coaching record at USU prior to Matt Wells joining the staff was 8-16. With Wells on staff, the record has been 18-8. If continuity is the goal, Wells could be the guy, much like Peterson was as the successor to Hawkins.

Do I think Utah State will find a better coach than Andersen? Probably not. I think Andersen is destined to be one of the best coaches in all of college football for a long time. I think he'll have tremendous success at Wisconsin, and should serve as a proud example of coach that really blossomed at Utah State.

Not too unlike a certain Urban Meyer a few years back when he left Utah. Meyer has gone on to be arguably the best coach in college football of the past 10 years, and the Utah program he left behind has done pretty well for itself too. Kyle Whittingham took over that program and kept them at the high level where Meyer had brought them. Many will claim (myself included) that Whittingham's 2008 Sugar Bowl championship team was a better overall squad than the 2004 Fiesta Bowl team that Meyer was in charge of.

The point is, programs have withstood high-profile coaching changes before to go on to bigger and better things than the would-be legends like Hawkins and Meyer could claim from their time at the mid-major level. Both BSU and Utah had more sustained success than what USU has had in leading up to these changes, but what's to say USU can't go a bit further in overcoming this new challenge?

Respect the process.

I DON'T JUST LIKE YA, I LOVE YA!!!
I'm not bitter at Gary Andersen at all. It is a bummer to lose him, but Wisconsin is an unreal opportunity for him. We very well could see our former head coach hoisting a national championship trophy at some point in the next few years, and for me, that gives quite a bit of a sense of pride in knowing that he was one of us for these last four years.

Andersen has done the job at Utah State that we've only dreamed to see other coaches do. He's made us into a strong program for the first time in generations, and that is something I will forever be appreciative of.

On top of winning a ton of football games, beating the in-state teams, winning the WAC and winning a bowl game, he was just a pleasure to have around. He's a hell of a guy who you can tell really cares about what he does.

Sure, he might be moving on to a new group of players and fans to care about, but I have zero doubt that his love for Utah State players and fans has been genuine all along. To have a guy like that here for four years has been special. And while I've thanked him multiple times for all he's done here, I would give a whole lot for the chance to thank him one last time and wish him well.

No matter how much the unfolding of events may have hurt, the good things he's done outweigh the bad, and the ratio is nowhere even close in that one!

Thank you for everything Gary Andersen!!! To me, and hopefully plenty others, you'll forever be an Aggie legend!!!

Tipping the hat to Tony Jones

Saturday in Boise will forever go down as a special day. Utah State capped off its best season in school history with a bowl victory, but also saw the memorable careers of a handful of seniors come to an end. Some of these seniors were parts of three or four win teams, riding the rise of the program all the way to this year's 11-2 record.

It was also the last day for another guy who has been a big part of Utah State athletics for the last five years. Tony Jones has officially made the transition to his new beat over at the Salt Lake Tribune after a run of bringing as good of media coverage as Utah State University has ever seen. Whether it was his post game stories, player features, breaking news via Twitter, or detailing all the breaking news on the Aggieville blog, Tony was on top of everything. Dude just has a knack for writing about a game or seeing stories about players that most others didn't notice. As a fellow journalist, that's especially impressive to see.

You see, media mas changed quite a bit in the last five years. And while plenty of reporters and media outlets have struggled to adjust to those changes, Tony knocked it all out of the park. And on top of that, he was active on Twitter, accepted Facebook friend requests, and essentially was always open to discussion of USU athletics with anyone willing to strike up conversation.

For a school that has often falt cast by the wayside from the Salt Lake media in the past, Tony Jones always made the Aggies a story worth reading.

Plus, he's a hell of dude to top it all off.

So while one era ends, a new one begins. Monday appeared to by the first full-time day for Kyle Goon's coverage of the Aggies, and if you're asking this guy's opinion, the great coverage hasn't missed a beat at all so far with the blogging and Tweeting. Maybe the best coverage USU has seen is still yet to come and Kyle Goon ends up as the guy to make that happen. But regardless of how well Kyle has taken the passing of the torch in stride, it was Mr. Jones who set the pace.

So with all that said, I think I speak for myself and plenty of Aggie fans when I say...

"Thanks for kicking so much ass at your job Tony Jones. It's been a hell of a ride the last five years, and you deserve all the good things you've got going, and still coming your way. Best of luck down there my dude!!!"

Dave and Matt are standing pat

The worry of the dream season's staff departing for other opportunities was already there even before news broke of Mike Sanford heading off to take the head coaching job at Indiana State. Dave Aranda has done a masterful job with the defense at USU this season, while Matt Wells has shined plenty as well during his first year as offensive coordinator.

With the success we'd had, there was the hope that at the very worst, some of the guys below Wells and Aranda on staff would have been well-groomed enough to step up and take the reigns. If at all possible, the hope was to keep Wells and Aranda on board for another year given how well they each did. But for assistants, opportunities are going to be out there, especially in Aranda's case with him having previous experience as a D-coordinator.

And those offers were very much out there too! Reports have said that Aranda was a frontrunner for the defensive coordinator jobs at both Cal and Texas Tech, with rumors even flying out there Sunday that Aranda was indeed heading to the Red Raiders.

In Wells' case, Kyle Goon and Tony Jones teamed up in reporting that Wells had been pursued by North Carolina State.

As it is now, it looks like holy trinity of Andersen, Wells and Aranda want an encore in 2013. The three of them will be back at Utah State for at least one more season, and hopefully plenty more!

Now we have one more year of these guys together, making every one of them that much more prepared to step up and succeed if more is asked of them at USU, or should they eventually try to find success elsewhere. It also gives the younger assistants more time to work and learn under each of them, with the same benefits hopefully paying off in the future.

Really just to sum it up... This is HUGE for Utah State to retain these two guys!!! Maybe, just maybe we have something special enough going on that they stick around even longer than just next year too! 

All you once knew is shattered

It's not the most common thing for a team to only have one milestone left to possibly reach. For Utah State football though, that's where we are.

Five years ago, we capped off Senior Day 2007 with a 52-0 loss to Boise State, sending off that class with an 0-10 start to that season, and the 16th consecutive loss for the Utah State football program. It was a heartwrenching way to send off a group of guys who had busted their butts and put in their time to represent Utah State on the football field.

Everything is different now in 2012. The idea of being a program that loses 16-straight games is seemingly unimaginable, and that is a beautiful thought to not have!

I only arrived in Boise in time to soak in the pep rally on Friday, mingling with players, coaches and other personnel as we all collectively got prepared to cap off the best season of Utah State football any of us have ever seen. There's just something special about making a trek to some other place with your team and fellow fans. It makes even the most familiar of faces that much more great to see when everyone has the collective feeling that something special is happening.

But it's not like we needed any more reminders that this 2012 Utah State football team was special... They've reminded us of that plenty of times. Still, even before kickoff had come on Saturday afternoon, we were reminded once again.

As USU fans busted out into an epic bowl game version of the "I Believe" chant, you could see the excitement on the team was quite a bit higher this time around. More importantly though, for a handful of seniors, they soaked it in even more as they came to that end zone, arms waving, jumping around in the thrill of the moment.

For them, this was the last time they'd experience that thrill with a helmet and pads on. It was a game they knew was their last, in a season that was USU's best, for a senior class that should be cherished forever.

Never before has an "I Believe" chant meant more to me or held quite the excitement as that one did, and given what was done throughout this whole football season, I wouldn't have it any other way.

For the bulk of the football game, it was more of a battle than I think most Aggie fans expected. So when Kerwynn Williams finally broke loose up the middle, we knew we had finally tipped the scales in the big way we had needed. At that point, we could finally taste victory.

Then Kerwynn put the team on his back for another drive, capped off with Eric Schultz coming from the opposite side of the line to give an extra push to drive the pile into the end zone. And then Kerwynn scored one final time to cap off one of the most memorable performances in Utah State football history.

The season had finished like only one other season in USU history had. 1993 finally had a team to look up to with this 2012 team doing things like no other team before it.

What's amazing is that even the best could still be yet to come with future teams. But when it comes to a season like this, with this new record, and these players, this is the kind of season that gets remembered forever. These players and these coaches reached the status of legends on Saturday, and while there have been many USU football heroes in the past, and surely plenty more to come, it comes down to this... "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die!"

We'll all remember this team for being the ones who really took us to this next level. And while there are plenty of players who are equally deserving of the credit in getting us here, these guys made it all finally happen like we couldn't have even dreamed of just five years ago.

Next milestone up is the last one left... An undefeated season!

Bring on Bowl Weekend!!!

Let's cut right to the chase with statistical analysis about the football game. You can get a nice, professionally done preview in almost any media outlet right about now, so rather than just give another one of those, I want to talk more about the experience of bowl weekend!

But the football game is most important, so let's knock that out real quick...

FOOTBALL TALK
The statistical rankings tell a pretty solid tale. Both Utah State and Toledo have very good offensive units and playmakers. The Aggies are 26th in the nation in total yards, the Rockets are 28th.

Defensively, not as close... Utah State has the 15th best defense in the nation, while Toledo ranks 106th.

So, in a nutshell, the Aggies should score almost at will, while the Rockets will struggle to score just like every other team has against USU this year. They'll still get theirs, but it'll be a whole lot harder to come by. The closest comparison I can make is the San Jose State game, and even the Spartans are rocking both a top 30 offense AND defense.

If you want more of what I think, download the latest Front Row Show, fast forward to 11:55 in the episode, and listen to Josh McDonald and I dominate that bowl preview.

Final score prediction: 42-20, Aggies!

Late-Monday Musings about Aggie stuff

Sooo, last week was a little bit wild. Obviously the Danny Berger story is long from over, but if the response for him Saturday is any indication, his eventual return to the court should be earth-shaking. And it does indeed look like he'll be making a comeback, apparently even possibly this season. Crazy how this is all playing out, but it's looking like it will all finish with a happy ending and a pretty incredible story.

There's plenty more to talk about though, especially with this week being bowl week. So let's get down to what's going on.

FOOTBALL RECRUITING NEWS
Generally around this time of year, things are really heading up on the recruiting front. What's different about this year though is that there's already more than 20 guys committed.

Still, we're going to hear plenty about guys coming on visits in coming weeks, probably much more so right after the holiday break. If I were to guess, just about each guy is going to carry the label of "potential star" as Gary Andersen sells guys on the success and growth of the program so far and the notion that he plans to stick around here for a while. Plus, with so many scholarships being filled already, why not swing for the fences with some players we could never have even dreamed would consider USU five years ago or so?

This past weekend apparently included one of those players with (former?) Utah commit, Vili Leveni. Leveni is a highly-rated defensive end who is second guessing his commitment to the Utes. Based on his tweets throughout his visit, things could be looking very good for the Aggies to land a guy currently holding offers from Boise State, Houston, Illinois, Mississippi State, and Oklahoma State. Seems like a heck of a guy to go with being a hell of a football player.

While on Utah commit is considering a turn to the dark side, a former BYU commit has already pulled the trigger. Hayden Weichers had committed to play for the Cougars a while back, but apparently has been mulling over a change since as far back as the summer. Today, news broke the Weichers is going to be an Aggie, adding another wide receiver to a 2013 class currently loaded with wideouts.

Chances are that at least a few of them will be changing positions when they get to USU, but Weichers looks like maybe the most likely to stay at that spot in the future. If nothing else, a whole lot of people at USU already think this kid is a bad ass for joining the dark side with us!!!

BOBBY WAGNER
Peter King has him tabbed as his Defensive Rookie of the Year at this point. Wagner has been a tackling machine and added two more interceptions to his season stats on Sunday. And I can't imagine him slowing down either.

Funny thing is, I doubt anyone at USU is even that surprised. Dude was an absolute playmaking machine for four years, yet somehow slipped to the second round of the draft. 

I can't imagine the Aggies being short on quality linebackers for a while given the talent already here, and having Wagner as an NFL icon to show off to future recruits, that unit is going to be dominant.

MARCEL DAVIS
Was named as USU's Student Athlete of the Week, and apparently got mentioned by Stew today as having made things very interesting at point guard moving forward... Definitely keep an eye on this one!

COME TO BOISE, NO MATTER WHAT... IT'S BOWL WEEK!!!
It's time to paint Boise blue!! And no, not that light blue crap... That dark kind. The Aggie blue kind. This needs to be a complete takeover.

If you haven't made plans to go up there yet, get on the ball and make them! We need to make this a total home-field advantage. Aggies will undoubtedly outnumber Rockets' fans, but we need to mercilessly overpower them too! We have a chance to create a scene and an atmosphere to truly cap off this season that has represented a giant leap forward for this program into new, never before seen heights.

It's on all of us to make it happen. Not just the crazies among us. Not just those who don't have kids there with them. If you've got kids, involve them in it! They'll probably be stoked at yelling at the other team while the Aggies are on defense. Teach them that this is how we're going to do things at Utah State. We will be nutty as fans, and we will make an impact.

And then after we win this thing, we'll party all over Boise!! Sounds like a hell of a weekend, eh?

Make it happen!!!

Aggies shake off the rust after long layoff

In the case of Danny Berger, it was "Welcome back to the outside world."

In the case of Marcel Davis, it was "Welcome to the show!"

Saturday was USU's first game in 10 days, and the rust was obvious early on. The Aggies turned the ball over on three of their first four possessions, and just looked completely out of sync. Given the long layoff from the court, mixed in with a little bit of trauma and missed practice time, that is all really understandable.

While the Aggies were struggling to score, especially in the paint early on, Western Oregon was hitting shots, forcing the action to do what they wanted, and just all-around making things difficult... We knew that couldn't last long though, and it didn't once the second half got started.

Really this game is summed up in a simple way... First half, sloppy. Second half, crisp and dominant. Final outcome, inevitable.

The team clearly had some emotions running from everything this whole week, and once they shook the rust off, Western Oregon was dead in the water.

And now we play basketball...

The Danny Berger story has no doubt been the focus of headlines all over this week, and for good reason. There were heroes, dramatic rescues, trials, emotions, and all other kinds of things that you usually only see on TV.

At some point though, it had to have hit Stew and the boys that, "Hey, we've still got other games to play!"

Luckily Berger's condition appears to have been rapidly improving. From the looks of things, this story is going to have an alright ending. Eventually though, we've got to get back to doing and talking about what Danny obviously loves... So let's talk some basketball, shall we? If anything is going to help restore a sense of normalcy, playing basketball will be it.

BERGER'S FUTURE
This is a tough one. Admittedly, when I first heard all this news, I thought there was no chance Berger would be able to take the court again in an NCAA game. Having heart troubles can be such a delicate thing, and especially after a scare like he's had, it seemed tough to imagine facing that risk once again.

But doctors are apparently pretty good at what they do, and according to reports of the presser that Berger and his doctors are doing down in Murray, there's a possibility that basketball might still be in the picture!

That right there is nothing short of amazing, and if Berger does indeed get to take the court again in The Spectrum, that's going to be one absolute hell of a moment!!

But let's not get ahead of ourselves here... There's still a long road to recovery ahead, and the fact that Berger even might be at Saturday's game is a miracle already! Oh, and will probably be quite the hell of a moment itself (so don't miss it!)

How the rest of this story goes will pan out over the next few months as his recovery continues. Should Berger be able to suit up in an Aggie uniform once again, this year would likely be ended with a medical redshirt and he'd return again as a junior again next year.

ENTER QUINCY BAIR
Rather than go with a three-man rotation on the wings, Stew Morrill said Friday that freshman Quincy Bair will no longer be redshirting this season. That definitely shakes things up moving forward, but with one veteran and two rookies manning the wings, you can't really fault Stew Morrill for wanting to be able to go four-deep on the wings.

Bair brings another solid mix of size and athleticism to the table, much like Marvin Jean does. But when it comes to the possibilities of foul trouble, slumps, or whatever, the safety net of a fourth guy is never a bad thing. Assumption right now is that Bair will be the fourth man in, but with the team only being five games into the season, plenty could change as we move forward.

For anyone critical of Stew's pulling of the redshirt for a guy who might only see sparse minutes, remember that once upon a time it was Preston Medlin only seeing a few, if any minutes per game behind Tyler Newbold, Pooh Williams and Brian Green. Bair might get the chance to redshirt next year much like Medlin did in second season, and have a much bigger role awaiting him after the graduations of Medlin, Butterfield and Jean.

WESTERN OREGON
Welp... Sucks to be these guys. Yeah, the team might be a bit unprepared from the missed practices and trauma of this week. My gut tells me that any lack of prep will be more than compensated for with inspiration to kick loads of asses in honor of their teammate. 

It's going to be an emotional night at The Spectrum regardless, and a whole lot more so if Danny Berger is indeed able to make it up to the game. Maybe, just maybe, this is the will all end up as the kick in the ass to jump start Aggie basketball back into dominance. It would have been nice to not have to face tragedy, but the whole team certainly has a lot more to play for now! Few things will bring a team closer than something like this.

Said it a bunch of times already, but you're not going to want to miss this game!

Berger's condition upgraded to fair

By now I'm sure everyone has seen the picture, but here it is anyway. It's amazing how much a simple thumbs up can mean to people in the wake of tragedy. It's the kind of thing that can incite an eruption from a crowd, such as when a guy is being taken off a football field on a stretcher. In this case, it's the kind of thing that can go viral among Utah State fans.

Earlier tonight, Intermountain Medical tweeted that Danny Berger's condition has been upgraded to fair. That is a huge step forward for him in this whole recovery process. Obviously there's plenty of recovery left to go, but every step matters at this point.

STUDENTS SHOW THE LOVE
A handful of students organized an event on campus Thursday, and apparently going on again Friday to write letters of support and well-wishes to Berger while he goes through this recovery. I wish I could give a solid estimate of how long that process takes with this kind of thing, but I really have no idea. I do know though that having a whole university behind you cheering you on has got to make it that much easier to keep up the fight.

A good solid Hell Yeah to everyone who went out to that today, and for the people who go tomorrow. Also major props to the people who put that together!!

You never cease to amaze me Utah State!

NOW FILL THE SPECTRUM SATURDAY
Danny, in all likelihood, will not be at Saturday's game against Western Oregon. Stories, pictures and video of the experience will all likely make their way to him though. Make signs, show support, yell chants, and just be an Aggie basketball fan this Saturday. Information gets around fast, and if I were a betting man, I'd bet some kind of online album gets put up of all the signs of showings of support for Danny from this Saturday. 

Hopefully the good news continues to come from all of this. It's going to be a pretty special occasion when Danny's able to join his teammates on the bench once again.

#PrayForDanny

This is suddenly one of those times where sports kind of take a backseat to the overall well-being of a member of the Aggie family.

By now you've probably read the bulk of this story about Danny Berger collapsing during practice Tuesday, being revived using a defibrillator, and flown down to Murray in critical condition.

As of right now, that's all we know. There's speculation of other things, but right now, just seems to be speculation. Knowing USU athletics, I assume they are gathering as much info as they know about the situation (emphasis on the word "know") before they put out any kind of release on this. A person's health is a touchy situation, and they're not going to run the risk of putting out anything that still has any speculation left to it.

Tony Jones and Kyle Goon teamed up for this brief report, which includes a bit about Danny's sister posting a positive update on Facebook about him. Hopefully that is a sign of more good news to come.

This is one of those situations that sounds like it was legitimately life-threatening, which is terrifying for Berger and everyone close to him. Sports are a whole lot less important than his health right now, and we can only hope that better news comes out as the night goes on and into tomorrow.

If things are more serious than what we've heard so far, Wednesday's game at BYU should undoubtedly be postponed. But again, we'll see what other news develops.


WHAT THE PAST HAS TAUGHT US
We had some pretty terrifying fears not much more than a year ago about another one of our own when Chuckie Keeton was wheeled off the field on a stretcher in Hawaii. That was another scary moment that left us wondering if he would ever fully recover and be able to get back to his normal life. Luckily Keeton did indeed recover, and everything turned out OK. Let's pray that ends up the case with Berger as well.


OTHER HEART ISSUES
Upon first hearing this news, I couldn't help but think that his playing career would be over. The heart is one of those things that you just can't take lightly, and if it's as serious as things sound, I'm not sure you can ever feel comfortable putting the stresses of Division-1 athletics on a guy's heart again.

We've also seen both ends of the spectrum with heart issues in recent years at USU too. Back in the 2009-10 season, Nate Bendall had a minor heart issue that needed to be addressed, had surgery, missed only one game, and was right back at it.

On the flip side, offensive lineman Christian Browne-Frazier had a heart attack in 2009 and was never able to play again.

For an athlete to have the chance to play the game they love taken away from them is a heartbreaker, but there can be plenty more to life than just sports. Hopefully Berger gets to experience the happier ending to things here.

Regardless of everything else, #PrayForDanny.

Get well soon!

All-WAC teams are out and Toledo is the bowl opponent

AGGIES VS. ROCKETS IN THE POTATO BOWL
You likely have heard already, but Utah State will be playing Toledo in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. The Rockets produced the nation's 28th best offense and the 105th ranked defense when it comes to total yards. The Aggies on the other hand rank 26th in offense and 15th in defense.

In other words, USU has plenty more than just a slight edge in the yardage numbers.

We'll talk plenty more about this in the next week and a half though.


ALL-WAC TEAMS RELEASED
Utah State lands 14 players on this year's All-WAC teams, with eight of them making their way onto the first team. Gary Andersen was also named as the WAC's Coach of the Year.

First team
OT - Eric Schultz
C - Tyler Larsen
RB - Kerwynn Williams
QB - Chuckie Keeton

DE - Al Lapuaho
LB - Jake Doughty
LB - Kyler Fackrell
CB - Will Davis

Second team
WR - Matt Austin 
OG - Jamie Markosian

DE - Jordan Nielsen
LB - Zach Vigil
CB - Nevin Lawson
S - McKade Brady

A FEW THOUGHTS ON ALL-WAC...
You kind of have to just expect the WAC to totally mess up a few things in whatever they do these days, and this is no different.

First thing: Colby Cameron as the Offensive Player of the Year... The WAC dun goofed on this one. Yeah, I get that Cameron has put up some crazy awesome offensive numbers, but so could a lot of quarterbacks on good teams who stay in the entire game to run up the score on teams. Can you imagine how insane Chuckie Keeton's numbers would be if the playbook was kept wide open all game, with CK still on the field late against the likes of UTSA, Texas State, New Mexico State and Southern Utah? Not to mention Cameron pretty much fell flat in La Tech's two biggest WAC games. Keeton was exceptional in those big WAC games.

The WAC set somewhat of a precedent last year for team success being a factor in the postseason awards when they tabbed Adrien Cole as last year's Defensive Player of the Year over Bobby Wagner. They didn't keep it consistent this year. The team that dominated conference play didn't have either one of the POY awards, and that just isn't right. Keeton should have been the Offensive Player of the Year without question.

When it comes to overall selections, San Jose State led everyone with 16 guys getting picked. Both the Spartans and Bulldogs had nine selections to the first team, while USU only had eight first-teamers and 14 total selections. Dafuq is up with that??

Travis Johnson deserved Defensive POY, so no complaints there. How a guy like Bojay Filimoeatu gets left off of both teams is a mindf*** though. Kellen Bartlett should have easily occupied that second-team tight end spot over Chase Harper too.

Kellen and Bojay still have a trophy to show for this season at least. Still a bit of a bummer to see some deserving guys left out of the mix while the second place team gets two more guys earning all-WAC and the third place team has just as many as USU. I guess you could just say that's the WAC being wack...

The sky officially has NOT fallen. Gary staying at USU

Gary Andersen has said he wants to change the culture of Utah State football. That goes above and beyond just going to back-to-back bowl games, beating in-state opponents and winning a WAC championship. Changing the culture means changing the attitude of doom and gloom that some people just cannot resist having toward every good thing we have going for us. It also means helping build things up so that Romney is a packed house week in and week out.

We're seeing it though. And we're going to keep seeing it, because Romney Stadium is still Mr. Andersen's neighborhood!!

We knew his name was going to come up everywhere, and it likely will in the future, but Gary made it official that he's sticking to the culture change.

You've got to love a guy who is this committed to sticking things out with his recruits, his fans, his own kids and plenty of other people who love the hell out of him!

As far as Utah State is concerned, every year that Andersen is here sets up the program that much more for long term success. Whether it's in raising the national profile of Utah State even more, appealing to in-state recruits like we've already been doing, or just developing other coaches who are learning under Andersen to be great head coaches of their own one day, Andersen's presence at USU is monumental.

Thoughts on a Thursday - 11/29

There's been a serious lack of non-postgame content here lately, and to that I apologize. In my own defense, I could never suspend feelings of guilt of doing the Highs, Lows and I Don't Knows for football when we were blowing out teams every week. Without any "Lows", the triforce is broken up and there's no order to things.

So let's just bust out some quick hits on the news of the day! This is Thoughts on a Thursday (rhyming intentional on that one).

AGGIES WIN THE BEEHIVE BOOT
As many people had understood it, this was going to BYU this year because of their win over Weber State. Apparently that doesn't carry the same weight it used to though... Each one of the Aggies, Utes and 40+ women trying to date much younger guys were 1-1 against each other. And whether it was margin of victory that gave USU the nod to victory in this one, or the fact that they have a 10-win season to their name this year, the media voters sent the Beehive Boot to Logan this year. That makes two of the last three years that it's come to Utah State, and I dare say this is going to be much more of a trend than a rarity moving forward.

SOCIAL MEDIA EXPLOSION LAST NIGHT
After USU's comeback win at Santa Clara last night, Facebook and Twitter went nuts with posts about the game. With a lot of the more casual/lukewarm fans apparently lacking interest early this year, conveying that kind of excitement all over social media is a nice way to remind them there's still plenty to be excited about.

I've always held the belief that if you want to create a rowdy fan base, that all starts with the die hards. When other people see how much fun the die hards are having and how excited they get about games, eventually they want in on the good times. Some of those people grow into die hards themselves, and some fall away once things go bad. But still, it's the die hards that breed new die hards.

Last night was a thing of beauty!

KYISEAN'S DUNKS
Nice freakin job by the Santa Clara camera crew for managing to somehow miss the bulk of both of Kyisean Reed's monster dunks last night, as well as the play as it happened when Preston Medlin was shooting the game-tying 3-pointer.

THIS ARTICLE ABOUT GARY ANDERSEN...
THIS talks about Gary's plans to stay at USU. People seem to not want to believe it, and maybe that's because in many ways, what Gary has done seems too good to be true. The last line of the article is particularly comforting.


Alright. That's all for today

A rough road, but Aggies win at Santa Clara

Whoa!!! Just whoa!!!

And that's my reaction having only been able to follow the game from ESPN's gamecast on a cell phone while at a concert. I didn't get to see this game, and probably many of you did, so rather than talk you through a game you saw and I didn't, let's share some stories about following a college basketball game on a cell phone while at a rock and roll concert. Hopefully it'll at least be a tiny bit entertaining, since I'm not exactly taking this one too seriously. Plus there's tons of YouTube links, so that will add plenty to it. 

THE RIDE
When the current best band in the entire world (The Wonder Years) wrapped up their set of music, the first score update I got had USU down 30-18. First thought there was more or less, "Ah s***, we're not even going to hang with them in our first road game."

Come to find out later, that deficit wasn't too shabby compared to the 19-4 lead Santa Clara had after six minutes of basketball.

Anyway, throw in a few buckets by Kyisean Reed, some free throws by Slim and a trio of 3-pointers courtesy of Danny Berger and Spencer Butterfield, the Aggies somehow found themselves leading at halftime of this game.

Aggies finish regular season with school-record 10th win

There was one step left in finishing the regular season on a record-setting note for Utah State, and all it took was a win over an Idaho team that is pretty much dead men walking.

The first half opened up a little bit sloppy, leaving a tiny bit of a threat of that letdown that sometimes comes after a big win. The offense was held to a three-and-out on its first possession, then ended USU's second possession with an interception thrown by Chuckie Keeton on the second play.

The defense was getting its job done though, even if they gave up an unsavory amount of yards to Idaho in the first half. Three plays after Keeton threw his first pick, Bojay Filimoeatu got in on pickfest 2012 with an interception of his own, which he broke a handful of tackles to return 48 yards to Idaho's 11-yard line. Three plays later, Kerwynn Williams took a Keeton pass into the end zone for the score.

The defense kept things going, allowing Idaho just one yard before they were forced to punt on the next possession. The offense kept on struggling though, punting again after gaining just 19 yards. But B.J. Larsen got in on the turnovers with an interception of his own, setting up another short scoring drive for the offense, this time with the score coming from Keeton's legs.

Basketball wins free throw contest against Weber State

In keeping with this season's theme of winning ugly, Utah State outlasted Weber State in what seemed to be much more of a free throw contest than a basketball game at times.

USU came out looking about like we've seen them look so far this year offensively. Not the most crisp of things, but able to score on pure talent. Jarred Shaw was at the center of things once again, controlling the paint on both ends of the floor. Dude has established himself quite nicely so far this season, and that's without having the offense feeding him quality looks in the post like it will as these guys learn things better.

As things are, you can tell this team still has a long way to go in learning the offense and really just developing at this level. It's nothing out of the ordinary really, it just takes a bit sometimes, and the more rookies there are, the tougher that process becomes (maybe the same can be said for the crowd?)

Anyway, you could tell for the bulk of the first half that Weber State was the more experienced team, which became especially more obvious because they run such a similar system as we're used to seeing here. For once though, the Aggies got to be the team, who despite being much more raw, was able to capitalize on size and athleticism advantages.

Long story short with the first half: Weber had a slight lead for the bulk of it, but USU overcame sloppy play to keep pace and enter the break tied at 28.

Late Monday links for a top 25 program

Kind of a big weekend, wouldn't you say? Aggies win the WAC, crack the top 25, have a party at the airport and plenty more. Basketball has plenty going on too!

Let's round up what's been going on....

• The Utah State Aggies crack the AP top 25!!! Seriously unreal to think about... Utah State is a top 25 football program.
• Conference realignment is heating up again. The fallout of this round could mean an even better conference situation for Utah State and the Mountain West. I'd personally only care to see two of these three teams come back to the MWC.
• Even Stew Morrill was all kinds of stoked on football winning the WAC. Kraig Williams details that, and more.
• Tony Jones has his recap of Saturday's epic win. He also give some love to Jake Doughty and how far he's come. And don't forget mentioning the records set by Keeton over the weekend.
• Chuckie Keeton is the WAC's Offensive Player of the Week.
• The Front Row Show has an interview with Will Davis, and will have a new show online tomorrow. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out here and subscribe in iTunes.
• Kyle Goon has the details on basketball's 77-68 win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
• Basketball's fall signing class gets detailed by USU Athletics, including some comments on Kyle Davis.

WAC CHAMPS!!!!! Aggies beat La Tech in OT

A late arrival and some light rain didn't stop a couple hundred Aggie fans from greeting the 2012 WAC football champions as they got off that plane. Beating BYU in 2010 was incredible. The win over Utah this season brought Romney Stadium to its most epic of levels ever. But this win over Louisiana Tech and this WAC title represent the biggest thing to happen to Utah State football during the incredible rise of this program.

Utah State came out looking primed for a blowout against La Tech on Saturday, scoring on its first offensive play and holding one of the best offenses in the country to only three first half points.

Colby Cameron threw his first interception of the year to Will Davis in the end zone to kill La Tech's last chance at a first half touchdown. Then USU opened up the second half with a short scoring drive to go up 24-3, then recovered a botched ball on the ensuing kickoff which resulted in three more points. With Chuckie Keeton picking apart the Bulldog defense without a shred of mercy, the blowout looked to be on at that point...

But La Tech is in the top 25 for a reason. They're a very good football team, and one capable of scoring a lot of points in a very short span of time, and that's exactly what they did.

Aggies bounce back, even if it wasn't pretty

While WAC championship mania was taking over Logan, and even The Spectrum, we still had some basketball to played and revenge to be had!

Saturday's game in The Spectrum was once again nothing pretty, but as was the case with Idaho State, the Aggies did enough of what they needed to to win. I don't know if TAMCC just has USU's number or what, but that game went from a close one, then opened up to a blowout for a bit, then slowly got interesting again.

Looking at the stats, it's hard to see how the Islanders stayed into this game. USU outrebounded TAMCC by 10, had 21 assists to only nine turnovers, shot 56.8 percent from the field, and made 23 free throws. The Islanders made a handful of 3-pointers and only committed six turnovers, and that ended up being what made this close.

Shots won't fall. Aggies do. SMC wins 67-58

Right there with you Danny...

Some days it's just not your day.

It doesn't seem like the team has too bad of an attitude about this game either, realizing that the shots just weren't falling for them. It was agonizing to watch that many shots rim out like they did, but it's not like the Aggies lost to a cupcake. USU just got beat by a very good team.

We knew this one was going to be an uphill battle. Saint Mary's has one of the best players in the country, a handful of other seniors and plenty more talent filling out its roster. The match-up problems they had, especially in the back court, were one hell of an advantage over USU. Matthew Dellavedova was absolutely lockdown defensively on Preston Medlin, and when it comes to his own offensive game, Dellavedova probably won't be slowed down by much of anyone with how many ways he can score the ball.

Really, the bulk of the credit needs to go to Saint Marys' entire defense. Utah State missed most of the open looks they got Thursday, but even still, those open looks were sparse at best. Saint Mary's wouldn't let the Aggies get anything going, and the ability to do that is something few teams will have this season. 

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR
Outside of the early lead USU had, the Gaels controlled the bulk of this game. Their lead slowly grew as the game wore on, and the Aggies couldn't put together enough of a run to close the gap. The closest they got was with just under 5 minutes left when Danny Berger hit a 3-pointer to cut the SMC lead to only three.

Signing day for Shanks and Moore

Carson Shanks (left), Jalen Moore (right)... for those who didn't already know.

Signing day has finally arrived, and for two guys who could be among the top prospects Stew has brought into this program, the ink is now dry! Let's run this thing down with the two newest Aggies, Jalen Moore and Carson Shanks.

JALEN MOORE
A local baller from Sky View high school, Moore stayed true to his commitment to USU after a summer where he grabbed a lot of attention in the AAU scene. He is the son of former Aggie Jimmy Moore, and by all accounts, looks to be an incredible talent. He's currently listed at 6'7, and with that kind of height on the wings, should bring the kind of height and athleticism coaches dream of having and opposing coaches fear.

He may not have gotten all sorts of crazy national attention that we see on the major recruiting sites, but that is due to him committing to Utah State a long time ago. Those sites want to pump up players who aren't committed and sell story lines of "who is going where."

Mid-Monday musings: 11/12

Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays...

Since this week is going to explode with storylines in the next few days between the basketball game against Saint Mary's, the WAC Super Bowl at Louisiana Tech on Saturday, all wrapped up with another basketball game Saturday night, let's keep things brief for today.


MORE VOTES IN THE FOOTBALL POLLS
This week Utah State jumped up to 20 votes in the coaches poll and stood at four votes in the AP poll. With La Tech squeaking out its win on Saturday to stay ranked, a win on the road for Utah State, over a ranked team should just about ensure the Aggies' inclusion in next week's top 25 polls. Not a slam dunk, but very likely. All that's left is to take care of business.


LA TECH'S LAST THREE WEEKS
Nobody in their right mind was impressed with La Tech's win over Texas State. Against a team that USU had destroyed by halftime, the Bulldogs let this one go just about down to the wire. And it's not the first time Tech has struggled with a team USU blew out the previous week. In fact it's the third week in a row.

An ugly win is still a win... 56-48, Aggies

Nobody said winning had to be pretty, and Saturday night in The Spectrum sure as well was an ugly one! I want to tell myself that this game was just the slumpbreaker that USU needed to get its game back on track after a rough go last season. Just like I want to believe that winning a few postseason games last year, even if it was in the lowly CIT, was beneficial just to shake that monkey off our backs.

And since the team stands at 1-0, ugly as that one might have been, I'll stick with the slumpbreaker theory and hold on to the hope that things only get prettier from here.

For the bulk of Saturday's game, the Utah State offense was out of sync. And while that's nothing out of the ordinary for a team early in the season, it kind of seemed to be even more out of sync than we'd normally see to start things off.

Defensively though, USU managed to make up for just enough of the offensive woes to keep Idaho State out of it for the bulk of the game. The Bengals only hit on 39.6 percent of their shot attempts from the field, and just 27.3 percent from the 3-point line. The Aggies also outrebounded ISU 36-23, had seven steals and three blocks.

So when the Bengals had only scored 37 points with just under 10 minutes remaining in the second half, that'll usually be a solid enough defensive game for the Aggies to hold on and win... Except that the offense was only at 37 at that same point. USU scored just seven points through the first 10 minutes of the second half, which is as bad of an offensive cold streak as I can remember seeing here.

Basketball schedule predictions - Preview part 2

Part 2a of 2c

As promised, here is part two of this little bold basketball preview, or at least part of part two. Today's task is predicting the schedule.

But for all of you out there hoping I'll do something stupid and set myself up to be brutally chastised for bad picks down the road, sorry to tell you that I'm only doing the first eight games, which is close enough to one third of the season. Why you ask? Well, teams grow up along the way, and getting too far ahead of things just would be irresponsible for making accurate predictions. Gotta get a feel for both USU's squad, as well as the competition.

Now on the downside, this means you'll have to deal with another set of predictions like this in a few weeks. For now though, let's try and accurately predict the start of this season.
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Idaho State - 11/10
In ISU's last three visits to The Spectrum, Utah State has won by an average of 31 points. This Bengal team lost to USU by 13 in their own house last year, and in a game where even Igor Premasunac even played double-digit minutes. Adam Thoseby also started that game and scored 16 points.
Prediction: Blowout win

Saint Mary's - 11/15
Things get real interesting in just the second game of the year. Saint Mary's returns a ton of talent from a very good team, including Matt Dellavedova. Joining them will also be former Aggie James Walker, as well as former SUU Thunderbird and first opposing player to cry in The Spectrum in the 2010 season, center Matt Hodgson. Not returning however will be Clint Steindl, who hit numerous big shots against USU in past games. This will be an epic battle of which only something as powerful The Spectrum prevails... That, and Brady Jardine heckling on the front row to remind Mitchell Young of the manhood he lost forever back in 2011.
Prediction: Aggies win a thriller

Texas A&M Corpus Christi - 11/17
Sad that this has to be a revenge game, but it is, and revenge will be had. Preston Medlin goes off for 40 points to bring his scoring average against these guys to 20 points per game.
Prediction: USU wins by 22

Weber State - 11/24
Speaking of revenge games... Weber State was a great team last year with the early frontrunner for NBA Rookie of the Year running that show. This year will be a step back, but probably not nearly as much as people expect. They're still a talented team with a fantastic coach, which will make this game a far cry from a cakewalk victory.
Prediction: Aggies win by 9

@Santa Clara - 11/28
Finally hitting the road after four games at home, USU faces off against a Santa Clara team who returns its top NINE scorers from last season. Problem is they were a team that went 8-22, including 0-16 in West Coast Conference play. Because of the experience and home court, they'll be tough, but a nice early road test for this USU team.
Prediction: USU by 6

@BYU - 12/5
The second straight road test against a WCC team gets a lot tougher down in that hellhole of Provo. Both teams look solidly loaded with talent, but BYU's squad has more experience playing together, which should give them a decent advantage. Not to mention, Brandon Davies will probably want to try and put on a show in front of his kids. My shameless homerism/ambition wants to pick a win, but since such picks in the past have backfired when going on the road to Provo/Hell, I'll defer to the team to prove me wrong on this one. It's a prediction I'd gladly be horribly incorrect about.
Prediction: Aggies fall short by 8 points... (insert swear words)

Western Oregon - 12/8
A nice little, "thanks for coming guys" kind of game to lump into the middle of the early part of the season. Against this team three years ago, Modou Niang outscored Brian Green and Preston Medlin combined!!! And no, that wasn't made up.
Prediction: Aggies win by however much they feel like


@Utah Valley - 12/15
These guys are a bit of a wild card this year. They hung with USU in The Spectrum last year, but are now without their light-it-up scorer Isiah Williams. While Ben Aird and Holton Hunsaker are decent players, it's tough to imagine them overpowering Jarred Shaw and Tenale Roland by any wide margin, if at all. They'll probably make it interesting for a bit, but Shaw, Roland and that Medlin kid will be too much for them to handle. Plus, UVU has one of these guys on its roster.
Prediction: Aggies win by 11
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That right there carries us all the way into the Gossner's tournament, where I'll get back here and make some picks on how the next part of the season will go from there. As is, I'm picking the Aggies to start off 7-1. A few of those games could swing a different direction, most notably Saint Mary's and Santa Clara, but hell... that's part of what makes it fun!!

Basketball previews and predictions, part 1

Part 1 of 2

The start of the regular season is upon us, which means it's time to start busting out some previews on this year's team. Rather than just rehash who is who and what position they'll play, we're going to do things a little differently here at The Sagebrush Spot. Today we're going to get a little more bold with predictions of what each player is going to do this season, all the way down to predicting the numbers they'll put out.This one is especially tough with having what looks to be a deep team and only so many minutes and points to be spread around.

Then tomorrow things will get even more bold in trying to predict the first part of this season's schedule. Will these predictions be accurate? Impossible to know, but let's just have some fun with it, eh? Worst case scenario we all get to look back at these in a few months and laugh at how stupid of predictions these were.
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POINT GUARDS

Tenale Roland - Rollin Roland, as the kids are calling him, is going to be the starter at point guard. He's looked solid through the exhibition games in running the offense and as an outside shooter. Could very much be in the mix for the WAC's all-newcomer team.
Stats prediction: 5.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists

Remember, remember the fifth of November...

"Remember, remember the fifth of November, when the Aggies seemed dead but were not...
I plead you with urgence that this Aggie resurgence, shall never be forgot..."

It was one year ago today...

One year ago that the despair and doubt we all knew, and knew all too well, reached its peak of the 2011 season. We had seen flashes of improvement in 2009, followed up by injuries and missed opportunities haunting much of the 2010 season. Then to start 2011, USU established an unwelcome identity as the heartbreak kids, destined to let games slip away in the closing seconds.

With a 2-5 record overall, and an 0-2 start to WAC play, things looked to be headed down an even darker road with a 28-7 halftime deficit and the Aggies star freshman quarterback in an ambulance. Feelings of emptiness, helplessness and hopelessness were in the minds of every Aggie fan at that moment. There was also that terrifying feeling of worry that things actually might never get better. And while those feelings aren't anything foreign to those of us who have been around USU for a while, we still hope that each time around, things will be finally be different. In this instance though, doubt and heartbreak trumped every glimmer of hope...

Basketball rolls again in second exhibition game

The funny thing about Saturday's exhibition win over Simon Fraser is that there were a few stretches where it seemed like the Aggies weren't even playing that well. Yet during those stretches, the USU lead continued to widen, eventually leading in a dominating final score of 92-56.

Regardless of how it appeared, the Aggies dominated on Saturday against an actual NCAA team, even if they're Division-2. That's a classification that not a lot of past exhibition opponents can claim, and that Simon Fraser team was certainly bigger, more athletic and much more skilled than the likes of Laval University that past USU teams have played in exhibition.

Now consider that Laval is the only exhibition team that the Aggies have beaten worse in the last six years than the 36-point win against Simon Fraser on Saturday. Suddenly this team is looking pretty solid with that in mind. And things are only going to continue to tighten up and get more crisp for USU as this season goes on.

To me, that says that this Utah State team will be able to win ugly this year. Even when things aren't exactly in rhythm offensively, USU's size, athleticism and just natural skill will help them still put points on the board and frustrate teams defensively. That's the one thing I take most from this game, and that's one hell of a positive attribute to have!

Weird, a blowout win for football? 38-7, Aggies.

Let's start off with the stat of the game: 27 yards allowed by USU's defense in the 2nd half!

That is insane!!!

Utah State came out swinging once again with a six-play, 51-yard touchdown drive. Then after allowing a l4-play, 63-yard drive by Texas State, Will Davis put an end to that with an interception in the end zone. USU only needed five plays to go 80 yards for another score.

The Aggies had six possessions in the first half, five of them for touchdowns. 35-0 at half, game already in hand.

SECOND HALF
I'm not going to worry about this at all. The offense had already built an insurmountable lead and all that was left to do was to keep the fancy stuff off the film reel and get the second unit some reps. And they accomplished both of those in the second half.

It wasn't pretty, and maybe it would have been nice to see Chuckie Keeton get a sixth or seventh touchdown, but it got the job done. And when your defense is allowing absolutely NOTHING, at least outside of a couple yards when the Bobcats picked off a pass deep in USU territory resulting in their only score of the game.